P2P

52 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | S U M M E R 2 0 2 1 positions. But there are cases where it's paramount to success, and for firms that want to focus there, having the skills, talent, resources and culture to be good at tech is critical so that you don't need a new plan to get there. Putting it more succinctly, I think you are saying you have to know what game you are playing first, and then tech is part of how you win. I'm saying that you have to know how well you can deploy tech before you decide what game you are playing. That all said, once you've staked out your ground, you do need to figure out how to win. What should firms be focusing on? Jae: So . . . I kind of agree when you say, "only some firms and lawyers can differentiate themselves by delivering top- quality legal work." To me quality is about HOW service providers perform their work and I don't see quality as a strong differentiator in the enterprise market. When I refer to strategic choices, I'm speaking more concretely and specifically to WHAT services are offered: capabilities in specialty areas of legal expertise and sector-specific application of that expertise. Among the Am Law 200 there are many general corporate practices. There are only a dozen firms or so that can credibly handle high-consequence antitrust tussles with the FTC or defend a big pharma company from false advertising and off-label marketing. Perhaps I should clarify my earlier statement to say being good at the right areas of law is what's paramount. I'm not sure law firms really get to decide what game they're playing – because they're already on the board, and the board is shifting. I think I'm uneasy putting the tech cart before the law horse because being good at tech has many layers and components as well. When I think of the most pressing priorities for law firm CIOs in the post-pandemic market, I'd break it down into these four buckets: 1. Evolving enterprise environment for law firm operations and management 2. Practitioner toolbox for modern legal practice (lawyers and paraprofessional as users) 3. Builder toolbox to digitize services (clients as end users and a multidisciplinary team of makers that includes lawyers) 4. Tech as key enabler or constraint in service and business model transformation, practice by practice The first is an imperative for all law firms: some concrete examples here include an infrastructure plan for cloud readiness, information governance framework and protocols for cybersecurity, a data stack that is built for interoperability and next-generation analytics tooling. "You have to know what game you are playing first, and then tech is part of how you win." E X T R A S

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