Technology

Turning A Lagging Law Firm Into A Tech Leader

Is there any way to close the gap or keep from falling further behind?

By  
on

In my June article, I discussed the results of the 2021 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer: Moving Beyond the Pandemic report, which included insights around how technology leaders — firms that had a higher rate of tech adoption — are pulling ahead of their peers in key areas of preparedness for the future. The survey includes a number of interesting proof points around those organizations whose early investments in technology are resulting in higher performance and profitability; but what about those organizations that have not made those investments? Is there any way to close the gap or keep from falling further behind?

Absolutely. While it’s true that technology leaders are pulling ahead — especially because they were largely more prepared to handle the impacts of the pandemic — opportunities still exist for transitioning and trailing law firms to increase their rate of tech adoption and improve their readiness for the future. Here are a few ways they can do just that.

Law Firm Leadership Must Make Technology A Priority

One of the key takeaways of the survey was that legal professionals most commonly report organizational issues as the top reason why new technology is resisted in their organizations. For tech adoption to become a priority, an organization’s leadership must make it one — and for leaders to do that, they must see it as a worthwhile investment. Here are some considerations to take into account to demonstrate value to a firm’s leadership:

  • Develop a set of business priorities and determine how technology can help with those business priorities.
  • Establish key performance indicators that can be moved if tools are applied to a specific pain point or set of pain points.
  • Work with vendors to gain from their insights from the broader market. You can consider working with a vendor to tailor a solution that fits your organization’s specific needs to more clearly demonstrate the value of investment in that solution to leadership.

Ask Your Clients

In addition to specific pain points that you can identify within your own organization, your clients just might have a few opinions on areas to focus on as well; and what’s more, the very fact that you asked them may put your firm in a better light in your client’s eyes. You should be prepared to receive some pretty honest opinions — but by asking these questions of your clients, you may also see some patterns emerge that point to shortcomings that you may not have seen yourself. This exercise can help an organization to determine its priorities for what kinds of solutions to invest in — and beyond that, it can even present opportunities to collaborate with clients on finding solutions that enable efficiency and value-adding work.

Sponsored

Some questions to ask your clients could include:

  • What technology trends are you seeing?
  • Do you have specific technology priorities that you are focusing on?
  • Does your organization have a technology strategy and would you be willing to share portions of that with us?
  • Is there anything that would help improve our service or results?
  • If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about how our firms works with you, what would that be? (And price doesn’t count.)
  • Is there anything we could learn from other firms you work with?

You should also be prepared to share market insights from your firm on the same line of questioning.

Take Action And Invest

While I’ve already mentioned that leadership buy-in is necessary for tech adoption, it’s not just about approving a budget to invest in a tool or program — it’s about fostering a culture that supports the process of adoption and signals its importance to the rest of the organization. Doing that requires concrete action, which can take several forms. For individuals who are advocating for innovation within their own firms, it can be helpful to walk leadership through the ways they can help to support the process and help to drive success. Some items to consider include:

Sponsored

  • Come up with a plan that lays out how investment for a particular solution could be increased over time, with benchmarks for what success looks like.
  • Ask for staff who can help lead innovation or improve legal operations and come up with specific roles, responsibilities, and ROI for those staff to make the best case possible for the investment.
  • Ask for investment in training for staff who are involved in the adoption process, as well as for end-users. During the process, it’s important to remember that training and preparedness are just as important to the process as the technology solution itself. If staff aren’t prepared or don’t have a reason to buy in on the solution, expected results may not follow.
  • To that end, focus on results rather than the technology itself, and work with leadership to communicate incremental successes, giving leadership a way to showcase the importance of tech adoption and innovation to the larger organization.

We all know that change doesn’t happen overnight; it happens in steps, and as technology leaders will tell you, innovation works the same way. Taking small steps, learning from failures, and measuring and optimizing as you go can result in a great deal of change over time. It pays — quite literally — not only to invest in technology, but to start the process with a fundamental understanding of your organization, your people, and your clients in order to effect change for the long run.

Ken Crutchfield is Vice President and General Manager of Legal Markets at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., a leading provider of information, business intelligence, regulatory and legal workflow solutions. Ken has more than three decades of experience as a leader in information and software solutions across industries. He can be reached at ken.crutchfield@wolterskluwer.com.

CRM Banner

Topics

, ,