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The Future Ready Lawyer Survey 2022: Addressing The Growing Pressure On Law Firms

Daily Legal Briefing by Daily Legal Briefing
December 6, 2022
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The Future Ready Lawyer Survey 2022: Addressing The Growing Pressure On Law Firms
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globe-2491989_640This is the second in a series of articles covering the Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey 2022, a global survey that examines the factors that are affecting the future of the legal profession, and how well law firms and law departments are prepared to address them.

Last month, I covered several key findings, including the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) that has become part of the new normal for legal professionals and is the backdrop to the significant pressure that is driving change in the profession. Law departments are feeling the pressure and, as a result, are putting extra pressure on their law firms (recall that 32% of lawyers in-house indicated they are very likely to switch firms in the upcoming year).

There are multiple factors identified as drivers of change within law firms, and there is now rough consensus that technology is one of those factors for firms. This includes law firm leadership who, though prior surveys pointed to them as roadblocks to innovation, are no longer seen as such.

A few weeks ago, I had the distinct honor of facilitating a great panel at the ARK KM Legal 2022 Conference based upon the Future Ready Lawyer Survey 2022. During the session we had the opportunity to elaborate on the challenges that firms face and address some potential solutions. In this article, I’ll dive deeper into some of those observations on how law firms can work to address forces of change within the industry, technology gaps they need to overcome, and practices to prepare for the future.

Managing Change Versus Deploying Technology

With a rough consensus on the need for technology, and as law firm leadership begins to support technology projects, why aren’t we seeing better results? A likely reason is that technology in and of itself does not solve any problem; technology has to be part of a larger initiative to address the people and the processes involved to work toward a solution. Focusing on managing change before, during, and after new technology is deployed is critical to success. Soliciting leadership to support change in addition to technology can be a great next step in the maturity of law firms as they embrace technology initiatives. Doing so can help with technology adoption and positive outcomes for firms.

Technology Adoption

Successful adoption of technology is a good metric for the success of projects. One way to encourage technology adoption is to publish usage statistics — who is using it, what are users doing, who has yet to log in, etc. Transparency in usage to leadership can also help drive adoption. One great point that Leanna Simon, director of research and knowledge management at Honigman made during our ARK panel was that firms do not have a way of crediting time spent on figuring out new technology, so they should look at creating a billable hour for innovation because of the time required.

The Age-Old Question Of The Billable Hour

One perpetual challenge that law firms face is the dependence on billing by the hour. On the surface, technology productivity can reduce billable hours and hence reduce revenues — which doesn’t sound like a great argument to make the case for tech adoption.

But focusing on lost billable hours misses the competitive benchmark. Let’s consider the current landscape: more work is going in-house to law departments, there is increasing competition from Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs), and competing law firms that deploy technology to be more efficient are going to set the standard for the number of hours it takes to complete a matter. Dave Majors, director, knowledge management strategy and operations at Sidley Austin, had a great observation on this during our panel discussion when he pointed out the difference between billable hours and realization (hours actually paid for by the client). “A great way to advance technology solutions is to focus on increasing the realization of work and eliminating time that can’t be billed,” he said.

Killer Apps

When it comes to prioritizing new projects, one area to consider is the “Killer App.” A killer app allows you to do something that isn’t currently possible.  Years ago, discovery required sorting through bank boxes; but once e-discovery came along, it changed that workflow entirely. Andrew Brinkman, global director of knowledge management at Fried Frank, said, “Look for problems where there is a ‘force multiplier.’ In other words, apply technology to empower attorneys to do something that they never could do before.” If you can solve these problems, change and adoption solve themselves.

But how do you find the problem that can be solved with a killer app? Scott Kaiser, practice innovation and knowledge attorney at Paul Hastings, said, “It’s about relationships and understanding the attorneys you support.  Start with talking with attorneys regularly, doing analysis and collecting facts.” By doing this, you’ll understand the problems and how to get buy-in for projects, including the proverbial killer app.

The pressures on law firms to perform is greater than ever given the volatility and uncertainty in the world today. As the regulatory and compliance landscape continues to become more complex and saturated with information, clients need guidance from their law firms more than ever before. Law firms can be more innovative and apply technology to be more client-responsive. In turn, they will be able to focus, remain competitive, and thrive in the years to come.

Next month, I’ll examine how law departments can address change and prepare themselves for the future.


Ken Crutchfield HeadshotKen 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.



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