Editor’s note: Guest blogger Andrew McLennan-Murray is an applications integrator for Thomson Reuters, Legal.
Economic factors and evolving client culture have forced law firms to adapt their business strategies. At the ILTA 2010 session “A New View of the Automated Law Firm,” several experts gave their opinions on emerging law firm business models and the importance of process and technological automation to firms.
The panel consisted of Gerard Neiditsch, executive director of Business Integration and Technology from Mallesons Stephen Jaques; Jeffrey Rovner, managing director for Information for O’Melveny Myers LLP; Mary Abraham, counsel at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; and Ron Friedmann, SVP in Consulting for Integreon. (more…)
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As Yogi Berra once famously said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
And so began the intentionally forward-looking 2010 ILTA Conference session today titled “The CIO in 2020: The Business Savvy Strategist.”
Though as panelist Marsha Stein of Ropes & Gray pointed out, the discussion of the CIO’s role should be less about 2020 and more about 2010.
“Law firms have changed,” Stein said. “We are all seeing a pressure to be more corporate and run our law firms like businesses… the challenges we’re talking about today are happening now.”
Technology, of course, remains the key. But panelists agreed that it’s more about what the technology can do. And what problems it solves.
“We’re entering an era where technology matters again,” said David Rigali of Thompson Coburn. “Business process re-engineering means something.”
“It’s the translation of the opportunities that technology provides,” added Peter Westerveld from Minter Ellison Lawyers.
Much of the discussion also involved how a CIO can gain standing in a firm by building and maintaining relationships with other firm leaders.
Jeffery K. Brandt a CIO consultant, said “You cannot be perceived as the fixer of the PCs, that’s not what you want to talk about with the partner… You have all these hats that you wear but you need to be able to communicate… that what you’re proposing as technology or services are going to resolve pain points within the firm.”
As for the notion that the CIO of the future will have less technical expertise or won’t always rise from the technical side, the panelists said it’s about getting and building a new base of business expertise.
“It’s not a roadblock [to come from the technical side],”said Stein. “You just need diferrent skills.”
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When you take a walk through the busy exhibit hall during breaks in the sessions at the 2010 ILTA Conference, you see and hear lots of conversations between attendees and the representatives of numerous legal technology providers. The hall is an important part of the conference and offers many networking and business prospect possibilities that attendees and vendors take the time to build and maintain.
During his time on the show floor, Brad Robbins, senior vice president and co-managing director at Hildebrandt Baker Robbins, told us he’s seeing and hearing about an increase in technology spending by law firms and law departments over the trends in budgeting of the past two years, as he explains in this video interview.
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Several times in the last few years we’ve heard someone say “the billable hour is dead.” While this certainly isn’t true in today’s law firm – yet – firms continue to feel pressure from clients to change their ways. The billable hour might not completely go away, but it is no longer the pristine measure of valuable lawyer work it once was.
In an ILTA session Tuesday echoing the “Law Firm 2020” theme, Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News, moderated a discussion on “Supporting an Alternative Staffing Model.” Joining her were Maureen Atta, managing director at Huron Consulting Group; Barbara Schane Jackson, founder of Schane Jackson & Associates; and Gareth Evans, partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Bay opened the discussion by pointing out that law firms are facing tremendous economic, regulatory and client pressures to transition from operating like a private club to being more transparent and treating associates like valued contributors.
The panelists discussed the staffing challenges firms face, particularly with roles blurring between the business side and the practice side of the firm. Today’s lawyers have to be smart business people and technologists, and new positions are being created to account for greater needs in project management and e-discovery.
In this video clip, Bay recaps the key points of the session and expands on her thoughts about the growing roles for attorneys in the law firm of the future:
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Tom Koulopoulos had a return engagement at the ILTA conference this morning. He spoke to attendees about using technology in “the cloud.” He was ILTA’s keynote speaker last year and was asked back to share more of his expertise.
Koulopoulos, the president and founder of the Global Think Tank, Delphi Group, titled his talk “The Cloud and Law2020: Where Megatrends and Vision Collide.”
“We’re drowning in information and ideas that we’re just beginning to understand,” he said. He discussed the various impacts of finding new ways for businesses, and the legal industry, to work. These “are radical and disruptive changes” but will feel natural in time. He stressed the cloud is not about technology, it’s about a way of doing business.
As he closed, he talked about three trends for the future of the cloud.
One, that we can all “forget about forgetting” because the cloud will have a “a perfect memory” of everything that’s posted to the cloud.
The second, is the cloud creates an environment for “ageless work,” that work is not tied to life expectancy.
And his term “everynuership,” in which everyone has a stake in their individuality on the Web.
We talked with Koulopoulos for this video interview, and he told us how law firms can address and make the most of the cloud:
Tom Koulopoulos has written eight books (including The Innovation Zone) focusing on innovation, knowledge work, Web economics and globalization.
He has a blog and is on Twitter at @TKspeaks. His website is http://tomkoulopoulos.com.
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Things aren’t necessarily looking up for law firm technology spend in 2010, but they aren’t declining, either. More firms are citing technology budget increases in 2010, and a good number have reported that their firms are back to normal after the 2009 crash, according to the 2010 ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey, published jointly by ILTA and Inside Legal.
Firms are allocating tech dollars to cost recovery systems and operating system upgrades, and are exploring new technology trends, such as implementing a cloud strategy, mobile technology and virtual lawyering.
We talked with Jobst Elster from Inside Legal about what firms spent their money on in 2009 and what they are now spending on – or planning to – in this video clip:
You can hear more about the survey from Elster, and from Inside Legal’s JoAnna Forshee, in this Legal Current podcast.
The 2010 ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey is conducted in partnership with ILTA every year, and is distributed to its membership. Eighteen percent of ILTA’s qualifying member firms participated in this year’s survey.
You can find the complete survey here.
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Internet marketing isn’t easy, no matter what industry or business is involved. To help solicitors and law firms in all practice areas in the United Kingdom, FindLaw has announced the launch of FirmSites in the U.K.
FindLaw provides custom-designed websites that give potential clients helpful information about a firm, including details about its solicitors, firm history, areas of specialty and approach to handling cases. FirmSites also brings FindLaw expertise with search engine optimization and online directories to help draw traffic to a site, providing a steady stream of qualified prospective clients.
As we noted last month, FindLaw also is active in the U.K. with FindLaw UK (legal information for individuals and businesses) and Contact Law (which connects people with recommended solicitors who can provide legal advice).
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The Hildebrandt Baker Robbins Peer Monitor Economic Index (PMI) was down slightly in the second quarter of 2010. It measured a 54, down one point from the first quarter. A PMI of 65 or greater indicates strong law firm market performance.
“Essentially it’s been flat for at least the last three periods which means the industry is having a tough time growing this profitability absent better performance in the top line,” said Mark Medice, program director of Hildebrandt Baker Robbins Peer Monitor. “Certainly if you look at demand patterns, pricing pressures and then the relative performance in terms of practice areas we’re starting to see at least some change… …The demand levels are starting to shift with some amount of new emphasis on transactional practices.”
Demand for law firm services was largely flat for the quarter and rate growth was weak. Overall, cost reductions were unable to improve firm profitability in the face of sluggish demand and rate growth.
PMI is a composite index of law firm market performance using real-time data drawn from major law firms in the United States and key international markets.
After showing slight positive growth earlier this year, demand in London was flat for the quarter. Boston was the strongest major market, with demand up two percent. Washington, D.C., rebounded in the second quarter, with one percent higher demand compared with a year earlier. Chicago ended its string of six consecutive quarters of demand growth, down one percent. New York and San Francisco were also off one percent. Los Angeles was down two percent in the second quarter but has been showing steady improvement since last year.
You can listen to Mark Medice talk about the latest PMI in this Legal Current interview edition podcast:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
For more information about the PMI, and to review the latest PMI report, click here or visit peermonitor.hbrconsulting.com.
You also can access the Legal Current podcast on iTunes or grab the RSS feed.
If you have suggestions for podcast topics for us to focus on, or people to interview within the practice and business of law, send us an email to contact@legalcurrent.com.
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The finances of food are making news in the United Kingdom, as banks have filed final terms for a series of financial products designed to profit from a rise in global food prices.
Westlaw Business Currents looks into the issue in a post titled “Food Price Speculators Feasting on Financial Innovation.”
Christopher Elias details how several banks are involved, including Deutsche Bank, and the food products in question. He writes:
[Deutsche Bank] recently issued 10,000 db S&P GSCI Energy ETC Securities due 2060 through DB ETC Index plc, its Jersey incorporated subsidiary. The securities are linked to an S&P GSCI Agriculture Index “designed to provide an exposure to the agriculture sector in a commodity asset class on a total return basis”. The index reflects an investment in 8 different agriculture commodities including; wheat, Kansas wheat, corn, sugar, soybean, coffee, cocoa and cotton.
You can read the full post on Westlaw Business Currents.
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A post on the Hildebrandt Baker Robbins blog LawVision addresses a growing trend in law firms: project management.
In “Is it possible to measure the impact of project management?” Susan Lambreth and Carla Landry offer some ideas for the metrics firms are using to measure the impact of project management – things like matter profitability, unit cost of work and client satisfaction.
First, they define legal project management as:
…the “art” of leading a team of legal professionals in planning, organizing, executing, and directing resources to meet the need of the client and the firm for the legal matter.
They also suggest a link between several metrics and partner compensation for how the project work gets done:
Some firms are considering these metrics and others as part of partner compensation systems to drive partner behavior in the areas desired in the “new normal” marketplace. One of the issues is how to motivate project management and generally more efficient handling of the work through incentives, when many law firms’ compensation systems still reward high billable hours or originations, not efficient handling of matters.
Susan Lambreth consults on leadership, practice management and strategic issues affecting the legal profession for Hildebrandt Baker Robbins and is based in Nashville. Carla Landry is a consultant in Hildebrandt International’s Strategy Implementation Group and is based in Washington, D.C..
Again, you can read their full post on the Hildebrandt Baker Robbins blog, LawVision.
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Thomson Reuters, Legal, President & CEO Peter Warwick offered his perspective on the company’s approach to the current economic reality in a panel discussion, “Adapting and Thriving in a Challenging Economy”, at the Minnesota Venture & Finance Conference.
The launch of WestlawNext brings a significant advancement in the way professional legal research is done.
A discussion about online privacy and “The End of Forgetting,” with law professor Jeffrey Rosen.
