How a Legal Evolution Can Save PeopleLaw – Professor William Henderson (Indiana University School of Law)

“You’re marrying a firefighter. That’s all I’ll ever be.  I’m never going to finish college.”  <p>That’s what Bill Henderson told his soon to be wife many years ago, but thankfully that was not true.</p> <p>Fast forward to today and Bill is now Professor William Henderson, the Stephen F. Burns Chair on the Legal Profession at <a href="https://law.indiana.edu/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Indiana University</a> and he has been a law professor for nearly 20 years.</p> <p>Professor Henderson is also the moving force behind <a href="https://legalevolution.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Legal Evolution</a>, an online publication focusing on changes in the legal industry with the stated mission of providing <a href= "https://tlpodcast.com/lucy-bassli-on-the-modern-legal-ecosystem-and-unicorn-lawyers/">lawyers, legal educators, and allied professionals</a> with high-quality information to solve very difficult industry-specific problems.</p> <p>It was almost true that Professor Henderson did not finish college. He dropped out and got a job as a firefighter. But… it was only because he was a firefighter that he ended up going to law school.</p> <p>In the early 90s, during firefighter union negotiations, Bill’s union rep asked him to tag along and take notes. Foreshadowing his career as a professor, not only did Bill take notes, he also did in depth research into prior collective bargaining agreements and into state law so the union team could strike a better bargain.</p> <p>In the end, Bill moved on from note taker to union vice president and eventually took over as lead negotiator.</p> <p>Because of all of this, Bill decided to go to law school at the University of Chicago and became a legal professor.</p> <p>Since entering academia, Bill has done a ton of research and writing on the state of legal services in general, but more specifically, how legal innovation can improve it.</p> <p>In a nutshell, Bill’s research has determined that more and more legal work is focused on commercial law at the expense of “Peop