March 2019

BriefingSMARTER LEGAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

INNOVATION GAME KNOWING BETTER CONSULT WITH CARE Tony Williams at Jomati assesses the The global knowledge team at Catherine Allen at Bevan Brittan on latest addition to the C-suite starts a new strategic chapter putting lawyers on the risk register

Take on the system Transformation in legal is not for the faint-hearted – but do firms have a new breed of business technology within their grasp?

ISSN 2398-9769 Issue sponsors: Editor’s letter Who we are… y the time that you’ve hungrily devoured this

Richard Brent is the editor of issue reader, Briefingwill have held its first Briefing. He likes to get out big conference of the year, Strategic Leaders and meet as many of you as B possible, so contact him at 2019 (hey, perhaps I’ll have been delighted to [email protected] have seen you there). Kayli Olson is Briefing's Among much else on the packed agenda, we’ll have assistant editor. She finds what now looks like a very timely focus indeed on stories and data. Care to contribute? Contact her at: whether law firms should give some serious thought to [email protected] the business of listing. With DWF finally confirming that

Josh Adcock is Briefing's it’ll be going public this year, will this be the one to turn a editorial assistant. He trickle into a torrent of transformation? sometimes brainstorms, but mostly hums a lot. Contact: One pretty good rationale for raising all of that lovely [email protected] cash in a law firm is, of course, to invest in further

Jem Sandhu is Briefing’s operational change – ideally for the better. Our annual features writer. She Legal IT landscapes report, for example, has long interviews, and crafts crystal- clear copy. Contact her at: highlighted a fairly meagre reported [email protected] With DWF finally average IT spend as a percentage of Chris Cardon is Briefing's confirming that it’ll revenue. And that’s in spite of a legal client services executive, tech marketplace that seems to declare responsible for managing all our supplier insight. Contact: be going public this a new use for machine-learning or [email protected] year, will this be the analytics software on every corner. Rupert Collins-White is one to turn a trickle We cover a lot of technology topics in editor-in-chief of Briefingand creative director at Burlington into a torrent of Briefing, but it’s not every month that Media. Contact: transformation? IT makes the headline of the cover [email protected] feature (p12). However, as one major software solution changes hands in early 2019, and with lots of other big purchasing decisions to be made elsewhere, this issue we’re asking Talk to us about the difference an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution makes, or might make, to your wider Briefing on Twitter @Briefinglegal strategy. We know that firms are investing considerable

Email us your thoughts time and energy in project management programmes and [email protected] people to try to deliver their work more efficiently for

Find all our back issues online clients and more profitably for partners. Might www.briefing.co.uk technology be the missing piece of the puzzle? Write us a letter (remember those?) Then, in our team profile (p16) – this time it’s the Briefing magazine Burlington Media Group knowledge management leaders over at Hogan Lovells 20 Mortlake High St – we ask whether tech is poised to transform work there. SW14 8JN DX 36356 East Sheen Sorry, no spoilers to see here. Thanks, as ever, to our issue sponsors – and we’ve three this month: SAGlobal, Thomson Reuters Elite and This month’s interviews were all transcribed by: Fulcrum Global Technologies. Be sure to read their – and many other industry perspectives – from p23. RICHARD BRENT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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S048590_szB.indd 1 6/7/17 12:01 PM CONTENTS Inside this month

March 2019

BriefingSMARTER LEGAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

INNOVATION GAME KNOWING BETTER CONSULT WITH CARE Tony Williams at Jomati assesses the The knowledge management team at Catherine Allen at Bevan Brittan on latest addition to the law firm C-suite Hogan Lovells start a new strategic chapter putting lawyers on the risk register 16 Know with the flow

Take on the system Transformation in legal is frequently not for the faint-hearted – but do “Guard against firms have a new breed of business technology within their grasp? rushing to a tech solution before the Briefing is the only legal business management title, problem is and is focused exclusively on explored.” improving the work and worlds of law firm management Katja Ullrich-North, leaders. Every issue is packed global head of knowledge with relevant insight and management, Hogan Lovells lessons from peers and pros.

Paul Jenkins at UPFRONT FEATURES INDUSTRY VIEWS 38 HFW on Roundup New The big idea Stephen James implementing change 06 European footings, 12 Is legal business 24 and Whit McIsaac alongside Pinnacle Brexit contingency planning ready to take advantage of of SAGlobal on welcoming underway, and taking that another type of underlying the power of LexisOne Jason Skidmore startup incubation strategy system? 40 at 3 Step IT on global Jim Godman at sustainability advantages Team profile The Thomson heads of knowledge 28 Gary Young of OPINION 16 Reuters Elite says plan management at Hogan 42 Peppermint your strategic investment Technology discusses the Clare Quinn- Lovells discuss key KM in technology in good time rising bar of tech today 09 Waters on the priorities in 2019 management challenges of Martin Telfer at Paul Longhurst disruptive changes to the BRAIN TRAINING 32 Fulcrum Global 44 at 3Kites probes the PMS market legal market Hands on Technologies says take a second look at ERP Innovation leaders 20 Catherine Allen, REAR VIEW 10 are increasingly risk and best practice Sam Moore at sought after, says Tony lawyer at Bevan Brittan, 36 on Out and about Williams, principal at advises caution when it making documents more 46 Talking ethics of Jomati Consultants comes to consultants secure with DocsCorp algorithms in the law

Change for the better. We deliver flexible, modern and professional support services to law firms, find out how at intelligentofficeuk.com UPFRONT

ROUNDUP Grow on now

n spite of politics reaching near-saturation stock exchange. The alternative legal service levels of uncertainty, law firms are sowing provider has also spun off two new independent I some seeds of new endeavours, both companies in the process: Knowable, working on structurally and geographically seemingly enterprise contract intelligence, and Axiom going for growth. Managed Solutions (AMS), described as “the is fertile ground. DWF has created a new leader in next-generation solutions for complex position to help lead its expansion on the continent. legal work at scale”. Chris DeConti, chief revenue officer at AMS, said the organisations would each have “tailored investment strategies”. Another potential new shoot of growth, has created an Irish as part of its “prudent Brexit contingency planning”, in the words of senior partner Chris Seaton. In a statement to Briefing, Seaton said the firm would prefer not to need it, leaving it “dormant” for now. 20 However, it could “be activated to ensure continuity of service and advice to our clients depending on Countries to have access to the CMS equIP incubator the nature of the final Brexit arrangements”. programme, across Europe, and the Middle East Meanwhile, has expanded its Transaction Services Team (TST) to Edinburgh, in response to increased client demand for its blend Ulrich Jüngst has become chairman of DWF of activities in Scotland. Profiled only last issue by Europe, in a move intended to build on today’s Briefing, the TST uses “flexible resourcing, successes – for example, that international revenue imaginative processes, smart tools and technology”, grew by over 130% in the first half of 2018-19. Stefan it says, to provide a broad range of legal services. Paciorek, CEO of DWF’s international division, said Malcom McPherson, senior partner for Addleshaw in a press release: “Further expansion within Goddard in Scotland, said: “To expand the TST Europe and around the world is central to our team in Edinburgh is part of our wider growth future strategy.” The firm is briskly expanding that strategy, which will see continued investment in the presence already, appointing seven new partners in firm across Scotland.” the region in the last 12 months. And finally,CMS has launched a global tech Similarly, ever-expanding has done so inubator programme, equIP, intended to nurture in Europe by opening a new Düsseldorf office. Its startups to fruition around the world. Having been fourth German outpost after , and confined to the UK since 2015, this promises access , global CEO Elliott Portnoy said the firm to investors, training, mentoring, networking and coud now claim “quality coverage of all major discounted legal advice. Anthony Waller, a partner financial and industrial hubs in Germany”. The at CMS, said: “Starting and building a successful plan now is to build it into a “full-service office”, business requires much more than a good idea.” added its new managing partner Andreas Haak. The firm plans to expand the offer from the Clearly, with the intention of being the first law current crop of countries – including Austria, firm to float on the main London stock exchange (to France, Singapore and Dubai – to the Latin America raise up to £600m, it says, making it the largest ever region by summer 2019. law firm flotation by far), DWF has big ambitions. Briefing’s glad to know legal businesses are So too does NewLaw firmAxiom , which is also finding promising fields in which to flourish, even gearing up for an IPO, this time on the New York in the most uncertain of geopolitical terrain.

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OPINION

SPEAK UP Doing disruption

t’s sometimes said the race to disruption, but in some cases clients I innovate legal services has turned themselves may not know everything that disruption into the ‘new normal’, might be possible to improve the service but is it yet normalised enough to be part they’re getting. The only way to meet that of law firm culture? Has the innovation in is fully proactive collaboration across the client experience transformed how law relationship, gathering information and firms operate more generally, and can asking the right questions. they turn their investment into Service innovation isn’t all about using sustainable competitive advantage? new technology – and where it is, it Early explorers undoubtedly enjoyed a should really be an enabler, rather than first-mover advantage, as they offered the end goal, of an improvement. Nor is genuine differentiation – something innovation always terribly disruptive. ‘new’. But is that advantage sustainable, Even something that seems to be at the even for them? Is disruption in itself ‘low tech’ end of the spectrum – making Clare Quinn-Waters enough to stand out, or could there also some operational basics more efficient – Business development specialist be benefit in holding back a little to learn can be transformative; perhaps an lessons from the pioneers? initiative such as a more scientific @ClareQW Either way, most larger firms now have work-allocation process or more innovation teams embedded in or tapping consistency in document review, for up the BD, KM or IT function. In many example. And a new way of collaborating cases, they recruit new professionals with – in internal teams or with clients – is legal tech, project management or unlikely to be a wasted endeavour. I’d just strategy backgrounds, to work alongside highlight that in my experience, if a new partner-led committees. However, initiative first ‘bubbles up’ within one product development and other process area, rather than being centrally rolled innovation often still takes place away out from on high, it can be a change- from the day-to-day of the lawyering – management win and gain greater and although individual partners might long-term traction as a result. be very aware of the key features of a However innovation takes place at product or service, tech solutions can be your firm, the way it’s happening there Service innovation very hard to embed across the business. and elsewhere shouldn’t be ignored. isn’t all about new Meanwhile, a firm needs to incubate the Clients are disrupting the market for technology – and right mindset for a genuine culture of themselves, as well as buying into that of where it is, it should innovation to flourish – which can take challenger ‘NewLaw’ brands. Innovation some time, and plenty of hard work, in is a competitive risk factor, and firms that really be an enabler, any organisation. unquestioningly fall back on the practice rather than the Of course, firms also need to talk to of business-as-usual should ask end goal, of an clients about what they want from any themselves if it’s still the best option. improvement

Briefing9 MARCH 2019 Tweet us @Briefinglegal Briefing MARCH9 2019 OPINION

SPEAK UP Offices of innovation n our recent Jomati report, Law previously professional support lawyers in firm innovation and use of legal their firms. This may reflect the relative I tech – a reality check, we reviewed lack of experienced IT professionals with what is really happening in the legal experience who are prepared to legal technology space and whether law operate in law firms. It may also recognise firms were being innovative in the use of that law firms want innovation, but not client-facing legal technology. too much (perhaps evolution rather than From our research, it was clear that revolution). many firms were much more actively However, if supported by the firm’s engaging in potential uses for client senior leadership, these professionals will technology. New and improved processes have a significant role in driving a change and products are being developed and agenda and identifying and developing rolled out by law firms. We may still be at new products for their firm to deliver to Tony Williams an early stage in the effective use of its clients. Whether they and any Principal client-facing technology, but the effort and innovation committee will adopt a top- Jomati Consultants investment devoted to it by firms is down or bottom-up approach to @Jomati_Consult increasing as they seek to stay relevant to innovation, it is clear that many firms are clients demanding the ‘better, faster and now bringing rigour and focus to their cheaper’ delivery of legal services. legal IT investment. Although change in What is particularly interesting is that law firms can appear glacial, in markets many law firms are increasingly where clients are demanding more from designating a ‘head of innovation’ to lead them – including pricing certainty by and focus this development, although utilising fixed fees – firms have a clearer others take the view that innovation incentive to adopt new ways of working in should be an embedded feature of the firm order to protect their overall profitability. Many of the largest and not delegated to any one individual. Especially in the UK, many of the largest and most profitable Where a head of innovation had been and most profitable firms are innovating firms are innovating appointed (which is the case in over 100 the most. They see it as essential in order the most. They see it law firms) the appointees were from a mix to maintain their major client as essential in order to of backgrounds. A few were from New relationships, but also to protect and maintain their major Law, legal IT or product development enhance their own profitability. backgrounds. Many were in fact former Legal innovation officers who can client relationships, managing partners, senior litigation really deliver on their job description are but also to protect specialists or senior associates. But the going to be increasingly sought after and and enhance their biggest cohort were lawyers who were valuable in the years to come. profitability

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10 Tweet us @Briefinglegal Briefing MARCH 2019 FEATURES

Features 12 16 Take on the system Briefing people Are traditional legal IT The knowledge solutions showing their age, leadership team at or can they easily keep up Hogan Lovells with the younger tech assembles to discuss generation in the industry? key points of global KM

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THE BIG IDEA Take on the system As law firms disperse, diversify and innovate at the front end, what do they most need at their core? Richard Brent asks whether competition is finally growing for traditional legal technology

n November 2018, law firm firms are somewhat slow to embrace another offer announced it had of ‘change’, frankly, it was ever thus. continued its roll-out of the “One blocker on broadening out the system I LexisOne enterprise resource search can be a reluctance to be that one person on planning (ERP) system, this time to platform X when the 99 others are on platform Y. its network of German offices – replacing as many Law firms have a tendency to stick together.” In as eight other business systems, it said, with this other words, in the context of practice cloud-native SaaS solution, covering processes management systems at least, “law firms will including matter onboarding, time/expense usually err on the side of caution”, he says. capture, billing, reporting and credit control. At the same time, and clearly connected, there’s Finance director Mike Giles said in the press the fact that ERP is still so new to the famously release then: “The team completed data migration risk-averse legal sector – notwithstanding that and reconciliation in just 8.5 hours. The slickness was up and running with SAP back in of execution is truly remarkable … It’s very seldom 2003. “Law firms are slow to adopt new entrants at that technology implementations of this size and the best of times and there’s also often a reluctance scale are as painless.” to be among the first,” continues Capon. “ERPs Business processes had now been standardised have been around in sectors such as manufacturing across the UK, US, Belgium and Germany and the and corporates for a lot longer, but the law firms firm had already won an industry award for that that have gone down the path have been seen as notoriously elusive integration of finance and HR trailblazers in their industry.” Others now need to capabilities using the system, while notching up see not that firms are ‘braving change’, but that the estimated savings of up to £1.7m over five years in move is a good one for boring old business-as- the process. usual. However, the wider jury in the legal profession To be fair to firms, however – although it may be is very clearly still out on the capability of something you hear at many an industry get- something very well used in other professions, but together – this isn’t just a question of being ‘afraid’ not yet in legal, to make good on its of change. There are some highly practical transformational promise. considerations surrounding change management when introducing such systems. Challenged to change “I think a further likely factor behind the slow Steve Capon, programme manager at Eversheds uptake is the perception that you have to Sutherland, and a former head of global finance implement everything – resource planning, projects at Hogan Lovells, points out that if law budgeting, and so on – all at the same time,” says

12 Tweet us @Briefinglegal Briefing MARCH 2019 FEATURES

Capon. You don’t. “Management looks at that, and you’ve fully finished developing the product, and rightly thinks it’s a lot to take on – and also ‘I like completed the end-to-end testing with different my budgeting software or HR platform’. People user groups.” Instead of reacting, he says, the don’t want to rip the guts out of the entire business business needs to “predict where the issues will and replace all the different elements at once.” And arise and assign resources to them when you only far from safeguarding their own silo, this is have a limited group of people, and everyone is especially likely to be the case in business areas looking for help at the same time. that aren’t in fact ‘theirs’, he says. “They could look “A slower implementation would add some cost, to introduce modules over a longer period of time, certainly, but it could have a less disruptive effect.” instead.” Capon also makes the point that the change Then there’s the change in the implementation effort is likely to depend on how much a firm’s fee project itself. Rod Harrington, EMEA chief earners are really able to do with any new system operating officer at , was they’re gifted. part of the global team that oversaw the firm’s “The truth is that law firms typically still don’t implementation of the SAP ERP platform. He expose a huge amount of the software to the front wouldn’t have taken several extra years to add office,” he says. But some do encourage more aspects. However, he can certainly see the interaction with financials than others. Those may advantage “another six months” might present. see benefit in – for example – timely insight into “We opted for a rapid deployment, and there unfolding client scenarios while productively are pros and cons to that approach. The faster ‘agile’ working. But the flipside is that’s also harder transition is a challenge, because you’re effectively work for the business change team. designing training for new ways of working before “If it were simply deemed the right thing for the

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finance function to switch to, for argument’s sake, clients. That’s an efficient operation.” an ERP solution, that could be justified in terms of Dan Surowiec, global chief information officer a reduction in the number of integrations, IT at Baker McKenzie, which also decided to move to spend over time, and so on.” It would be a SAP, says: “We had 35 different instances of our reasonably “easy sell into the business,” he says. PMS at that time. We were looking for a solution “But if you’re exposing what are historically that would allow us to run a single instance of our back-office systems to the front office, then you’re PMS so we could streamline our operations and exposing yourself to a potentially bigger have faster access to the data needed to run the transformation challenge. You need to convince business. Being as large as we are, the standard perhaps thousands of people that a decision which tools within the industry simply struggled to scale is sensible for accounting reasons is just as sensible to the level we needed to accomplish our vision. for them.” We had to go outside the industry.” Access to your team’s utilisation and However, even process improvement brings performance indicators in the back of a taxi is all with it some change management challenges. very appealing in principle, but “you really need to Simply put, people need to use the system as the work to build the appetite for it”, he explains. strategy intends. “They’re being asked to conform “Unless you engage widely and well at the to something, and of course that can be beginning of the effort, it can come unstuck. uncomfortable,” admits Harrington. “Some fee earners forever want to do something It isn’t just a matter of new processes to follow, new on their phone; others say they never want to but also managing the data to feed those processes, see another app in their life.” And in spite of much he adds. “A system such as SAP was originally talk in the market about what ‘millennials’ want at designed for large organisations buying and selling work, that doesn’t even appear to be a division very large volumes of similar things. That along generational lines, he says. demanded conformity, and was typically associated with large volumes of data. The firm Process in power sees the benefit of the information that can Why did Norton Rose Fulbright decide ERP was ultimately provide, but the fact is you do have to the underlying solution best suited to powering its put a lot into the system to reach that point.” 2020 strategy? Capon also identifies efficiency as a broad driver Harrington wasn’t with the firm at the time of of system change – not just in terms of following the decision, but says: “Historically, I think law more standardised processes with ERP, but also firms have probably allowed more flexibility than having less tech for the IT function to manage. was good for them.” On the most obvious level, this “If a firm needs to replace one piece of the firm had a number of mergers that it needed to technology puzzle, at the same time there could be integrate – and certain systems clearly help to do value in cutting down on all the other integrations that, he says. However, process standardisation is it needs to build and maintain by buying something also growing more and more important in the more all-encompassing. There’s a drive for greater day-to-day of a legal business approaching 2020. efficiency in support as well as capability.” “The old model, where each partner would deal with different colleagues in support functions in Opportunities and obstacles different ways, for example – almost designing a Even more efficient than diligently following a bespoke solution for everything that happens – more standardised set of processes is, of course, doesn’t work in a world where process centres are automating a bunch of that work – something else seeking so much more efficiency. its ERP transition should help Norton Rose “It’s not a question of lowering standards, but of Fulbright to facilitate, explains Harrington. aligning to common ones and achieving high “Automation is already replacing some of the performance against them. That involves manual involvement in transactional work, and committing to certain service levels and hopefully we’ll reach a point where you have the timeframes for partners, so that they can human overseeing data-processing work but doing ultimately make the same commitment to the less of the heavy lifting. It’s still early days in that

14 Tweet us @Briefinglegal Briefing MARCH 2019 FEATURES

journey, but that is clearly the direction of travel.” SaaS and 18% platform as a service). Surowiec adds that most of Baker McKenzie’s Juan Pablo Perez-Etchegoyen, co-chair of the focus to date has been on transforming its financial CSA’s ERP security working group (and chief processes. “We’ve introduced a series of workflows technology officer of Onapsis), says: “What we see that have reduced or eliminated manual, paper- in the market, especially in the large enterprise based workflows in our ‘quote to cash’ process, and sector, is organisations moving from on-premises we’re now doing similar work on our ‘procure to to infrastructure as a service as a first step, pay’ process.” The other big benefit is “near complementing that with some SaaS applications. real-time data”, he says. “Previously, we had to rely The cloud introduces agility – the ability to on a weekly refresh of our data warehouse and subscribe to a service or piece of functionality and static reporting. We now have advanced, use it in no time.” interactive visualisations that enable teams to tell a On the other hand, 65% of the survey’s story much more effectively.” respondents cite the movement of sensitive data He believes the firm currently uses some 30% of and 45% the time taken to migrate it as what the platform could potentially do. But there’s management concerns. Perez-Etchegoyen admits: more on the way already. “I’m now working with “Migrating ERP workloads is not an easy task, our people function on a roadmap looking out especially if the migration is also done together several years, which will include leveraging the with a technology upgrade. The customisations ERP for core human resource information system, and changes that organisations make to their ERP recruitment and onboarding, learning and applications are often overlooked and introduce development and performance management.” complexity and delays.” Capon says – and it’s arguably back to the ‘fear While providers of both PMS and ERP are of factor’ of both dramatic and enforced change – it course keen to discuss cloud credentials and what would be a very “brave person who says we’ll they can offer in terms of efficiency, the current change how we resource matters and projects, and environment feels fairly “cloud neutral” to Capon. let technology drive that – and by the way, we’ve “There’s a definite appetite, but I think it’s not yet chosen the technology. unlikely to be the deciding factor behind a “And of course, you arrive back at the other purchase.” And as well as bringing opportunities, market players with their bolt-ons to the big he says, it also brings new challenges. “If you have incumbent platforms, who are likely to claim to be your PMS in the cloud, and then you decide to put able to do the same both better and faster.” your documents in the cloud, the two clouds need However, Surowiec says he has been discussing to talk to each other too. It’s a fresh integration “this very concept” in recent weeks. “Using problem, intellectually at least. technology to effectively predict capability and “In addition, one part of an organisation may allocate talent is an ideal state for professional not want another to have the same access – which services firms. I don’t think it will be long before means they can’t then be hosted in the same place.” we’ll be able to look at past work, active However, Surowiec says: “Enterprise-class ERP assignments and anticipated opportunities to requires significantly more rigour in how the optimise how we staff and manage projects.” system is operated. It’s much more difficult to Finally, another aspect often mentioned in the accommodate last-minute requests and outlier same breath as ERP is the efficiency of cloud- circumstances without very thoughtful based working – for back and front-office teams consideration, planning and testing to maintain alike. Indeed, a 2018 survey of businesses’ ERP support from the vendor. deployment plans carried out for the Cloud “I’d suggest that any firms considering this Security Alliance (CSA) finds that while more of technology look at options for running these those already in the process of rolling out an ERP workloads in the cloud. While that brings a application are doing so on-premises than using different set of challenges, it removes significant any cloud option, on-prem’s the least likely option operational burden and capital investment.” among those who say they’re deploying in the next So, to ERP or not to ERP? That is (still) the six months (11%, compared to 15% saying cloud question.

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TEAM PROFILE

FIRM FACTS Hogan Lovells Offices: 47 (excluding associated offices) Countries: 23 Knows global Revenue (FY18): $2,119m (£1,596m) Headcount: 5,000 + Ratio, fee earners to business The Hogan Lovells heads of knowledge management all met in person for services staff: Undisclosed the first time in 2018. Richard Brent hears a little of what was on the agenda, and why the practice of international KM can never be one-size-fits-all

he work of knowledge “We have other priorities of equal importance management is most likely always – there are drivers around improving efficiency a work-in-progress – but at Hogan and productivity, ensuring service excellence and T Lovells it has clearly entered a new managing risk – and we’re more likely to succeed phase of maturity in recent years. in addressing these priorities as one global team.” In early 2017, Katja Ullrich-North joined in the At the same time, she says, another aspect of her entirely new role of global head of knowledge work is aligning all this ever more closely with (“knowledge is key” declared the press release other areas of the business – for example, then), and as 2018 drew to a close, the firm’s marketing and business development, legal project regional heads of knowledge were meeting face to management, learning and development, and face for something of a summit. technology, “so that they’re joined up and provide Earlier that year, the knowledge function – a comprehensive, end-to-end service. comprising practice area knowledge lawyers, “There’s no one-size-fits-all in the world of research and knowledge systems services teams – knowledge management. We have developed a came together for the first time for a global clear global knowledge strategy for the firm that knowledge retreat, a clear sign of increased accommodates regional and cultural differences recognition. Ullrich-North says: “The essential and underpins everything we do as a function.” services offered by the various teams have been in place for some time. Part of my remit is to map and International effort maximise our various touchpoints to provide a Anke Bechtold, head of knowledge for Continental seamless, integrated global service to our lawyers Europe – based in Germany and who has seen the

and clients. firm develop over 20 years – says: “There are so SIMON BRANDON CREDIT: PHOTO

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FROM LEFT TO many different jurisdictions, languages, cultures rushing to a tech solution before the problem is RIGHT: Michelle and ways of working, and that’s a very exciting explored and fully understood.” Rich, head of environment in which to work. Bechtold adds: “The presence of technology knowledge – Asia “On the other hand, there are large regions such solutions in so many aspects of life also builds Pacific and Middle as Germany – four locations, but working as one expectations in both clients and employees. East; Anke Bechtold, head of knowledge office – as well as smaller offices. Some offer the However, another challenge is constant change in – Europe; Katja full range of legal services, others are more this space. You can quickly become outdated.” Ullrich-North, global specialised, and all with different support Wheatley says the firm also has a legal tech head of knowledge; structures, so what’s best for one won’t always be working group, comprising partner and associate Ann Wheatley, head the same for all.” representatives from each practice, together with of global research services; Silvia The same is true of the firm’s Asia Pacific various business services teams, including LeBlanc, head of presence, says Michelle Rich, head of knowledge knowledge. “It’s important to capture as many knowledge for Asia Pacific Middle East. And a global business different perspectives as possible,” she says. – Americas, like this needs to be able to locate the Silvia LeBlanc, head of knowledge for Americas Hogan Lovells ‘seamlessness’ within that rich tapestry – which since late 2018, adds: “One top challenge in my means knowledge workers have a bit of weaving to region is managing that instinctive ‘rush to do. Best practices found in one place can be technology’. Technology can be a game-changer, crystallised and exported elsewhere if they do but in my first few months here I’ve focused on the appear to fit – people or system-centred, client- fundamentals – thought leadership, model facing or focused on internal collaboration. documents, knowhow collections – all to reinforce Ann Wheatley, head of global research services an already strong culture of sharing. Technology since May 2018, says: “I previously led the UK can layer on that foundation, but can’t replace it.” research services team, but my role now is to bring the work of the different research services teams Time and space around the globe together, collaborating closely Competing demands for time can slow progress, with the regional heads of knowledge.” the team admits. “It’s not unique to Hogan Lovells Ullrich-North adds: “There isn’t one single that in areas like knowledge management, it can be skillset for knowledge management – it takes a a challenge to win the time of time-poor lawyers,” diverse range of skills and resources to source, says Ullrich-North. “Our lawyers are eager to be create and deliver the services needed to support involved and recognise the value of knowledge, but our lawyers and clients. That’s another reason an of course client work does take priority.” effective team structure and a strong collaborative The knowledge team’s first meeting like this culture are key.” also comes at “a time of positive change across the firm”, she says. For example, Hogan Lovells is now Weigh the system piloting a ‘continuous feedback’ programme, It’s almost inevitable that a Briefing team talk ‘Pathways’, which replaces the annual appraisal in today turns to tech at some point. “Technology is favour of more regular, consistent feedback for all just technology,” she says. “Understanding the employees. Over the past year, the firm’s UK and problems and opportunities is the real silver bullet. US offices have also embarked on “agile-ready” Sometimes, technology will enable us to do open-plan renovations, with a particular focus on something very well – but only for a specific new collaborative areas and wellbeing at work. For purpose and we’ve not come across a single example, the ground floor of the London office is a instance of tech that has singularly transformed striking new combination of fully equipped the way lawyers work. meeting rooms and informal cafe, both of which “But layering clear processes, and systems on are side by side. systems, does have the potential to create And although there’s a palpable passion here for something truly valuable for our clients – and the transformative power of Skype, that’s a direction we’re exploring more. In order to videoconferencing, screen co-working and other do that you need to listen to the business and your collaborative technology used across the firm to clients rather than impose technology – it has to be build a more engaging international team dynamic, a two-way conversation. There’s some great tech the knowledge team agree there’s no replacing a in the market, but you do need to guard against good, old-fashioned, in-person meeting.

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18 Briefing MARCH 2019 BRAIN TRAINING

Brain training 20 Clearing consultants Catherine Allen, risk and best practice lawyer at Bevan Brittan, says include the hiring of contractors in your firm risk register

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HANDS ON Clearing consultants

Catherine Allen, risk and best practice n a competitive clients. A pool of consultants lawyer at Bevan Brittan, says the promise of market for both may be available to pick up work efficient flexibility by introducing consultant I expertise and as needed, responding quickly to lawyers is a tempting formula – but firms costs, partners ebbs and flows in work. This should also be mindful of the range of risks, in law firms are avoids the pitfalls of both over and take practical steps to mitigate them understandably looking to use and understaffing. Overstaffing consultants to improve what potentially results in increased they can offer to the client. Use costs at quieter times for the of consultants may benefit the business; understaffing leads to a firm for a number of reasons. risk of work being done too First, this may of course be a slowly, or not at a sufficiently cheaper resource. Consultants high standard when busy. may work from home and have a Access to the right consultant reduced need for secretarial and can also enable you to service other support. They may also clients who have specialist legal even carry their own requirements, for example by professional indemnity providing expertise in a insurance. particular regulatory area. This At the same time, the model might be particularly useful can increase your availability to when tendering to be on a panel,

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or for large pieces of work, the firm financially, legally, or in where expertise requirements terms of reputation. Here are a may be inflexible. Many of your partners are likely few of the more significant: Those same clients may also to have considered consultants, Consultancy contracts. It benefit from some non-legal 1 is surprisingly easy for expertise alongside your and may already be using them. partners to give work to ex- consultants’ legal advice – for The big question is: to what colleagues on a piecemeal basis example, in the case of an extent is central management and not to put any formal employment restructuring. It aware of this? arrangements in place. The can be of great value to them if pitfalls here can range from lack you’re able to provide a of clarity over scope of work and consultant with the appropriate costs, to legal and regulatory skills on a ‘one-stop-shop’ basis. problems with essential points Finally, there’s the draw of appropriate checks been done? not being covered. It’s advisable improved employee satisfaction. • Are you sure that every one of to have example or template Consultancy might also offer a your ‘consultants’ is not legally wording available centrally, more flexible option for either an employee? together with guidance as to ex-employees who wish to work • Are any materials sent to what needs to be included in any part time from home, or indeed consultants secure and properly consultancy contracts. for new recruits, allowing them confidential? Consultant or employee? to accept or reject individual • Do you know where all your IT 2 It’s important that any new pieces of work in line with their devices, such as laptops, are at consultancy arrangements are domestic requirements. any time? legitimate, and don’t in fact For any or all of these reasons, • What about security passes? equate to employment. Whether many of your partners are likely The solution to this issue an individual is an employee or to have considered consultants, might be simple in principle – a consultant is legally a question of and may already be using them. clear, consistent register of fact, whatever you call them in The big question is: to what consultants, held in HR. your agreement. Furthermore, if extent is central management Simplicity and clarity here really you get it wrong there could be aware of this? are key, as you don’t want your serious tax consequences for the consultant list to morph into a firm, or even legal sanctions Making a register supplier register for the whole down the line. There can be difficulties for firm, which is a very different Transparency and white central law firm management, beast. We avoided this pitfall at 3 labelling. To comply with simply in terms of keeping track Bevan Brittan by defining SRA obligations, you need to be of how and where consultants ‘consultant’ narrowly as transparent with the client when are being used at the firm. As someone who undertakes work you are using a consultant rather often engage external for a client that would normally than an employee, and also to be parties on a matter, such as be provided by an employee. clear about the basis on which counsel and experts, it’s easy to You will need a process for they are being charged. The best see how a consultant could be taking on any new consultant, place to do this may well be your taken on and used without the and for removing consultants matter engagement letter. knowledge of central manage- who no longer work for you. And Regulatory issues. If your ment. However, this can be a your new process will need to 4 consultant is a , you significant problem. All law firm identify and manage the specific will need to check they have a managers should ask themselves: risks consultants pose. practising certificate and obtain • Are you meeting your contractual assurances that they regulatory requirements in What are the risks? will comply with all the SRA relation to consultants? There are a number of issues regulatory requirements. If they • In the absence of your standard which can arise if consultants aren’t a solicitor there are still pre-employment checks are not properly managed, regulatory provisions which performed by HR, have which could have an impact on must be included in your

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contract: for example, the right reasons, as well as to prevent for the SRA to enter their conflicts of interest for premises to review work done. consultants who might work for If you do issue laptops, All consultants will also need to more than one law firm. sign appropriate data-processor Physical access to your access to your document or data-controller clauses to 7 building. Are consultants management system should be comply with the General Data being allowed into your restricted for security reasons, Protection Regulation (GDPR) premises? Might they even have as well as to prevent conflicts and you might also want to make their own security passes? Even of interest specific reference to anti-money if not, you need to check that laundering, anti-bribery or other their fee earner contact is not legal requirements. A wrap-up improperly allowing access to contractual provision to require the working floors of your full regulatory and legal building, particularly for professional indemnity compliance is advisable, consultants who have business insurance is of sufficient quality combined with a requirement interests elsewhere. (we normally require any such for the consultant to notify you insurer to be A-rated). in case of any breach. Needs for a sponsor Final approval might be Supervision and quality of Given all of the above, it’s provided by HR alone. However, 5 work. You need to arrange important to have a robust you may also find that your for the supervision of the quality process that keeps a record of all finance, risk and marketing of work done for clients by consultants used by the firm, and teams wish to have visibility – consultants. You may need any which deals with all the risks and even a role – in approving policy you produce to be very they can pose appropriately. new consultancy arrangements. flexible in this regard, as some You will need to consider who consultants may be very senior at the firm decides who should Keep it up to date and acknowledged experts in be taken on as a consultant and Finally, having done all this work their fields – possibly even more provide a template form for a in putting a new process expert than you – but others will sponsoring partner to fill out. together, you will need to find a require closer supervision. You This should: way to ensure it is used and kept will also need to consider what, • Set out the business case for up to date. if any, level of ongoing training is using a consultant You may choose to deal with required. • Deal with issues of this by way of regular audit. Information security. qualification and suitability for However, a faster, and possibly 6 Under GDPR, you may be the work more efficient, solution – one held liable for any security • Cover risk and regulatory that we implemented ourselves breach caused by your elements, such as information – may be to cross-check with consultant. Have you carried out security and how the consultant your finance team that sufficient checks or imposed will meet requirements consultants’ bills are submitted sufficient requirements where • Cover who will provide under a particular code. Here, they’re working from home? Is professional indemnity it’s a prerequisite that the the consultant using their own insurance for the consultant. relevant internal requirements IT equipment and, if so, is You might want to draft some have been met for a consultant’s communication sufficiently accompanying guidance for the invoices to be paid. This will still secure? You might want to sponsoring partner, along with need to be supplemented by consider issuing consultants template contract wording. The audit, but we have found it a big with laptops from your firm and guidance can deal with the firm’s help in driving appropriate not permitting hard copy requirements for the contract behaviour from partners and fee documents to be printed. If you and may also include additional earners. Ultimately, the system do issue laptops, access to your elements such as checking needs to be solid and consistent, document management system references for the consultant, as so it’s worthwhile to implement should be restricted for security well as verifying that proper checks.

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Industry views The power of one Open roadmap Issue sponsors: Stephen James, CEO, Paul Jenkins, head of IT 24 and Whit McIsaac, CEO 38 projects and change at Americas, SAGlobal, on the HFW, on implementation ERP offer to legal principles with Pinnacle

From knowledge to Sustain and repeat wisdom Jason Skidmore, chief 28 Jim Godman at Thomson 40 commercial officer at Reuters Elite on sensible 3 Step IT, on the advantages investment in technology of a sustainability approach

Single resource Digital days Martin Telfer, senior vice Gary Young, CEO at 32 president, Fulcrum Global 42 Peppermint Technology, Technologies, on the many on raising the technology opportunities of ERP bar

Clean up redaction The right replacement Sam Moore, innovation Paul Longhurst at 3Kites 36 manager at Burness Paull, 44 Consulting says the market on more document security for practice management with DocsCorp systems is heating up

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ISSUE SPONSOR

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW The power of one

Stephen James, CEO and founder, and Whit McIsaac, CEO Americas, SAGlobal, discuss the opportunity for firms to take advantage of cloud-based enterprise resource planning and client relationship management, and why their professional service-focused business is the perfect fit for LexisOne, formerly owned by LexisNexis

t didn’t take long at all for legal SAGlobal would contribute to the LexisOne technology to make some waves in product in ways its former owner could not. I 2019. Within weeks, SAGlobal had It’s notable that Microsoft Gold Partner announced its intended acquisition SAGlobal has long provided ERP and CRM of LexisOne, a cloud-based ERP solution built solutions to one of the gradually emerging new on Microsoft Dynamics 365 by LexisNexis. A groups of competitive players on the legal pitch – flurry of comment from all corners effectively consultancy and accountancy; not to mention a re-posed the question of what a platform such longstanding commitment to delivering cloud as this might offer to law firm management over solutions across the professional services market. and above the more traditional practice CEO and founder Stephen James says the management offerings that have dominated the company has carefully considered its own sector for so long – and moreover, how exactly competitive landscape: “It was around eight years

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LEFT TO RIGHT: Stephen James, CEO and founder, SAGlobal, and Whit McIsaac, CEO Americas, SAGlobal

ago that we first decided to focus on professional engagement. As an out-of-the-box solution this services as one specific industry. Other companies was “revolutionary”, says James, but didn’t come in our area tended to be generalists, and we knew with the needs of the legal market, among other that we needed a different strategic direction to verticals, in mind. Independent vendors were stand out from the crowd.” encouraged instead to build on top of the cloud However, he adds, in professional services the platform provided by Dynamics 365. In legal, 360 spectrum of complexity does vary according to the Vertical Solutions, owned by Whit McIsaac, vertical. “Often, general consulting doesn’t involve emerged as a key player, building solutions (known especially complex billing rules. In engineering as Cloud embed) on top of the Dynamics 365 and architecture they grow a little more so, and customer engagement platform. In July 2018, then you reach accountancy,” explains James. But SAGlobal merged with 360 Vertical Solutions, the law firms far and away represent the most specific latter bringing with them 30 years’ experience of and complex requirements due to the nature of the law firm CRM processes and over 40 customers legal sector. across the USA, Europe and Asia Pacific. Ahead of the acquisition there were other On the merger, McIsaac, who is now CEO various forces in play. In 2016, the launch of Americas for SAGlobal, says: “We integrated our cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 saw the Legal360 CRM and relationship intelligence fusion of ERP with CRM among other business product suite, and immediately also launched the functions such as customer service and human implementation and support offer for the legal capital management. ERP was repackaged as market globally. finance and operations, and CRM as customer “We were literally only 45 days into our

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ISSUE SPONSOR

For more information, visit: www.saglobal.co.uk

relationship with SAGlobal when the LexisOne aren’t pulling data in from as many sources, so the opportunity arose, offering a new product for legal information is also more current, accurate and that had been carefully developed over five years, consistent.” sitting on top of Dynamics 365 finance and As a result, ERP isn’t quite the right acronym for operations (ERP).” James describes this as the product today, suggests James. “We aren’t “serendipitous”, to say the least. “SAGlobal had talking about ‘classic ERP’. Harnessing cloud’s just happened to have an exploratory conversation agility, ‘modern ERP’, dubbed ‘finance and with the LexisOne team about some functionality operations’ by Microsoft, is no longer targeted at it thought might help one of its accountancy one aspect of a business, such as manufacturing clients. Some strategic stars appeared to be supply chain or finance. It’s a platform for the aligning.” entire organisation, with intelligence and communication tools that can be leveraged as A paradigm shift for legal IT? required for the task or problem in hand.” One reason legal is so complex compared to other He continues: “Nobody necessarily needs to professional services verticals – and so, arguably in enter the finance and accounting core to be able to need of a solution such as the customer work with it. And business users have choice over engagement and finance and operations how they consume the information – whether application suites of Microsoft to streamline that– through the CRM portal or by their mobile, for is the very wide range of firm billing practices, example.” which can vary by client base or work type. Moreover, as business processes are aligned, McIsaac explains: “A firm specialising in there’s greater capacity for automation and, in corporate M&A may have very different finance turn, fewer pieces of data for employees to and operations from a litigation firm, for example. potentially mismanage. McIsaac says: “Historically, There are also some really specific requirements the management of data has been a case of around origination of work, fee agreements and building data warehouses, assigning teams to track e-billing, where of course LexisNexis has already the data, extracting and aggregating. In law firms, done almost all of the heavy lifting for us.” when a new piece of work is won, it’s James adds: “Typically, law firms have had to counterproductive for people to manually re-key stitch together multiple best-of-breed systems – details into a separate business-intake system. specialist solutions – across their office networks.” Legal360 empowers users to easily convert The key difference with the “end to end” opportunities, and gather all the data captured in alternative is a “single platform”, which operates the pursuit process to leverage as the business across business functions and unifies international moves forward.” and systematic silos. James suggests this consistency of platform across organisations will Code cracked? benefit the efficiency of training lawyers on James takes one potential objection to the ERP technology as much as the underlying data route head on – that tools such as this will require management. re-engineering when Microsoft comes along with “Systems that are familiar and easy to use its next version. “One area of scepticism I’ve usually enjoy better traction, faster,” says James. observed is this idea that businesses are no longer “With the Dynamics platform on which Legal360 in control of the core application,” he says. and LexisOne alike are based, you don’t find “Historically that was certainly true – and in fact yourself in a situation where you’re jumping in and LexisOne had that very challenge on moving to out of different systems to complete a process. Dynamics 365. However, the important distinction Everything, from finance to sales and marketing, between Dynamics 365 in the cloud and traditional interoperates within the Microsoft Office suite of ERP is that in the cloud everybody is using the applications, in the same way that CRM did in the same source code. And as of April 2019, Microsoft past. And when it’s time to report on work you is merging all its code – all versions of all clients on

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“It’s a platform for the entire organisation, with intelligence and communication tools that can be leveraged as required for the task or problem in hand.”

Stephen James, CEO and founder, SAGlobal

365 – into a single-source platform.” feedback from clients that could help to make its He continues: “Just as in Office, that platform products even more effective than they are already, will be upgraded on a continuous basis in the and we provide that from the perspective of a large background. SAGlobal has no access to that source number of successful projects.” code; we can only build extensions outside the In 2017, SAGlobal was singled out from application. However, those extensions don’t need thousands of businesses to be named global changing when the application upgrades. The two partner of the year for ERP – which is recognition code bases can operate independently. This means of consistent high growth over the past decade, as that SAGlobal can invest significantly in building well as its commitment to going vertical. The its feature set safe in the knowledge there’ll be no business has also maintained its status in the technological shift that suddenly requires a lot of Microsoft ‘Inner Circle’, represting the top 1% of retooling.” partners globally, not to mention being awarded Partner of the Year in 2018 for work with a new Promise of partnership Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution, Talent. James Another likely plus for the LexisOne story, adds: “SAGlobal has won eight of Microsoft’s meanwhile, will be quite the depth of the global awards for specific product lines, such as relationship between SAGlobal and Microsoft. One resource management – but it was 2017 that was of only 12 global independent software vendor the big one, winning for complete overall business (ISV) partners, SAGlobal’s Legal360 IP has been solution platform.” certified for Microsoft field sales. SAGlobal was In the press release accompanying the news of also the third customer ever to go live with this acquisition, Microsoft Dynamics global ISV Dynamics 365, placing it most squarely in the partner director, Patrick Fitzhenry, described it as early-adopter technology adoption programme “truly a game-changer for the legal market”. With (TAP). “What that means in practice is that we Briefing research showing law firms growing ever work really closely on the research and more confident in a cloud-first future, it’s certainly development,” says James. “Microsoft wants one that will be worth watching.

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ISSUE SPONSOR

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS From knowledge to wisdom

Jim Godman, head of software solutions – legal Europe at Thomson Reuters, says that with multiple challenges, vast choice and rapid change, firms must plan their strategic IT investments wisely ahead of time

he pace of change and pressure of Technology has, in many ways, come to the competition is more relentless than rescue, with solutions that help law firms conquer T ever for firms in the legal industry. the business side, and it’s going to be increasingly Clients are demanding more for less, important for firms to do so to remain competitive. and firms are having to reinvent themselves and In the 2018 Report on the state of the legal market how they operate in order to meet client from Thomson Reuters and the Center for the expectations and get ahead. What’s more, Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown successfully running a law firm takes far more University Law, that message emerged loud and than just superior legal skills. At the end of the clear: proactive law firms are realising that day, law firms are businesses just like any other. increased investment in the right legal technology Mastering both the business and legal sides of solutions is far and away one of the most successful the equation is an increasingly difficult paths to providing value to clients. As the report balancing act. states: “Over the last few years, there has been

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mounting evidence that law firms that proactively between different sets of data to see the true address the needs of their clients — for example, by picture of their business. Thankfully, game- implementing alternative staffing strategies, changing tech continues to emerge across nearly pursuing flexible pricing models, adopting work every aspect of how legal services are delivered – process changes, making better use of innovative and how the businesses that deliver them are technologies, and the like — can achieve significant managed. success.” More specifically, higher-performing firms seem Progress on pricing and billing to place a stronger focus on increasing their As an example, let’s look at the area of pricing and adoption and utilisation of technology to improve billing legal matters, often cited as two of the top workflow, internal efficiency and performance as a areas of concern for GCs, and arguably the biggest way of demonstrating their value to clients. Such contributor to the concept of value. Key investments in legal technology — in areas such as components of successful billing to clients are lawyer productivity tools that improve workflow communication and performance. To achieve efficiency, or profitability analysis tools that allow these, firms must absolutely understand ‘how’ and firms to better understand their own internal data ‘why’ they are billing a client in certain ways, what — further allow law firms to show clients they have the historical precedents are and in which areas of the tech prowess and business acumen to outshine pricing there may be some ‘wiggle room’ to return competing law firms or any third-party legal value to the client. service providers. None of this information comes out of thin air, Accuracy, timeliness and cost-effectiveness are however. Rather, it takes an investment in a all aspects of client service that can be even better business management system – powered by demonstrated through the use of technology. At technology and analytics – to allow that the same time, firms need to be able to spot trends information to be gathered, analysed, and distilled and business changes as they’re happening, in such a way that firms can understand it and are forecast more accurately and break down walls able to pass that understanding along to the client

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ISSUE SPONSOR

Firms are now able to use technology and analytics to more accurately predict revenue, see how their rejection rates compare to the competition, identify under-billing and compare billing activity

in order to really see the value they’re getting. A data-driven understanding of your pricing ability also greatly affects a firm’s flexibility, enabling exactly the types of alternative fee arrangements clients increasingly say they favour. As a result, there is great demand for more intelligent pricing solutions to help firms accurately budget, confidently plan and closely monitor matter financials. These bring together relevant financial data such as fee-earner, rate and billing information, allowing lawyers and pricing For more information, visit: professionals to price different scenarios and www.elite.com manage matter financials. The result is accurately priced matters and effectively managed budgets Compared to their large law counterparts, smaller that maintain revenue and profitability goals, all of firms tend to be more constrained when it comes which can be brought to life – and issues and to the support staff and budgets to invest in trends identified – through powerful data- infrastructure and things like additional servers. visualisation tools. Moving to cloud-based products removes the It’s a similar story when it comes to billing. burden of having to amass capital to invest in Technology has played a key role in helping firms hardware infrastructure, frees up staff to work on to tackle historical challenges in this area, not least other projects and delegates maintenance to the need to grapple with increasingly complex expert outside vendors. billing requirements from clients. At the simplest Security weighs on the mind of many when level, the move toward e-billing has helped to considering a move to the cloud, but the reality is increase profitability, speed up payments and avoid that the cloud has incredibly sophisticated security e-bill write-downs and write-offs. But firms are mechanisms built in from day one. At Thomson now able to go a step further and use technology Reuters, we have partnered with Microsoft Azure, and analytics to more accurately predict revenue, including on our 3E in the cloud offering, which is see how their rejection rates compare to the coming to the UK later this year. Microsoft spends competition, identify under-billing and compare over $1bn each year on security research and billing activity to any other firm’s billing activity development, and has a massive team devoted to for the same client. network security. Law firms simply can’t come close to meeting that level of investment in The race to the cloud security. More and more firms are also making the move to the cloud, and for good reason. Particularly for An evolving landscape mid-sized and smaller firms, it offers a host of Clearly, both challenges and opportunities abound benefits that make cloud-based products more when it comes to harnessing the power of attractive than traditional on-premises software. technology in the legal industry. However, one of

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the key – and most difficult – challenges is choice. With so many diverse areas in which to invest Information for vanity’s sake just when it comes to legal technology, which are the isn’t going to cut it any longer. Law right ones? And which are the right partners to firms – and the lawyers who comprise deliver them – to get the best outcome? With the them – need real insight, powered by pace of change continuing to accelerate, it has technology, to inform their decision- never been more important for firms to think ahead. making At the same time, legal technology innovators have to get ever-closer to their customers. For this very reason, we at Thomson Reuters have been technology. Information for vanity’s sake just isn’t doing some changing ourselves. More specifically, going to cut it any longer. Law firms – and the we have made a significant shift from being a lawyers who comprise them – need real insight, product-centric organisation to a customer-centric powered by technology, to inform their decision- one. The sole aim here is to enable us to be more making. Making the transition from knowledge to responsive to the evolving ways our customers wisdom has never been more important, and we’re work, focus our innovation investment, accelerate committed to remaining the most trusted name in product development and improve the overall the industry for providing technology-powered customer experience. Decision-making has been solutions that do just that. moved significantly closer to the customer in order Looking ahead, there is no doubt that to empower our employees, enhance speed and technology will continue to transform the legal responsiveness, and speed up innovation. industry. When it comes to firms meeting client And when it comes to the solutions we deliver, needs and competing effectively in a fiercely we’re focusing more sharply on what we do best: competitive marketplace, technology is likely to helping law firms around the world to drive their be the differentiator to separate the leaders businesses forward through data, insight and from the rest of the pack.

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ISSUE SPONSOR

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Single resource

In spite of hesitation and myth surrounding enterprise resource planning, keeping up with new solutions is a huge potential benefit to law firms, says Martin Telfer, senior vice president at Fulcrum Global Technologies

veryone in business knows about management and control. ERP’s true strategic ERP. Or at least they think they do. value is fully appreciated by those who think E Perhaps that’s why lawyers don’t get globally as well as nationally and locally, which is all that excited about the acronym why the Big Four accounting firms became early for enterprise resource planning when they see adopters of SAP technology for their global ERP or hear it. But, for every lawyer operating in a systems, which have since elevated their standards competitive, increasingly cross-border and practice, enabling them to substantially environment – and who isn’t – it should. Clients expand their service offerings. They’re now no longer operate in a series of semi-isolated starting to evaluate the latest versions on offer, to economies, as globalisation is increasingly intelligently use Fulcrum SAP technology to driving us towards a single, integrated economy support their increased, and increasingly which fosters interdependence and fuels competitive, legal services footprint. This will add ingenuity and innovation. to the already significant pressures being put on Although it may not generate the same sort of traditional law firms by cost-sensitive clients ‘zeitgeist-y’ headlines as AI or blockchain, ERP’s seeking better value. international application has moved on equally Globally, over 20,000 professional services firms rapidly since it was first applied to inventory of varying sizes have decided to use ERP, following

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in the Big Four’s footsteps, supported by the same it adds real value that clients notice and frequently SAP technology used by 80% of Fortune 500 raise in client satisfaction reviews. companies. In line with their clients, an increasing number of law firms are recognising that Up to scratch integration delivers more than just streamlining Yet, as late adopters of technology, law firms processes and information across every find the reality remains rather different: a jurisdiction: it enforces best practice and mixed bag of immature legacy systems standardisation, in addition to helping firms to proliferate, sometimes cobbled together with meet and adhere to statutory or regulatory insufficient planning. Even within larger, compliance regimes. For example, SAP is uniquely international law firms, there are often certified by the British Standards Institution as disparate systems across their global network, being GDPR compliant in the UK and other EU struggling to manage the multiple needs of one countries. Critically, law firms that use Fulcrum organisation, let alone global clients. In trying to SAP-based ERP systems also find that a shared operate seamlessly on a standardised basis, database supporting multiple functions can deliver while delivering a quality service to global tangible benefits to clients in the quality, accuracy clients, a patchwork of old systems is and timeliness of the service they provide. In short, insufficient.

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ISSUE SPONSOR

Snap acts in real time, updating to run operational and financial reporting out of a records and systems instantaneously, single, transparent system. As a scalable, global and it provides flexibility – as platform, it’s operated by our clients in nearly circumstances change, so does the every country, and runs in more than 50 languages, supporting business system with all major currencies built in. Any category of data – structured or unstructured text, even social media data – can be imported, analysed and used. Without a single, global platform, some tools that firms want to adopt, such as AI and machine Cybersecurity is another perennial concern for learning, can be difficult to deploy in the absence any business, and law firms have not been immune of clean, high-quality data. from attacks, with myriad examples of hackers What’s more, firms can take advantage of a causing damage and business interruption. Beyond much more flexible approach to financial continuous training and robust security reporting. Instead of the traditional month-end procedures, adhering to client and jurisdictional financial close, which often takes several days, they guidelines is paramount, and yet achieving this can do it at any frequency, as everything is in real while controlling costs and managing a more time. That can mean a decrease in audit costs, efficient organisation is challenging. Deploying an cutting down the number of days to close the ERP system using Fulcrum GT’s technology does books on a weekly, monthly or annual basis, and in more than help: it also delivers scalable, proven the cost of analysis and reporting, through external and highly efficient automated processes and, auditors’ familiarity with the system – it’s all built where appropriate, allows individuals to into the toolset. Combined together, the speed, contribute manually in a best practice workflow or flexible processes and high-quality data can help to solution. As a result, client service delivery is deliver on the promise of a real-time organisation, effective, efficient and secure. rather than a reactive or batch-process company. That extends to external perceptions, too: clients Apt solutions see their law firm operating consistently at best- So how is this practically achieved? Fulcrum’s practice levels of technological capacity, in every Snap solutions are process-based, not office. transaction-based. They are built on SAP S/4HANA, and enable law firms to consolidate Simple support data and processes that were previously Some law firms have a misconception of ERP managed across assorted systems, combining – that the time taken to implement makes it client, people and financial data. In doing so, prohibitively expensive. Lawyers may believe they create a continuity between departments that it’s too big, too complex, too rigid in nature, and offices that allows best practices to be and that it may not fit culturally with how their deployed firm-wide. Snap acts in real time, firm operates. But, far from being a complicated, updating records and systems instantaneously, expensive hindrance, ERP should always be a and it provides flexibility – as circumstances boon to a law firm. change, so does the supporting business system. A clear distinction exists between the culture of This addresses a common concern among law how a firm’s lawyers interact with one another and firms: being able to maintain local flexibility clients, and the professionalism of its technology in while still running a global firm. standard procedures relating to the pricing, billing, Snap provides a single, global source of truth: and reporting of services. For every firm, that one point of reference that helps move data out of process should not be overly complicated. Even silos, creating data standardisation and the ability the largest, most successful firms need simplicity:

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For more information, visit: www.fulcrumgt.com processing all their time-related data, having all their clients and data in a single place, and billing every client effectively, efficiently and in compliance with the clients’ requirements. No matter how uniquely valuable the culture and specialist expertise of a firm, the technology that collates and delivers that value is not part of its core competencies. Fee earners shouldn’t have to spend valuable time worrying about the management of a large systems infrastructure and its different interfaces and, from an operations perspective, they shouldn’t need many billing staff, as long as there are standard processes and defined templates so that client invoices are collected in a timely fashion. Implementation is another key concern. As it’s perceived to be complex, many lawyers think that the process will take two or three years. Industry best practice derives from our experience with clients together with that of SAP, which has a wealth of experience in servicing the world’s biggest companies. Accordingly, we can usually deliver for most mid-to-large size firms in six to eight months, and for some in as few as three to four. Rapid deployment like this shouldn’t cause significant disruption to an organisation. and potential savings on IT resources. So, how and where is it done? Law firms can Fulcrum partners with IBM as its global take Fulcrum’s Snap solution on-premise, using infrastructure provider. IBM has SAP-certified their own hardware, in a virtualised environment appliances and is fully security compliant: ISO- – on-premise, but with a hosted infrastructure – or 27001, SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3 and GDPR. This is a as a cloud-based SaaS deployment with a private, real benefit for firms transferring to the cloud and managed cloud. For the latter, as security is using it to access data, break down silos and move paramount, our environments are offered using towards meeting the demands of today’s clients bare-metal servers: single, specialised, dedicated and data processors; the cloud allows that to be pieces of hardware that exclusively run Snap for achieved quickly and cost-effectively. As law firms that firm. By moving to the cloud, firms don’t lose merge or experience rapid, organic growth, the functionality, but instead gain scalability, flexibility IBM partnership allows additional office setup to be completed in a matter of hours, while obeying many jurisdictional bar rules. Fee earners shouldn’t have to spend Cloud-based solutions not only make ERP valuable time worrying about the investments more affordable, they also make management of a large systems systems easier to implement and manage. By next year, industry analysts believe that four out of infrastructure and its different every 10 large organisations will have at least 60% interfaces of their ERP applications in the cloud. Will your law firm be one of them?

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INDUSTRY CASE STUDY Clean up redaction Accidental human errors are increasingly leading to serious data breaches – a worrying prospect for law firms. Sam Moore, innovation manager and solicitor at Burness Paull, explains how his firm uses DocsCorp products to reduce these risks, improving lawyers’ quality of life in the process

hen, in early 2019, news broke that wrong recipient. If you add the perils of hidden Paul Manafort’s lawyers had not data, there’s lots for lawyers to consider against a W properly redacted sensitive backdrop of ever-tightening data protection information from court filings – regulations. revealing that he had conceded discussing a Ukraine peace plan – the derision was widespread. How Burness Paull uses DocsCorp They were seen as typical of anyone connected to Burness Paull is a specialist in tech (its head of the current administration: so incompetent they technology won the Leadership Award at the couldn’t even black out a few words in a document. Scotland IS Digital Technology Awards 2018) and However, for lawyers, the news was unnerving: it’s acutely aware of the threat. this was such an easy mistake to make. Information Sam Moore, the firm’s innovation manager, is Commissioner’s Office (ICO) legal sector data the bridge between tech and the fee earners who breach reports shot up 112% between 2016 and use it. He says that Burness Paull has been using 2018 – mostly due to human error, including not products from DocsCorp since around 2014. Today only failure to redact data, but data sent to the they form an essential part of his ‘toolbox’.

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For more information, visit: allow his colleagues to safely hand over a clean www.docscorp.com Word document. More than 100 types of metadata can be removed in seconds by cleanDocs, ‘Proper’ redaction with pdfDocs preventing even the most overworked lawyer from The traditional ‘black marker’ method of redaction inadvertently disclosing hidden information. (just blacking out the text with a thick pen) can be simple and effective. Some lawyers may think that Hidden tracks reproducing this method ‘digitally’ simply means One often overlooked cause of a data breach is highlighting the text in black – however, this only hidden track changes in Word documents. ‘masks’ the text, it doesn’t truly redact it. This is According to Moore, some users “may not what happened with the Manafort documents – appreciate the difference between ‘hiding’ and readers found they could just reverse the ‘accepting’ changes” – simply hiding a change will highlighting and view the text under the ‘blacked- not remove previous wording from the document. out’ sections. DocsCorp’s pdfDocs is different, says Multi-authored legal documents can also become Moore. “When you redact and you save the scattered with ‘digital fingerprints’ from each document, the redaction is ‘burned in’ – it can’t be contributor. “Setting aside the time to ‘clean’ your undone or recovered after the fact.” documents at regular intervals can quickly add up.” And pdfDocs is not the only way DocsCorp He needed a solution which could run on ensures lawyers redact correctly. Its suite is autopilot, and again turned to cleanDocs. designed to protect busy lawyers from making “Consider a situation when you may not know that mistakes. If a user were to redact unsafely (for a document has tracked changes – perhaps it’s example, highlighting in black, or drawing boxes someone else’s document which has been handed over text) and then try to send that document to you, for example, if a client has prepared a through Outlook, the cleanDocs application would technical schedule to go into a contract. What if inspect the outgoing document and flag the that document contains tracked changes, but the problem. This ‘belt and braces’ approach is what view settings are hiding them? It’s valuable to have drew Moore to the combination of pdfDocs and a product pick that up automatically and say ‘hey cleanDocs. – did you know this was here?’”

The data you can’t see Quality of life factor In 2018, one of the firm’s contentious teams DocsCorp’s products can also improve day-to-day flagged to Moore that certain opposing firms were quality of life. Moore says of the Manafort repeatedly asking them to provide Word copies of situation: “Many lawyers might read that story and already disclosed documents during disputes. think – ‘what if I did that?’ That kind of thing can Moore quickly realised that the opposing lawyers keep you awake at night. It’s far better to have the were after the metadata attached to those right tools available, combined with the right documents. “As far as we were concerned, we’d training, to get this right every time”. Moore also already disclosed the required documents. We talks about the ‘last mile’ of a transaction, when shouldn’t be disclosing anything over and above you are preparing the final version of a document that – including metadata – if that’s not been for signature. “There is peace of mind in being able specifically covered by the disclosure.” to be able to quickly run that document through Rather than waste time arguing this point compareDocs, just to be certain that the signature repeatedly, Moore suggested the team use version matches the last agreed-upon position.” cleanDocs, a metadata-stripping tool, which would Also from DocsCorp, compareDocs allows users to quickly check differences between two or more versions of the same document. “Setting aside the time to ‘clean’ your Burness Paull today uses all three of DocsCorp’s documents at regular intervals can document productivity products – compareDocs, quickly add up.” pdfDocs and cleanDocs – and Moore has no doubt each has earned its place in the toolbox. “Some of Sam Moore, innovation manager, our fee earners might only use one of them Burness Paull regularly, others might use all three every day, but I can only see demand going one way.”

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INDUSTRY CASE STUDY Open roadmap

Implementation is often the trickiest part of introducing a new business system. Paul Jenkins, head of IT projects and change at HFW, explains how Pinnacle got it through the ups and downs of implementing Intapp Open

his time last year, HFW was on a of the implementation owed much to Pinnacle, a mission to update its systems. In consultancy that works specifically with law firms T addition to Microsoft Office, it was to implement and optimise business systems. implementing and upgrading a variety HFW first came across Pinnacle in 2017. It had of Intapp products to help it deal with timesheets decided to invest in Intapp Open – however, when (‘Time’), business acceptance (‘Intake’), it came to actually putting Open in, “Intapp confidentiality (‘Walls’) and risk management recommended we go to a third party”. (‘Conflicts’). ‘Intapp Open’ (which streamlines Jenkins was blunt about his expectations: “I business acceptance and the process of clearing want a consultancy to act like a consultancy – not a conflicts) was also added to the mix. ‘yes’ person. Our knowledge is limited to HFW’s It was quite the undertaking. Each product systems.” Pinnacle was equally no-nonsense. had to be configured to HFW’s specific business Jenkins recalls that Christopher Young (one of needs. Intapp Open, in particular, was a “massive Pinnacle’s principal consultants) came to HFW. headache” says Paul Jenkins, HFW’s head of IT “He told us to ask him some questions, then he projects and change. Incredibly, it was done ahead said, ‘Well that’s stupid. Why do you want to do of schedule (Conflicts and Intake went live in that?’” Pinnacle came across as credible, with a December 2018). According to Jenkins, the success proven track record. It had, Jenkins concluded at

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For more information, visit: www.pinnacle-oa.com

pragmatism coupled with speedy internal the time, “the whole package.” decision-making: “Some things had to be built to go live, but for other things they’d say, ‘we’ll park Intapp Open it’. Pinnacle don’t have to get approval from 25 Relative to the other Intapp products, people to make a configuration change.” implementing ‘Open’ was a challenge. There were Pinnacle meshed with Jenkins’ personal style: also “a raft of regulatory requirements”. Jenkins “I want things done, I don’t want problems.” For says, “We do lots of high-risk work in that the his part, he made sure internal teams didn’t get too companies we deal with operate in a number of hung up on points such as having a particular jurisdictions. We needed to configure a system that configuration done by a certain date. “I’d say, ‘I reflected best practice for what other firms are think we can do without it’.” Internal resources doing, and that could meet our needs internally.” were scarce. He relied on Pinnacle heavily, and HFW only had three internal people on the often. “We’d say, ‘can you do this?’ and they’d say, project, plus Pinnacle. “I don’t think we ‘It’s costing you,’ and I didn’t care,” he laughs. appreciated how hard it was going to be, but we did it in 18 months. Other people have spent a few HFW’s transformation strategy years doing it.” They were firm about what needed In helping to implement Open, Pinnacle also to be achieved at each stage: “People busted a gut played a key role in advancing the execution of to do it – both Pinnacle and my team – and it was HFW’s transformation strategy. The firm operates delivered. It was brilliant.” in a competitive insurance environment: “You have HFW has seen results, though they did have to control your costs. That’s where technology initial assumptions “about people’s ability to do comes in. A law firm is a machine for making time things right.” One such assumption, that lawyers and words, and billing that time. Wrapped around would input the correct address when putting in a it are tons of processes, which tech can automate.” matter, was dealt with uncompromisingly: “Now Open minimises admin: “We can do bulk imports you can’t finalise matter input unless you’ve of matters for teams that have lots of matters but a inputted it correctly.” That aside, Open made it low margin. The insurers email us instructions and easier to create high-volume, low-margin, matters: the recipient can input something into Open and “We have to get rid of admin to make it profitable. start the process.” This stops a fee earner from Open also gives us better awareness as to who doing it: “We’re moving toward more document gives us work for BD purposes.” The solution also automation. Some clients want to create their own streamlined how HFW provided the management contracts and we can give them a portal for that. information requested by its insurer clients: “Open Tech can deliver that legal service.” is configured so that clients have to tell us if they work for a big insurer.” A roadmap to the future Jenkins is now writing a roadmap to tie HFW’s A pragmatic approach systems into a single system to deliver legal The answer to what made the collaboration with services – a process which involves identifying Pinnacle successful, Jenkins feels, is gaps (for example, HFW only needs certain unquantifiable: “It’s based on the relationship you elements of a case management system). There is build with people”. He had confidence in definitely a role for Pinnacle in future projects: Pinnacle: “When we had problems I could just call “The team have tons of experience in doing lots of them. They came over and we had a coffee.” HFW interesting things with technology. I’m going to try and Pinnacle also shared the same approach: and get them in.”

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INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Sustain and repeat

Far from being an afterthought, sustainability might help your firm stand out from the competition, says Jason Skidmore, chief commercial officer at 3 Step IT

rom the outsider perspective of a with more than 500 employees have had a legal client, it’s hard to see the difference requirement to report on their sustainability. This F between law firms. If I visit the scrutiny filters down to suppliers – if they aren’t website of a top 200 UK firm, I see green, then neither is the buyer. The UK similar terminology, people and qualifications. government follows the Department for They all have strong testimonials, and they all show Environment, Food and Rural Affairs guidance on off awards from organisations I’ve never heard of suppliers, with a goal of meeting the ‘greening – which is why, when your firm wants our government commitments’ (actions UK business, a little distinction goes a long way. We government departments will take to reduce their recommend that law firms focus on their environmental impact). This means clients across environmental sustainability credentials for the the UK private and public sectors are becoming following reasons. sensitive to environmental impacts, and firms need strong sustainability credentials to match. The Ecological essentials picture is no different outside the UK, as similar, First, sustainability is moving from a nice-to-have often stricter, regulation is now in force across to a must-have. As of 2016, companies in the UK Europe. Sweden, for example, requires more

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For more information, visit: www.3stepit.com

specific reporting from companies with more than 250 employees. Clients across the UK private and Second, sustainability is rarely a burden. Unlike public sectors are becoming sensitive client hospitality, it’s not expensive to save energy or spend less on travel through remote meetings. to environmental impacts, and firms Making sure the lights are switched off after work need strong sustainability credentials is much simpler to implement and may well be more significant to your clients than AI legal slow to be fit for purpose, then thrown away. assistants and blockchain smart contracts. The Under a circular system it could simply be benefits of sustainability for employee engagement refurbished, or resold to buyers on the second- should not be underestimated either. In 2018 we hand market; if there are no buyers then it could be promoted a ‘walk the talk’ initiative, pitting local recycled. How does this compare to those quick offices against each other to show how they reduce wins we mentioned before? A new laptop can cost

their environmental impact. Not only was the half a ton of CO2e to manufacture – for perspective, internal response hugely positive, but the that’s equivalent to the production of over 6,000 campaign also grabbed outside attention, including 500ml plastic bottles. So, lowering the amount of that of many new clients. Walk the talk 2019 is IT that gets lost, broken, or which is recycled already in the works, and I invite you to join us. instead of reused, could easily be the most Third, time is crucial if you want to differentiate impactful component of your sustainability policy. yourself. When clients assess your credentials, it’s Creating a real circular system may sound not enough to give a new, bespoke response: daunting. Common pitfalls include not keeping assessment frameworks like Ecovadis take into track of devices, failing to find secondhand buyers account the longevity of sustainability governance for those that reach the end of their first use, and and implementation, and other firms are already not following up buyers who may discard devices getting in shape – for example, dozens have been after their second use. But there is plenty of members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA) support available, in both the third sector and the for several years. secondary markets enabled by the circular So, it should be clear that even the most economy. ecologically destructive lawyer has incentives to Free-to-join organisations like the LSA offer focus on sustainability and to take action promptly. support to firms trying to improve their The question isn’t whether to take on this environmental sustainability, through expertise challenge, but how to do it. Initially, there are the and by facilitating information sharing around quick wins. Replacing disposable cups with glasses sustainability. Amanda Carpenter, CEO of Achill and swapping rubbish bins for recycling bins are Management, who hosts the LSA on behalf of straightforward ways to reduce waste. Switching member firms, says: “The LSA encourages law the lights off, making sure air conditioning isn’t firms to reduce their carbon footprint at all stages blocked and turning down heating rather than of their supply chains, by adopting a circular opening windows can lower your office energy bill. economy approach. IT, like business travel, is an Simple, standalone practices like these can be area that needs consistent effort to find places implemented by most firms within weeks. where carbon savings could be made.” And in the case of IT, lifecycle management is a Cyclical start mature market with service providers who can But, to achieve serious results, a comprehensive support the sustainable acquisition, management sustainability approach is required. Firms need to and disposal of IT devices. By maintaining reliable,

identify and tackle their biggest CO2 equivalent audited relationships with resellers in countries sources by replacing linear waste systems with with effective e-waste governance, these services circular ones that dispose of material goods remove the complexity of navigating the second- efficiently. As a mundane example, consider an hand market and help ensure that when your firm office laptop. Under a linear system it is needs to prove its environmental credentials, it manufactured, shipped, used until it becomes too ticks all the boxes.

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INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Digital days From AI to cloud computing, technology is changing the fundamental ways that law firms conduct their business, but they shouldn’t be afraid to embrace the new normal, says Gary Young, CEO at Peppermint Technology

hey say the only constant in life is The real question is how to make this promise a change, and the world today is being reality, and the first step is to acknowledge that T driven by many forces, with familiar technology, in itself, is not the solution. Those that names like Amazon, Microsoft and succeed will have a clear set of objectives to Google dominating the ongoing transformation of achieve business transformation; they will want to our day-to-day lives. Although these names play a become more efficient, enhance the client lesser role in legal, that sector is not immune to the experience and drive differentiation, and then digitisation of the way we connect with the world employ technology to accelerate that around us; in fact, this is a sector that lives and transformation. breathes connections, relationships and customer We certainly see many leading law firms satisfaction. As we all realise by now, those that embracing transformation and leveraging innovate and embrace new technology to technology to secure competitive advantage. For transform their businesses will lead the industry in instance, reducing paper consumption breeds building intrinsic value from their collective greater overall efficiency, and some firms are even knowledge. scrapping the billable hour altogether, but

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For more information, visit: www.pepperminttechnology.co.uk

additionally, we also see alternatively structured data is being held in accordance with the legal service providers growing exponentially in appropriate policies, technologies and controls to number and creating greater competition in the strengthen overall security and protect firms from legal sector. potential threats. What’s more, balancing security with usability is Getting to know tools one of the leading challenges for law firms, Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning according to the International Legal Technology are among the technologies promising to provide Association’s 2017 report, and cloud provides the real value to firms by streamlining workflows, potential solution. Remote working, on-the-go law, reducing time taken to produce work and and 24/7 responsiveness is the increasingly ultimately serving their clients better. YouGov common expectation of clients and employees research conducted by Microsoft and Goldsmiths, alike. Cloud offers real-time access to information, University of London in the summer of 2018 availability of data and connectivity to mobile discovered that companies that have started to use devices, bringing significant benefits to firms as AI are already outperforming others by 5%. part of an agile transformation strategy. According to Microsoft’s Maximising the AI opportunity report in 2018, organisations Tech foundations deploying the technology were found to be “more The true power of technology is the ability to productive, have higher performance and derive powerful insights by accessing all data in experience better business outcomes”. one location, offering ‘one version of the truth’. It’s To gain the greatest value from AI, companies now more important than ever that legal services need to understand where it can facilitate, use technology that can integrate fully with other accelerate or add other forms of value to their systems and surpass prior limitations. Indeed, the transformation strategy. Examples of this might be emerging pre-eminence of AI requires using AI to eliminate repetitive, inefficient tasks, interoperability with other systems to realise the which subsequently enables fee earners to focus full potential of data – past, proprietary systems their time on client relationships. Alternatively, it were never designed for such a degree of flexibility. might be employed to introduce a new level of In addition, while technology offers increasingly client engagement such as self-service case tempting opportunities for improvement, the true tracking, or to automate document classification barometer of success is user adoption. This means and improve governance. tech must integrate with existing processes, workflows and other systems – and must Silver linings streamline user workloads, rather than create The cloud is another potentially strategic piece of additional tasks. digital transformation, as cloud solutions offer the At Peppermint, we have a vision to help high- flexibility and scalability necessary to respond to performing legal businesses realise their strategy changing business needs. In fact, Forrester’s for business transformation. Built on Microsoft Predictions 2018 report on cloud computing Dynamics, our system enables firms to bring all posited that more than half of global enterprises their data together in one place through a familiar, would rely on at least one public cloud platform in easy to use solution, and translate it into useful 2018, and the future will likely only see this trend information. This enables our customers to drive grow. down costs, release resources from burdensome Privacy and security concerns that we used to tasks and derive powerful business insights while hear are now being turned on their heads, as firms delivering unrivalled client experience. recognise that the cloud is in fact a privacy and Every business is a digital business. Some just security asset. Cloud can provide confidence that don’t know it yet.

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INDUSTRY ANALYSIS The right replacement With so many firms looking to implement new finance or practice management systems in the near future, this sector of the legal technology market is really heating up, says Paul Longhurst at 3Kites Consulting

he practice management system right way, these projects are also great (PMS) is the backbone of a firm – it opportunities to deliver real business benefits and T handles time and billing, generates the make fee earners’ lives easier. firm’s management accounts and reports and often much more, providing tools for Hot topic estimating fees, opening files, managing matters Several of the common PMS products used in law and managing teams. So, with so many firms firms are being brought to the end of their life by currently looking to replace their metaphorical suppliers. These include Axxia, Elite Enterprise backbone while the patient is still trying to carry on and Elite Envision, which are no longer being operating as normal, this area of tech faces both developed and will cease to be supported (meaning massive challenges and opportunites. Few firms that if the system goes wrong there will be nobody can afford to be unable to issue bills for any to fix it). Although this is not news, firms still using significant length of time, so getting any PMS these products now have a very short timeframe in project right is crucial. But, if approached in the which to replace their systems.

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Furthermore, some of the older products in use haven’t been substantially upgraded in that time, in law firms are struggling to keep up with the however: big improvements are available. As demands that are now being placed on business clients (and the courts) demand closer attention to systems. Compared with the R&D budgets of the management of costs, many products provide global giants like Apple, Amazon and Facebook, better, more structured, real-time visibility into suppliers of legal PMSs are miniscule, but users’ how these are mounting against budget estimates, expectations about systems’ ease of use have which enables lawyers to manage their matters generally been raised by familiarity with those more effectively and be warned of cost overruns global products. Suppliers of PMSs must also early enough to do something about them. In contend with the requirement to develop their addition, there are benefits to being able to products for mobile devices and the increasing estimate for new work more accurately, based on desire for systems to be cloud-based. However, past matters of a similar type but with the ability to even with the extensive end-of-life notice provided take account of differences in circumstances. The by many suppliers, there are still scores of UK top availability of dashboards for key financial 200 firms which need to change their PMS within information – for example, at a fee earner, team, the next few years, not to mention those that have client and matter level – can also enable users to evolving requirements. For the suppliers which stay on top of their work, provided they are have invested in developing their products, it’s encouraged to look at them. Being able to refer to actually reaching the point where they have more this data from mobile devices also helps. opportunities than they can handle, and firms are sometimes having to wait weeks just to get Ensuring simplicity suppliers to give an initial demo of their products. Another potential benefit is the opportunity to In addition to longstanding PMSs, some of the streamline financial processes which may have products now available are ERP (enterprise become convoluted, and this could mean a radical resource planning) systems. These operate on the review of who does what in relation to opening up basis that a professional firm’s key resource is its a client matter and generating bills. But caution is people, and they therefore provide tools to help advisable, because inefficiencies in these processes source teams for matters, while managing the often arise from the fact that some firms’ legacy utilisation of those individuals. Opinion is divided systems can’t retain the level of high-quality detail about the extent to which a true ERP approach about fee arrangements that’s now common, so works in law firms – it certainly requires a bills are produced at incorrect rates, or showing dramatic change of working practice but, for firms incorrect information and have to be reissued, whose type of practice can take advantage of it, the causing embarrassment as well as generating effort may be worthwhile. additional work. Getting the right information into the system from the outset of a new client Opportune moments relationship or a new matter is one of the main There is an upside for firms operating on PMSs advantages of a new system, but a PMS project will which have been in place for a decade or more and need to look closely at the quality of data being migrated, or the credibility of the new system could be undermined from the outset. There are still scores of UK top 200 A new PMS should reduce lock up and improve profitability, but the benefits only come from firms which need to change their changes in the way things are done, and change is PMS within the next few years, not hard in law firms. These systems are inherently to mention those that have evolving complex, so change management is key to their requirements success.

45 Tweet us @Briefinglegal Briefing MARCH 2019 REAR VIEW

OUT AND ABOUT Philosophical machines Kayli Olson reports in from the Law Society’s fourth and final evidence session for the Technology and Law Policy Commission

hat better way to spend right? Aristotle was one to make a protection by design. W Valentine’s Day than to hold distinction between the private Silkie Carlo, director of privacy a philosophical and moral domain concerning family and rights company Big Brother Watch, debate on the use of algorithms in domestic life and the public domain, said that the issues of fairness in justice, one more time. As a legal which deals with political activity. But process and fairness in outcomes are business journalist, I would be remiss philosophy has not had long to debate different and that ‘explainability’ is not to get involved in the conversations this issue in the age of social media and important to look at if people are ever around legal tech and, specifically, public surveillance. Fundamentally, to trust algorithms with human rights. machine learning/processing in the yes, it would be wrong not to respect The use of machines needs sector. But one must tread carefully so an individual’s privacy, but not at the meaningful human input, as some as not to add to the noise and hype of expense of national security. Article 8 activists push for. “But what does that any one system or theoretical use of of the Human Rights Act 1998 look like?” asked Alvin Carpio, CEO at *cough cough* artificial intelligence. attempts to define just that. the Fourth Group, a global community The Law Society’s evidence sessions Since Edward Snowden spread driving the fourth industrial for the Technology and Law Policy awareness to the public, people have revolution. Commission interviewed a range of been more vocal about their concerns “Algorithms were used to get you legal professionals, police, regulators, about privacy. Judith Jones, head of here today, when you checked a maps professors and human rights activists parliament and government affairs at app to plot your journey from work to to get an overview of current actual the Information Commisioner’s Office, the Law Society. Code is law and uses of machine learning and said that it was only in the runup to the coders are modern lawyers. They predictive analytics in the justice GDPR deadline that people were should be held to democratic oath and system: the faults, the opportunities, aware of their rights and, all of a law in the same way.” and any legal and moral obligations sudden, they felt like they needed to Jamie Susskind, author and surrounding them. care. “But people still tick the T&Cs practising barrister, agreed that coding This session heard concerns from box to get the service.” should have the law built in, but to human rights experts about the Philosophy isn’t some abstract tread carefully. He mentioned that mishandling of the privacy of the debate only for nutty professors – it under Aristotle’s view, you are a good public and stressed that use of can be used to build a legal framework person when you choose good actions, algorithms in the justice system, for these issues. Jones said technology but Jamie added that in the future particularly when it comes to police systems today should include data people won’t have that option. outcomes, needs to be regulated or at “You can’t dodge a bus fare if it least justified and agreed upon. automatically charges your card when Current issues around contemporary you get on,” he said. principles of human rights – and the “Code is law and coders The threat of a dystopian future basis on which those originate, heavily are modern lawyers. where some of these ideas are reality influenced by philosophers like They should be held to may not be far off, no matter how Immanuel Kant – have not democratic oath and law in science fiction it seems. A legal traditionally addressed the issue of the same way.” framework is needed, but not to the privacy. point of overregulation at expense of It begs the question, is privacy a Alvin Carpio, CEO, Fourth Group innovation.

46 Tweet us @Briefinglegal Briefing MARCH 2019 document management

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