The legal industry is slowly adapting to the effects of developments in technology, but is it truly embracing innovation? Brigid O Gorman investigates.

Advances in technology have meant that law is now practised in a very different way to how it was conducted 15 years ago.

Smartphones, remote email access and tablets have meant that lawyers are increasingly expected to be available and responsive to clients on a 24/7 basis, but have also allowed them the flexibility to do work away from the office.

Social media has led to worries about the behaviour of staff and how it can affect the firm, while legal process outsourcing (LPO) has led to cost savings for clients and changed how certain legal work is done.

“If you stop innovating you will be eaten up by everybody else that innovates around you,” said Robert Milliner, a former King & Wood Mallesons head and the current B20 Sherpa for Australia, at the Australasian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA) Summit in Sydney last month, adding that law firms need to be willing to embrace change.

But is embracing change something law firms are willing to do?

Outside influences

The answer, it appears, is: if they have to.

“Clients are demanding more from their lawyers and their firms, which is putting pressure on firms to deliver,” according to legal consultant Ben Wightwick.

One way firms can help deliver more to clients is by using technology to make clients’ lives easier or their bill smaller, something the head of legal consultancy Janders Dean, Justin North, says firms are starting to do.

“[Law firms] are looking less at internal operational technologies that are aimed at enhancing the life of the individual lawyer, and more at technologies that can be focused on the client,” North told Lawyers Weekly.

“Firms are seeking an understanding as to the technologies impacting other industries ... and looking for ways in which these can be developed for the legal industry.”

North also says there is a mistaken perception among law firms that to be considered innovative they need to invest a lot of money.

“One of the greatest mistakes that is made by those using the term innovation is to equate it to a necessity to invest vast amounts of human or financial capital,” says North.

“It is often the smallest firms that embrace and have success with innovation – primarily as they are agile in their approach, and are not plagued by layers of management and approval.”

True innovation?

Wightwick says that while many firms are improving when it comes to use of technology, this doesn’t necessarily mean they are being “innovative”.

“Currently, young lawyers are being brow-beaten into a way of working that is dated. This is due to a number of factors, but primarily dated software and cultural ‘ways of doing things’ that aren't considered best practice these days,” he says.

But, adds Wightwick, young lawyers are forcing firms to instigate at least some changes in their ways of working.

Most large legal organisations in Australia do have some sort of online presence: around 75 per cent of firms in Australia use social media in a professional capacity, according to a Thomson Reuters survey that was carried out earlier this year.

“[Social media] can be a very powerful marketing, business development and engagement tool, [but] almost all companies, including law firms, could be doing more with it,” says Wightwick.

However, he cautions that firms need to exercise common sense when it comes to social media usage.

“There are dangers. Company social media accounts need to be managed by people who ‘get’ social.

“There is a degree of common sense about what you do and don't do using a corporate [social media] account. As for personal accounts, it's difficult to govern or control; at best you can have a social media policy but that should not be too restrictive."

Making their mark

North also observes that there is evidence to suggest that firms in Australia that haven’t entered a global partnership are using technology as a way to differentiate themselves from their larger competitors.

“In Australia, people often look to the large global firms and are subsequently blinded to new entrants or smaller firms with a market-leading or unique approach,” says North. “Their future impact on the Australian legal market will be worth watching.”

Wightwick says that while technological change will keep progressing, he is not expecting any law firms to break the mould when it comes to innovation.

“Innovation in legal technology will be slow to come,” says Wightwick.

“At the moment, [law firms] are at best improving on existing thinking and technologies.”