MOVELΔW
MOVING LAWYERS
MOVING LAW
In today’s legal marketplace, clients are demanding services that require a new skillset and a new mindset from lawyers. They want lawyers who are teamers and leaders, who are culturally confident and intraprenurial, who can project manage with business acumen, build wide-diverse networks, and creatively problem find and solve with people from different disciplines. They want lawyers who are client-centric, focused understanding client needs and creating experiences that delight. That’s what MOVELΔW, founded and led by Professor Michele DeStefano, is all about. Whether it is through an interactive keynote, a one-day workshop, or a 4 month innovation cycle, MOVELΔW’s offerings bring a human-centered design perspective to law in order to upskill and reskill lawyers, help create culture change, develop new collaboration norms, leverage technology, and bring cross-practice, cross-border initiatives from idea to fruition.
PURPOSE
Workshops and programs are designed to change culture and help lawyers learn to be more creative, collaborative, and innovative so that they better partner with their clients to find and creatively solve problems.
OUR SPECIALITIES
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Shifting mindsets, transforming leadership style, and inspiring better work practices and more pro-active cross-group collaboration
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Leveraging human-centered, design-thinking approaches to client service to increase client-centricity, collaboration, and innovation
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Empowering professionals to collaborate, problem solve, communicate, present, and pitch more effectively'
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Interviewing clients and understanding and identifying pain points
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Equipping professionals with tools and techniques to lead and manage collaboration, change-initiatives, and culture-creation
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Engaging interactive reflection to build self-awareness and identify opportunities for differentiation given the new demands of clients.
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Facilitating project planning and kickoffs among multidisciplinary stakeholders to create the right teaming climate, set expectations, and build-buy to achieve actionable results more quickly
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Leading multidisciplinary teams on a collaborative, innovation journey to
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Enhance collaborative problem finding and solving
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Develop viable products, services, and processes that create delightful user experiences and better address clients' needs
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Improve ideation, storytelling, presentation, communication, and pitching skills
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Hone the mindsets and skillsets of an innovative, adaptive leader
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OFFERINGS
Keynotes & Workshops to inspire and shift mindsets and learn new techniques for collaborative problem solving, client-centricity, and culture creation
2-3 Day Design Sprints to learn design thinking techniques, hone new skillsets and mindsets, and uncover actionable solutions quickly
Project Planning & KickOff Facilitation to set expectations, inspire the right rules of engagement, and build buy-in so that teams collaborate more effectively and achieve results more efficiently
2-4 Month Innovation Journeys, grounded in design thinking, to tackle any communication, strategic, product or service challenge, and in the process, hone mindsets, skillsets and behaviors to better serve clients and create a competitive advantage
Train-the-Trainers Training on Leading & Managing Collaboration to learn technique and tools to create the right processes and procedures for a culture of collaboration that enables actionable results
Presentation, Personal Branding, & Communication Training to help leaders leverage their personal brand and better communicate, present, and pitch to clients and colleagues for more impact and influence
FOUNDER Michele DeStefano
Professor of Law and The Larry Hoffman Greenberg Traurig Business of Law Chair, University of Miami
Program Chair, Harvard Law School Executive Education
Affiliated Faculty, IE Law School
Co-creator & Chief Faculty Advisor, Digital Legal Exchange
EXPERTISE
Recognized by the ABA as a Legal Rebel, and by the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers (North America) as one of top 20 most innovative lawyers, Michele is a Professor at the University of Miami School of Law, affiliated faculty at Harvard Law School Executive Education and IE Law School, and the founder of LawWithoutWalls, a multi-disciplinary, international, intergenerational community of more than 2,000 lawyers, business professionals, entrepreneurs, and students who collaborate to create innovations in the business of law and, importantly, hone new mindsets and skillsets. She is also co-curator of the Compliance Elliance Journal, an international e-journal of articles on compliance and ethics. Michele is an author, speaker, consultant, and facilitator on client-centricity, collaboration, communication, culture creation, innovation and cross-practice, cross-border initiatives. Michele researches and writes about the growing intersections between law, business, and legal innovation. Recently, Michele helped co-create and spearhead the development of the Digital Legal Exchange, a non-profit designed to inspire general counsel and their teams to become digital leaders in their businesses to drive commercial value. To date, in addition to many articles, she has published two books. Her book, Legal Upheaval: A Guide to Creativity, Collaboration, and Innovation in Law leverages more than 100 interviews with General Counsels at international corporations and Heads of Innovation at law firms. The other book, New Suits: Appetite for Disruption in the Legal World (co-curated with Dr. Guenther Dobrauz) includes chapters by experts in law, innovation, and technology to provide a global perspective on the future of our diverse legal service delivery ecosystem. Her two new books, Leader Upheaval: A Guide to Client Centricity, Culture Creation, and Collaboration and The Leader Upheaval Handbook: Lead Teams on an Innovation & Collaboration Journey will be published Spring 2023.
Michele has been invited to speak and lead workshops about her areas of expertise at a number of leading law firms, corporate legal departments, law conferences, and law schools.
Michele earned her B.A. (Sociology and English) magna cum laude from Dartmouth and her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Praise for LEGAL UPHEAVAL
Selected VIDEOS & PODCASTS
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Legalpreneurs Spotlight Future 50 Video and Podcast series, Interviewed by Terri Mottershead, Legal Leaders, Teams, Innovation, and Collaboration.
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Washington State Bar, Interviewed by Joe Forward, Legal Leaders: Differentiation in a Digital World (Virtual | May 2021)
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Litera TV, Reinventing Legal with Ari Kaplan (Virtual | April 2021)
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Answering Legal, Why Lawyers Need to Be Proactive and Always Innovating (Virtual | October 2020)
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The Impact of Legal Tech | Legal Transformation Days Conference 2017 (Germany | September 2017)
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Meeting the Legal Needs of the Global Marketplace with LawWithoutWalls | ABA Journal (Florida, USA | September 2013)
VIDEO CLIP OF PRESENTATIONS
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Innovation is a Four-Letter Word | Legal Management Forum, (Madrid, Spain | Oct, 2019)
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Why Innovate? | Legal Management Forum (Madrid, Spain | October, 2019)
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Michele's Mantra | Legal Management Forum (Madrid, Spain | October, 2019)
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Q&A with Michele | Legal Management Forum (Madrid, Spain | October, 2019)
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Leading in Law–Habits of Highly Effective Law Firm Leadership & Entrepreneurialism | JD Horizons (London, UK May 2018)
PODCASTS HOSTED BY OTHERS IN WHICH MICHELE IS FEATURED
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@PinsentMasons Brain Food Podcast, AI and the Legal Function, Podcast with Alastair Morrison, Lucy Shurwood, and Orlando Conetta.
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@MiamiLaw Explainer Podcast, Chicken or Egg: Diversity and Innovation in the Corporate Legal Marketplace, Podcast with Charlton Copeland and Catharine Skipp (click here) (February 2023).
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@PracticeInsiders.com, Podcast with Dan Toombs | Michele DeStefano : click here (December 2021).
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@Levick Podcast, Podcast with Richard Levick | Michele DeStefano, Legal Rebel | click here and here (October 2021)
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@LegalDesignPodcast | "Think Smaller with Michele DeStefano," | Podcast with Nina Toivonen and Hena Tolvanen (June 2021)
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"Pioneers and Pathfinders" | Podcast with Stephen Poor (June 2021)
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Leader of LawWithoutWalls, | Future Law Podcast (Episode 24) with host, Michael Madison (Dec 2020)
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Why Communications and Law are Becoming Yin and Yang Professions | Chancery Lane Chats Podcast with host Malcolm Munro (May 2020) (transcription).
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Teaching in the Time of COVID-19 | Miami Law Explainer, Podcast with host Catherine Skipp (April 2020)
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Legal Upheaval with Michele DeStefano | FringeLegal, Podcast with host Abhijat Saraswat (April 2020).
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Change Management: How to Get Lawyers and Staff to Buy-In to Change | Legal Talk Network Podcast with Bill Garcia, Ari Kaplan, and host Ralph Baxter (February 2020).
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Moving Lawyers Moving Law: What Does it Take to Innovate, Understand, and Upheave the Legal Services Industry | LAWsome Podcast with host Jake Sanders and Paul Julius (April 2019)
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Innovator Behaviors with Michele DeStefano | LeftFoot Podcast with host Nicole Giantonio (April 2019)
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Innovate, Collaborate, and Transform Law Firms | Legal Marketing Association Podcast with host, Cynthia Voth (March 2019)
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Lawyers on Fire Chat with Michele DeStefano | Lawyers on Fire Podcast with host Carsten Reimann (November 2018)
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Legal Upheaval: A conversation with law professor and author Michele DeStefano | Reinventing Professionals, Podcast with host Ari Kaplan (November 2018)
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Interview with Michele DeStefano | The Ed Andrew Podcast & The Human Consultancy (March, 2018)
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Learning Creative Problem-Solving Skills | The Lawyerist (September, 2016)
PODCASTS HOSTED BY MICHELE & THE DIGITAL LEGAL EXCHANGE
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Digital Legal Exchange Podcast, 2021-02-22, Michele hosts Shahar Markovitch, current General Manager, National Intelligence, former Chief Digital & Information Officer, El AL Israel Airlines
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@Digital Legal Exchange Podcast, 2021-02-22, Michele hosts Bjarne Tellemann, GC of GSK.
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@Digital Legal Exchange Podcast, 2020-10-21 Michele hosts Gladys Chun, GC from Lazada Group.
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@Digital Legal Exchange Podcast, 2020-08-06, Michele hosts Joe Otterstetter, GC at 3M.
CONNECT with Michele
FIND OUT HOW MOVEL∆W MIGHT MOVE YOU AND YOUR ORGANIZATION INTO THE FUTURE WITH CREATIVITY, COLLABORATION, AND INNOVATION.