Why The Practice?

Design Your Delta No. 9

The Law. It is what we do, our craft, our profession, our practice.  Practice.  In the Delta Model, we use the label “The Practice” to represent the traditional legal knowledge and skills required to be a lawyer.  

The Delta Model is uniquely positioned to guide our profession through the Liminal Age of Legal? The Model honors the value of traditional legal knowledge and skills, placing them at the base of the model. 

In addition to “The Practice,” the Delta Model includes two other broad competency areas, The Process and The People, to represent a holistic understanding of the breadth of skills needed to succeed as a legal professional in the 21st century. And while each competency area is crucial to a legal professional’s success, it is the foundation of traditional legal knowledge and skills that distinguishes this profession from any other. 

To be complete, a competency model for legal professionals must include legal skills.

Part of being a legal professional is the ability to read and analyze case law, pull out relevant information, and apply it to matters at hand in order to find guidance on what is and what is not lawful. The base of this model for legal professionals is in fact the law. We are not ignoring it. We are not setting it aside. Instead, we ask: why is its inclusion important to guiding our profession through the changes experienced in the Liminal Age of Legal?

 A competency model for the 21st -century must not only highlight changes in the profession or new skills that are required, it must also highlight the current skills that work.

Let’s be honest, lawyers are uniquely averse to change. If we want the profession to change, we must engage and convince even the most skeptical. And one way to do that is to help them see what is the same, not just what is different. “The Practice” grounds the Delta Model in what is the same. What is retained. What is maintained even as the profession evolves.

Our profession is beginning to recognize and address the lack of diversity. We have stopped denying technology has a role to play (if only thanks to Covid). We see the imperative to pay more attention to wellness. But recognizing we need to do something and actually DOING something? Two different things.  

“Seems to me like alot of us know what to do but the ‘doing’ part is missing.” comment from Design Your Delta post No. 6

And we need to start DOING. Let’s just be careful we don’t dismiss what works - even when REIMAGINING what is possible. 

-Alyson and Cat

June 14, 2021