Special focus: Legal technology
Man and machine
Law firms may have the latest
technology for preventing
cyberattacks and the theft of
confidential client information, but
this means little if fee-earners are not
properly trained
How secure is your law firm? You
may think that by simply installing
software designed to prevent
security breaches that your firm is
immune from danger, but this is a
common misconception. Training
fee-earners and other staff to follow
the correct security procedures is
crucial if your firm wants to avoid
a situation where ‘human error’
compromises its efforts to use
technology to keep client data safe.
Technology, like the law,
never stands still. In a climate of
increasing threats to IT systems,
many law firms are now looking
towards “digital transformation” to
bring their processes into the 21st
century, according to Mark Edge,
UK country manager at software
service provider Brainloop.
“Digital transformation is a generic
term, which can mean a whole
host of things, including moving
content online, having a digital
strategy or moving towards a
paperless office,” he adds.
Edge highlights collaboration
and secure file ‘share and sync’
as two of the biggest benefits
provided by digital transformation.
They enable documents to
be worked on and edited
collaboratively by employees,
clients, partners, regulators and
authorities, removing the need to
print out and consolidate multiple
edited copies. “Moving away
from mountains of paperwork
can save legal firms time,
money and provide increased
security for documents within an
organisation,” Edge says. Law
firms are advised to consider
solutions that cater for ‘multiple
use cases’ and requirements. For
example, a single collaboration
platform can solve multiple
challenges related to ‘automated
versioning’ and rights management
technologies, as well as providing
efficient workflows for managing,
sharing and collaborating on
sensitive and matter-related data.
However, keeping up with
54 • IBERIAN LAWYER • November / December 2015
ever-evolving
technology
is a major
challenge. A
recent report
by PwC on
how UK law firms
are investing in
digital technology
found that,
while 80 per cent
acknowledged the
need to respond
to digital age
technology, only
23 per cent had
implemented the
necessary involvements.
Indeed, the prospect of a
“digital transformation” will
likely ring alarm bells within law
firms due to the long-held belief
that such solutions are expensive,
difficult, time consuming to
implement, unnecessary, or simply
unsafe.
Andra Robinson, director
operations at contract management
firm Concord, says most of
these misconceptions have been
debunked. “In particular, cloud
solutions have made it possible for
firms of all sizes to cost effectively
and quickly implement technology
solutions,” she says. “Furthermore,
the operational efficiencies gained
by implementing technology far
outweigh the investment at the
outset of the implementation. “
Simon Thompson, director
at legal technology consultancy
Change Harbour, shares Robinson’s
sentiments. He says “client
centricity” is important for law
firms if they want to differentiate
themselves from their competitors:
“Many [firms] are trying to develop
deeper and more systemic client
relationships, while building and
implementing sector-based business
development and marketing
plans in which they demonstrate
leadership in the industries in which
their clients operate – technology
used in this space includes CRM
systems, social media, intelligent
news feeds, extranets and client
collaboration spaces.”
Thompson says alternative fee
arrangements, as well as effective
practice and financial management
systems can facilitate effective
analytics
and
business
intelligence,
project management systems and
profitability planning models.
“Make sure you are investing in
the right place,” Thompson adds.
“IT infrastructure, like datacentres,
servers, storage, networks and so
on, are increasingly becoming a
commodity which you can buy
on an ‘on demand’ basis, this is
not where the modern law firm
should be making large scale
capital investments – the legal
chief information officer’s (CIO’s)
responsibility is to pro-actively
enable their law firm to exploit
technology in order to meet their
strategic objectives and drive
competitive advantage.”
To this end, technology has
somewhat levelled the playing
field within the legal profession.
All law firms – rather than just the
giant law firms – can now look
more at automating routine nonessential aspects of the practice as
they all have access to high-end
technology and solutions.
Fee-earner training is vital
Carlos García-Egocheaga, the
Madrid-based managing director
of LexSoft Systems, points out
that technology is available to
everybody so law firms get no
competitive advantage simply
by having it. “It is the processes
that you decide to implement and
how you do so that will give you a
cutting edge over the competition,”
he adds. “So it is not only about the
technology you use, but how you
www.iberianlawyer.com