The Conscious Lawyer

The Conscious Lawyer

Don’t just produce results, unleash potential.

Radical disruption in the legal sector has meant increased pressure on lawyers to be strategic business enablers and innovators. Today, leaders of law firms and legal functions must steer change more effectively to create client-centric solutions for the businesses they serve. But this requires a new set of leadership skills focused on delivering success through vision and values, purpose over profits, and positive impact on people.

The Conscious Lawyer is a simple, powerful roadmap for professionals seeking a more meaningful way of leading high-performing teams through change. Discover a fresh perspective on how you can reshape your leadership to advance the future of law.

Why it’s time to change

Lawyers are under unprecedented levels of pressure and stress from global challenges, technological disruption, and generational shifts in the workplace. We must deliver more with less. We must create new business models, innovative solutions to meet client demands, and better talent retention capabilities.

As high-performing professionals, we define success through delivering exceptional results. The more we achieve, the deeper we dig in and push for even better results to maintain our positions at the top. The financial rewards are great, but the cost to our personal fulfilment is high.

We have never needed leadership transformation as much as we do right now. Leaders of law firms and legal functions are being called on to be creative and innovative leaders of change. But in the absence of knowing how to change, we simply soldier on, unconsciously surrendering to diminishing fulfilment in life and work. But there is a path ahead that we can take. We can choose to be conscious lawyers.

What it means to be a Conscious Lawyer

When we choose to lead consciously, we are choosing a journey that teaches us to shift attention from ‘doing’ high performance to ‘being’ leaders in our own lives. It means purposefully stepping into a higher level of responsibility and integrity to lead through disruptive change in the legal sector.

Conscious lawyers shift focus from producing high performance results to unleashing untapped potential in people. This requires a courageous leap to valuing learning over performance and process over results. We become growth leaders of change by building new leadership skills focused on transforming how we deliver success, prioritizing vision and values, purpose over profits, and positive impact on people.

Conscious lawyers engage people in the higher purpose of transforming legal operations, resourcing, and service delivery. And in doing so, they empower the change leaders of tomorrow to fulfil their highest potential in delivering the future of law.

The CARE model

In The Conscious Lawyer, Kiran sets out a four leap process to courageously lead high-performance teams into the future of law:

LEAP I: CONNECT to the leader in you

We must connect to who we are as a leader; not who we tell ourselves we are. This means letting go of ego and showing the world who we are from the inside out.

LEAP II: AWAKEN your purpose

We must shift from focusing on what we have, to our limitless potential for having greater impact. This means stepping up to a higher level of integrity as a leader. This involves role modelling a shift from fixed to growth mindset and using flow to transform our leadership.

LEAP III: RELATE to the people around you

We must lead change by shifting from achieving high-performance results to unleashing unlimited potential in people around us. This means shifting our focus from results to people and choosing purpose over profits. By transforming people’s experience of performance as learning, we empower them to convert potential to achievement through efforts. Change flows.

LEAP IV: ENTRUST others to fulfil their potential

We must commit to developing our people to be courageous change leaders of the future. This means trusting ourselves enough to let go of authority. We must grant our people autonomy to follow their own journey of learning and growth on the path to fulfilling their highest potential.

When we have the courage to CARE, we are the future of law.

Kiran Scarr

A simple powerful roadmap for professionals seeking a more meaningful way of leading high-performing teams through change.

Endorsements for The Conscious Lawyer

  • “With The Conscious Lawyer, Kiran Scarr has taken leadership in the legal sector to a new, inspiring level. If you want to lead change in your law firm or legal function, you must read this book.”

    Allison Hosking, Director of NewLaw, PwC Legal Middle East

  • “Digital transformation for any law firm or corporate legal department is a long journey that goes far beyond purchasing the right legal technology solution. It requires lawyers to take a holistic approach to change, prioritising how to lead change within their organizations. The Conscious Lawyer guides us on how to do just that. It is an essential read for any lawyer ready to lead through radical change in the legal sector.”

    Ibrahim Abdel Rehim, Regional Head Middle East Africa Russia/CIS & India, Thomson Reuters

  • “This is a must-read for any lawyers looking to distinguish themselves as a leading in-house counsel, or for those looking to fully understand the needs of an in-house counsel as their client. The Conscious Lawyer is full of wonderful insights and thought-provoking perspectives on the current failing in the legal sector, and the behavioral change needed to be a great leader.” 

    Justin Dowding, Head of Legal – Middle East, Africa, Turkey & Pakistan, TikTok

  • "With The Conscious Lawyer, Kiran Scarr sets a vision for the future of the profession: a vision of leadership, humanity and courage. A vision in which values and impact drive results. And one in which lawyers can take down their mask to build a stronger brand. The book is essential reading for lawyers and all those thinking of becoming one, providing a framework for a better future."

    Mark Beer OBE, Professor, AI and the Law, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law

  • “Kiran’s “CARE” model is a simple guide in how to step up to a higher standard of responsibility for people and performance in the businesses we serve. A must for every leader facing disruption, challenge and uncertainty in today’s globalised economy.”

    Sophie Moloney, Chief Executive Officer, Sky New Zealand

  • “Law firms are coming under increased pressure from global economic challenges, technological disruption and generational shifts in the workplace. We are in new frontiers of growth and purpose where measures of success expand beyond financial indicators. The Conscious Lawyer tells us how we need to change as leaders to respond to this urgent call to action. An essential read for any professional ready to lead through change in the legal sector.”

    Nick Roberts, Head of Legal Delivery & Innovation, Clyde & Co

  • “We are amidst a sea change in the legal sector. Global pressures, digitisation, and a departure from traditional billing and resourcing mean lawyers and those who lead them need to adapt fast. This book, full of real-life examples and practical tips, shows us how. Scarr’s CARE model demonstrates how to create an optimum environment for growth at every level. Through connecting with a deeper organisational purpose and relating meaningfully with those around us, we can all become more conscious lawyers and leaders.”   

    Justin D’Agostino, Chief Executive Officer and Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP