New this year at Legalweek is the Business of Law Forum, a two-day program dedicated to discussing the future course of innovation in the legal industry and how law firms can capitalize on coming changes.

What was the genesis of this and what should attendees expect? In a recent column, Gina Passarella Cipriani, editor-in-chief of The American Lawyer, explained.

In her own meetings with law firms, Cipriani wrote, they tend to fall into three camps:

We have the 1) “things aren’t changing, at least not for me” camp; 2) the camp of “I know things are changing but I don’t have a clue where to start;” and in the middle there is 3) the group of law firms who recognize change is afoot and are making efforts of widely varying degrees to adapt.

The more she heard this, the more she thought, “I just want to get all of the smartest people on these subjects in one room and hash this out. What is really happening, what needs to happen and how?”

Thus was born the first Business of Law Forum, which takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 30 and 31.

On the first day, the focus will be on the bigger picture. Cipriani explains:

The first day is really geared toward bringing all of the members of the legal services delivery ecosystem into one room to hash out where things are headed, what they need from one another, what the roadblocks are and what are ways to overcome those roadblocks.

It will be geared towards pretty much everybody: GCs, law firm leaders, legal educators and ALSPs.

On the second day, the forum focuses more on law firms, with programs on such topics as “The Future Shape of Law Firms” and “From Hiring to Billing: Digging Into Core Firm Management Issues.”

The forum’s program was put together by editors and reporters who cover the business of law, Cipriani says. Among her goals for the forum are to break down barriers to innovation and foster a better understanding among stakeholders of each other’s needs in order to better collaborate on improving the delivery model.

Read Cipriani’s full column here: Editor’s Note: Why We Created the Business of Law Forum.