Creative or logical problem solving what is your preference

America’s youngest generation is growing up with political views similar to those of the millennials who precede them, according to a new poll, which found Generation Z to be diverse, left-leaning and largely hostile toward President Donald Trump.The Republican Party “now has a TWO generation problem,” GOP pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson wrote on Twitter. “I am often asked if the pendulum will swing back and if Gen Z might actually be more right-leaning than the Obama-era Millennials. Current verdict: no.”That data comes via a new report from Pew Research, which defines millennials as those born from 1981 to 1996 and Generation Z as those born after that. Under those definitions, the 2020 election will see a crop of Gen Z voters ages 18 to 23.So far, according to Pew, today’s teenagers and youngest adults look pretty similar to the millennials now in their mid-20s to 30s ― and notably distinct from older generations. Just 30 percent of … [Read more...] about America’s youngest generation could be a problem for Republicans

Taken together, the new wave of cubicles, wireless headsets, coffee lounges and open spaces add up to a fundamental design shift. In the old paradigm, a lawyer retreats to a solitary office to get things done. Now you’ll have a discussion in a collaboration room.In November, the Tampa office of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, with about 50 attorneys, consolidated two offices totaling around 60,000 square feet into one almost half its size at 32,000 square feet over two floors.Rhea Law, chair of Buchanan Ingersoll’s Florida offices, says the firm is leveraging desktop video and interactive document-sharing, as well as “follow-me” capabilities that allow attorneys to receive real-time email notifications from their computer, mobile device or throughout any of the firm’s 20 offices via their smartphones.The office design called for an increased use of glass to let in light while preserving the need for privacy.“We have lots of collaborative space, and … [Read more...] about Some firms are trimming their footprints creatively and efficiently

The 21st Century Cures Act encourages biomedical research investment and facilitates innovation review and approval processes, but also serves as a vehicle for a wide variety of other health-related measures, including portions of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Reform Act of 2016, which was approved by the US House of Representatives in July 2016 but not advanced by the Senate. A substantial portion of the legislation relates to mental health and substance use disorders, reflecting the rise in mental health and substance use disorder awareness over the last several years. We discuss the applicable provisions related to mental health and substance use disorders.In DepthOn December 7, 2016, the US Congress approved the 21st Century Cures Act, substantial legislation intended to accelerate “discovery, development and delivery” of medical therapies by encouraging biomedical research investment and facilitating innovation review and approval processes, … [Read more...] about 21st Century Cures: Tackling Growing Problem of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders

The Legal Rebels project is the way the ABA Journal celebrates the most creative, forward-looking legal practitioners—those lawyers who are actively remaking the profession for the 21st century. These leaders are marked by the kind of creative thinking that highlights new approaches and novel ways of solving old problems.One of the goals of the Legal Rebels project is to help more legal professionals find their own creative solutions to the problems they face every day, and to that end, this year we’re introducing a new component of the project: Box Breakers, inspired by the outside-the-box thinking collected in Oblique Strategies.Oblique Strategies started out as a collaborative project between musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt. The original project was published in 1975 as a deck of cards, each one imprinted with a strategy or idea designed to help spur lateral thinking and overcome creative blocks. When the user is stuck, a random oblique strategy drawn from … [Read more...] about What do you ask or tell yourself to clear your mind and get a fresh perspective to solve a problem?

If you haven’t yet heard, AI is our profession’s next watershed moment. In areas such as document review and contract drafting, that moment is already here. But industrial-age thinking by Canadian law schools, law firms and even Ontario’s law society overlook the imminent AI era. Creative lawyers will complement artificial intelligence, but our profession’s structures inhibit creativity, which I suggest is to its peril.I often criticize my students for seemingly striving to reach merely “Wikipedia-level” legal knowledge. In truth, I don’t blame them. When I ask my students whether they’d prefer to leave law school with a deep understanding of contract law and receive a B on their transcript or receive an A but barely understand more about contract law than they did before entering law school, the honest ones always select the second option. Makes sense.We’ve built a system that prioritizes knowing the answer over knowing how to get … [Read more...] about Creative thinkers need not apply