Recently, Terri Mottershead, the Executive Director for the Centre of Legal Innovation shared with us her view for the legal practice of the future. Our complimentary webinar ‘Reimagining Legal Practice with the Centre for Legal Innovation’, unleashed many trends and opportunities. Here is a summary:
Legal practice is transforming. We read about the trends daily – legal tech, AI, data, employee and client experience – but how will these combine for a different future? And how will this impact BAU for your practice?
Today, more than ever before, lawyers work in a legal ecosystem. Previously, there was the legal profession, then the legal industry and now our field has evolved into an ecosystem involving different professions and embracing new ways of working.
There are four big areas that are impacting, shaping and changing our ecosystem:
Legal tech companies make up about 5% of the landscape in Australia. Legal tech allows for cheaper and faster delivery of services.
Interoperability and integration have become increasingly important for law firms. Law firms want good connection and customisation with their legal tech.
As a law firm of the future, firms can embrace all of this with a solid digital strategy. Consider how you purchase your technology and the usability of it, Terri encouraged. Rather than a short term solution, your tech choices need to be a long-term investment to help you grow and adapt to the changing marketplace.
A huge benefit of investing in solid legal technology, Terri shared, is the ability for data analysis. Lawyers have so much data. Data analysis can enhance client collaboration to help reduce issues/risks – this is known as preventative lawyering. That’s where the future is headed.
As the importance of data rises, so does an increased focus on compliance and legal technology and this can support you to ensure your practises are compliant and up to date.
When looking towards becoming a law firm of the future, consider how you help your clients – you can choose to offer specialised knowledge (where you can charge higher fees) or can you create knowledge databases so your clients can help themselves (lower cost, but highly competitive).
Terri explained that the reimagined legal practice has a changed approach to tasks and who is doing them. If you chose to go down the path of bespoke knowledge, your experience can now be applied to solve complex problems. Complex problems are on the rise due to global market uncertainties.
What we are seeing of the reimagined legal practice is the need for holistic problem solving – not just legal advice, but adding in financial advice or counselling for example. Law firms can now consider what they have available or what they can draw on from other businesses. Perhaps expanding their revenue streams to assist clients in a “legal plus” environment.
This is expanding out to a more people focused experience. While client experience is incredibly important, the reimagined legal practice also considers employee experience.
Your future clients want something more customised and more collaborative. This may mean redefining your firm’s value proposition – focus on output, not billable hours.
User experience is about the journey as well as the outcome. This means a different client relationship strategy to what we have used in the past. What are preferences of your employees and clients? Customisation can help you differentiate yourself. Remember, clients can evaluate your service. So, what can you do?
Convenience is king. Many of us now complete tasks on our phones. Clients want this from their legal service. They will compare their experience with you, not just to other law firms, but to other industries.
Client experience is about the whole journey – how do they find you? How quickly can they connect with you? How much do you know about them/their matter? How do you add value quickly? Can you get to their issue quickly? You may wish to view your clients as colleagues. This can help you establish closer relationships. Consider, how are you staying in touch with them on the things that matter?
There are so many players and legal stakeholders involved in today’s legal ecosystem. It’s important to understand those bodies who help us deliver legal services now include legal tech, legal talent (hiring and HR) and regulators.
The legal ecosystem is now a dynamic and at times, a volatile market. Your clients and employees are changing. The prominent generations today will, as expected, decrease over time. By 2050, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y/Millennials are expected to decrease overall by 31. This means that who you are speaking to now, and how you are speaking to them will need to adapt and adjust to make way for newer generations coming in.
Terri believes that a reimagined law firm is a place of changed capabilities – empathy, curiosity and digital literacy. To thrive, law firms need lawyers and other professionals to help deliver a rounded experience. For example, it may include data scientists or financial advisors. This is legal plus (legal +).
We need firms who are agile and able to move with the dynamic legal marketplace and who are also creating a culture continuous improvement and are comfortable with change. Look around at your current employees – there will be those who are seeking to make change and with their drive may be likely to move on. However, if they stay, those ‘intrapreneurs’ are worth retaining.
When reimaging legal practice, as the profile of people is changing, you need to find ways to cater to them and consider different services and products. Your clients want their problems, issues, challenges solved in a different way.
Terri shared the common characteristics amongst reimagined law firms (whether they choose to focus on new law or traditional areas of practise):
To evolve your modern law firm to a reimagined service, Terri encourages you to:
Old ways wont open new doors. What will your legal practice look like tomorrow?
To understand more about the reimagined law firm and to hear Terri speak in depth on the topic, register now for the complimentary on demand webinar, ‘Reimagining Legal Practice with the Centre for Legal Innovation’. Earn 1 CPD unit.
While many lawyers in the past have feared the introduction of AI as it may ‘take over their jobs’, lawyers are learning to work with technologies and use them to their advantage.
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