MOVELΔW

Michele DeStefano is a legal educator, author, and innovation strategist who teaches across global universities and executive education programs. Recognized by the ABA as a Legal Rebel and by the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers as one of the top 20 Market Shapers in the practice and business of law in the past 20 years, Michele is a professor at the University of Miami, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, and a Faculty Chair in Harvard Law School’s Executive Education Program. She teaches both established and aspiring legal professionals how to lead in a complex, rapidly evolving marketplace. Michele designs and leads learning experiences with general counsel, law firm leaders, and rising legal talent to develop the mindsets and skills needed to drive change through collaboration, creativity, and stakeholder-centricity.

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Michele is the founder of LawWithoutWalls, a global experiential initiative that unites diverse stakeholders to tackle real-world busines-of-law challenges and change how lawyers collaborate, learn, and lead. She is also the co-creator of the Digital Legal Exchange, a non-profit (now part of Liquid Legal Institute) that aims to inspire general counsel and their teams to become digital leaders in their businesses to drive commercial value. 

 

With her extensive research and writing on topics such as client-centricity, collaboration, and innovation in law, Michele has authored multiple books, including Leader Upheaval: A Guide to Client-Centricity, Culture Creation and Collaboration and Legal Upheaval: A Guide to Creativity, Collaboration, and Innovation in Law. She has also published a design thinking handbook: The Leader Upheaval Handbook, which guides facilitators on how to lead innovation journeys among multidisciplinary teams using The 3-4-5 Method(tm) that she created and has tested on over 230 teams. Her other recent scholarship includes: Chicken or Egg: Diversity and Innovation in the Corporate Legal Marketplace, 91 Fordham L. Review 1209 (2023) and Don't Let the Digital Tail Wag the Transformation Dog: A Digital Transformation Roadmap for Corporate Counsel, 17 J. Bus. & Tech. L. 183 (2022), and New Suits: Appetite for Disruption in the Legal World (co-curated with Dr. Guenther Dobrauz) Additionally, she has written articles and chapters in books about innovation and entrepreneurship, collaboration and culture creation, diversity in the legal profession, millennial lawyers, compliance and ethics, litigation funding, the role of the general counsel and the court of public opinion, legal education, technology and law, the work product doctrine and the attorney client privilege.

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Michele has been invited to speak about her areas of expertise at a number of law conferences, leading law firms, and law schools including the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers, Linklaters, Holland & Knight, KPMG, Dentons, Legal Tech Talk, DLA Piper, Sidley Austin, McDermott, Arnold Porter Kaye Scholer, Proskauer Rose, Pinsent Masons, White & Case, Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, IE Business School, University of St. Gallen, the Law Institute of Victoria, IBA, and Fordham. And she has also delivered keynotes to legal departments within corporations and legal organizations such as Microsoft, DXC, Thomson Reuters, Blackstone, Spotify, ABA, AALS, and NAFSA.  (Click here for a recent review).

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Michele creates and facilitates bespoke experiential learning programs on client-centricity, culture-creation, innovation, collaboration, teaming, and problem solving for professional service firms and legal departments like Microsoft. Michele also regularly consults about law firm and corporate legal department strategy and operations ethics.

 

Michele earned a B.A. magna cum laude from Dartmouth College and a J.D. degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Michele is a visionary who is dedicated to leading the way in transforming the professional services industry. She frequently speaks and runs workshops on  Creative problem solving, collaboration, client-centricity, culture change, strategic influence, personal branding, and innovation for professional service providers.

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