Legal Lean Workshop: How to Think and Act Like a Startup

MSU Law students can learn to apply startup thinking to legal practice at a free workshop on Saturday, January 17.

“Legal Lean: How to Think and Act Like a Startup” will introduce law students to business concepts that will help them run a more efficient legal practice, better counsel clients with their own startup businesses, and identify ways to maximize limited resources.

Attorney Jason Moyse and startup executive Aron Solomon will lead the session. Based in Toronto, the duo conduct workshops across Canada and the United States for legal professionals. Bringing them to MSU Law is another effort to help prepare graduates for the legal profession of the 21^st century and equip them with the skills most in demand, said Daniel W. Linna Jr., assistant dean of career development and professor of law in residence.

Whether acting as a solo practitioner, small firm founder, legal technology developer, legal process engineer, or counseling startups in the emerging new economy, knowing the theoretical and practical aspects of “lean” models is a must for emerging law school students.

Running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the workshop will include lunch, provided by MSU Law’s ReInvent Law Laboratory. There is no charge for MSU Law students, however, space is limited. Please RSVP to Paul Edwards.

Schedule

INTRODUCTIONS 9:00-9:20

LEARN 9:20-noon
In the morning section, we will cover the must-do elements of thinking like entrepreneurs and building a startup. We will examine Osterwalder's business model canvas as well as the principles of lean startup and Six Sigma as it relates to the legal startup world.

LUNCH Noon-1:00
Mentorship lunch with open conversation about innovation, legaltech, and anything startup. 

BUILD 1:00-3:00
First, we will present the requirements for the pitch deck for the afternoon. It will be a very abridged deck that covers only 5 slides:

• Problem
• Solution
• Value Proposition
• Market
• Team

Here participants will formulate an idea for a legal or legaltech startup they might want to build and, over the course of several hours, including the mentorship lunch, create their own pitch deck. They can work individually or in small teams. 

SHARE 3:00-3:45
Participants will pitch their idea and receive valuable feedback on it from other participants and facilitators.

WRAP 3:45-4:00
Encapsulate lessons learned from the day and next steps in moving forward, including an online mentorship session

Last updated: January 7, 2015