Category Archives: Legal

General Legal IT, Legal

LawTech Futures 2012 – UK’s answer to the annual ILTA event?

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Well it’s a couple of weeks now since LawTechFutures 2012 and I have to say it was a good event for Legal IT in the UK. I’ve not been to a any general Legal IT events in the UK for a number of years. I’ve been to some good specific events (Interwoven’s old Gear Up events were usually very good and Tikit’s Word Excellence days have been good too), but the old Legal IT shows were more “trade shows” that allowed vendors to show and talk about their wares. They certainly weren’t the kind of show that allowed you to both see products and also hear about key topics affecting the industry. I attended ILTA in 2010 and there was an example of how good a Legal IT event can be!

So what about LawTechFutures? Well it isn’t quite ILTA yet, but it’s certainly a great start in the right direction (it is after all only lawtechfutures event number one!). A few more tracks of speakers with better platforms for those tracks off the main track (the lounge and demo stages weren’t perfect for either speaker or audience really) and it could be an excellent regular annual event. This is just a minor point though and should not detract from the fact that the event was a huge success both in numbers attending and the quality.

For a good write up of the event have a read at the post on the excellent “The Time Blawg”.

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General Legal IT, Legal

Hamburgers needlessly uniform and fast or coffee annoyingly complex and slow?

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I read an article in The Spectator a couple of months back that I’ve been meaning to tie into a Legal or Legal IT post for a while.

There were two areas of Law that I was thinking about when I first read it. First off this paragraph.

These changes happen because there are two kind of business competition. The first is where you try to be better at doing what the business next door is doing already. The second is where you create a ‘paradigm shift’, pursuing some entirely new ideal no one has focused on before.

This one got me thinking of the crossroads that a lot of law firms are reaching in these tough economic times. Do they try and do things better than their close competitors? Or do they create the “paradigm shift”? The majority of the press and many legal commentators would suggest that “Tesco Law” will usher in a new kind of law firm and the old firms that stick to the current model will wither and die. Is there room for the old style law firm anymore or will law pump out agreements “needlessly uniform and fast”? I suspect there’ll be room for both, after all the two businesses sited in the article (McDonalds and Starbucks) haven’t totally wiped out the “old diners” or the “old style cafés”.

The second area I thought of was after I read this.

I sometimes wonder whether it’s time for government to try a paradigm shift. If, instead of devoting all its energies towards huge, intractable problems such as wholesale NHS reform, our government were to establish a Ministry for Eradicating Trivial Irritations, some degree of success would be assured.

And this got me thinking of a few Legal IT vendors. How the clamber for larger firms through mergers and takeovers have led to a chase the next big thing. Whether it be the cloud, the latest in eDiscovery or Legal Hold or another big technology to sell to the law firms. My thoughts usually are that I wish they’d just look at what they do/did well and make it better. Ironing out those trivial but annoying “features” that drive the lawyers nuts.

Anyway, take a look at the article it’s worth a read in its entirety and perhaps read through some of the other articles by “The Wiki Man”.

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Legal

Balotelli or Giggs?

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The period of austerity seems to be over in football. The lateral hire is on the rise as players are swapping teams at a steadily increasing rate. It starts with the star players and the big teams, but soon enough the pay rates across the market will be pushed up and mediocre players will start costing the smaller teams big money.

As teams fight for survival in a competitive environment they start to lose focus on what their key purpose is (to please the fans) and chase the big annual prize at any cost. Soon costs spiral and the fan is squeezed of more and more money to pay for the increased cost of players and the need to get the big annual prize. Worse happens as the teams lose focus on what the fans want and start to employ different approaches that get them closer to the annual prize, but by reducing the quality of the end product they alienate their fans.

But at the end of the day shouldn’t it be about pleasing the fans and keeping the costs for them down? After all wasn’t that the reason all these teams started in the first place?

Don’t panic! I haven’t turned this blog into a sports blog, just re-read the above and substitute the words in italic. Replace football with legal, player with lawyer, team with firm and fan with client.

There seems to be a lot of movement in legal at the moment (examples here, here and here), combine this with an increasingly competitive market and there’s a lot lawyers could take from the modern football market.

Maybe rather than chasing the Balotelli’s the teams should look at their development programmes and start bringing on the next Giggs?  And on the United theme, don’t assume that just because you’re a BigLaw “Manchester United” that your fans will be happy regardless!

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Legal

Sainsbury’s Law

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Come on you’d turn away if I said this was another “Tesco Law” will change things forever story. I read this post last Friday on the Guardian website and the part where it talked about brands got me thinking.

The Legal Services Board and its consumer panel are looking at the problems consumers have in identifying quality in legal services – research shows that people focus on service levels, which they can understand, rather than the ability of the lawyer to do the job, which is much harder to judge. They have a degree of respect "bordering on awe" for lawyers, the panel reported recently, and trust that the lawyer knows what he or she is talking about.

It is into this void that solicitors fear brand names will come and offer a consumer-friendly service that will win the loyalty of a public intimidated by the legal process. A recent survey by YouGov found that 60% of people would consider buying legal services from one of 16 named brands, from Barclays to Kwik-Fit, indicating interest in the concept but also a certain doubt at such a radical change in the traditional model.

It got me thinking about the big supermarket brands foray into the banking world. The Sainsbury and Tesco brand certainly shifted accounts of a number of their customers. I’m sure that customers of NatWest and HSBC when asked in 1996 whether they would consider banking with Sainsbury’s were equally sceptical, but Sainsbury’s Bank  now has around 1.5m customers.

But look behind the banks and you’ll see the banking powerhouses, Sainsbury’s is a 50:50 venture with Lloyds Banking Group and Tesco for ten years until 2008 was 50:50 with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

What about in 2022 looking back at a “Sainsbury’s Legal Services” venture and seeing how the successful 50:50 joint venture between Sainsbury’s and Eversheds became a respected brand across consumer legal services? Should the high street lawyers be turning from worrying about the high street brands and look to see if BigLaw is about to move in on their territory to expand?

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General Legal IT, Legal

Everything clients want from a law firm….

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Have you ever thought that everything clients want from a law firm are things that our fee earner want from the Legal IT dept.?

I hadn’t thought of it this way until a colleague raised a number of points that were raised by some senior people from large global organisations at a recent conference.

"We want consistent service from a global service provider, even if it isn’t in the home market, we still want the same good service in a distant geography"

"We want a legal services team that really knows our business"

"Don’t do what we tell you, do what we need"

“We don’t want academic legal answers, we want relevant business explanations and solutions”

Change the wording slightly.

"We want consistent service from the central IT dept., even if it isn’t in our office, we still want the same good service in a distant geography"

"We want a legal IT team that really knows our business"

"Don’t do what we tell you, do what we need"

“We don’t want technical answers, we want relevant business explanations and solutions”

Makes sense doesn’t it!

Now I’ve been pondering how to sum this post up. Is there an answer to all the problems of delivering a great service in those points raised? I couldn’t come up with a nice black and white answer, but then maybe this is a case of a problem shared is a problem solved?

p.s. thanks must go to my colleague in Asia for this post, the points are plagiarised from him. cheers Andy!

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Legal

“A company from here doing rather well over there” and vice versa

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No I didn’t stop blogging over the last three weeks to spend the time on the campaign trail for the Computer Weekly blog awards! I’ve just had too much on in and out of work to come up with something to blog about (which reminds me of a previous post!)

I’ve had in mind a post about the mergers in legal this year. A follow up to the post I put up in July 2009 titled “Consolidation within the UK 200?” in which I predicted a series of mergers outside the top 20. I thought at the time that the competition in the legal market due to the downturn would force a squeeze in the mid-sized firms, but it looks like the consolidation has been nearer the top. There have been a number of transatlantic mergers within the top 20 (well top 25), not the “magic circle” but in those firms just below (in fact those below the transatlantic trailblazer DLA Piper).

We’ve had Denton Wilde Sapte and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, Hammonds and Squire Sanders & Dempsey, Lovells and Hogan & Hartson and SJ Berwin in talks with Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and then Proskauer Rose.

Norton Rose has taken a slightly different route into North America with it’s merger with Canadian firm Ogilvy Renault. It’s almost a shame UK law firms aren’t listed on the stock exchange as I’d be hedging a bet and buying up some shares in Herbert Smith!

So the consolidation is happening at a pace, but rather than on a national level it’s the globalisation of the larger law firms that’s leading the way.  I don’t think it’s over, there is still a mixed market out there. Some firms are now posting a rise in turnover, yet there are others that are posting an equal percentage drop.

I therefore stand by my earlier post. The consolidation at the top will only strengthen the brands of the large law firms, allowing them to hoover up more of the big (and medium) plc work. The mid sized firms will be subject to a pincer movement from the “big brand firms” above and also from the new firms that will emerge on the back of the Legal Services Act 2007.

What will the mid sized law firm look like in 5 years time? Will the £75m turnover “Jones, Jones and Smith” still exist or will they be background engine rooms for “Tesco” and “Sainsbury’s” in a legal world that has a few global big brand firms and household name branded legal services?

Whilst writing this post I came across a great document on the upcoming “Big Bang” for legal, it’s called “The Big Bang Report – Opportunities and threats in the new legal services market”.

Oh and no I didn’t win the IT professional (male) blogger award unfortunately, but it was great to be recognised by Computer Weekly and short-listed. Maybe next year!

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Legal

Brazil 1 China 2, India 0 Russia 1 – law firms in BRIC

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I sometimes think international law firms are a little like sheep, one sets up in a country and many more follow. But I suspect this is the same in any industry when new markets open, someone is first in but the others soon follow.

The current trend is clearly the BRIC (Brazil Russia India and China) economies, with many firms already established in China and Russia it was Brazil’s turn to be the current destination of choice.

That was until last week when the Brazilian Bar ruled against associations with foreign law firms. This decision isn’t the eviction of all the international firms yet, but it’s a possible step in that direction. As with the continued block on foreign law firms praticing in India it seems a tale of two halves in BRIC. China and Russia happy to accept the foreign law firms, India and Brazil not.

So who’s got it right?

Clearly from a free market point of view, China and Russia are right. And it’s suggested that merger activity in the trans-atlantic market is being driven by the lure of China. But clearly India and Brazil are using the infant industry argument for protectionism. Can this work though for a service firm? In a globalised world won’t business in these countries suffer through lack of access to the global reach of international law firms?

My personal view is that the markets need to open up.

The main asset of a law firm is the lawyers, whichever market the big law firms go into they will need lawyers and most of the time it’s local lawyers that will be used along with a few lawyers transferred to the country. So I think that the access to knowledge in these global firms will accelerate the development of the local lawyers in these markets. And eventually lead to experienced local lawyers leaving and setting up their own Indian and Brazilian firms. Using the knowledge of global markets they have gained they will be better prepared when they decide to expand and set up shop in London and New York.

India should really look at their own IT industry as an example, it’s now the development centre of many global IT organisations (Microsoft employs about 5000 people in India and even Legal IT provider Autonomy has an R&D centre in Bangalore). This has led to a rapid growth in the IT sector in India, not just in global firms but home grown enterprises.

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General Legal IT, Legal

Generation Y trainees about to shake up Legal and Legal IT

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We’ve been away this Easter weekend to visit my wife’s family and whilst out yesterday I happened to get into a conversation with an ex-trainee of a Big Law firm. As I got on to explaining that I worked in the IT dept of a rival firm it was interesting to hear his questions and thoughts on Legal IT.

It left me thinking that anyone waiting for the current tech savvy trainees to give us Legal IT professionals an easier time ought to stop reading this post now as I’m about to depress you!

In fact if this trainee was typical of those joining law firms then the demands on Legal IT are going to get worse (or better if you’re up for the challenge). A couple of points stood out:

  1. Frustration at the pace of change in corporate IT. The bemusement at why law firms can’t keep up with software like he could at home. “We were still on Office 2003!” he commented as though this was a ridiculous situation. My comments on the difficulties of upgrading thousands of PC’s got a kind of “So what?” reaction.
  2. They do understand the IT dept but only the roles of those at the coal face. The service desks and IT support staff. They are unaware of the size and roles in the rest of IT.

Now this may have just been the situation in that particular law firm, but I doubt it. The challenge that stands out to me from this is twofold:

  1. The struggle of getting the old lawyers to use computers is going to change rapidly into a demand from new lawyers to use the latest computers and software. This I’m sure is starting to happen already, but it will only increase. Why shouldn’t a lawyer be able to do with his work kit what I’m doing now with my own kit (writing a blog post on my laptop travelling up the M5 whilst connected to the internet via my windows phone which is acting as a wireless hotspot! **).
  2. There needs to be better engagement at the trainee stage with IT. Get the trainees involved in the IT strategy early in their careers may reap benefits later.

Things are not going to get any easier for Legal IT, the demands on the corporate IT dept won’t drop off they’ll just be different.

Oh and the challenges for Law Firms generally won’t get easier either. This guy got disillusioned with the long hours, no life culture of city law and quit to pursue other interests. Generation Y is going to shake things up in law in more ways than one!

** to the iPhone users out there. That windows phone is not only acting as a wireless hotspot, it’s also playing MP3’s through the car stereo and scrobbling to tracks to last.fm. That’s multitasking!

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General IT, Legal

“I’m going to be late. Yeah, because of the snow”

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Well after a week of snow and disruption it’s back to work today (or perhaps not as for some of the UK there is forecast for another day of snow).

The business headlines though have been full of the cost to the UK economy, quotes range from a general £1.2bn cost to the economy to a daily cost of £0.5bn due to absenteeism. The feeling from a lot of these articles is that it’s the employees fault for not trying or the local governments fault for not gritting the road, but it never seems to be the employers fault…no they’re the ones suffering.

Wakefield under snow
Wakefield under snow

Isn’t it about time we had a revolution in work days in the UK? A move from the practices and procedures in place to support an office in a city centre with set working hours? An abolition of the 9 to 5 … and for those who are about to say “if only” can I say we should also do away with the long hours culture too. Sure, work the long hours when you need to (finishing projects, completing deals) but not to impress your boss or worse, just to be seen in the office.

I mean this week how many like me have spent hours wasted standing on freezing platforms? Or struggling to get through the roads on buses and in cars? If you managed to get in at all, how many have been “late in”?

So will this cold snap finally kick start a new wave of forward thinking employers that shift to a flexible working model, not just in terms of working hours but also in working location? Law firms are ideally placed to take advantage as they don’t have the necessity of a set working hour like say retail.

The technology is there to enable lawyers to work anywhere:

  • Remote access – how many firms don’t have some form of remote access to either connect your work laptop from your home broadband or even to use your home PC to connect through to your work environment?
  • IM (Instant Messaging) – on my top 5 for 2010, IM has the ability to replace those adhoc chats in the office. Also bringing video to the desktop makes communicating more successful than with just the telephone. Also when you consider Skype’s recent announcement for their HD video it’ll be much better than the grainy pictures of old.
  • Workflow – in dictation and other systems, workflow is built in. Meaning you can do your dictation or task, submit it and it can go on to a pool of people to complete (either in their home, another office or another country).

The benefits during this last week are so obvious!

Your employees firstly can get to work (no snow between bedroom and study and even if for whatever reason there is, then just use the laptop in your bedroom!). Your employees who got to work this week were probably late, cold and rather un-motivated due to expending all their energy on their commute!

The cost benefits are there too. By providing flexible working a percentage of the firm will always be working out of the office, this should enable firms to redesign their office space requirements to utilise less desks and less space. Less space = less cost, a big saving for a lot of law firms whose offices tend to be in prime real estate locations.

Yes there are the common complaints:

  • People aren’t working, but having a “jolly” at home. This perhaps will require the most effort to resolve as it will require a shift in the way we manage people. But surely we should be managing for results/deliverables anyway, rather than by how long someone is at their desk or in the office? After all lawyers work with clients very effectively and they’re offsite, so surely it’s as easy if not easier to do that with colleagues?
  • Missing the day to day chats. This can be alleviated with IM as previously mentioned, but I’m not advocating sole home working. So the adhoc chats will still happen when people are in the office. If there is a need for a team to keep in regular contact then the team probably needs to be together in the office but it won’t be all the time.
  • Some people can’t due to the nature of their work. That’s right, but my answer is so what? Why should there be one policy for all employees? In Law firms more can. Take Legal IT departments as an example:

So stop the complaining about the cost of the snow and do something about it. It’s time for a flexible working revolution. Let’s get rid of 9 to 5 and get rid of the concept of needing a permanent desk in an office to do your work!

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General Legal IT, Legal

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – social media policies

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"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication", Leonardo Da Vinci.

Has your law firm got a social media policy or a set of social media guidelines?

If not it is surely only a matter of time before they do. The rise of the risk management function in firms (not just law firms) means that as social media takes off, guidelines and policies will be put in place (take a look at this site for a raft of policies out there for various companies!).

I’ve been blogging (on this site) for a little under a year now and have already fallen foul a number of times, I have posted something I maybe shouldn’t have or ended up agreeing that it may be best I didn’t say what I had. So I think it’s in the interest of the blogger as well as the firm to have a few guidelines in place.

I recently caught a tweet that led me to a web page that outlined the guidelines for ABC in Australia, these were the best guidelines I have yet seen! The beauty is the simplicity:

  • Do not mix the professional and the personal in ways likely to bring the ABC into disrepute.
  • Do not undermine your effectiveness at work.
  • Do not imply ABC endorsement of your personal views.
  • Do not disclose confidential information obtained through work.

That’s it! Four bullets, brilliant!

If I had abided by these guidelines I would have checked myself in all my afore mentioned cases. As well as offering a good guideline for social media use they underline a trust and belief in the professionalism of their staff.

Those that are following this blog and/or my twitter feed know that I’m working on a number of things around email management at the moment. And this set of guidelines got me thinking, maybe this is the way forward for all policies?

So I had a go at a few points for managing the electronic file:

  • File electronic documents and email in a manner:
    • that would allow you to find and display any document/email on your PC should your client call unexpectedly and refer to that document/email
    • that you’d be happy to show your clients the electronic file

I think that would be enough to ensure a full and proper well organised electronic matter file, stored with others in an easy to find structure.

“Perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away", Antoine de Saint Exupéry.

"Simplify, and add lightness", Colin Chapman.

or simply KISS! (Keep it Simple, Stupid!)

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