Law firms (if they haven’t already) will continue to move forward with developing technology solutions for a simple reason: their clients expect it, says Adam Stock, Chief Marketing & Client Services Officer at Allen Matkins.
It comes down to doing things “more efficiently because clients are demanding it,” says Stock, who also sits on the LMA West Region Board of Directors.
Technology’s role in law firms (in both marketing and services) will continue to grow in the next year and beyond, Stock says. Also, the International Legal Technology Association’s (ILTA) new technology survey highlights a growing law firm priority.
Packaging Technology and Services as Product
“Once you figure out how to (package tech and services), create a product,” Stock says.
This can manifest in many ways.
For example, law firms can create a self-service portal for commoditized services i.e., if you need agreements throughout the year, you could pay a monthly fee and use the portal to grab those documents.
“A firm can compete by having a lot of self-serve dashboards for… certain types of things. It’s an equalizer,” Stock says, adding that billable hours have “distorted the way law firms have approached this.”
A dashboard can also work for the client by letting them monitor the progress of a case and to see what work has been done in real time.
A firm can also spin off a business, such as compliance training, from its core legal services. This adds value to a client who might be able to use a firm as a one-stop shop.
Tech and Marketing
Automation will continue to be huge in legal marketing moving forward, Stock says.
This includes everything from signature scraping (automatically pulling contact data from e-mail signatures and adding to address books) to data visualization (SAS has a nice breakdown of data visualization) to formal marketing automation systems.
But it’s one thing to have the services, and another to sell them, Stock says, adding that is one area marketing professionals will need to step up.
“Marketing people are going to have to become more sophisticated in talking about the products that they offer,” he says, adding that ultimately, marketers will need to be able to say to clients “here’s how we can solve your problem with technology.”
Security
In 2013, the top tech issue at law firms was email management. Three years later, security compliance/risk management issues have taken the mantle, according to results from the most recent ILTA Technology Survey (and the accompanying webinar).
There are several contributing factors here, relating mainly to client privacy and tech mobility:
- The attorney use of laptops has grown considerably, creating new security challenges
- Clients are demanding a higher level of security when it comes to handling their sensitive information.
- The use of smartphones for business has created the need for encryption
- Email encryption
The survey highlighted how having the technology is one thing, but getting complete buy-in and compliance from employees is another. According to the survey, the three biggest law firm security challenges are:
- Balancing security with usability
- User acceptance and behavior
- User education and awareness
At the bottom of the list is “complexity,” which highlights the shift from simply having the technology to making it work for you and your firm.
By Scott Pacheco, Communications Specialist, Lerch, Early & Brewer, Chtd., for the November/December 2016 issue of Capital Ideas.