The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/271291
18 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA MAKE TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR YOU name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joanne Humber company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phoenix Business Solutions Ltd. website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.phoenixbs.com For IT service to lawyers, ensure the lawyers are confident and competent to use the technology provided by giving them totally relevant training either online or in the classroom. This encourages user adoption of systems, too. For firm service to clients, ensure the documents you produce are consistently well-styled and use the best of technology to make them easy to read and navigate. Corrupt documents lose clients. DEFINE VALUE AND GO BEYOND EXPECTATIONS name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Partridge company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Duff & Phelps, LLC website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.duffandphelps.com Today's corporate law departments are focused on the overall way legal services are provided, not solely on cost or outcome. To improve client satisfaction, law firms need to add more value. Of course, value means different things to different companies, so the key is to determine what is important to your client and deliver it. For instance, when I was in-house counsel, we developed a scorecard to capture the metrics the company expected from its outside counsel. These included work quality, outcome, cooperation and teamwork, communication, and financial management. We then measured each of our outside counsel against these benchmarks. Firms who proactively provide project plans or litigation budgets always get high marks. But it ultimately boils down to communication with your client. One firm impressed me by going beyond expectations for normal communication, voluntarily providing a monthly update on all matters and offering unsolicited insights on litigation techniques, jury pools and judges, among other things. This was better than what the majority of our other outside counsel were doing. I liked this approach so much that I worked to turn it into an early case assessment process and asked other outside litigation counsel to adopt the approach. ASK THE VENDOR PROVIDE THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF SUPPORT name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott Randall company . . . . . . . . . . . Advanced Legal website . . . . .www.advancedlegal.com Imagine a team of attorneys working late into the night preparing for trial. Suddenly their primary trial computer crashes, and they don't know why or how to restore their data. Who is available with the proper knowledge and tools to help them? Providing around-the-clock support doesn't mean you necessarily need to hire a team of full-time helpdesk personnel. Evaluate your support demand for the past six months, and survey your legal professionals to find out when they are working. Armed with that knowledge, you should be able to determine, and monitor, your user-support demands. If you determine additional support is required, consider outsourcing some or all of your helpdesk needs. Locate a provider that not only offers the coverage you need, but also knows and understands legal professionals, and appreciates the demands and stresses of their jobs. Increasingly, law firms are outsourcing for their helpdesk needs. They realize the costs and overhead are much lower, the level of service is often much higher, and their internal clients are much happier. What's the one thing firms can do to improve client satisfaction levels? (IT service to lawyers and staff OR firm service to clients) Want to appear in the next Peer to Peer? Here's the question for June's Law2020: Future Horizons edition: What technologies or business processes should professionals within legal be prepared to implement in the next few years? Send your answers to kristy@iltanet.org IT staff to a firm firm to a client both