Could Legal Technology Take the Cravath System ‘Back To The Future’?

Although the “Cravath System” has been declared dead for over a year now, this model of leadership has been on the rocks for much, much longer.

Over a century ago, millionaire lawyer Paul Drennan Cravath went out in search of the best and brightest young lawyers from the top law schools, paid them salaries, and mentored them in how to become great litigators. As an associate, you could stay at the firm as long as you were “promotable,” meaning that you had roughly eight years to make partner or you were out. The “Cravath System,” as it would eventually be called, was adopted by almost every major American law firm.

One could argue that part of the Cravath model’s destruction was due to the rise of legal technology. Yet one might also argue that legal technology will begin its rebirth.

The cracks in the Cravath system started to show in the late eighties and early nineties. Around that time, every office of every major firm was outfitted with a PC, and the birth of electronic documents began.

The age of the internet erupted during the mid-90s, and communication by email became mainstream. Because of this, American law saw the advent of e-discovery, and the cost of litigation exploded. Almost overnight, reviews for the discovery of documents were in the hundreds of thousands to millions. Highly-paid law firm associates began to supervise document reviews instead of litigating novel legal issues. Of the “best and the brightest,” fewer associates were “mentored,” making even fewer of them “promotable.” Staff and contract attorneys became more commonplace in large law firms as well.

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Source: Above The Law
By: Gabe Acevedo