This year's focus at the Legal Week Strategic Technology Forum couldn’t have come at a better time for HighQ. Immediately following our forum and very much on topic…
It was all about disruption - on all levels. Technology innovation; access to and analysis of increased volumes of data; the need to listen and respond to clients; and finally the impact on law firm culture of all of these things.
The link to the conference programme is here. It shouted SmartLaw. You know, I think we might just be on to something. :-)
Disruption and disconnection
The impact of all these disruptive factors are both compelling and challenging for law firms. Despite all this desire to change, many are still waiting for someone to lead the way.
There are many initiatives underway at law firms but I think without their clients pressuring them not much would have be done by now.
There seems to be a disconnect between the firms knowing that they need to do something and actually doing it. There are stories about firms implementing innovation by committee, which just puts structure around something that should be free of control and limitation.
The need for change in law firms seems to be hampered by the inherent cultural challenges that need to be overcome in firms.
Robot lawyers?
There was a lot of talk about AI and robot lawyers in the sessions. The topic warranted its own overview, commentary and insights by Neil Cameron, who ran through his insights on the beginning of day three including how humans have been killed by robots in Russia.
Individual vendors were discussed a few times but no one in the audience could highlight a specific use case where their firm was employing this kind of technology. Or maybe they didn't want to say because of the perceived competitive advantage.
The impact of AI and other types of technology was discussed in the final panel of the event hosted by Austin Milne of RPC. It would seem that cultural challenges and change are impacting firms' wants and needs to adopt these tools due to the inherent changes to process, and the business itself.
In specific terms, this refers to the impact and disruption to the structures and human capital elements of the firm and importantly the potential changes to the traditional linear path for lawyers' careers.
Putting clients' needs first
The need to listen to clients was emphasised by Adam Shutkever from Riverview law. He explained that we need to improve our approach and techniques, and should employ a broad approach to building relationships with clients not just a single point of contact.
Client service delivery was a common theme through a number of sessions and HighQ technologies were mentioned directly. With the advent of digital, definitions of law firms' clients' needs are very broad and not always in common with each other.
The need for flexible and scalable solutions is ever increasing and firms are employing multiple technologies to deliver a single client facing solution
SmartLaw on the agenda again
The SmartLaw panel I moderated closed out the discussions on day one and Rachel Roberts of Burges Salmon, Nick Andrews from Linklaters and Oz Benamram from White and Case all added fantastic commentary from their own personal and their firms' perspectives to SmartLaw.
Oz mentioned a potential missing fourth pillar in process and how important it is for each of the other three pillars to succeed. Something that Ron Friedmann, Ryan McClead, Stuart Barr and I will be discussing in a webinar on the 28th June.
STF was a great event - big thanks to the Legal Week team. For HighQ it was a great event for showcasing our products, our approach, our vision and relationships in the Legal IT space.. My flip flops even got a run out ;-)
