For the second year running, the most hotly contested category in the British Legal Awards has been the Law Firm Innovation Award. There were dozens of submissions. When the judges meet to choose the winner, it is the role of the panel’s chair, City of London Law Society chairman Alasdair Douglas, to ensure consensus. It isn’t always easy.
I remember two general counsel a few years ago debating how far an idea borrowed from another sector could be described as innovative. One GC felt that, because the innovation under discussion was standard practice in other parts of the business world, it should be discounted. The other strongly disagreed, contending that it should be judged in context.
