Transforming Professional Services to Build Regional Innovation Ecosystems

Abstract

This book chapter seeks to expand the innovation ecosystems literature to focus on three themes. First, that a broader and deeper account of professional services is required to understand successful innovation ecosystems. Second, that attorneys have a central, yet bifurcated, presence in innovation ecosystems as either specialists or “targeted generalists." And third, that regional professional schools can play a central role in transforming professional services in local economies to provide the necessary innovation ecosystem that will allow (pre)industrial economies to evolve into knowledge economies.

Keywords: innovation, entrepreneurship, legal profession, lawyers, law schools, legal education, professional schools, start-up, business, innovation ecosystems, professional services