How to advocate for technological change in law firms

By Thomas Berman, Principal, Berman & Associates

For countless law firms, efficiency and the ability to tap into the firm’s collective intellectual property through the use of technological resources will make the difference between prosperity and mere survival in the next few years.

Unfortunately, lawyers in small and mid-sized US firms often fail to grasp what new technology means to them in terms of their own practice (which is the basis by which most will make their decisions). Because of this lack of understanding, there is an unwillingness to pay for important software developments, let alone new technologies.

Compounding the problem, non-lawyer individuals who are in control of the software choices (upgrades and so on) do not always understand technology from the manager/user/lawyer perspective. As a result, they are far more likely to buy an upgrade to existing standalone software (that is no longer useable or plays a negligible role in real technological change) than to help to plan for the firm’s future needs.

The Windows platform provides the barest of basics for word processing, a calendar and electronic mail. For many lawyers, that is in fact the sum total of their interest level in technology.

Unless the firm is fortunate enough to have a technology partner with substantial sway and/or a worldlier non-lawyer IT manager, the firm is stuck in a revolving door with little opportunity to promote change within the firm.

Persuading partners

Demands for efficiency, predictability and transparency now make tangible the connection between technologies, the legal practice and business goals.

Lawyers are a tough sell in terms of opting for any change whatsoever. There are ways, however, to make a case for new technology. '¨

1. Evaluate technology on the basis of what the firm '¨will accept, but stretch the firm out so that you are '¨at least close to what the more sophisticated software will provide.'¨

2. Make the case to very senior partners that technology will help other lawyers to rise to their level of acuity. This generally works well with senior lawyers who want the firm to continue and prosper.

3. Argue for efficiency by discussing knowledge management, practice standards, cultural integration '¨and the firm’s ability to perform at the highest level on '¨a consistent basis, no matter which attorney is involved. An argument for efficiency and utilising the firms’ extant intellectual property can often be used as a means '¨to convince lawyers to spend money in order to '¨make money.'¨

4. Take time to connect the dots between your technology tools and future profitability. Ensure presentations to partners are jargon-free, so that everyone can grasp what you are saying. In the same vein, stress the new technologies that empower the firm’s ability to monitor matters and expenses. Using financial data is often effective because it can serve to dramatise the benefits of new technology in terms everyone can understand.'¨

5. Client technological change is sometimes a reasonable means by which to convince lawyers to opt for their own change. Often, when a client wishes to be billed using a particular extranet, for example, the firm is put in a position of having to upgrade its own tools to comply with the client’s needs. That same methodology can be used absent a particular client’s requirement by simply introducing the subject of technological change by the client as reason for the firm to upgrade its own systems.'¨

6. Lawyers are acutely aware of the need to be competitive and to demonstrate to clients that the firm can be trusted with their best interests. So, an argument that centres upon the efficiency and the quality of the practice will generally succeed. Coupling that argument with a demonstration of how the changes will benefit the firm’s bottom line should put the argument over the top and provide the impetus to get things moving in any law firm.

tberman@bermanassociates.net