The Future eof Legal Is Here.
Are Your Lawyers Prepared?
Why Your Organization Needs
Creative Lawyers
The legal landscape is changing at a breakneck pace. Accelerating technology, shifting regulatory frameworks, global economic disruption, client demands, the war for talent, changing attorney career preferences, and new ways of working are reshaping the industry. Never before have creativity and innovation been more important in legal, but virtually no lawyers have formal training in how to respond.
Creative Lawyers works with your firm or legal department to design custom services that equip your lawyers with the knowledge, creative confidence, and professional development programming that will allow them to thrive in their careers and future-proof your organization.
Creative Lawyers founder Jen Leonard will partner with your leaders to develop strategic responses capable of meeting the moment, grow an agile and dynamic culture, and lay a strong foundation for the future.
Law Firm and Legal Department Advising
Develop a plan that integrates innovation and creativity into your firm's or legal department's mission. Services include organizational interviews, strategic planning, advice on cultivating a bold, future-focused culture, and embedded professional development.
Lawyer Skill Development Programs
Creative Lawyers will work with your leadership team to design interactive workshops, coaching sessions, summer associate training programs, innovation tournaments, and leadership retreats. These programs build the case for innovation, equip lawyers with skills and behaviors that spark creativity, and cultivate collaborative environments that promote positive professional growth.
Firm Retreat Speaking Engagements
Jen will deliver a compelling call to action to the lawyers in your firm or legal department. These interactive presentations explore the emerging conditions that demand new approaches to service delivery, the innate creativity within each of us, and the specific skills that prime lawyers to be exceptional innovators. Participants will leave feeling energized, confident, and excited about the firm's capacity to innovate.
Testimonials
When we embarked on planning for our inaugural Weil Legal Innovators Conference, we knew there would be no better thought leader to partner with but Jennifer Leonard. Her credentials and expertise, coupled with her ability to think creatively and collaboratively about solutions that resonate for her clients, make Jen an invaluable resource. Jen helped Weil develop a customized session on innovation and design thinking in practice for our newly minted Innovators (rising law students who serve as fellows at leading nonprofit organizations across the country), as well as our cohort of graduating Innovators. Jen not only has the knowledge of the field of innovation within the legal profession, but can expertly extend that knowledge and apply it to other spaces, such as the social impact space. Her facilitation of the session was deeply engaging, insightful and clear. She is a skillful moderator, facilitator and trainer, who leverages her warmth and ability to connect with people in her teaching style. Jen is bar none, one of the best facilitators and consultants I have had the pleasure of working with. She has taught us all to think differently in a way that is approachable and memorable; we very much look forward to continuing our partnership with Jen and Creative Lawyers.
Hedieh Fakhriyazdi, Director, Social Responsibility
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
I love this year's innovation program so much and it was directly attributable to work Jennifer Leonard and Jordana Confino did with our summers. They were so excited and engaged in this process and it is going to make such a difference when they join us as Ballard Spahr LLP lawyers. Thank you so much for the passion and creativity you brought to this year's program. I'm already excited for the next one!
Melissa Prince, Chief Innovation and Client Value Officer, Ballard Spahr LLP
Jen has a profound grasp of the challenges that we face in the legal profession and the need for developing innovative solutions and approaches to meet those challenges. From working with her, I have been impressed with her ability to look at developments and innovations in other industries to inform how legal organizations can be nimble, responsive, and innovative. She is a leader and a motivator. Indeed, those skills, combined with her knowledge of the legal industry and cross-disciplinary approach, enable her to inspire teams to collaborate, build skills, and embrace a mindset that will promote innovation and  help future-proof any organization. I am proud to call her a thought partner and a visionary.
Sozi Tulante, General Counsel, Form Energy, Inc.
Inaugural Board Member, Future of the Profession Initiative
The legal industry is moving into the modern era whether we practitioners like it or not. Jen not only understands this deeply, but is working hard every day make the transition smooth for the many stakeholders whose lives will be disrupted. More than simply reducing risk, Jen also sees the promise and opportunity that legal innovation can provide to the wildly underserved consumers of legal services. Her work at Penn Law School has drawn on insights from various academic disciplines (psychology, engineering and medicine) to inform and inspire the next generation of lawyers to think more broadly about what it means to solve legal problems. She’s also a very good friend and human being.
Joe Borstein, CEO, LexFusion
Jen In the Media
McKinsey In the Balance Blog
Leaders and Changemakers Podcast with Hedieh Fakhriyazdi
Interview with PD Insider
Tectonic Shifts Coming to Legal Industry
Agiloft: Freedom, Opportunity, and the Future of Law
Geek In Review Podcast
Featured Expert
About Jen
Jen Leonard founded Creative Lawyers to support law firms and corporate legal departments that understand the urgency to modernize legal practice. Jen works with leaders to cultivate cultures that embrace innovation, teaching skills and mindsets that drive change.
Jen is the Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director of the Future of the Profession Initiative at Penn Carey Law. She teaches Design Thinking for Lawyers and Modern Law Firm Business and Innovation Strategy. Jen also facilitates design sprints and innovation tournaments that teach participants how to produce client-centric solutions and exceptional concepts that lead to breakthrough innovation.
Jen practiced law for ten years after graduating from Penn Carey Law. Before assuming her current role, she grew the Law School's Center on Professionalism into a national model for law student professional development. She is a Fellow with the College of Law Practice Management and has received Penn's Beverly Edwards Award for Exceptional Leadership.
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Learn more about Jen's background here.