P2P

50 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 | F A L L 2 0 2 2 Williams-Range adds, "So why would we want to keep all of our client's data sitting in our firewall, where law firms are one of the top attempted [to be] hacked organizations in the world, when we can pay someone else to do that at our behest?" Some firms report getting pushback from clients on putting services in the cloud, but the Shearman & Sterling leadership team challenges that argument. Williams- Range says the firm has run an analysis of client general counsel guidelines and noticed a clear shift in how they approach the cloud. Before 2016, she says, there were often restrictions or prohibitions on putting services in the cloud. But that year, a large global bank announced its own move to the cloud, and many other companies' legal departments began to follow suit. "What you saw post-2016 is, we don't prohibit you doing it, we care how you're going to do it. And so that was very important for us to get the how, right." As a result, first with its iManage implementation and now with its 3E implementation, the firm has hired an independent auditor of its cloud processes, both to have reports to produce to interested clients, but also for internal assurance that the job is done right. "It's not just checking a particular box," Baxter says. "It's actually very useful because you get so close to these projects, you can't see the forest for the trees." The First Mover Strategy Ultimately, Shearman & Sterling doesn't view its cloud integration just as a technology plan. It has turned into an overarching firm strategy. Large-scale technology implementations take time, LaForce says, and to be fair, wholesale ripping and replacing a number of enterprise systems in a single five year stretch has been a large undertaking that requires a lot of resources, both time and monetary. However, he says that those resources are being put to good use when they can be directly used as a business development tool: "Timing up when we're ripping and replacing all these systems in a short amount of time, that's created the opportunity for us to go cloud and leapfrog ahead of our competitors." Often, he explains, firms take these projects one step at a time, with a cadence such as implementing a document management system for about five years, then a break, then a customer relationship management system, then a break, then a financial system… and repeat ad nauseum when those on- prem systems need to be upgraded. But with a tighter timeline and a cloud infrastructure that allows for easier updating, "Now it's all at once, right? The cloud enables us to fix it faster." Saper adds, "It also helps us to get out of, not completely, but a lot of the end-of-life sequences that law firms get stuck in. I'll never end-of-life Office [365] F E A T U R E S "That's created the opportunity for us to go cloud and leapfrog ahead of our competitors."

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