Posts in category: Digitalization

On Monday, June 18th, the Senate hosted a conference on Legaltech. Among the distinguished speakers was the President of the National Bar Council (CNB), Christiane Féral-Schuhl. As reported by Le Monde du Droit , she considers the CNB to be the leading Legaltech company in France: "Its avocats.fr portal brings together 9.200 lawyers online, generating 32.000 consultations annually for a total revenue of €2 million ." To establish itself as the leading Legaltech company, its President undoubtedly attributes this to the technological tools developed by the CNB, primarily the RPVA ( Virtual Private Network for Lawyers ), also known as E-barreau.

How does the RPVA / E-barreau work?

The French Lawyers' Virtual Private Network (RPVA) is the secure computer network for the legal profession in France. It is used for electronic communications between lawyers, particularly in the context of the digitization of procedures with the courts, which are themselves interconnected through the Justice Virtual Private Network (RPVJ). It was created in 2005. (Source: Wikipedia)

The RPVA also makes it possible to secure electronic communications and the firm's computer network thanks to:

• a firewall certified by the French government
• data encryption, also certified by ANSSI, distributed by the firm to the lawyers' cloud
• strong authentication of lawyers and electronic signature by certificates.

This network presented at the time all the characteristics of innovation at the service of its members: developed by the Order, for the benefit of lawyers throughout France, with the aim of simplifying communication with judges, and simple to use.

Is RPVA a Legaltech feature?

The tool was gradually modernized, first by allowing (partial) interoperability with cloud solutions (Jarvis Legal was the first certified cloud publisher). Then, the removal of the Navista box reinforced mobility and multi-equipment uses.

RPVA is therefore an open and cloud product. From this point of view, its use is worthy of being considered tech and therefore belonging to the legaltech family. The fact that publishers can interface with it, to facilitate the transfer of information and email exchanges, is an important advantage. Likewise, access to the platform has become free of any hardware, which is also good news.

However, several difficulties remain. First, the interface with the RPVA is limited. There is not yet the possibility of completely integrating the folder trees of your management solution with ebarreau. The same goes for email exchanges and their notification, which are difficult to integrate into your practice management software. Finally, the connection key is a barrier to real mobile use, particularly smartphones.

RPVA, digital innovation or Legaltech revolution?

The term Legaltech is very fashionable. Many players claim to be legaltech, including a certain number of software publishers. However, digital and legaltech should not be confused. Otherwise, does developing a mobile application make you a legaltech? Or offer a digital portal?

Beyond functionality, it is also the use and the economic model that defines a legaltech. Some characteristics that legaltechs share:

• be a start-up or at least a young agile company.
• an original economic model
• real data sharing via API (technical protocol for sharing data between applications)
• put the user at the center of the approach (in this case the lawyer)
• ergonomics and new functional ease

From this point of view, the CNB, through the RPVA or the lawyer's act which are useful technological innovations although they require updates, is not legaltech. Simply an organization that is modernizing, which is already remarkable!

The legal market is undergoing rapid change . Legal departments are no exception. For example, large corporations began streamlining their legal functions a few years ago.

The major clients, public actors and multinationals, contribute significantly to lawyers' income. Many firms specialize in this clientele or depend on it for a large part of their fees. The subject is therefore not only essential but sometimes decisive!

Rationalization of the Legal Department

The rationalization movement is linked to the increase in legal expenses, itself the consequence of increased internationalization and judicialization of activities. A relative trivialization of legal services should also be noted. Consequently, the Purchasing Department took an interest in this cost center and sought to take control of these “legal purchases” which are lawyer services.

This results in significant consequences on the expectations requested of the law firm: monitoring of costs, requirement for responsiveness, evaluation of the quality of service, reduction in the number of contacts, limitation of the intuitu personae, internationalization of suppliers, monitoring project live and in detail, etc.

This same Legal Department also equips itself with new means and new tools to supervise and manage its service providers: information systems, strategic consultants, in-house lawyers, etc. The following articles taken from Village de la Justice or LegaltechNews are some examples.

This development is not new. It is in fact part of a dynamic of centralization and optimization of work processes that has been at work in multinationals for decades, and which has gradually colonized each department of the company.

The consequence is nevertheless direct for law firms, service providers to legal departments. In addition, all firm structures are concerned, partner firms as well as large firms, IP/IT specialists as well as social law experts!

5 strategies for the law firm facing the Legal Department

To respond to the challenges posed by the legal department, the firm has several strategies, all relevant and sometimes cumulative:

Size strategy: “one stop shopping”

Merge with another firm, join a network or association of lawyers, participate in an international network, recruit new partners through an incentive policy, etc.

• making yourself indispensable to the client by handling all types of files, increasingly varied
• achieve productivity gains and economies of scale and thus recover financial margin or negotiation margin
• offer both high added value and more accessible services, in the interest of the customer

Specialization strategy: “the leader in its sector”

Strengthen your expertise, develop your skills, involve experts (even non-legal), develop your network of influence

• become essential in niche or differentiating sectors, or a geographical or sectoral area
• attract anyone with a question about your subject and convert them into customers
• develop real tools, analyses, content that bring related value to its customers

Pricing strategy: “effective”

Gain efficiency, be more productive, work in a network (including near and offshore through network access to less expensive skills)

• be favorite of all calls for tenders
• guarantee responsiveness and quality of work in its areas of expertise
• be identified as efficient, responsive, accessible, “entrepreneurial”

Service strategy: “the partner lawyer”

To offer a high-quality customer relationship (transparency, responsiveness, sharing, collaboration, etc.); to offer additional services (training, conferences, paralegal support, etc.)

• differentiate yourself through customer relations and added services
• enhance the customer experience and the comfort of the premium support offered by the firm
• increase its revenues by promoting these additional services

Innovation strategy: “the lawyer of the XNUMXst century”

Offer comparative advantages to your client and your firm using technology (blockchain, digital signature, etc.)

• provide the legal department with innovative and unique services
• promote the customer internally thanks to new tools
• stand out on the themes of innovation and technology

What strategy to implement?

This strategic thinking is vital to enable the firm to structure its development. However, none is better than another. As a partner of the firm, you will be more in tune or more motivated by one or the other.

Are you already recognized for strong expertise in a field? Expand your network, offer some first-level value to your contacts, work on your marketing and you will quickly grow your customer base!

Can't stand wasted time and disorganization? Invest in the work processes and internal organization of the firm and very quickly, a size or price strategy will be a relevant development axis.

Whatever your response to the change of your client, the legal department, your challenge is to define a clear strategy and, even more, to put it into execution.

How to transform your office?

To do this, you have to invest, in time and money, to transform the office.

Many tools are at your disposal:

• Open up the governance of the firm to integrate external firms or colleagues
• Review the partner remuneration mechanism to attract experts
• Improve the management of collaborators and employees to increase productivity
• Review the organization of legal production work and automate using software tools
• etc ...

We can only advise you to seek support in this strategic reflection which will lead you to profoundly transform your practices, your associates, your corporate culture.

Many independent players or agencies are competent on the subject and could usefully help you make this shift: Jérôme Frizzera-Mogli, Headcom, Hercule, Sachinka, Jurimanagement to name just a few.

A key question remains: are you ready for change and the risks it entails?

News sometimes coincides with regulatory changes! The Cambridge Analytics/Facebook scandal involving the misuse of personal data serves as a stark reminder. The GDPR could well be a major reform, not only for data location but also for user protection (that's you and me). For now, however, it remains a complex undertaking for all businesses, especially law firms.

GDPR in brief

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European regulation passed in 2016. It comes into force in member states on May 25, 2018.

The GDPR concerns all private or public organizations which collect and process so-called personal or even sensitive data of EU residents.

Personal data includes your personal or professional contact details, lifestyle habits, economic and financial data, connection data and geolocation. So-called sensitive data relates to your ethnic origins, religious beliefs, political opinions, trade union membership, genetics, biometrics, health, criminal convictions and national identification number.

In a context of dematerialization and decentralization of data, the GDPR aims to guarantee the security and confidentiality of your data and that of your customers.

What impacts for your office?

As a lawyer, you are required to collect and process both personal and sensitive data. Therefore, you are obligated to comply with the GDPR. This involves appointing a Data Protection Officer, collecting a minimum amount of personal data, guaranteeing your clients' rights regarding their data, auditing your internal systems in terms of security and confidentiality, and ensuring that any subcontractors you use comply with the GDPR (see " Preparing in 6 Steps" - CNIL ).

Your obligations also depend on your role in data processing. Indeed, there is an important distinction in the GDPR between the person who collects the data (i.e. Data Controller) and the person who processes it (i.e. Data Processor). So, if you store the data you collect yourself (on your computer, USB stick, external hard drive, local server, etc.), you are considered both a Data Controller and a Data Processor. In this case, you must guarantee the security and confidentiality of your data yourself. This means, for example, setting up redundancy, backups, encryption of your data, etc.

This can be complex but above all far from your area of ​​expertise. Furthermore, in the event of non-compliance with the GDPR, you risk a fine of up to 20 million euros or 4% of your global turnover (see Article 83 of the GDPR).

Jarvis, your dedicated Data Processor

Fortunately at Jarvis Legal, the security and confidentiality of your data has always been at the heart of our concerns, well before the arrival of the GDPR. We have always ensured that your data is hosted in France in an ultra-secure manner.

With Jarvis, you no longer have to worry about these security and confidentiality obligations of your data. It is in fact we who assume this role of Data Processor for you. Jarvis provides you with all the guarantees in terms of security and confidentiality in strict compliance with the GDPR. You can concentrate on managing your files and interacting with your clients with peace of mind. Jarvis takes care of the rest.
 

• Contact us

Locally installed software: be careful!

Many lawyers still use software installed locally (on their hard drive or local server). Warning: this software automatically makes you the Data Processor. They delegate the daily management of the security and confidentiality of your data to you! Yet another strong argument in favor of Jarvis over locally installed management software. To paraphrase John Bowden Connally, Nixon's Treasury Secretary, regarding the dollar: “GDPR? our software, your problem! »

In fact, the solutions are best placed to enable you to be compliant, without investment on your part. However, you must avoid non-European solutions, which therefore do not comply with the legislation. We can cite solutions based on Sharepoint or Microsoft, or Russian or American solutions (some of which are available on the French market). Your customers' data as well as yours are not secure under the conditions required by the legislator!

In conclusion, choose solution publishers who are French or from the European Union and imperatively Saas or Cloud. So you don't have any difficulty being in compliance yourself!

Where is the client relationship for lawyers?

This question was the subject, as every year, of a round table at the Legal Management Summit on January 24th. The participants were Christophe Wilmart, from Nomination , Jean-Marie Valentin, former partner at the firm SVZ and new entrepreneur, Jean Touttée, founding partner of the company Impalact , and Martin Bussy, co-founder of Jarvis Legal.

The development of lawyers’ client relations responds to 3 issues:

• improve the image of the firm among its clients
• generate revenue from its customers
• gain new customers

We too often forget the gap in perception that exists between the image of the lawyer perceived by the client and the image the lawyer perceives of themselves. A British study , which we have reported on, shows, with supporting data, that work remains to be done to balance this relationship.

The means to achieve this can be summarized in 7 key actions: 3 customer actions and 4 actions on your contacts.

Organize the practice around the client

Law firms are historically organized around partners. They are the center of gravity and interest of the firm, and not the client. This is the first cultural and organizational change that must be achieved: becoming “customer centric”, that is, putting the customer at the heart of the firm.

This organization was described in a previous article ( Legal Market: Revolution or Transformation ). The client must be at the center not as an ideological principle but because they have decisively taken power over the legal market.

Jean-Marie Valentin, through his new platform project for connecting legal departments and lawyers (called ), also highlights the transformation of the organization as a prerequisite for digital transformation.

Concretely, how do we organize the firm around the client? By providing them with qualified information, by providing added value, by collaborating internally for their benefit.

Share information with your client

Sharing information with your client can be done in different ways.

First, the existence of a dedicated client portal is an excellent way to give clients visibility. They can follow the firm's progress freely and without wasting the firm's time. They can participate in a project-based approach, contributing to the review and approval of documents drafted by the lawyer. This client involvement is a direct result of the collaborative organizational structure implemented internally.

The IT security of this type of tool is essential. The implementation of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) from May 25, 2018 requires lawyers to have a particular organization. In order to guarantee the integrity of your client's data on the one hand, and to be able to return them to them and destroy them on request, you should rely on a tool designed for this.

Finally, sharing large documents, by simply sending a link by email, is a widespread use. It is indeed very practical for both the lawyer and the client. Many tools currently used should be avoided, for obvious legal and security reasons (American servers, reading of documents by the supplier, etc.). Transfers of documents protected by passwords, or with a limited duration, and hosted on the territory offer much greater guarantees.

Bring added value to the customer

All lawyers bring added value. But how many customers are aware of this? This is one of the key points of customer relations: promoting your work to your customers.

For example, one could mention tools that simplify the drafting of company legal documents, such as those offered by Impalact . Achieving productivity gains in these areas allows for faster, higher-quality work, ultimately benefiting the client. Furthermore, it frees up time to advise clients on important matters.

Another example is offering your client access not only to the skills of your firm, but also to a network of partners around the world. Thus, we are assured of being able to respond directly or indirectly to any request from our client (multinational company, government, etc.). This is the approach of the SVZ firm today.

Share contacts within the firm

Contacts are in a way the “goodwill” of lawyers. As such, they have considerable value. But often a theoretical value, they are so little used and valued.

Managing contacts is often a headache. First of all, you must have a centralized and up-to-date contact list. It is not so simple. A tool as simple as your email software allows. But this is also the case for digital solutions on the market.

Then, how do we share our contacts within the firm?

This question has no definitive answer. It depends on the governance of the firm. Is each department within the firm compartmentalized? Is the associate paid if a colleague works with one of his contacts? How can you protect your image if you no longer control the firm's interactions with your contacts? These questions encourage us to maintain an individual management logic. However, the benefits of sharing contacts are numerous:

• cross selling
• verification of conflicts of interest within the firm
• strengthening the expertise of each partner across the firm's entire client network
• customer development

So many questions that find a solution via contact management software making it possible to trace each person's activity or to define business contribution policies. Thus each partner maintains control of his contacts while benefiting the firm.

Qualify and update them

Bringing your contacts to life is another important and yet difficult issue to implement. Through a very simple tool like SmartContact, Jarvis Legal offers updating of its contacts from Linkedin.

For its part, the company Nomination offers complete solutions: updating your contacts thanks to their database of 240.000 qualified contacts at the Director level, informing you of the movements and changes of your key accounts…

It is with this type of solutions that the firm ensures that it benefits from always up-to-date contacts. The work of commercial development or marketing distribution becomes even more relevant and therefore effective.

Working with a CRM tool

It's by managing your contacts within a CRM tool that you truly develop your client relationships. Thanks to the APIs of Nomination and Jarvis Legal, the firm can automatically update its contacts in its CRM tool, which is itself one of the modules of the firm's management system. Information isn't lost and is automatically disseminated throughout the entire firm.

What and the role of CRM? Track the interactions that the firm has with each of its contacts, including prospects. Program reminders, join forces to enter a key account, enrich the information of each contact, this is how to land new files and new projects, both with your clients and with your contacts.

Send them qualified messages

Jarvis Legal's CRM function can also be linked to newsletter management software like Mailchimp. By qualifying your contacts, you directly create mailing lists that Mailchimp can use and thus send targeted messages to your contacts.

This is how your customers or prospects will discover your expertise, that of your associates or the conferences or courses you give. Your image progresses and so does your turnover.

Lawyers’ client relations are an increasingly important issue for lawyers. As the power of the customer has strengthened, it is important to ensure their loyalty on the one hand, and to win new market share on the other. The firms that are the first to embark on this path will clearly have a competitive advantage over the others.

Many strategic levers are already available, all that remains is to seize them!

The 2nd edition of the Legaltech Village will take place on December 6 & 7, 2017 at the Docks de Paris, in Aubervilliers.

On this occasion, we will host on Thursday December 7 at 15:30 p.m. a conférence titled: “Put legaltech at the heart of your firm thanks to platform software”. You can register here.

Here is a preview of the plan for this workshop.

Digitalization and Legaltech: opportunities for the law firm

Digital technology brings enormous changes to all economic, social and human sectors. We can cite a large number of truly new products or services. Legaltech is one of its variations for the legal sector and, there too, the situation is exciting.

The presence of Jarvis Legal in 27 countries around the world and particularly in the United States allows us to bring back numerous experiences and numerous examples of successes and innovations from around the world. 

Through numerous examples, we will discuss with you the variety and quality of the solutions present on the market. It is also the ambition of the Legaltech Village to show the advantages of legaltech.

Strategically, digitalization and legaltech are clearly opportunities for law firms. It is essential to feel involved because it is now that these changes are taking place and the opportunities are greatest. However, the reality is not the strategic vision. The risks should not be underestimated.

The lawyer facing the risks, limits, difficulty of technological choices

The risks, limits and difficulties should not be minimized. The technological choices made by the different publishers or economic players are therefore important.

Let us cite for example the lack of unity between the different tools, making widespread use within the firm difficult. Or the promise of ease and the difficulty of daily use.

On the security side, the GDPR prevents the use of a large number of solutions, from the most common (Dropbox, Gmail, WeTransfer) to the most complex (is ROSS compliant with the legislation?).

Being dependent on proprietary software is a risk. In these times of openness and rapid change, how can we be a prisoner of an environment (Microsoft for example) and its technical or strategic choices (dialogue with Google solutions, make tools dialogue with each other)?

Freedom, Agility, Sustainability 

This is why the notion of platform software is essential. Thanks to appropriate technology, you can benefit from a true open API, allowing all of the firm's software tools to interact. Scalability now but also in the future when a new tool comes to the market and it is also connected to the API.

Everyone can connect freely from their equipment, free of charge and without difficulty. Collaboration and networking is really facilitated, inside and outside the office. It is agility that takes precedence and allows for permanent adaptation.

The applications being integrated at Jarvis Legal, for example, are numerous and offer law firms access to a true software ecosystem, unified and easy to use.

It is therefore a real strategic advantage that platform software confers. In this way, the opportunities of legaltech are exploited while the risks are reduced. It is the ideal tool to put legaltech at the heart of your firm.

Join us on December 7 at 15:30 p.m. during the next Legaltech Village!

The 2nd edition of the Legaltech Village will be held on December 6 & 7, 2017 at the Docks de Paris, at Plaine Saint Denis, as part of the Paris Open Source Summit.

Legaltech village: come and meet innovation 

Opening data, collaboration and sharing information are at the heart of the open source approach. This is the meaning of the Paris Open Source Summit 2017.

Co-organized by OpenLaw and the Village de la Justice , the event brings together the French legaltech ecosystem around the concepts of openness and innovation in the legal market.

Openness is central to the legal profession, as demonstrated by professional collaboration and inter-professional partnerships. The ACE association 's most recent congress , held in October, focused on the theme of "Openness." On the technological front, the majority of legal tech companies originate from the world of software development, which is structurally organized around the concept of collaboration.

The 2017 national lawyers' convention was held from October 18 to 21 in Bordeaux. Jarvis Legal, as a digital solution for lawyers, was a partner of the event. We have provided you with a summary of the best moments in this article.
Our stand was also very lively. Back to our highlights.

The Jarvis Legal booth at the National Convention

As with any trade show, setting up and preparing the stand is a challenge! The before/after photos show the extent of the work that was completed in one day.

In the end, placed between the Incubator Village and one of the bars, and between the workshop rooms and the plenary, the stand was always full for 3 days!

Our partners

First, conferences and workshops were organized with our partners Georges , the accounting robot and Nomination , a specialist in qualified data.

We were also able to exchange ideas with numerous partners, such as Dalloz , Mon-avocat , Legalvision , Legalife , …

We work with each of them to offer our customers complementary offers. Our platform architecture allows us to be an API, that is to say, to interface any type of software with our solution (both Sage, Quickbooks or Mailchimp as well as Dalloz or my-lawyer)

Entertainment

Many activities were organized on the stand.

For example, the professional photo workshop, taken by professional photographers from the Whaooimage agency, was always full for 2 days! A large crowd of lawyers took advantage of our booth to benefit from a beautiful, up-to-date photo for their website and social profiles.

The wheel of fortune has allowed many lawyers to win gifts or discounts on licenses, such as pens, 10% discount, etc. 

Finally, numerous demonstrations of our Jarvis Legal solution were organized, individually or in groups. The new version of our solution undoubtedly convinced the lawyers present!

And we also had the pleasure of welcoming the 2 new co-presidents of Lawyers Without Borders (Julien on the left, Vincent on the right and Kavi, from Jarvis Legal in the middle)!

Their vision of the profession: transmission – training – assistance in countries with difficult political contexts. Congratulations for your action!

Jarvis Legal is a partner of the 2017 National Lawyers Convention, in Bordeaux. 3 years after Montpellier, the profession finds itself once again at the initiative of the CNB for its major triennial event.

Find us at stand C090 to discover our new software solutions and numerous workshops.

National Lawyers Convention 2017: under the sign of digital

The theme of the Convention this year is: “Economy, Digital and Territory: new strategies for lawyers”.

Lawyer mobility, data security, and digital technology are key themes at the ACE Congress . Join Jarvis Legal in Strasbourg on Thursday and Friday, October 5th and 6th, 2017, at the ERAGE school, to discuss the following topic:

“Advantages and dangers of lawyer mobility thanks to digital tools and digital communication”