Digital White Papers

EXPERIENCE MATTERS AT DECHERT SETTING GOALS Externally, the firm needed a better mechanism for identifying attorneys best positioned to service clients in particular practice areas and/or industry sectors. In addition, we needed to be able to assemble the "right" set of lawyers to pursue client opportunities and to pinpoint the firm's successful matters more easily for ranking and directory submissions. team with the authority and resources to respond accordingly. The fact the initiative was top-down from the beginning helped improve the likelihood of collaboration across the infrastructure, attorney cooperation and participation, and, ultimately, success. leaders, it became apparent no third-party solution would meet our firm's needs. Considering Dechert's size, depth of experience and geographic range, we knew we would need robust data capture, searching and reporting abilities that were not yet available in any third-party solutions. Therefore, in BACKGROUND WORK: HIGHLIGHTS AND RELATED CHALLENGES close partnership with IT, we decided to develop our experience module in-house. There were a host of internal objectives to consider as well, including: •Integrate laterals and junior attorneys better by providing a platform for showcasing their key experience and skills •Provide a way for new attorneys to search our existing experience, find synergies with their backgrounds and foster internal connections •Allow for more effective staffing of matters One could say the overarching goal in the creation of our experience application, DechertEXP (EXP), was to provide Dechert lawyers access to the very commodity we offer our clients — their experience. This objective was recognized explicitly by the firm's CEO, who imbued the marketing operations The goals were identified. But where and how to begin? The Platform: Given our lofty objectives and the fact that experience-tracking as a concept is not unheard of in the legal profession, it made sense early in the process to look at available solutions on the market. However, after review of some market Despite our decision to move forward with an internal solution, we knew from the outset this experience effort encompassed much more than purchasing or configuring a platform. While the configuration of an experience tool is a massive undertaking in and of itself, we knew any effective solution would also require a sophisticated framework for understanding experience. Thus,

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