Legal Attention Management Dysfunction

Attorneys who exit the corporate law firm pipeline have been trained to aim for perfection in their work products, particularly when it comes to attention to detail. At BTL, we have seen the years of repetition behind this type of training spark attentional rewirings of sorts, which can erod cognitive flexibility over time. In the words of attention theory: "similar to a budget, where each transaction of paying attention causes a re-structuring of one’s mental finances, attention requires a psychological balance of cost." In this way, perfection-trained attorneys can lose their balance and slide into phrenetic work habits reminiscent of attention management dysfuction. See "A Unified Theory of Attention" for more.

Efficiency Disincentives

The legal industry's most obvious flaw that no one has sufficiently disrupted, yet: efficiency doesn't pay. Combine efficient disincentives with all flavors of attention management issues, and here we are: sitting through 3-hour legal calls that cost 10-grand yet solve little. At BTL, we hit the brakes.

Risk Quantification Phobia

When the efficiency of legal advice is questionable, one might rationalize lack of efficiency is traded for some kind of measurable output that informs risk-adjusted business decisions? Very rarely the case. Attorneys too often retreat from measurable frameworks, instead double-downing on their talent for extensive linguistic analysis that obfuscates the issue or plain dumbfounds the room. At BTL, we believe this kind of quantification avoidance, or phobia, is a defense mechanism that distances attorneys from uncomfortable scrutiny.

Revolving Door Billing Practices

Jack worked for John and Jill at Bigly Law LLP until Jack was hired by a client, CorpUSA. At CorpUSA, Jack needed to schedule calls with John and Jill periodically and assign them work. The CorpUSA COO never gave Jack a budget, so Jack doesn't pay much attention to the invoices from Bigly Law . . . One day, Jack might go back to work for Bigly Law, so he would like to stay in John and Jill's good graces.