Digital White Papers

I L T A W H I T E P A P E R | K N O W L E D G E M A N A G E M E N T & M A R K E T I N G T E C H N O L O G Y 20 a genuine interest in technology and will give their time to legal technology projects freely and enthusiastically, there are as many that will not. A project will get next to nothing from a team member with no interest in seeing the project through to success. As this is true not only for practising lawyers, give careful consideration to everyone invited onto the project. Finally, the firm's risk department should also be involved in conversations from the start. If a project or technology is a non-runner, and that may be for a host of risk reasons, better to know early to reduce wasted time. Most projects encounter various layers of risk, many of which a firm may be willing to take and the risk team can help navigate these. "Value Add" Almost every tender request for legal services today includes some request for value-added services in the tender document. Law firms are asked to consider and document exactly what free services they will give the client, in order to improve its chances of being retained as outside counsel. These value added services typically include access to bespoke training and seminars on topics crucial to the client's core business. As the market has changed and the legal pie has shrunk, clients are looking for more services under the heading of "Value Add" and some of these services are incorporating legal technology solutions. And, that would be fine if that were the product's intended use; however, this is often not the case. If the project is client facing, the practice group must discuss whose clients the project targets and whether the solution should generate revenue. Although this sounds obvious, this step is skipped more often than not, which leads to conflicting assumptions and unnecessary conflict later. After having concluded this discussion, should the practice group determine that the solution should be a value added service for clients, decide who will pay for the solution, then and in the future. Factor the internal cost of administering the solution into the future, both in terms of dollars and time spent by internal resources. If the intention is instead to sell the solution as a paid service, ensure that all stakeholders are on board with this and understand why, so as to avoid a later temptation to offer it for free to a "good client". Many commentators urge that this is the new cost of doing business, but as observed above law is a business, and a law firm's IP is very valuable and worth paying for. Why would adding legal technology devalue that IP? Legal technology embedding a firm's IP to provide flexible, on demand solutions to clients should add to that value, not detract from it. Value-added services are important to a firm's client relationship, but be careful not to devalue what has taken years to develop; this is not a race to the bottom. "Value-added services are important to a firm's client relationship, but be careful not to devalue what has taken years to develop."

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