We participated in the conference #Lexpo17 in Amsterdam on May 8 & 9, 2017. 300 European lawyers gathered around a strong program to address innovation strategies. The answers provided by law firms shed light on possible paths. Finally, Legaltech trends are perceptible and must be considered by lawyers.
The conferences, entirely in English, are led by industry references. Ron Friedman, Jordan Fulong and Rohit Talwar are keen connoisseurs of trends (and very good presenters).
Innovation in law firms
First, Ron Friedman set the scene in a first Keynote: “ Prosper in Flat Times: Sell More, Reduce Cost, Improve Service.”
Lawyers become “price takers”, that is to say, they are no longer able to impose their prices as easily as before. It's the " flat times ». In these conditions, the strategic approach is inevitably oriented towards the productivity (sell more), cost control (reduce costs) and customer relations (improve service).
It is first through digital tools, then Legaltech innovations, that law firms will be able to significantly increase their income. To do this, invest time and money!
Responses provided by law firms
Jordan Fulong makes the same observation: law is a market in which buyers have power (buyer's market) ! In fact, when the customer imposes his rules, the supplier must put him at the center of his strategy.
Law firms must therefore be client-oriented (customer first world).
For Jordan, the relevant strategy is made up of 3 axes; customer relations (customer service), the productivity (competitiveness) and values (culture).
It is this triptych that allows Anglo-Saxon firms to develop their activities.
How to implement this strategy? Rethink your organization (re-engineer your operations), question its work processes and structure its activity around an LPMS (Legal Practice Management Software).
It is on these bases that the potential of technology (artificial intelligence, chatbots, etc.) can be fully exploited, for their benefit, by law firms.
Legaltech trends
Finally, futurologist Rohit Talwar presented general trends in technology and the impacts to anticipate for lawyers.
New uses and new techniques will open up new areas of reflection and income for lawyers (for example artificial organs and “artificial humans”).
It is by intelligently embracing these changes that law firms will be able to benefit from them. What path can be taken? Rohit introduces the strategies that everyone can implement according to their possibilities and preferences.
The size of firms has an impact on internal developments (in-house) but market players offer and will offer solutions adapted to small and medium-sized structures.
But young and old must manage their projection into this future which comes by thinking about the method. In a changing world, it is by planning on the operational level in 1 year, on the strategic level in 3 years, and on the knowledge level in the longer term that lawyers will develop their activity.
These are very different scenarios that compete with each other, without excluding each other. From firms that produce using artificial intelligence and chatbots to teams of ultra-specialized rockstars, lawyers have their destiny in their hands. They still need to become aware of it!
