Law Firms Kick Against Innovation Tech
Law firms resist change – the only aspect that drives technology change in law firms is the external pressure from their clients, general counsel or legislation. Also, if they get burnt by something that technology could have prevented – like viruses, hacks, email snooping or server crashes. It seems absolutely crazy that law firms would resist innovation that would see their firms providing more efficient services to their clients, so why do law firms fight the changes that would help them down the line?
Lawyers of the Future: A Word of Caution
Never mind Latin, do you speak New Law? To stay relevant in the legal world you need to know your AI, from your LPO, ALSP and IG* – A language that I’m guessing wasn’t part of your law degree unless you graduated last year from a South African law school I don’t know about. While the majority of states in the US recognise that a duty of technology competence is part of the professional rules of conduct for lawyers, we’re a long way off from this in South Africa. In 2016 when asked to present on the Future of Law to a major South African university, I accepted their offer of a projector to show my powerpoint presentation, only to be directed to an overhead projector when I arrived. Enough said.
The 8 Hottest Topics Shaping Legal This Year
This year sees the launch of the Legal Innovation & Tech Fest in South Africa, the first event of its kind in the country. You might be wondering how the agenda for this event is developed so as to be on point with the latest pressing issues in the industry. It’s down to a unique research methodology that really gets industry professionals speaking their minds and sharing real challenges, plans and trends. A series of roundtable discussions and interviews with legal professionals results in a list of hot topics that have been debated and discussed within the community. It is these topics that will shape the agenda for Legal Innovation & Tech Fest 2018. This Year’s Research This year’s research groups saw over 100 senior professionals from law firms, in-house legal teams and alternative legal service providers getting together for small face-to-face discussion groups facilitated by an industry thought-leader in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Discussions revolved around the challenges and ideas for improvement and innovation in the world of law. Key Themes The following 8 themes emerged from the roundtable discussions as being most important to the legal community: The legal ecosystem, legal business and the lawyer of the future Building the skills and capability for successful innovation Data-driven decision making – what you can measure you can manage The strategy, the ROI and the business case for innovation, change and collaboration Leveraging user experience to drive user adoption Demystifying artificial intelligence, automation and augmentation The vendor conundrum – sales, implementation and beyond Stakeholder, project and change management The discussions around these topics were captured in an extensive research report which you can download here for more detailed insight. Legal Innovation & Tech Fest 2018 The inaugural Legal Innovation and Tech Fest will launch in South Africa in June 2018 and will demonstrate how legal innovation is being enabled by technology through a combination of case studies, thought-leader presentations, discussion groups, product demos and panels. All based around the key topics brought forward by the community in this report. We look forward to building the agenda and continuing the inspiring conversations around these themes. See you at Legal Innovation & Tech Fest 2018!
These 4 Disruptions are Changing the Future of Legal
We are living in an age of unprecedented disruption. Once-lucrative revenue models, like billable hours, are under siege. Market structures and distribution channels that have been stable for decades are crumbling before our eyes. The demise of brands such as Kodak, Borders and Blockbuster leaves us with little doubt – shift is happening and no business is immune. So is the legal industry at risk? Here are 4 major shifts that are happening right now that may be threatening the legal sector as we know it: 1. The Age of Automation We are entering the age of automation and there are few industries that are immune. Consider the impact of driverless cars for example: What will it mean for where we’ll live and how we’ll work? Some industries that are flourishing, like pay parking stations for instance, we may not even see in 15-20 years’ time. In 20-30 years’ time car ownership and the daily commute to the office may be something that is not mainstream and this will have an impact on many aspects of how we do business. The biggest shift for legal professionals to be aware of in this space is the impact of blockchain technology. Blockchain is taking a lot of the routine research and discovery functions of paralegals for instance and replacing it with an algorithm. So some of the entry-level roles for lawyers will change in the next few years in a big way and we’re already seeing the beginning of that. 2. Empowered Consumers Stakeholders and clients have more of a voice than ever before, they demand more information and want to be far more involved than they have ever been in the past. A lot of industries are used to operating under a cone of silence, “We’re the experts, don’t challenge us, we don’t have to keep you updated,” these are the industries that will find it most difficult to adapt to this change. Consumers want transparency, and will be leveraging technology to get that transparency. Consumers are also becoming increasingly savvy and will do a pretty thorough examination on your business before they even reach out to you; they know about you, they’ve checked you out on Facebook, on LinkedIn, they’ve read reviews about you. The fact that consumers have a voice to be able to share their experience like they’ve never had before means that you’ve constantly got to be engaging with the marketplace. If you’re not paying attention to what the marketplace is saying about you, and if you’re not responding to that sentiment, you’ll find yourself on the back foot, because that information is out there and consumers are using it far more than ever before. 3. Unconventional Competition If you look at the most significant disruptions in the last 10 years, this category is where they have come from. But for a lot of businesses this is the one that they give least thought to. I mean, how many taxi drivers thought their biggest threat was going to be from an app? It was a form of competition they never even imagined and it has the potential to take them out. When you ask a business who their key competition is, the companies they list are often the ones they don’t need to be paying most attention to, because they’re the ones they’re already aware of, they’re on the radar. The most dangerous threat for any business or industry is the invisible competitor. It’s those companies who you may not even think of as a competitor yet, but they’re looking to move into your industry. For example, hotels are now facing the biggest threat from Airbnb. They’re looking at Sheraton or Hilton as competitors, without actually recognising the bigger threat is the more existential one. 4. Emerging Generations A big chunk of my initial research 10-12 years ago was looking at Millennials and Generation Y, some of the attitudes and expectations of those groups, but more importantly, how does any industry or profession connect with that generation? What are their attitudes and their beliefs, what’s the language that works, and how do you engage them as consumers or team mates? If you’re in a leadership role and you’re managing young people, how do you coach and lead a generation who have grown up in an era where everyone gets a ribbon in the race at school, and their whole approach to having a say and being involved in decision-making is different to what older generations had when they were at the same point in their careers? While all this information may seem quite foreboding and overwhelming, do not fear! Here are some strategies for staying ahead of the game: Dig the Well Before You Get Thirsty: Don’t wait for disruption to hit; pre-empt it. How do you get ahead of the change? If you wait until disruption hits your industry or your business, you’re merely in survival mode. Stay Humble and Hungry: You know that the old saying “The moment you think you’ve made it, you’ve passed it,” and for any business that thinks they’ve arrived at the winning formula, they’ve got their revenue model set in stone and now it’s just a case of milking the cow, watch out. You’ve got to keep constantly looking at what’s next, and stay humble enough to realise that what’s worked in the past may not work in the future. That’s confronting but necessary. Build a Culture of Innovation: Rather than innovation being something that just a department or a committee look after, everyone in an organisation should have a role to play in innovating and looking for new ways to do things. But the question is how do you build that culture within an organisation or a team? Foster Healthy Paranoia: If you’ve had any measure of success in any business or industry you’ve got a target painted on your back. The companies that realise this fact are not just paranoid, they’re actually staying ahead of the game. This healthy paranoia keeps you hungry and it’s the best antidote to complacency. It’s all about reinventing yourself before you’re forced to. About the Author Michael McQueen is an award-winning strategist, social researcher and author of 5 bestselling books. He has his finger on the pulse when it comes to emerging trends shaping business and culture. With clients including KPMG, Pepsi and Cisco, he has helped some of the world’s most successful brands navigate change and stay ahead of the curve.
4 Practical Steps Towards Real User Adoption of Technology Initiatives
It’s a common complaint. Technology spending increases every year, but with the lack of proper user adoption and underutilised apps, many of the benefits of a new tech implementation are just not realised. Dougless Cadell is the CIO and Global Leader of Innovation Projects at one of the largest law firms in the world. At the Legal Innovation and Tech Fest in Australia in 2017 he spoke about the user adoption challenges that Mayer Brown faced, and he shared the practical things they did to change the user experience into a positive opportunity for driving adoption and generating real value from technology. Doug believes that there are 4 critical elements that need to be understood, addressed and woven together to ensure successful user adoption of a new technology initiative: 1. Tell a Compelling Story It is very important for the IT team to communicate a clear vision and to tell the story of why this change is happening. The story needs to be told over and over again through a multitude of different formats and platforms, so that the business really understands the “why” behind the new technology initiative. 2. Carefully Consider Competitive and Existing Systems Have a look at the current embedded systems that people are using, and realise that you will need to cleverly incentivise them to move over to the new system for full adoption to occur. This is a difficult challenge as it’s hard to change existing behaviours, but a necessary step if user adoption is to occur. 3. Education and Training It’s time to rethink traditional training efforts. The way that people work, engage, learn and consume information has changed and our tech training approaches need to adapt accordingly. Training might look different for different groups of people. Some people may be working remotely and some are billing by the hour, making it impractical and unlikely that they can dedicate many consecutive hours to traditional, in-house training sessions. It may be that the business is challenged for time, or the appetite for traditional training at the organisation doesn’t exist. It is also true that tech has become more intuitive. With the increase in mobile accessibility, many people are able to self-teach and learn through doing. Adopt multifaceted and adaptive ways to teach people that matches the way that they like to consume information. For example, you may want to introduce informative pop-ups on the organisation welcome screen, short videos sent to inboxes or set up a learning management system where people can access tutorials and resources as and when they need them. Where it is vital for people to undergo training it can be mandated by introducing compulsory versus optional training modules. 4. Influence of Culture It’s important to gain an understanding of the culture of the users you are targeting. Geography, age, role and the clientele they are servicing all play a role in the way they use and adopt the technology. About the Author Doug is a veteran CIO, legal industry technologist and internationally recognised speaker and writer on law firm and law department technology, and its best use. He has over 30 years’ experience in finance, operations and management, and in leading the technology efforts of a variety of organisations, including mid-sized and large law firms and a governmental law department. In 2004 he was honoured as IT Director of the Year by New York-based Law Technology News and in January 2009 he was recognised by the Legal Technology Awards in London as International IT Director of the Year.