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MoFo Law Firm

Overview

Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) is an international law firm with lawyers practicing throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. MoFo leadership wanted to first understand design thinking, and then have a range of options for applying design thinking to attract and retain the best talent as well as better serve their clients.

Figure 8 Thinking was engaged for a 6-week strategic advisory to help establish a deeper understanding of design thinking for the law firm and to assist a small team to develop actionable prototypes that addressed pain points among associates and partners.

Goal

Introduce design thinking as an internal tool and identify functional, social and emotional needs among MoFo partners and associates to evolve MoFo’s work culture. Provide MoFo with concrete ways to stand out as the number one law firm of choice, distinctive from its competitors by integrating a human-centered approach to innovation and client service.

Approach

We first conducted a preliminary analysis to understand MoFo’s unique pain points as well as industry trends and opportunities. Figure 8 Thinking then developed a 4-week virtual, global design thinking sprint across 6 time zones with 20 attorneys at the associate and partner levels. The process began with providing a thorough overview of design thinking principles and techniques. From there, the engagement consisted of regular check-ins to support the learning and execution at various stages. Resource materials were developed for MoFo’s proprietary use.

Output

Teams developed 4 prototypes that addressed integrating technology as well as experiences that would focus on attorneys’ psychological well-being. Constructive teaming techniques for immediate deployment were developed. These prototypes addressed engagement between junior levels associates and senior level partners as well as opportunities to collaborate and better support client needs.

"Natalie is an engaging and insightful leader in the design thinking space. She curated a weeks-long design sprint for a group of attorneys and non-attorneys representing a cross-section of our firm. Everyone involved was in complete agreement – both the process and its outcomes were transformative on an individual and institutional level. None of this would have been possible without Natalie’s stewardship."