March 2018
BriefingSMARTER LEGAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
DIRECTOR APPROACH BRAINS GAINS THE SCHEME TEAM Alison McClure at Blake Morgan on Could knowing a little neuroscience Browne Jacobson on building a vacation continuous operational improvement help your productivity problem? programme to show you at your best
Power to the portal The lines between law firm and client are blurring, but can they bridge the data divide? Billions of data points make the difference
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Issue sponsor: Editor’s letter Who we are…
Blossoming he words artificial intelligence, we know, can mean different things to different people in the business Richard Brent is the editor of Briefing. He likes to get out T world. And to some, as currently discussed, we hear and meet as many of you as they mean not very much at all. possible, so contact him at [email protected] But in Briefing’s latest Legal IT Landscapes research report, it was easily the ‘type’ of technology most named Kayli Olson is Briefing's assistant editor. She finds by you, our readers, as holding the potential to transform your stories and data. Care to fortunes in terms of both efficiency and competitiveness. contribute? Contact: kaylio@ briefing.co.uk When we interviewed people about their responses to this, there were also far fewer complaints of the ‘hype’ factor than Holly McDaid is Briefing’s we’ve seen in previous years. So, does that mean you’re now client services manager, responsible for managing seeing really tangible returns from projects in this area, either supplier insight. Contact: with clients or internally? That, alas, we can’t yet say. [email protected] However, at our recent Briefing Frontiers The report argues the event on the report – thank you again to impact of AI landing Pinsent Masons for hosting us so nicely – we heard from both a workplace psychologist and In bloom in the wrong hands a data ‘philosopher’ that the world of work requires serious thought Rupert Collins-White is needs some serious preparing for where future Burlington Media’s creative to mitigate the risk proliferation of these tools might take us. director. Contact him at: [email protected] And so, bang-up-to-date, to a new report just out from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the
Sarah Cox is Burlington University of Cambridge. Executive director Dr Seán Ó Media’s head of client hÉigeartaigh, writes: “For many decades hype outstripped fact in services. Contact her at: [email protected] terms of AI and machine learning. No longer.” But, as the name of his centre may suggest, that’s not necessarily just a good thing. The report argues the impact of AI landing in the wrong hands requires serious thought, to mitigate Talk to us the risk of both physical and digital attacks. Cyber-attacks, for example, could be both more finely targeted and efficient – Briefing on Twitter @Briefingmag examples including phishing attempts using data scraped from
Email us your thoughts social media, speech synthesis to impersonate targets, and [email protected] automated hacking – not to mention chipping away diligently at
Find all our back issues online vulnerabilities of new AI systems themselves. www.lsn.co.uk/Briefing While admitting “many positive applications”, the report Write us a letter (remember those?) therefore describes this as a “dual-use technology”, where best Briefing magazine Burlington Media Group practices should be learned from other areas that have been 20 Mortlake High St similarly challenged, and for longer, such as computer security. London SW14 8JN DX 36356 East Sheen As it happens, this issue includes an interview with the national security officer for Microsoft in the UK, who outlines some ways machine learning might also assist with monitoring This month’s interviews were all transcribed by: your ever-changing cyber threat battle. Read all about it on p24. RICHARD BRENT EDITOR
3 Briefing MARCH 2018 Do you need a next day delivery that’s guaranteed?
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For more information email [email protected] or visit dxdelivery.com/exchange CONTENTS Inside this month
March 2018
BriefingSMARTER LEGAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
DIRECTOR APPROACH BRAINS GAINS THE SCHEME TEAM Alison McClure at Blake Morgan on Could knowing a little neuroscience Browne Jacobson on building a vacation 16 continuous operational improvement help your productivity problem? programme to show you at your best Profession progression
Power to the portal The lines between law firm and client are blurring, “Come up with but can they bridge the data divide? different ways Briefing is the only legal of motivating business management title, and is focused exclusively on and engaging improving the work and worlds people.” of law firm management leaders. Every issue is packed Alison McClure, divisional with relevant insight and director, Blake Morgan lessons from peers and pros.
UPFRONT OPINION BRAIN TRAINING Jose Lazares, vice 30 president, Roundup Bitcoin André Spicer at Hands on Tom product strategy and 06 bust-ups, and a few 10 Cass Business 20 Lyas at Browne business management at choice alternatives School on why a little less Jacobson, talks getting Intapp, on the business of Database may be more with everyone onboard with the building trust 07 Where is analytics management speak perfect law firm vacation Thereza Snyman, adding most and least value? programme IT director at FEATURES 32 Reading list Kingsley Napley, on why INDUSTRY VIEWS 08 Stuart Dodds, The big idea What Nikec Hub was the portal formerly of Baker 12 are the possible Stuart Aston, to power up its client McKenzie, reads futures for your client 24 national security collaboration Winning Proposals collaboration? officer atMicrosoft UK, REAR VIEW What’s on your Briefing people says don’t blame people for 09 whiteboard? 16 Alison McClure, your cyber weakness Six of the best Felicity Burch, head of divisional director at Blake Avaneesh 34 Hilary Scarlett innovation and digital, the Morgan, on coaching, 28 Marwaha, CEO of has some management- Confederation of British diversity and continuous Litera Microsystems, on improving tips from the Industry improvement cost-effective collaboration world of brain science
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Visit intelligentofficeuk.com/cost-calculator UPFRONT
ROUNDUP Loving IT
o, there we were at Briefing HQ, up a joint centre of research excellence in the lamenting our serious lack of love hearts valuation and management of litigation risk with S on 14 February, when all of a sudden it BLM is an exciting development in this area, with dawned on us ... at least we don’t have a clear commitment on our part in terms of the any of those bitcoins to worry about. investment and funding of this work.” Royds Withy King has taken the opportunity Now ... think of an alternative legal service to draw attention to a first wave of high-value provider – any alternative legal service provider. divorce cases where husbands have invested in Was that Thomson Reuters, you say? As that’s cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple the business that claims the top spot in the and Ethereum. And while, you might have noticed, inaugural Acritas US Alternative Legal Brand interest in the phenomenon has soared since 2009, Index – ranked first for the three index measures any effect on the divorce world is still in its infancy. of awareness, favourability and innovation by 276 Vandana Chitroda, a partner in the firm’s senior buyers of legal services internationally. London family team, explained: “Valuations will Susan Taylor Martin, president of Thomson have to be carried out a number of times during Reuters Legal, said: “We are laser-focused on the divorce process as the case progresses.” helping law firm and legal departments navigate And fellow partner Mark Phillips added: an increasingly dynamic, global legal landscape.” “When cryptocurrency is purchased directly and Second was Axiom Legal Services – which, as moved offline, it becomes almost impossible to an aside, has tripled its score for top-of-mind trace.” awareness in the US since 2013. Lizzy Duffy, VP of Acritas US, said: “Axiom is favoured for its high quality, flexibility and pricing model.” They’re followed by LexisNexis, and only then comes half of that Big Four, Deloitte Legal and PwC Legal, both apparently “closely ranked.” 276 Acritas finds US multinationals are using them for Buyers of global legal services offer their views for the complementary work in the US, such as tax. inaugural Acritas US Alternative Legal Brand Index And finally, some super and human news of important relationships entering their next phase. There’s rather more harmonious news from We were delighted to see another Briefing firm. Three professors from the that Linklaters is piloting London School of Economics and Political the smart move of a reverse Three professors Science are getting to work with BLM on its mentoring programme for from the London exploration of the potential for AI, analytics and its partnership board. Fiona statistical models to improve litigation manage- Hobbs, global diversity and School of ment in tricky areas such as predicting outcomes inclusion partner said: “We Economics and and cost overruns. hope that it will be a Political Science Andrew Dunkley, the firm’s head of analytics, two-way street which will are getting to said in a press release: “There is a strong hopefully add invaluable work with BLM on technology and AI component to this project, but perspective for both sides its exploration of we think combining this with decision science and of the relationship, helping the potential for actuarial expertise will lead to even more exciting our senior leaders drive developments in litigation risk management.” stronger impact and give AI, analytics and Professor Henry Wynn, chair of the centre for tomorrow’s leaders the statistical models to the analysis of time series and head of the decision chance to shape how our improve litigation support and risk group at LSE, added: “Building firm looks.” management
6 Briefing MARCH 2018 Database All analyse? A new poll of US-based law firms has found that 90% of legal analytics users say the technology “adds value” to their firm’s work. But how exactly?
Why are legal analytics technologies However, many important to the practice? firms make decisions to use % analytics on a case Cost savings 84 by case basis. Pricing projects 79% Winning % cases 71 % Attracting new % 26Use analytics for business 71 all litigation cases
Not that everyone is up for it, of course. So, what’s stopping firms from investing in analytics? %
Partners still don’t % Use48 analytics for only certain see the value 32 kinds of cases % There’s nobody 27 trained to use them % Cost 22 %
Perceived % 22Use analytics with only complexity of use 7 certain clients
For litigation work specifically, 100% of users say the technology is valuable for demonstrating competitive advantage and expertise to clients.
Client demand was also the most-cited deciding Source: ALM-LexisNexis survey of Am Law factor for use of analytics in general. 200 firms in Oct-Nov 2017 (321 responses).
7 Briefing MARCH 2018 UPFRONT
READING LIST Modest proposals
Stuart Dodds, former director of global pricing and legal project management at Baker McKenzie, says people ought to buy into much of new publication Winning Proposals, although it could do with a little extra help at closing
ith continued market pressure, criticism often made by client and lack of significant organic procurement teams about law firm Publisher: Buying Legal Council W growth in the legal sector, the proposals – that they frequently fail to Publication date: July 2017 importance of being able to win answer the question. Price (Amazon): $49 (£35) new panel appointments and matters Second, several references are made remains front of mind. However, this can to encouraging site visits with current or often result in an uncoordinated, and potential clients prior to submission of a time/resource-intensive, scramble to get proposal. I’d not come across that idea any client proposal over the finishing line. previously, and confess to being slightly This new publication seeks to help sceptical (but willing to be converted) as law firms target their proposal- to how it might work in practice. development efforts more effectively, Third is discussion of the opportunity through better selection of which provided to develop meaningful opportunities to pursue – improving the relationships with a client’s procurement quality and pertinence of the final function – a theme we’ll surely continue proposal and the chances of winning the to hear more about. business. Overall, I think it will help the Finally, two minor quibbles. First, the reader do just that. book, to me at least, seems to be missing There’s much to take away, for novice a final chapter, which would help bring or BD veteran. Each chapter takes the all the key observations together. reader through the typical proposal- Second, the (final) chapter addressing development lifecycle, from context on the client presentation recommends a how clients select legal counsel through balance between partners and associates to the final presentation. There are also as part of the presentation team itself useful chapters on managing the bid or (making the valid point that the client proposal function, and on fact-finding and often wants to see and hear from those intelligence – a topic often overlooked in who will actually work on the matter – There’s much to take publications. Although some points made ‘chemistry’ often being a key selection away, for novice or may be relatively obvious to the more criteria). I would add the importance of BD veteran. Each experienced, there are several nuggets bringing key business professionals to that chapter takes the that encourage the reader to reassess. meeting, for example those involved reader through the For me, several observations stood directly in pricing, client relationship typical proposal- out. First was the benefit of developing management, legal project management three or four clearly identified “win or innovation. In my experience, having development lifecycle, themes” throughout the proposal, and that broader blend resonates extremely from context on how adoption of the ‘Issue/Solution/Benefits/ well, especially given the increasing clients select legal Evidence’ framework to help refine these importance of these roles in the more counsel through to the further. This also helps to address a efficient delivery of legal services. final presentation
8 Briefing MARCH 2018 WHAT’S ON YOUR WHITEBOARD?
Felicity Burch, head of innovation and digital at the Confederation of British Industry – our Operational Leaders in Legal 2018 keynote – says professional services are open to IT change, and a good thing too
How does professional around their warehouses, and It’s striking that innovation Q services compare with other that’s improving efficiency, A means so many different sectors when it comes to productivity and customer things in different businesses, investment in digital and service – right now. AI’s but what really impresses me is innovative technology? potential is continually growing, where you have innovation It probably won’t surprise and there are many exciting solutions that are both A you to learn that one sector possibilities still to emerge. commercial and having a is head and shoulders ahead of positive impact on society. the rest on this – the technology What do you say to Blockchain, for example, can sector. But our membership Q businesses that see an cause a lot of confusion, but survey shows professional innovation strategy as too much more important is what it does. services is actually the next in risk for uncertain reward? One really good example is how line. They’re really aware of the I began my own career in it’s starting to be used in food opportunities, and we expect A innovation policy in the supply chains to prove where around 30% to start investing in manufacturing sector, where food has come from, and identify artificial intelligence – just one companies would often say ‘we when something has gone example – in the next 12 months. have to innovate, or we die’. wrong. That has a lot of value for Their markets and customers are business, but also helps to ensure We hear quite a lot here that moving so quickly that food is safe and reduces risk of Q the way AI is changing the businesses could fall over food-safety scandals. workplace is ‘overhyped’ by the without it. I do accept invest- media, among other ‘experts’. ment is risky, and so you really We’ve seen a few UK law What do you think? have to think about ways to Q firms embark on knowledge It’s worth noting that AI is reduce that risk. One is to transfer partnerships. Is that a A a broad category, and it’s understand thoroughly the particularly good strategy? not going to be transformative technology you’re considering, They are actually one of the overnight. But half of our which you can do either by A innovation-support members at least, believe AI will informing yourself, or by hiring schemes most used by business fundamentally transform their informed people. You can also in general, and yes, I think a industry, and the pioneering talk to other businesses that have great way to de-risk innovation companies are already seeing been on a similar journey, which investment. As innovation needs results. Take a business like is an important way of under- to be part of the day job, it can Ocado, with 50,000 items of standing where the pitfalls are. use quite a lot of your resources, stock and an average 50 items namely expertise and facilities. per order – so masses and Is there any one Universities already have those masses of data to process. Q development, in any on hand, and will also under- They’re using machine learning industry, that looks ‘most stand some of the challenges of to control the flow of orders innovative’ to you at the moment? tech adoption.
9 Briefing MARCH 2018 OPINION Speak queasy?
André Spicer, professor of organisational behaviour at Cass Business School, and author – most recently, of ‘Business Bullshit’ – says it may be time to think harder before you management-speak
awyers are no strangers to jargon. They training courses, or taking an MBA. Management L are trained to cut through it, and often Those who are the most proficient users speak is the lingua make their livelihood by translating of management speak are often granted franca that is used legalese into something more intelligible for their greater status within the community of clients. But recently, lawyers have come face to executives. And if an executive finds in the central face with the creeping influence of a new kind of themselves short of the latest ritual of managers’ jargon – business speak. This is a language made buzzwords, there is always a friendly lives – the endless up of corporate clichés, like thought-showers, consultant they can retain – for a modest meetings, which are agility, building synergies, creating win-wins, fee of course. a common feature getting a helicopter view, elevator pitches, drilling Like most high-status languages, of their working down, inboxing, joined-up thinking, hitting the management speak has also spread as days ground running, picking the low-hanging fruit, others have tried to imitate it. As a benchmarking and reaching out. I could go on. consequence, it can now be heard on the shop I had been studying the culture of large floor. It has leaked from the board and meeting businesses for two decades when it struck me rooms into our offices, not to mention Whitehall, how unintelligible the whole thing was to any as well as not-for-profit organisations. Today, outsider. Understanding business speak was even schoolchildren are beginning to learn almost like trying to understand a foreign culture management speak at school. very different to my own. So, I asked myself, what Management speak plays an important role in would happen if we treated the strange rituals corporate life. It brings people together around a and language of corporate executives in the same common language. It indicates clear social status way that an anthropologist might treat an isolated and reinforces hierarchies within the group. But culture? it can also have more troubling consequences. It Once I made this shift, I began to see all sorts can make things opaque, which were once of obvious things. Management speak is the obvious. It can also mean that people’s time at lingua franca that is used in the central ritual of work gets gobbled up dealing with the endless managers’ lives – the endless meetings, which are exchanges of management speak. As a result, a common feature of their working days. Being executives get diverted from their core tasks and well-versed in management speak is usually a spend more time repeating the platitudes and sign that you are a member of the wider rituals associated with management speak. community of managers. Those who aspire to As this management speak becomes more join this community try to learn this rather influential in the business world of our lawyers, strange language by reading books they find in there is a danger that they too will fall prey to the airport bookstores, attending management same traps.
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10 Briefing MARCH 2018 FEATURES
Features 12 16 The big idea Briefing people Serving clients by portal is Alison McClure, divisional nothing new – but could the director, litigation and dispute big transformation in the law resolution, at Blake Morgan, firm of the future be customers says the legal profession still helping themselves? has work to do on diversity
11 Briefing MARCH 2018 FEATURES
THE BIG IDEA Portals for thought Leading law firms are finally building bridges with their clients ... data bridges. Kayli Olson investigates what’s at stake
re law firms and client portals a But, law firm/client collaboration has match made in efficiency heaven? progressed from simply sharing documents and It’s perhaps no surprise that an information to allowing clients to see and select A industry so heavily driven by the their data, create visualisations and pull reports on needs of its clients has been so their own accord. This evolution is a testament to taken by the need to collaborate more closely the kind of collaboration that clients want – but through portals. now they’ve had a taste of the good stuff, are they Over the last few years, Briefinghas closely hungry for more? been following trends in client collaboration Dan Wright, partner and service innovation preferences and the collaboration technologies programme lead at Osborne Clarke, says: “Not just that enable it. In our Innovation in global legal in legal, but in professional services generally, we business report in June 2017, when asked what were missing opportunities to deliver what clients kind of collaboration with clients you enable via really wanted. It’s easy to get caught delivering portals or suchlike, as many as 94% of respondents what we’d always delivered, which was starting to said yes for document sharing, with 69% for miss a trick with some of the larger clients.” collaborative document creation/editing following The firm, and coincidentally all those fairly closely behind. interviewed in this feature, make use of HighQ to
12 Briefing MARCH 2018 FEATURES
“Not just in legal, but in professional services generally, there was a want of common sense for a while – we didn’t seem to be delivering what clients really wanted.”
Dan Wright, partner and service innovation programme lead, Osborne Clarke
twoBirds Client Solutions, which pulls all of those themes together. Warren says: “Portals and other client solutions have existed in the firm for a while, but we realised that we needed a better way of talking about it internally and with clients. “And there’s certainly a trend towards more collaboration working on legal documents in terms of editing online, and workflow processing and automation of documents.” Kathryn Pearson, head of knowledge and client service solutions at Bird & Bird, adds that she recently spoke to a prospective client who was in the process of interviewing law firms, and one of their key criteria was how willing any law firm was to engage in new technology and new ways of working. And they were particularly keen on collaborative working on portals. Pearson oversees the development of the firm’s portals under the client solutions brand. She says: “I’ve already seen an increase in lawyers coming to us with ideas about how they should develop their service offering and help clients to be more build online sharing platforms and work spaces for innovative. It’s really beneficial to have that client their clients. Not just HighQ’s popularity but other solutions framework to back them up.” providers and even bespoke client portal setups in Wright at Osborne Clarke says he also law firms are now the norm. And those who don’t experienced a realisation that methods of servicing have one in place are already behind the curve. clients needed to change. He was a corporate partner for 12 years, before shifting his focus to Drive by service innovation. “Clients want transparency, they want to know “I wanted to do something different, mainly where things stand and want to be able to report because I was frustrated at how we did what we up the chain, and to others in their organisation,” did in legal. I knew our services delivery could be says Jill Warren, director of marketing and improved. business development at Bird & Bird. “It’s not just about being ‘innovative’ – too much It’s only logical, she says, that they should get gets badged under innovation, which misses some transparent analysis and sound reporting, but they important points. There are elements of also want good project management, and tools, ‘innovation’ in the legal industry, which most approaches and so on, that help to manage matters industries would regard as simple, healthy change better. Bird & Bird recently announced new brand adoption.”
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So it appears “We’re certainly seeing an increasing number Whether or not it’s innovative in law firms, there’s of clients instructing us online via the portal. no time to rest once a portal is open to a client. In some cases management of routine tasks Ian Rodwell, head of client knowledge and learning at Linklaters, points out that some portals and processes is now entirely online, which exist merely as channels of access to the content also reduces, if not eliminates, email traffic.” that law firms produce – which is a good thing but doesn’t really constitute true collaboration. Kathryn Pearson, head of knowledge and “Other portals provide more tangible client service solutions, Bird & Bird opportunities to work together – for example, through the co-creation of documents or the sharing of information and asking of questions through social media tools. This, I think, is the way portals can evolve and genuinely facilitate client and panel firm interaction.” enabling it to be viewed across platforms online, It seems portals may be going through a bit of an which makes for better, more joined-up matter evolution at the moment, from being merely seen and project management. as windows into documentation and information “This is a great example of where we’re now to becoming a space for ‘true collaboration’ in more able to leverage our technology with our which clients can work more cooperatively with clients – giving them access to systems they need their firms. to add more value operationally in their own Warren sees this evolution as an opportunity. businesses. It also totally changes the way they can She says that, like any firm, Bird & Bird has use online solutions to engage and control the developed a lot of client service tools and solutions work being done on their behalf, and to gather and over the years – hence the interest in bottling them learn from the resulting data.” under one brand. “This then also opens up further collaboration opportunities with our clients. For More on data example, we’re not just anticipating their needs So, law firms are allowing, or moving to a space anymore, we can more successfully solve client where they can allow, clients to have significantly problems and streamline their own processes.” greater control of their matters and impact the In the BriefingLegal IT landscapes 2018 report, legal process more heavily. we asked whether firms are thinking about using The tech has to stay slave to the process, such platforms to allow clients to start, or even approach, documentation and risk management re-scope/resource work directly for themselves. that the client wants or needs. And one good thing Almost a quarter (26%) of respondents said they is that a lot of these systems are getting currently have a solution in place, and a further increasingly easier to configure, says Wright. 36% have plans or want to implement something He says people on the front line, who aren’t along these lines in the future. native coders and don’t come from a computer Another 29% said they haven’t identified a need science background, can radically alter the – although with the popularity and drive for appearance of an online platform and enable it to portals and collaboration coming from clients, that do various things for clients. may be set to change. Pearson at Bird & Bird adds that she sees clients Pearson says: “The more clients see it can do, with different requirements – but the really big the more they are discovering opportunities for one is data visualisation of key information relating collaboration. We’re certainly seeing an increasing to their matters. The firm can give the client access number of clients instructing us online via the to visual dashboards, progress on matters, and portal. In some cases management of routine tasks financial reporting, as well as the online project and processes is now entirely online, which also management offering. reduces, if not eliminates, email traffic.” “Our dashboard also helps our clients to Wright at Osborne Clarke also sees a move away communicate internally about the work they are from distributing information via email toward doing with their law firms. We’ve seen a big impact
14 Briefing MARCH 2018 FEATURES
on the closeness of our relationships with clients, and also expansion of those relationships across the firm’s roles, particularly into business services,” she says. Rodwell at Linklaters says more conversations are happening among a growing range of people between law firms and their clients. “I see the boundaries between law firms and clients becoming more porous. I often envisage the in-house legal team as essentially a law firm that Blurred lines has found itself embedded in another organisation. It’s not all about competition. There may be space for We therefore have commonalities of interest – firms to leverage their collaboration within the legal innovation, leadership, technology, learning – and sector to appear as legal angels in the light of the client, face similar challenges. Consequently, there are happy to serve more selflessly. real opportunities for non-legal specialists in firms Rodwell at Linklaters raises an interesting lesson from to work with clients by sharing information and another sector. An academic study on the US craft beer experiences.” industry revealed how it has undergone immense Wright also sees the need for law firms to growth over the last few years due to a phenomenon expand use of resource on client work. He adds: called coopetition – co-operative competition. “Everything we do with the client starts with One of the reasons this has happened is the sense actually sitting down, listening and talking to them that a ‘rising tide will lift all boats’, he says – therefore, if about their problems and challenges – from there everyone focuses on quality, which is good for the we work with the client to reverse engineer who sector as a whole, then they’re not necessarily needs to be involved and when.” competing on shelf-space. And the same may be said Osborne Clarke uses its client platform to reflect for the legal sector and client collaboration. that process digitally, so the delivery of work is Rodwell says: “A client might have 12 panel law firms, more predictable and visable to the client. It also each giving them access to their knowledge content via helps the firm to “build fast” when configuring a portal – that’s a lot of different places to go to get platforms – particularly key for Wright’s team of similar stuff. So I think one thing we have seen ex-practicioners who understand the clients’ happening over the last three or four years is a number pressures. of bigger clients asking for ‘one place to go’ to source The ultimate outcome has been that the firm’s this information.” client platform offering has a lot of functionality He says this ‘place’ – typically an extranet – may be – it now includes matter management, online administered by one of the panel firms, or by the clients, instructions, intelligent workflows created to the and enables everyone to log in and post content – client’s needs, document automation, data analysis anything from knowledge and learning materials to and visualisation and much more – parties can see horizon-scanning reports. who is doing what for the company, in what “Is there a problem in ‘competing’ firms working country, and at what stage. together? Not really. There have already been groups It all revolves around data, he says. “We are set up by clients where they physically bring finally getting to a world where we not only representatives from their panel firms together for capture data, but can start to leverage it and enable discussion around particular topics – from knowhow the client to get under the skin and learn from it. and training to operational excellence and efficiency. “And we can further change our processes from “I think that because we’re now experiencing more there, using our own learnings from the and more of these forums and collaboration sites, we’re consistency and predictability of output. To getting increasingly used to doing it. And when you differentiate ourselves we need to go beyond think about it, our world is a pretty small world isn’t it? It offering the same legal services as the market,” might not be too long before we see the lines of Wright says. collaboration between the individual law firm, clients, Clients don’t just want legal services anyway; and among panel firms blurring even further.” they want collaborative solutions.
15 Briefing MARCH 2018 FEATURES
BRIEFING PEOPLE Go coach Blake Morgan litigation divisional director Alison McClure, recently named professional of the year for her local area, makes a strong case for being in the business of continuous improvement
s business management hot topics go, flexibly for the periods that people need it. As we there can’t be many in 2018 where begin to see more men wanting the same – to play A the temperature is rising as fast as in greater roles at home and in childcare – that the case of gender parity. Large should help. We have many more requests for businesses will be under scrutiny as their awaited paternity leave at this firm, and I think that will be responses to the pay gap legislation arrive – and one of the best drivers of more equality.” law firms won’t be allowed to forget that the In recent years firms have also been noted for proportion of women in their workforce still falls investing in coaching programmes to equip their off steeply at the career ‘pinnacle’ of partnership female employees with more skills for managing (18% at top 10 UK firms, for example, according to their own careers. McClure is particularly PwC’s 2017 law firms survey). passionate about the role of coaching at work, and And the role of organisations’ role models in is just completing the Meyler Campbell executive demonstrating and championing both individual coaching programme, which formally qualifies her advancement and diversity will almost certainly as a business coach. remain key – people such as Blake Morgan However, coaching is by no means reserved for divisional director (litigation and dispute those early in their careers or at the point of resolution) Alison McClure, who won the transition to partnership. “It’s important to come professional of the year award, sponsored by up with different ways of motivating and engaging Shirlaws, at the NatWest Hampshire Venus people at different times in their careers,” she says. awards in November 2017. “For example, I have 24 litigation partners Informally known as the ‘Working Women’s reporting directly to me, and an annual appraisal Oscars’, the Venus Awards were launched in isn’t quite the thing. Dorset in 2009, before expanding to other regions, “Coaching can give you a set of more flexible and now culminate in a national final, which – its tools for that challenge. One of the most satisfying website says – “represents the inspirational things over the years has been seeing people I’ve women who balance and juggle their lives trained go on to become partners, or significantly relentlessly and unconditionally, who inject their develop careers as a result of working for us, and I communities with a sense of feminine robustness really wanted to address that motivation for people and solidity only a woman can provide.” over long careers of 20 or 30 years as partners. McClure says: “I’d like to think I’m a good role “It can help all people to realise their potential model for those following behind. When I graduated in law from Southampton University 30 years ago, even then over 50% of my year were “Coaching can give you a set of women – and today only 18% of partners are more flexible tools. One of the most women. Men and women have different strengths, satisfying things over the years has and the right mix is extremely important, both to been seeing people I’ve trained go on the business and to our clients.” She continues: “I’m not a huge fan of quotas. I’d to significantly develop careers.” always want to be chosen for being the best person Alison McClure, divisional director, litigation and for the job – and I think the real driver is finding dispute resolution, Blake Morgan ways that make it more acceptable to work more
16 Briefing MARCH 2018 FEATURES
“IT is necessarily one step removed from the coalface, and it’s very important to ensure the team is fully locked in to what the users need – how we want to use systems, and what matters most to clients.”
– often by thinking more broadly, building a lot more. So very much at the forefront of the Alison McClure, resilience, and perhaps by being a bit more board’s attention is how we train, supervise, divisional director, creative and adventurous.” manage, and help people collaborate when they’re litigation and not sitting at a desk in an office every day.” dispute resolution, Blake Morgan Project improvement More generally, she has sought to introduce However, another important bridge McClure some continuous-improvement thinking to the provides is with the operational side of the way departments manage work and people. business. A board member for many years, she’s “We recently used our travel insurance currently on its IT sub-committee, providing input litigation team as a model of finding new into what the lawyer community most needs from efficiencies through a lean process review – any new technology investment. identifying how we might strip out some “IT is necessarily one step removed from the unnecessary steps, and pass on benefits to the coalface, and it’s very important to ensure the client. I’ve always been as interested in how we team is fully locked in to what the users need – for run the business as in the legal work itself.” example, how we want to use systems, and what For example, there’s the way in which those matters most to clients,” she says. clients are engaged in how firms work. “It’s High on this year’s project list is the roll-out of a important to get the full client view. It’s easy for new practice management system, and the lawyers to sit in the office and have a good idea, apparatus of agile working will also continue to be but we need to be offering that out to clients, not a priority. only for feedback, but for some upfront input.” “Agility isn’t just driven by demand for greater Much like the profession’s collective work-life balance. Clients are also far more 24/7 as commitment to improving diversity – or indeed, businesses today, and we need to match them in improving one’s personal that. Then there’s property – I don’t think we’re resilience – this is very much a FIRM FACTS the only firm in London that has decided to have work in progress. BLAKE MORGAN fewer desks in the office than people. “It’s not always easy, but part of Offices: 6 Countries: England and Wales “In litigation, certainly, a lot of people are out of the business of being a business Revenue: £73.6m the office for a lot of the day, and clients aren’t leader is sticking with the most Headcount: 1,000 + Ratio, fee earners to business using law firms’ offices in the same way either. We important things and driving services staff: Undisclosed don’t hold as many meetings, we videoconference them through,” she says.
17 Briefing MARCH 2018 document management
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Brain training 20 A vacation education Tom Lyas, talent acquisition manager at Browne Jacobson, says build a vacation scheme opportunity that’s certain to reflect your brand
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HANDS ON aving been involved in summer vacation schemes and student H placement programmes for several years, I’ve certainly seen the good, the bad and the downright ugly! They come in a multitude of shapes, durations and A vacation degrees of effectiveness, but they remain a key offering for many employers – and that must be good news for students who are looking to add that education all-important ‘experience’ to their CV. I hope to share some hints and tips that I’ve picked Tom Lyas, talent acquisition manager at Browne up over the years. I certainly don’t claim to be the Jacobson, says the ideal summer vacation scheme guru, but with Browne Jacobson’s recent award for should strive to tick quite a few boxes for both the ‘best summer vacation scheme’ from graduate firm and its potential new talent recruitment website allaboutlaw.co.uk, signs are pointing in the right direction. So, hopefully some of these insights will help you if you are thinking about dipping your toe in the water and running with or
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reinvigorating one.
What’s the point? It’s no secret that in certain industry Getting straight to the point (and sectors, students from less-privileged some may disagree with me backgrounds struggle to get a break. here), the single most important For example, law firms have historically reason that a firm should offer a only offered opportunities to those summer vacation scheme or placement programme is with stellar academic results. recruitment. Yes, the programme will of course help to inform and enthuse candidates about your placement scheme is only as expenses, training and social culture, environment and any good as the people on it, so think events, but it’s certainly worth future opportunities, but these about the significant resources the investment. programmes are absolutely at required even just to deliver the their best when the direct attraction campaign and the A social mobility event outcome of the programme gives selection process needed to An additional benefit is that a student a clear and realistic secure the students to take part. these programmes are an chance of securing employment Get this element wrong, and it’s excellent way to drive your at the end of it. game over before you’ve even social mobility agenda. It’s no We all know how hard it is to begun. Also think about the secret that in certain industry acquire top talent, so the chance resources required for the sectors, students from less to engage with a more diverse induction day and for any privileged backgrounds struggle and high-calibre audience (and content that will be delivered to get a break. For example, law ultimately, to secure the best during the programme – for firms have historically only talent ahead of your example, training sessions and offered opportunities to those competitors) is a huge social events. with stellar academic results, or opportunity. For students, the To get things right, you’ll need even to students with links to chance to sample an employer’s a clear owner and dedicated clients or existing partners. By culture before fully committing, resource for the students for the offering a summer vacation and to potentially secure their entire duration of their scheme to students from more dream role in advance of the programme, someone capable of diverse backgrounds, you can dreaded ‘final year’, is also making things ‘go to plan – all demonstrate that there is a great unmissable. This, in theory, day, every day’. You will also wealth of talent outside ‘the top makes a summer vacation need to ensure that the right 10%’. A great example of the scheme a match made in supervisors are chosen, and that results we’ve seen here is that ‘employer or student v the war they are properly briefed on 15% of the students who we for talent’ heaven. their role in the process. Our made offers to after they had firm’s scheme lasts just two completed our summer vacation What do you need to weeks, but the team dedicate at scheme wouldn’t even have been consider? least 12 weeks to planning, eligible to make an application Don’t for a second underestimate recruitment, assessor and were it not for the fact we the financial and non-financial supervisor training and decided to remove any minimum resources required to run a administration ahead of it. In academic requirements and also high-quality scheme. total, we set aside significant offered to cover accommodation We all know that any funds for recruitment, induction, costs during their scheme.
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all our students (whether offered a role or not) have rated us 100% If, like ours, your scheme is driven by for exceeding expectations – an recruitment, think about how you are internal survey is sent out to all going to assess students at the end students two weeks after they of the scheme. That’s the point of the leave. We believe that’s because we help them to learn about whole process, after all. themselves as well as us, and provide insight into what they need to keep working at once Properly delivered, these the best ones to accept your offer they leave us. I also advise that programmes will go far beyond after all! you give them some training the expectations of the Give serious thought to your that’s directly relevant to the participants. They will lift your ‘end game’. Perhaps even start by sector or role that they want to employer brand to new heights, designing the scheme from back secure, as this gives them a create a buzz within your prime to front. What’s the aim of the tangible ‘take away’ and they’ll target audience and ultimately scheme? If, like ours, your feel they have grown as a result give your firm a competitive scheme is driven by recruitment, of giving up some of their edge. Delivered poorly, or think about how you are going to holiday time to attend the without adequate resources assess students at the end of the programme. however, and you have a scheme. That’s the point of the potential nightmare on your whole process, after all. hands – one that can do It may seem an obvious significant damage to your firm’s statement, but also be reputation and leave you transparent with your students THE DEBRIEF scratching your head as to why about the content of the scheme you ever dreamed up the idea of and what any further assessment running one. looks like – give them something A vacation scheme has the potential to be the first realistic to aim at. Our students round of negotiating an employee-engagement Content creation are asked to complete a SWOT ‘psychological contract’ (covered by us in Briefing There’s little room for error (strengths, weaknesses, back in November 2016) – and it certainly sounds like a when designing and delivering a opportunities and threats) useful tool in the intensifying war for legal talent. summer vacation scheme. It’s a analysis of their department, However, as with any project, resourcing the work fine balance across several providing an excellent insight as will be key – both targeting and delivery. That includes, elements, all of which, when well as ideas back to the of course, cost and time (Browne Jacobson’s team has combined in the right way, will department, as a benefit for 12 weeks of planning), but also give careful thought to give you a best-in-class taking the student for two weeks. selecting and training all your supervisors. programme, leaving those It also provides a clear Also consider the balance of activities, including an involved shouting from the framework for the student to ‘on the job’ preview element, and – if recruitment is rooftops about how good the work from – and, because all indeed the main driver – the ‘end game’ assessment. experience was. It should be candidates are doing the same Browne Jacobson’s students are tasked with a SWOT educational and allow for some task, it allows us to compare analysis of the department they’ve been working in time ‘on the job’ to give a realistic students easily, on a fair, like-for- (thereby also reinforcing the special connection.) preview of what it’s like to work like basis. Finally, try to feed into your potential joiners’ in your firm, but it can (and The final thing to build into personal development, with some training and should) also be fun and any programme is personal feedback relevant to the role they want in future. ultimately enjoyable – you want development. We’re proud that
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Industry views
Strong in defence The singular solution Issue sponsor: 24 Stuart Aston, national 28 Avaneesh Marwaha, CEO security officer forMicrosoft UK, of Litera Microsystems, says says protection of personal data is lawyers should stay in the system an ever-changing business for as long as possible
Transform your trust Extranet special 30 Jose Lazares, vice 32 Thereza Snyman, IT president, product strategy and director at Kingsley Napley, was business management, Intapp, convinced of the case for Nikec on a trio of trust issues Hub for client collaboration
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ISSUE SPONSOR
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW Strong in defence Stuart Aston, national security officer at Microsoft UK, tells Richard Brent that management strategy should always be prepared for firm security to be breached at some point – but a cloud option can provide the best possible cover
aise the issue of a law firm’s professionals to provide the tools to help people information security management, and work efficiently without needing to take risk- R regardless of how the risk landscape management decisions.” may have changed, one observation typically tends to surface. It’s the organisation’s On board now people that are the fundamental weakness in the However, one place the performance of individuals risk-management system. They might be risk- is improving the security prospects of businesses, averse when it comes to change and demanding such as law firms, in 2018 is up in the boardroom. clients, but time-pressed lawyers – already hard to Partly driven by the appearance of senior roles pin down to attend IT training sessions – simply such as chief information security officer, says won’t make secure practice their priority. Aston – and partly, no doubt, a response to the Stuart Aston, national security officer for reputational impact of several recent high-profile Microsoft in the UK, however, has a different view. incidents – the quality of board-level security “I really do think ‘people’ have had quite a bad conversations is getting significantly better. rap in the equation,” he says. “A business’s people “First, it’s already great that the subject has been have the potential to be security’s biggest asset, elevated to that level, because risk management is because they usually genuinely care about their exactly what boards do.” But the next challenge for work. They don’t want a bad security outcome – security professionals, he says, is to articulate their and in an ideal world, I don’t want them making areas of risk in “language other roles on the board security decisions. can consume, rather than use abstract security “The reality is that a phishing attack today, even terms. from a less sophisticated actor, is very hard for the “The board needs to learn more of the language end user to detect. Those emails are now well of the computer geek, while the specialist needs to branded, with good grammar, and asking questions be able to speak more like the rest of the business that people feel they should answer because it’s – and now that’s beginning to happen.” Not simply their job. everyone in strategy will have the skills to be a true “I have to say the fault lies more with those bilingual translator, he says, but the quality of these delivering the software,” he says. For example, “if conversations is improving – which clearly ought people are sending information outside the to lead to better risk-based decisions. corporate infrastructure that they shouldn’t, that’s Among those, of course, will be when, where telling you something. It isn’t just that they’re and how they should invest – a thorny issue for breaking the rules, it’s that they have a business profit-focused law firms at the best of times. But requirement which isn’t being met. Aston says firms’ top information-protection “There should be some education of employees priorities probably shouldn’t be all that different of course, but frankly it’s for IT developers and from those of other organisations he advises.
24 Briefing MARCH 2018 INDUSTRY VIEWS SPONSORED EDITORIAL
“If people are sending information outside the corporate infrastructure that they shouldn’t, that’s telling you something. It isn’t just that they’re breaking the rules, it’s that they have a business requirement which isn’t being met.”
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ISSUE SPONSOR
“I appreciate lawyers hold a lot of high-value example, leak prevention or rights management. information about their clients, but the technical Change your policy and the risk level has risks are common to many businesses,” he immediately changed, and so has the business’s explains. “I suspect they’re probably running a ability to manage it.” relatively flat environment – and that means it’s easier for a criminal to transition from one weakened component to access forms of data they AI captain? would care a lot more about.” If the board needs to assume its rightful control, A common problem, he continues, is that and end users shouldn’t feel too bogged down, this boards focus more on protection of their certainly isn’t to say that everyone in the business perimeters than monitoring what has already does not have an important part to play. managed to make its way inside. “Cybersecurity is genuinely a team sport,” says “One thing you can guarantee is that any Aston. “Nothing and nobody is perfect, and the system, however well designed, will fail at some game changes from day to day. You have to evolve point,” he says. “Security professionals have to to fit the circumstances.” protect everything, and be 100% successful all the That’s also why it’s so important for different time. The intruder only needs to succeed in one organisations to collaborate themselves. “No one place once. organisation has all the information, and it’s in the “So, firms need to assume that a system will interests of the ecosystem as a whole that suffer some compromise, and ask other questions. everyone has as much of it as possible. You need to What can we do to increase signal? What can we partner with the competition, and we also work – do to minimise persistence?” And that assumption in an appropriate way – with government.” should also inform the development of new On the other hand, the reassuring fact that, as in workplace policies, he adds, from help-desk life, nobody in security is quite perfect, means that resourcing and responsibilities to the use of this is an area of business where ‘the robots’ could multi-factor authentication in accessing work. also step up to lend a monitoring hand. More generally, the newsworthy ransomware “Away from the science fiction, artificial attacks of the past 12 months ought to have intelligence is there to supplement us humans,” underlined the need for straightforward security says Aston. For example, exploring the hundreds hygiene – up-to-date software, timely and regular and thousands of different events that can occur in security updates, and so on. “I’ve been saying these a large-scale enterprise is quite the challenge for a things for at least 15 years, so I don’t see why I mere mortal. “Machine learning can potentially should stop now,” laughs Aston. surface information about the most high- “But a challenge for making investment probability compromise events,” he explains. The decisions generally is that they need to be driven human can then zero in on changes in patterns of by the business goals.” It may sound counter- activity that could indicate bad behaviour that intuitive, he says, “but in fact, security isn’t really a much more efficiently. goal in itself.” Moreover, the huge investments in cloud Risk-management choices will change, for infrastructure and development by companies example, with the degree of remote working a firm such as Microsoft can then help with firms’ risk wants to encourage. “If the business wants to go management when it comes to both knowledge- with bring-your-own-device, the scenario will sharing and information categorisation. require slightly different investments – in, for “Most glibly, Microsoft can spend a billion dollars on cybersecurity – which few organisations “Artificial intelligence is there to could possibly match,” says Aston. “However, we also invest in engineering delivery tools that others supplement we humans. Machine would find it difficult to replicate. For example, a learning can potentially surface firm might be able to implement rights information about the most high- management on premises easily enough, but it probability compromise events.” becomes much more difficult to share that SIMON BRANDON CREDIT: PHOTO
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“Firms need to assume that a system will suffer some compromise, and ask other questions. What can we do to increase signal? What can we do to minimise persistence?”
information with partners, or potentially clients. operational or technology leaders “Cloud’s also a good way of spreading who thought their firms were For more information, visit: information, as it has a scale of its own. If we ready to treat personal data www.microsoft.com/en-us/security identify a phishing attack in a URL address, we ‘correctly’ in line with this new can quickly update the status as it changes over legislation had fallen from 43% in time. It might not be immediately apparent a link 2017, to 28% with just months to go. And only 38% is bad, but people will also start to report it. were “highly confident” they’d be able to express Intelligence can be fed through from multiple such confidence by ‘GDPR day’ in May 2018. countries, 24/7. As an organisation, you benefit “The main challenge for people probably still from shared information about threats you relates to understanding exactly what it is they wouldn’t otherwise be able to see.” need to do to comply,” says Aston. “But one aspect Then there’s cloud-hosted machine-learning is certainly positively identifying data as capability to spot unusual network events, such as containing personal information. As you move logging in from the ‘wrong’ city or country, as information to the cloud, that’s a good opportunity quickly as possible. “Companies won’t necessarily to begin automatically categorising, protecting and have the skills to analyse the raw information. signalling. They need more actionable intelligence, or ideally “With a set of protective credentials, you can very simple instructions: it looks likely a colleague even get a signal back to the cloud that personal has been compromised. Should we let them log data, and your organisation, have potentially been on? Probably not.” compromised.” Finally, could a cloud strategy even hold the key Attempts on people’s data might otherwise take to more confidence your firm can handle the new significantly longer to detect – and although law world of the EU’s General Data Protection firms should assume their inevitable weakness Regulation (GDPR)? Briefing’s Legal IT will be exploited at some point, every second Landscapes 2018 poll found the percentage of counts when that time comes.
27 Briefing MARCH 2018 INDUSTRY VIEWS SPONSORED EDITORIAL
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW The singular solution
Avaneesh Marwaha, CEO of Litera Microsystems, says consolidation in the legal technology market is a chance for law firms to improve their overall competitiveness
s the last of the Big Four finally And if a lawyer can spend more of their time in the acquired its licence to operate as an same environment, it’s not only more efficient than A alternative business structure in moving between systems; there’s a higher chance January 2018, will we see any signs of of a higher-quality product.” law firms changing the way they choose and A similar principle applies to introducing more harness the power of technology? collaboration to work processes for greater This will surely be one question on the busy efficiency – whether that’s between increasingly mind of Avaneesh Marwaha, CEO of the recently dispersed internal teams, or with clients, he says. combined document-lifecycle business Litera “First, organisations need to be deploying tools Microsystems, as it pursues its own path of that are best suited to their business. There are considered consolidation to compete more collaboration platforms we use internally, for effectively. example, that may not apply to a law firm.” “One of the top things law firms could do to But second, he continues, firms need to make themselves more competitive is to reduce the minimise friction to motivate collaboration, complexity of the work lifecycle,” says Marwaha. without unduly “forcing it”. That, in short, means fewer vendors. “Continually “If we can create a collaboration space which switching between toolbars and windows creates feels similar to the other phases of the drafting more potential points of failure and more potential process, that’s much more attractive to people. for the business to need to fix problems. If a firm’s Again, staying at work within the same client receives completed work of a high standard environment as much as possible makes the
faster, the firm is fundamentally more competitive. business process more efficient.” SIMON BRANDON CREDIT: PHOTO
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“One of the top things law firms could do to make themselves more competitive is to reduce the complexity of the lifecycle.”
For more information, visit: www.litera.com
Meanwhile, another layer of efficiency could be should also demonstrate how better systems help increasing the number of document types that can the firm’s finance department in its ultimate end be serviced in that environment – a priority behind goal of increasing collections. Reducing lawyer Litera Microsystems’ Change-Pro Premier time spent on more routine tasks such as comparison product, he says. “The greater the proofreading means more focus on the higher- compare – for example, introducing Excel and value billable work of customer conversations and PowerPoint documents as well as Word – the collaborating on real business problems.” stronger the collaboration advantage. Of course, And do the latest advances in ‘artificial there are also considerations such as the speed of intelligence’ have anything in store for the world of comparison and amending, tracking changes and document-drafting accuracy and efficiency? version control.” “Several of our products – such as DocXtools Companion – already have AI capability built in to ROI you ready? identify errors and common themes, and apply “Historically, technology investment has all too numbering, more efficiently,” he says. “Then, as the often delivered a poor ROI,” explains Marwaha. larger players and products become ever-better “One of a technology strategy’s most reliable weak and smarter we see potential to leverage those points is implementing products that aren’t used developments in future.” by all who should be using them, all of the time.” In the shorter term, however, he’s laser focused One of his business goals, therefore, is to help on the simplification and smoothing out of the law firms to move in that direction more effectively human experience – and ideally becoming even – but the nature of the intervention will depend on less of a barrier to firms’ investment in trying the the type and culture of the firm. “We’ve worked new technologies of tomorrow. with some firms that have picked up our products “Where we see appetite for investment in with little to no training and only minimal support automation growing fastest is where the for the first month,” he says. “There are others partnership recognises and accepts it as part and where we assist the training team, or even become parcel of the future practice of law,” he says. “They their training department for a time. At no cost, appreciate its importance from the perspective of our adoption team can be on site, create training the next generations of fee earners, as well as being webinars, and build documentation that’s branded what clients are asking about in their latest RFPs. specifically for the business.” “Firms that recognise the significance of However, also important for a culture of high retaining both clients and talent to remaining adoption is the ability to demonstrate the overall competitive see their technology as a valuable value of a change right across the business. “Our resource rather than an obstacle.” investment in drafting tools and templates can, of By making the investment decision more course, improve the efficiency and consistency of cost-effective in practice – requiring fewer systems marketing and pitch materials as well as legal per work process – the hope is that value will soon documents,” says Marwaha. “And less directly, we be even clearer.
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INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Transform your trust Jose Lazares, vice president, product strategy and business management, Intapp, says trust is a two-way street – and that a strategic approach to client due diligence and technology integration is essential for successful long-term collaboration
rust has to be the highest value in your It doesn’t matter if you have the best client company ... We are in a new world ... portal, brightest lawyers, smartest AI or most T and trust had better be number one. innovative app – if your relationship isn’t At this year’s World Economic established on a firm foundation of mutual trust, Forum in Davos, trust in the age of the digital meaningful collaboration with clients is next to revolution was high on the agenda, with Salesforce impossible. chairman and CEO Marc Benioff declaring that “if anything trumps trust, we are in trouble.” Before you engage Trust is the crux of every business transaction “I don’t want our clients to feel like we’re treating – and the digital economy is transforming how we them like criminals.” In a recent conversation with build relationships across the board. a risk leader at a leading UK law firm, I was struck Law firms are finding that clients, empowered by this statement. Are stricter anti-money with better information, are demanding greater laundering (AML) regulations causing new firm/ transparency and accountability from outside client relationships to get off to an icier start? counsel. Lengthy RFP processes, alternative fee Possibly. And yet, this firm has managed to turn arrangements, onerous outside counsel guidelines initial awkwardness into a positive by and increasingly stringent security audits are all communicating to prospective clients that they part of clients asking: Can I trust you? shouldn’t work with any firm less thorough in their And now, more than ever, it’s also important to due diligence. Clients can be assured the firm holds ask – Can I trust my clients? itself and its clients to a high standard of integrity.
30 Briefing MARCH 2018 INDUSTRY VIEWS SPONSORED EDITORIAL
For more information, visit: www.intapp.com
Making sure your clients are who they say they Transparency into work in progress is central to are, understanding their ownership structure and client collaboration. To differentiate, leading firms affiliations, and confirming they’re not engaged in are investing in client portals to provide visibility suspicious activity, are important activities to of work status, effort and progress, while also ensure compliance. But the initial intake process delivering secure file sharing and communication. also presents a critical opportunity to assess Meanwhile, some clients seeking to mitigate potential clients from a business point of view. proliferation of law firm portals are instead The question is: Is our relationship set up for requiring outside counsel to use their corporate success? Conflicts management is no longer simply extranets, or creating their own unified view of all about clearing individual conflicts as quickly as legal services delivered to internal stakeholders. possible. It also means ensuring clients align with Technology provides a powerful means of closer the firm’s strategy and financial goals. Will taking collaboration with clients. And now more than on a certain matter now preclude the firm from ever, it’s important to remain aware of the total taking on more desirable business in the future? picture: Is your own data ‘clean’ and ready to be Financial data about prospects can provide shared with clients? Are client collaboration clues about the likelihood they will pay their bills technologies inadvertently building new silos of on time and remain a lucrative business partner. information? Are they truly secure? Outside counsel guidelines – which at one time Most importantly, how can you capture the data may have disappeared into a drawer somewhere being shared across various client portals, until ‘needed’ – can also help to flag client extranets, platforms and cloud applications, and expectations and future potential issues. ensure issues flagged are immediately actionable? In other words, taking a hard look at the details upfront will help your firm take on the clients you Capitalising on experience truly want to collaborate with, your eyes wide ‘We wish our firms would come to us with more open, and walk away from opportunities that could ideas and more solutions.’ result in write-offs or limit future growth. In-house law department leaders regularly express an overwhelming appetite for more Technology for collaboration innovation and proactivity from their law firms. Another overheard comment: “The goal is to What are the unforeseen challenges that the eliminate email as a vehicle through which we in-house legal team may be missing? What receive instructions from the client.” solutions can firms bring to the table to help their The transition to a paperless office has long clients achieve their desired outcomes? been underway. Could the next great paradigm Today, many lawyers find it challenging to shift be legal delivery without email? progress opportunities for new business with There are signs that electronic supply chain existing clients when they lie outside their current management (eSCM) is already transforming how scope of work. Without personal relationships firms serve clients in some sectors. Insurance with lawyers in other offices and visibility into providers, for example, are adopting claims- other practice areas, it can be hard to recommend handling platforms, and requiring their suppliers their services with confidence and trust. and vendors – including panel law firms – to Experience management is emerging as an integrate with their systems. Each firm then important discipline – not only for winning new receives instructions directly through the claims- clients, but also for growing business with existing handling platform rather than email, and all clients. By using technology to capture an accurate relevant parties are able to track the status of picture of work performed and experience individual claims as they progress. While this level possessed for clients across the board, you can of integration requires upfront investment, it also better arm lawyers, as well as business suggests firms will find the relationship is more development and marketing teams, with inform- ‘sticky’ and closely aligned over time. ation about your firm’s unique capabilities.
31 Briefing MARCH 2018 INDUSTRY VIEWS SPONSORED EDITORIAL
INDUSTRY CASE STUDY Extranet special
Thereza Snyman, IT director at Kingsley Napley, explains why the firm turned to Nikec Hub to take it to the next level of file-sharing and improved collaboration with clients
nabling fee earners and their clients to says the collaboration driver had been building collaborate on cases and matters behind her department for around two years – and E digitally has been a growing driver of now was the time to act. She says: “Of course, we IT investment in law firms for some were very aware of the benefits in the IT function, time. Clients, of course, want to be able to amend, but there had been a real rise in demand from the comment on, and be kept informed about how business to offer clients easier access to their work is progressing promptly, but without documents and management information, as well necessarily needing to visit or phone their lawyer. as to be able to use a collaboration platform as a For their part the firms want to be able to satisfy more effective marketing tool for keeping in that demand, but also to find new internal working touch.” efficiencies, such as reducing the need for printing “Some of the teams have mooted the publication and improving individual productivity. of blogs and relevant news feeds, for example – Thereza Snyman, IT director at Kingsley Napley, updates on any new changes in legislation,
32 Briefing MARCH 2018 INDUSTRY VIEWS SPONSORED EDITORIAL
For more information, visit: www.nikecsolutions.com
litigation, case law – really, anything that might “I certainly expect more of both affect the particular client in the case of the client satisfaction and internal particular matter.” Snyman says there was quite a range of options efficiencies. Instead of a client open to her for delivering on all this. “First, we phoning up a lawyer asking for could have built an extranet on the SharePoint documents to be retrieved and platform. However, that would have been a emailed, the client will have instant significant overhead from a maintenance access at all times.” perspective and expensive from a licensing perspective. We would also have needed to bring in a consultancy on the skills side. “The second option was a bespoke platform might not have the same influence. There’s more of built by the current provider of our website – but a partnership.” again expensive – and a third possibility was a very In the meantime, the implementation is also good product, but not cost-effective at the time.” focusing welcome attention on some of the firm’s In the event – over all of these – Snyman was internal processes, for example surrounding convinced by the business case for the Nikec Hub document management. solution. But cost was by no means the only factor. “One thing that has required a lot of work from “There was some concern surrounding choosing a both Nikec and ourselves is the integration with partner we could rely on from a security our matter management system,” she explains. perspective,” she adds. “Clearly, if you’re uploading “Documents saved in a particular location in our documents to an extranet for clients to access, that document management system will now be process will involve some sensitive personal exposed, or automatically sync, to the extranet. So, information.” of course we’ve also needed to verify the right level Nevertheless, Nikec Hub comes in on-premises of rigour in our internal processes to ensure and cloud-based versions – and Kingsley Napley documents are saved to the correct location, and opted for the cloud, in line with an overall are appropriately named. Otherwise, clients might movement in that direction where possible. not know what to do with certain information, or In 2017, the firm hired its first information even receive the wrong information. security officer. “One of his first tasks was to “But I certainly expect more of both client undertake a full security audit on the Nikec satisfaction and internal efficiencies from this platform, and we’re partway through a rigorous project. Instead of a client phoning up a lawyer cycle of security due diligence,” says Snyman. asking for documents to be retrieved and emailed, the client will have instant access at all times.” Open roadmap And not necessarily only to documents, she says. Another reason that Nikec came out on top of the “We’re currently only at the start of the other alternative options was the potential level of implementation process, but as use cases emerge collaboration it could offer the law firm when it we may also consider exposing some key comes to the development roadmap, particularly if performance indicators, such as billing and WIP and when needs change in future. information in appropriate circumstances. And Snyman says: “We believe that we can appropriately for a cloud solution, I think the sky collaborate with Nikec, and have some influence could be the limit. I foresee that as more and more over the Nikec roadmap to deliver to our own clients become involved, increasing functionality clients’ requirements. In a larger organisation, we will be built into the system.”
33 Briefing MARCH 2018 REAR VIEW
Six of the best Brain-science management moves
Hilary Scarlett, author of Neuroscience for Organisational Change, and presenter at Transformation 2017, gives Briefing some top tips for using what we know of neuroscience in the interests of smarter business management
“If you have a brain, you’re Brains crave information and biased, and we have to accept this,” certainty. There has even been says Scarlett – not only that, talk of suffering ‘Brexit brain’ in people’s biases intensify in certain recent years, says Scarlett. 1circumstances. Studies have determined that 4“Brains like predictability. Predictability people (including judges) make different equals survival.” decisions depending on factors such as how recently they’ve eaten. “People need to be Use that insight in your change- open to being challenged, and you need management initiatives. “No someone to do the challenging – a devil’s news is often worse than bad advocate,” she explains. Perhaps try news for brains,” says Scarlett. proactively reminding people of bias before 5“It’s being in limbo that’s most difficult.” meetings, for example, so it’s top of mind. That’s why small certainties help in times of general change and uncertainty. If you can’t As an example, we’re “much give definite answers, communicate – for more forgiving of people we example – when future communications can like,” says Scarlett. And that be expected. Or, give people “a choice or a tends to mean people we know short-term goal” to offset the lack of control, 2better. Think about the implications for large she says. In a restructuring exercise, people businesses with multiple offices and who had the certainty of knowledge they’d dramatically changing operating models. Do be leaving at a fixed point in future were you treat people in your part of the business even found to perform better than people at all differently to those in others, whom who didn’t yet know either way. “Once you rarely see? Do you harbour unfair people have news, even bad news, they can perceptions of people in a different take back some control and start to plan.” department? “People fall into tribes, and ‘the other’ becomes the enemy. And that happens Brains are all still dealing with quite quickly.” life “on the savannah”, explains Scarlett – responding to So, the social stuff isn’t ‘soft workplace threats as they might stuff’. “Paracetamol has actually 6to life-threatening dangers. Think about the been found to alleviate social perceived threats that might exist in the pain, as well as physical pain,” modern workplace: “the overfull inbox, lack 3says Scarlett. “People have an inherent need of control, believing others are more in to feel cared about throughout life, not just in favour with the boss, performance appraisal.” childhood.” And it works as a strategy. When And employees already in a ‘threat state’ are “People fall into a number of strangers were brought together more likely to filter other information tribes, and ‘the for a study and asked to take an IQ test, some through it. “People start to see threats where were asked who they’d prefer to partner. they exist as bigger than they are, and where other’ becomes People who believed others didn’t like them they don’t even exist. They will also hold on the enemy. And (eg, want to work with them) saw their IQ to the negative thing – the bad comment, for that happens scores drop by up to 25%. example, rather than the good.” quickly.”
34 Briefing MARCH 2018
UMBRIA