Strategic direction

Strategic Plan 2026–2027

An independent research, learning and innovation platform for the future of the legal and justice professions.

Research · Learning · Innovation · Workforce capability

Download the plan (PDF)Our theory of change

Our vision

  • Legal and justice professions capable of serving people well in a changing world.
  • Law, policy, research and professional knowledge that people can understand, trust, rely on and act on.
  • Responsible expertise that is no longer the hardest information to understand, trust, rely on and act upon.

Our purpose

  • To study what happens after law, policy and research leave the page, and where practice is breaking, changing or emerging.
  • To keep expertise safe to say, and make it safe to use.
  • To bring together the people who each hold part of a problem.
  • To build the knowledge, learning and workforce capability the professions need as law, technology and public expectations change.

Four goals

How we will get there.

Goal 01

Research & Development

Build the evidence

  • Study where legal and justice practice is breaking, changing or emerging, starting with the Paper-to-Person Gap.
  • Publish three After the Law investigations and the first Lejacie report, The Law People Were Looking For.
  • Continue Professionals From the Future and Future Professional Conversations, alongside original research into AI, legal information, implementation and professional practice.

Goal 02

Innovation & Labs

Develop and test what should exist

  • Develop Safe to Say, Safe to Reach, Safe to Use and the 4:47pm Test as Lejacie’s signature methods.
  • Build and test prototypes, workflow tools, decision supports and implementation packs.
  • Run the first Lejacie Lab: what should happen when a client arrives with AI-generated legal advice?

Goal 03

Learning & Development

Build professional learning and capability

  • Offer Practice Intelligence to organisations, starting with LegalLens briefings.
  • Deliver professional learning, CPD, workshops and capability programs, including learning for legislative change.
  • Turn conference knowledge into practice, starting with From Conference to Tuesday.

Goal 04

Workforce Capability

Help build the workforce of the future

  • Launch the Future Professional Capability & Careers Project: emerging capabilities, roles and career pathways.
  • Research judgement and supervision in the age of AI, interdisciplinary practice, and what law schools and workplaces assume people will pick up.
  • Release the Professional Archetypes tool and career map as the project’s first public output.

How the work fits together

We research

  • After the Law: It Was 11:43pm. The AI Told Her to Speak to a Lawyer; The Letter Was Correct. She Still Missed the Deadline; The Careful AI Went to the People Who Already Had Lawyers
  • The Law People Were Looking For (report)
  • Professionals From the Future
  • Future Professional Conversations

We develop and test

  • Safe to Say, Safe to Reach, Safe to Use: the framework and toolkit
  • The 4:47pm Test
  • Prototypes: When Your Client Brings You AI; A Person Has an AI Answer. What Happens Next?; The New Rule Is Not Yet a New Practice
  • Lejacie Labs and new practice tools

We build capability

  • LegalLens and Practice Intelligence: what changed, what it means for practice, what different roles need to do differently, and what to check before acting
  • Professional learning, CPD and capability programs
  • Implementation learning and From Conference to Tuesday

We explore the future workforce

  • Future Professional Capability & Careers Project, including the Future Professional Capability Map
  • Professional Archetypes and the career map
  • Emerging professional roles
  • AI and professional judgement

We would rather make ten things people actually use than a library of 100 things everyone politely bookmarks.

How we will work

Our work will be

  • Evidence firstWe research what is actually happening.
  • Accurate and boundedSafe to say, within authority and defensible.
  • Tested with real peopleWould it still work at 4:47pm on an ordinary day?
  • In partnershipWith the people who each hold part of the problem, including lived experience.

Who we will work with

  • Law firms and in-house legal teams
  • Legal services and justice organisations
  • Regulators and government
  • Professional bodies and peak organisations
  • Professional education and workforce-development teams
  • Universities and research centres
  • Foundations and funders
  • Community and public-serving organisations
  • Conference and event organisers

How working together works

  1. 1
    Start with the pressure. Bring the report, policy, rule or outcome that should be working, but is not.
  2. 2
    Find the actual problem. What is happening, who is affected and what is in the way.
  3. 3
    Build the missing layer. A resource, tool, workflow, pack, brief, prototype, Lab or investigation.
  4. 4
    Test it against real use. The 4:47pm Test, and testing with the people who will use it.
  5. 5
    Leave a way to learn. Ownership, review points and a way to see what still needs to change.

Lejacie undertakes applied research, develops and tests new practice approaches, builds professional learning and workforce capability, and supports the implementation of legal and justice reform. It does not provide individual legal advice or representation.

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