Tune in every quarter to learn how David Simon, a 53-year-old lawyer from the US, navigates the ancient world of Oxford University in pursuit of an MBA. David is a Partner at the white shoe law firm Foley and Lardner, who has dedicated his career to white collar compliance with a heavy international focus. “My practice touches a lot on some of the sanctions and international trade issues that typically come up on international matters,” he says. In A Yank in Oxford, David and host Tom Fox will talk about what inspired his decision to pursue an Executive MBA, and his hopes for where the journey may lead. In this Episode 3, David discusses his academic journey through his second quarter in the Oxford MBA program. Highlights include:
1.         Assessment or what we Yanks would call exams. Very open ended but designed to determine if you have done the assignments, participated and most importantly grasped the materials.
2.             Analytics and Leadership Fundamentals.
·       In my Leadership Fundamentals assessment, David delved into lawyer decision making and team building.
·       Lawyers have a lot to learn here:
§  Can improve decision-making quality by building systems to slow down the process and to help recognize and mitigate against cognitive bias
§  Can also really improve the way we advise and otherwise serve our clients by being much more mindful of how we put together and manage our engagement teams
·       Don’t be reflexive and just build every team the same
·       Think about different functions needed and who can play them.
·       Beldin’s 9 roles – partners try to play too many roles.
·       Voice of the client?
3.         Firms & Markets assessment
·       Market analysis of legal industry.
·       Industry dynamics are shaped largely by regulatory burdens to entry and other restrictions.
·       If and when those restraints loosen (and there are some signs they are starting to), industry is ripe for disruption
§  PE ownership
§  Investment in process and technology
§  Less “super-hero” lawyer based
§  Lower compensation for lawyers (with other trade-offs)
4.         He concludes by detailing that the people he has met are really amazing. Faculty and staff have been terrific – responsive, engaged, open. Gotten so much value from my classmates. Smart, experienced, open. Getting to know people better and more people are now able to come in person. Explored Oxford, found a favorite pub – The Rickety Press – in Jericho and is now a member of the EMBA S 21 rowing club, thanks to my classmate Matthew. It is hard!