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Projects of Worth

Students from different schools are teamed up and assigned a controversial or unsettled topic in legal education or practice. Their ultimate goal is to develop a Project of Worth (a business plan for a company, service, or product) that they will present at the end of the semester to a wide audience including venture capitalists. To reach this goal, student teams: 1) read relevant scholarship, connect with mentors and subject experts, and interview professionals immersed in the relevant field(s) in order to build a core knowledge base; 2) identify one narrow problem within their broad topic; 3) brainstorm with their mentors to find a creative and practical solution to the identified problem; 4) create an action plan to develop their solution into a Project of Worth; 5) collaborate with a leading academic or practitioner to present their Project of Worth in a dynamic, comprehensive fashion at the culminating ConPosium.

The Project of Worth could take many forms. It could be a website, a computer program or application, a three dimensional architectural model, a new educational course or degree, marketing materials, or an organizational or subject matter manual. The possibilities are endless.  The Project of Worths' goals could range from increasing access to justice to providing more cost-effective education to maximizing profit.

So for example, one pair of students may be assigned the topic: Third Party Litigation Funding: Friend or Foe? After developing a knowledge base, the pair might idenfity the following problem: third party financiers can't access enough information to make well informed investment decisions because of the myriad ethical rules across jurisdictions. Their solution might be to develop an on-line manual containing advice on current ethics issues and a virtual space that enables investors to collaborate on ethical rule reforms to facilitate third party financing. Below are a few other examples of the forms these Projects of Worth might take.

2011 Projects of Worth

  • Topic: The Outsourcing of Legal Services: The Struggle Between Ethics and Efficiency
  • Project of Worth: Conceptualized a new masters degree program for students who want to enter the Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) field
  • Creators: Kara Romagnino, Miami Law and Christine Garg, New York Law School
  • Mentors: Rob Rosen and Peter Lederer
  • Topic: Conflicting Global Cultures: Bridging the Gap in Legal Education and Practice
  • Project of Worth: Created an action plan to make Shari’ah-compliant finance more accessible in the U.S.
  • Creators: Casey Dieck, Miami Law and Amanda Willis, New York Law School
  • Mentors: Elizabeth Chambliss and Marcia Narine
  • Topic: Lawyers' WorkSpace in the Digital Age: Its Architecture, Design, and Aesthetic Impact
  • Project of Worth: An Aesthetic Consultancy that designs beautiful space to enable people to access law’s power, efficiently harness its potential, and therefore maximize its impact on institutions and society
  • Creators: Julie Dahlgard, Miami Law, Kyle Marshall, Miami Law, and Thomas Dance, UCL Laws
  • Mentors: Jacqui Kinghan and Coraline Haitjema
  • Topic: The Business of Legal Education: Teaching Law Students Real Business Skills
  • Project of Worth: Conceived a multi-level video game simulation designed to teach law students financial analysis and case recovery calculation skills
  • Creators: Chris Callahan, Miami Law and Indira Murthy, UCL Laws
  • Mentors: Michele DeStefano Beardslee and Ida Abbott 
  • Topic: Third Party Litigation Funding: Friend or Foe?
  • Project of Worth: Created a business plan for an online community to provide consumer protection information and risk calculation tools for both consumer-plaintiffs and lawyers who are considering using third parties to fund litigation
  • Creators: Mari Byrne, Fordham Law and Mike Rozensher, Harvard Law School
  • Mentors: Ray Campbell and Steven C. Bennett
  • Topic: Fallout from the Legal Services Act: Publicly Held Law Firms and Other New Models of Law Firm Structure and Ownership
  • Project of Worth: Designed an online resource to the Legal Services Act 2007 that provides information on the LSA, offers an external finance matrix for prospective law firm investment, and connects the LSA community by providing a blog and forum for discussion
  • Creators: Kirsten Heenan, Harvard Law School and Anna Pope, UCL Laws
  • Mentors: David Wilkins and Michael Greenberg
  • Topic: Finding Common Ground: Regulatory Issues Across International Borders
  • Project of Worth: Conceptualized a global association for legal services regulators and developed an online forum through which national and subnational lawyer regulators could connect, share learnings, and cooperate with respect to lawyer licensing and discipline
  • Creators: Wu Dan, Peking University STL and Liz Rieser-Murphy, Miami Law
  • Mentors: Trish White and Larry W. Newman
  • Topic: Judging 2.0: Embracing the Challenges and Benefits of Globalization and Technological Advances in the Courtroom
  • Project of Worth: Created a multimedia website to provide information, resources, and tools to help pro se clients better present at trial
  • Creators: Nawal Hssinou, UCL Laws and Marc Sittenreich, Fordham Law
  • Mentors: John Flood and Cheryl Zuckerman
  • Topic: Redefining the Smart Lawyer: Professional and Emotional Intelligence Training
  • Project of Worth: Conceptualized an Emotional Intelligence in Legal Practice Test for law students and practitioners, a stand alone course on emotional intelligence for law school professors, and a Post J.D. Certificate in Emotional Intelligence for law schools
  • Creators: Mara Slakas, New York Law School and Adam Enjoy, Peking University STL
  • Mentors: Renee Knake and Scott Rogers
  • Topic: Rethinking Value: Alternative Strategies to the Billable Hour
  • Project of Worth: Created a website designed to match individuals looking to buy or sell residential real estate in New York City with lawyers who offer a non-traditional billing structure and who are willing to allow for consumers to bid on their services
  • Creators: Corey Gaul, New York Law School and Fu Chenyuan, Peking University STL
  • Mentors: Bruce Green and Hugh Totten
  • Topic: Technology Boom or Bust: Law Firms Reinvented or the End of Law Firms?
  • Project of Worth: Developed a business model that would help Chinese law firms embrace technology to increase efficiency, productivity, and the quality of legal services
  • Creator: Zhang Lining, Peking University STL
  • Mentors: John Coates and Bryan Treglia

Other Examples of Projects of Worth

Broad Topic
Rethinking Value: Alternative Strategies to the Billable Hour
Identified Problem
Traditional hourly billing is not meeting clients' needs. 
Project of Worth
iPhone App that allows clients to know how many hours have been billed on each project by their outside law firm.

Broad Topic
The Business of Legal Education: Teaching Law Students Real Business Skills
Identified Problem
Generally, law students graduate from law school without business skills and those few schools that do offer business skills training do so on an ad-hoc basis.
Project of Worth
Business plan that develops a new educational model for a roving mini-MBA-certification program for law students that can be taught over three years in intensive week-long seminars.

Broad Topic
Lawyers' Workspace In the Digital Age: Its Architecture, Design, and Aesthetic Impact
Identified Problem
Law firm office floor plans generally do not enable shared learning, open communication, collaboration, and optimal work-flow.
Project of Worth
A three dimensional architectural model of the ideal law firm floor plan.