For many in the legal market, change is an anathema. But not all, as two sets of awards demonstrate. 

The College of Law Practice Management announced today four winners of its InnovAction award. TalentNet by Mallesons, which I called a new “‘weapon’ in the war for talent” in my post yesterday, is the only tech-based winner. The other winners: DLA Piper’s New Perimeter, a pro bono initiative; Holland & Hart’s Foundation, which builds “relationships between attorneys and staff, and between offices and practices within the firm” through community work; and Raskin Peter Rubin & Simon LLP’s Association of Media and Entertainment “to support the career development of in-house counsel in the entertainment industry. ” [I am a Trustee of the College.]

Separately, the Financial Times (London) announced its Innovative Lawyers. Blogger Adam Smith, Esq. has a good write up in his post The FT’s Second Annual “Innovative Law Firms” Awards.

The FT Private practice: Information technology category article notes that “[o]n the whole, law firms are not noted for technological innovation and this year’s entries were, for the most part, sound implementations of the tried and tested.” That said, FT IT winners (PDF) include Wragge & C0 for sharing IT best practices with clients, Linklaters for automated term sheet generation, and Clifford Chance for “20,000 users in more than 270 organisations [who] use the CC suite of online training and knowledge products in 50 countries and eight languages.”