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Many LegalTechs are supported by lawyers across the Channel. However, in France, the phenomenon remains marginal due to the numerous pitfalls that await the lawyers creating LegalTech. The obstacles result from various factors, both capital-related but also resulting from a problem of skills as well as the evolution of mentalities. Update on the temptation of the LegalTech start-up.

It is a fact that no legal professional can now escape: the legal market has entered a new era. Technological revolutions are shaking up the law and questioning the future: the specter of the Uberization of law, the fantasy of the robot lawyer, etc. New players who have arrived on the market in France since the 2010s, LegalTech thus crystallize a certain number of pipe dreams and preconceived ideas. So, are they really a threat to the legal profession? The point in this article.

The emergence of LegalTech: between disruption and upheaval of the legal market

Fundamentally disruptive, Legaltech breaks the codes and causes an upheaval in the legal market.

A difference in positioning on the legal market

The arrival of LegalTech allows above all a democratization of access to law. Indeed, LegalTech has the advantage of making the law more accessible, which let's be clear, really needs it...!

They therefore fill a gap, a void in the legal market. By offering simple and general legal information, some LegalTechs target clients ignored by lawyers because they have low potential or those who would not dare to walk through the door of a firm.

And if these “small” tips are sometimes enough in certain cases, the best example is found in the models of legal acts such as company statutes, clients sometimes come up against their limits. To go beyond the general model, the expertise of a lawyer often proves essential to deliver a precise, personalized and detailed analysis.

New markets, new challenges

Thus, LegalTechs identify new needs of customers by capturing a market segment neglected by lawyers. Grab these new markets then becomes a possibility to be exploited for lawyers who will have to rethink their service offering to adapt to this new competition.

What can lawyers do? Conquering these new markets requires setting up a different value proposition, with high added value but also more expensive and coupled with a now essential digital presence. Proposing a more transparent range of services and prices is also an asset of LegalTech that lawyers will have to seize to attract clients.

Another avenue to study is the “one-stop shop for law” bringing together legal professionals. This synergy of skills is also encouraged by the legislator who has made interprofessionality possible since the law of August 6, 2015.

The new horizons opened up by LegalTech: disruption and innovation

From this disruption comes new opportunities. LegalTech, far from constituting a looming threat, rather aims to become an essential aid in the future.

Daily assistance in managing the practice

While some LegalTechs offer services that directly compete with lawyers, this is not the case for all. Moreover, the competition from these Legaltechs should clearly be put into perspective because it mainly occurs in a rather low-cost segment of the legal market.

In reality, we must remember that the essence and initial purpose of LegalTech is to be technologies at the service of law. This is the case for the vast majority of LegalTechs which provide daily help and assistance to the legal professions thanks to new tools. They work alongside lawyers to offer them solutions innovative and above all operational solutions on a daily basis.

They offer the possibility of getting rid of thankless, time-consuming and repetitive tasks thanks to automated drafting of documents, simplification of invoicing and collaborative work, etc. Practice management solutions like Jarvis Legal for example, allow you to manage your office efficiently and innovatively on a daily basis. Other possibilities which are only just beginning now exist thanks to LegalTech: securing documents via Blockchain, development of legal databases based on artificial intelligence, etc.

The possibility of reinventing oneself: towards the augmented lawyer

Adopting these new tools often allows professionals to time saving considerable and improved productivity. The only question that remains is this: how to effectively reuse this saved time? The lawyer can then focus on its added value, the part of his work that is irreplaceable by the machine.

In other words, the lawyer of tomorrow will be focused on consulting personalized, specific and adapted to each situation. It is for this reason that the development and improvement of customer relations will be essential in the future. In reality, we can clearly see that everyone has a vocation to remain within their sphere of competence: Legaltechs provide help and support, but there is no question of them providing legal advice because that is not their core business.

As Schumpeter showed, if innovation is destructive, it is also and above all creative. The emergence of LegalTech pushes lawyers to renew and reinvent themselves to become “augmented” lawyers who will be able to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by technologies.

Today, LegalTech obviously represents a real opportunity for lawyers. With their potential for agility and creativity, they are shaking up the traditional world of law. There is only one step left for them to be fully integrated into the legal ecosystem following the model of the United States, where they have been developing at high speed since the 2000s.

In 2016, more than three million decisions, civil and criminal litigation combined, were handed down in the courts. However, Legifrance has only disseminated around 13, or only 000 to 3% of the total... But with the programming law for justice of March 4, 23, the revolution of open data of court decisions is seemingly he walks. Litigants and legal professionals could benefit from this major novelty. So, what exactly can we expect from the opening of justice data?

Good client relations constitute the pillar of a successful firm. However, customer satisfaction remains the weak link in many firms. Some clients even go so far as to believe that lawyers only constitute “poor value” for them, to use the terms of a study carried out among 20 clients. So how can we combat this perception? Here are some key actions to implement to improve your customer satisfaction.

Even if the eternal skeptics turn their heads and look elsewhere, the worm is indeed in the fruit. Like many professions, lawyers see their economic model challenged by new technologies. Far from being anecdotal, it is the result of profound changes in society. Update on the evolution of the legal profession tomorrow.

Nomination and Jarvis Legal organized a morning debate around “Digital transformation, a new El Dorado for law firms? ". They shared their feedback with the participants present during this event, rich in lessons and rich exchanges around a subject which is becoming central in the strategy of firms.

With more than 66 lawyers in France in 000, the profession is close to saturation. In this competitive atmosphere, the importance of having an entrepreneurial approach to managing a law firm is increasingly confirmed in the future. What are the profile and skills of this new lawyer entrepreneur? What are the challenges and tools essential to transforming the law firm of tomorrow?

The importance of adopting an entrepreneurial approach

The need to introduce a more commercial approach to its management is dictated today by the particular context of the profession. There are more and more lawyers, which encourages a certain competition.

Thanks to the Internet, new services, although sometimes of questionable quality, are accessible to all (for example, “personalized” contract model online in a few clicks, etc.). If these services will never provide professional advice, they sow confusion in the mind of the litigant.

Better informed, at least in appearance, the modern customer increasingly cultivates this very contemporary need for transparency and ultra availability. For example, they need to understand your billing and fees, or even compare them to those of other firms. Being able to contact you easily on different media (smartphone, computer, etc.) and obtaining a quick response has also become an imperative today.

In other words, this quest for transparency only accentuates for you the need to be profitable and competitive.

2 examples of loopholes opened by the law

Entrepreneurship is on the rise… Even among lawyers! 2 legislative examples inviting a more commercial approach from firms:

Macron law n° 2015-990 of August 6, 2015 made it possible the inter-professional, that is to say the alliance with an economic aim between legal professionals, accountants, bailiffs, judicial administrators, notaries, etc., and of course, lawyers. From now on, they can choose to work together in the same legal structure (interprofessional practice society). This is a major opportunity to come together to operate as a business, which was previously impossible.

It should also be emphasized that decree of October 28, 2014 no. 2014-1251 which allows lawyers to make personalized solicitation and advertising. Although still relatively little exploited, this novelty is, if you look closely, a real revolution in the world of law. It is part of a business dynamic since it is simply a matter of accentuating the differentiating element of the firm compared to others (innovative brand, niche specialty, etc.). This search for differentiation is crucial in an entrepreneurial logic because it allows us to highlight your added value to stand out and sell your services better.

The opportunities offered by Legal Tech

The development of technological innovations in the legal market has enabled previously non-existent services to now be well established and efficient.

The emergence of these new players, combining technical and legal, allows lawyers to to delegate a certain number of tasks that an entrepreneur must do on a daily basis.

Through modern and innovative tools like what is proposed Jarvis Legal in its management solution: client monitoring via a CRM, time tracking, connected API, invoicing tool, etc., your day-to-day management of the firm is made easier. Where before it was long and tedious, it is now simple and quick thanks to new technologies.

This time saving frees up valuable hours to concentrate on your core business. But it is also the best way for the lawyer, supported in the management of his firm-business, to slip more easily under an entrepreneur's hat!

Finally, how do you become a lawyer entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship adapted to the law firm is based on 3 major points:

• Invest and innovate to attract talent, to develop and improve the daily life of the firm. This is the essence of an entrepreneur's approach: understanding that taking risk and investment ARE necessary to hope to grow and grow your business further. Thinking long term is essential to fully develop yourself. For example, investing in modern solutions, in a new employee, etc.
• Putting profitability first : Profit is the reason for the existence of the company. For the lawyer, it should no longer be a bad word! There financial management must be automated and rigorously organized like that of a business.
• Measure and monitor your performance : the implementation of performance indicators makes it possible to measure the impact of all its actions: number of contacts collected via the firm's website, impact of this or that new activity developed in the firm, the number of hours spent on a file (to be able to explain it to the client!), etc. What we measure grows. It’s therefore an excellent way to focus on what works best and improve what works least.

All facets of an entrepreneur are basically already present in the daily life of a lawyer: marketing, sales, accounting, customer relations, etc. Relying on Legal Tech tools allows you to overcome the final limits that prevent you from developing your firm like an accomplished business lawyer.

Over the last 6 years, we have been able to support hundreds of firms in their change process. We have been privileged witnesses to a considerable number of different situations and contexts.

Through this eBook, we wanted to share our feedback by highlighting the key points of a successful project. Each firm has its own problems, its own challenges and constraints. This best practice guide will allow you to ask yourself the right questions and put them in the right order to take full advantage of technological innovations and put them to the service of the firm.

👉 Download your copy now: https://bit.ly/2VDNSJP

Jarvis Legal was present at Electrochoc Numérique in Brussels on December 13, 2018.

After a cocktail lunch at Brasserie 28 by Caulier organized with my-lawyer.be, Jarvis Legal was present at the unmissable event organized by Me Stanislas van Wassenhove.

On the program, numerous round tables and workshops about the digital revolution and the principles of transparency, transversal innovation and collaboration linked to it.

The event was a great success both in terms of the conferences and the numerous quality interventions by the experts present and in the demonstration area where many Legaltech champions were present to present their solutions and the advantages they provide.

LIVE from the#ElectrochocDigital 3
Come meet us on our stand, full of new products just for you Masters!#Lawyers #DigitalSolution #LegalTech pic.twitter.com/2i1Q3N4kLX

— Jarvis Legal France (@JarvisLegal_FR) December 13, 2018

A big thank you to Me Stanislas van Wassenhove for organizing this unmissable meeting!