She is omnipotent. It is omnipresent. Data is everywhere. It fascinates or frightens, attracts curiosity or scorn, but leaves no one indifferent, so much is it presented and praised as « the black gold of the 21st century. »
In the midst of the grandiloquent speeches, it becomes difficult to understand the opportunities and limits presented by the use of data in law firms. So let’s forget about pure technology for a moment, and look at its current application in law firms: where are we now, where have we come from and where are we going?
From evangelism to action
According to Dan Kohn, Director of Foresight at SECIB, the time for evangelism is over. “We’re in the action business now. For a long time, my role was to make lawyers understand the change. Now that the tool is no longer perceived as a constraint, the quest for meaning has begun.
At present, digital data aggregation is mainly a response to the need for time, a precious commodity for lawyers. It’s the famous refrain of modern times: reduce low value-added tasks to concentrate on high value-added activities.
From an organizational point of view, whether in terms of invoicing, accounting, file tracking or backup, it is now clear that information systems offer real time-savings for law firms. Benjamin English, a lawyer at Avril & Marion, confirms: “[The information system] frees up my time for business development. And that’s not bad.
From silo to sharing
Beyond efficiency, data processing opens new doors in terms of internal communication. Long confined to a silo model, the implementation of a unified information system within a firm almost naturally leads to greater cross-functionality between departments.
A trend confirmed by Intapp, the Anglo-Saxon leader in law firm information systems, according to whom “data unification will encourage greater collaboration between lawyers, with clients and even with other firms in the network”.
This collaborative approach is still viewed with suspicion by a regulated profession, where confidentiality is non-negotiable. This mistrust partly explains the difficulty of establishing a unified, complete and up-to-date in-house database.
With such a strong need for confidentiality, it’s clear that attitudes will only change gradually, as solution providers provide sufficient guarantees in terms of cyber-security. This is a sector to watch closely over the next few years, as demand is so strong.
From management to design
More efficient management? That’s a given. More cross-functional information sharing? We’re getting there. What next? A closer look at the discourse of various software publishers, both French and Anglo-Saxon, reveals a shift towards a promise more oriented towards “business intelligence” than “practice management”.
There are two reasons for this. Advances in analytical tools and greater interoperability between them will enable data analysis to be refined to a level sufficient to outline concrete strategic directions, such as the development of new offers or the prospecting of new sectors and customers.
Data thus takes on a more offensive role than management, directly influencing the firm’s business development. A revolution? It’s too early to say. At present, it’s difficult to identify an analytical tool that’s clearly adapted to law firms. But the real question is not so much the technology, which will reach maturity sooner or later, but the people who will have to make it their own.
On this ultimate question, two visions exist.
On the one hand, there are those who are betting on the development of new professions or new functions within the firm: business developers, data analysts, knowledge managers or operational directors (HR, communications, etc.) who are well versed in the use of data.
Working in close collaboration with the partners, these new functions will enrich the firm’s strategy with their database-driven insights.
On the other hand, the promoters of a lawyer 2.0, trained to draw the necessary lessons from analytical tools that will be ergonomic and adapted to the profession.
Such is the case with Dan Kohn. “I’m very cautious about forecasts. There may be other professions tomorrow. But I think that the change in new functions in law firms will come from the lawyers themselves, who will have learned other skills and will be using mature and very simple solutions.” The debate is on.
