How would you transform the way the lawyers of tomorrow deliver legal services? That’s a question Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP proposed to law students across Canada for its inaugural Osler Future Innovators Award contest. The firm’s selection committee received a number of submissions with inspired ideas, but it was a team from Queen’s that came out on top. MBA’20/Law’21 students Ben Fickling, Alex Karlsen, Shane Liquornik and Reid Berman won the award for their forward thinking ways to embrace the impact of innovative thinking on the legal industry. 

“As combined JD/MBA students, we have an interesting perspective about how big law firms are operating in terms of process, human resources and technology,” says Fickling. “We identified retention of millennial lawyers as a big problem. There’s a lot of hiring, but then three or four years down the line, people start to leave. Sometimes it’s for lifestyle changes but other times it’s because people are generally unhappy.” 

The teammates asked themselves how they could improve retention by looking at what drives human need. “For us that’s professional development – feeling like you’re invested in the firm itself and its progress,” says Fickling. “When you’re starting out as an articling student or an associate, you’re not necessarily getting to see that high level. That’s why developing a software that enables young lawyers to feel like they’re opting into things and being able to track their professional development was important to us.” 

To solve the problem, they proposed software that would streamline the process of partners finding associates and students to work on new cases without knowing their availability or interests. Using the software, a partner would post a new case, associates and students could apply to work on it, the partner would then see each candidate’s caseload, expertise and interests. “This would better allow the firm to manage opportunities workflow and workload,” says Karlsen. “This would help prevent people from burning out from overworking and to help to promote efficient and future growth.” 

What’s next for the four Queen’s teammates who won a $1,500 cash prize? Osler invited them to speak to the firm about their winning idea and how it could be implemented. 

By Lisa Graham

Watch the online submission by MBA’20/Law’21 students Ben Fickling, Alex Karlsen, Shane Liquornik and Reid Berman, winners of the first Osler Future Innovators Award.