publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/1508128
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 29 court coverage varies and no solution has access to every court. Speed matters and real-time notification is critical. Automating this process by using court data APIs helps with timely notification and disseminating information to the right people at the right time. Setting daily alerts for thousands of clients and prospective clients can generate a large volume of notifications that can be time-consuming to sift through. Filtering options are often not granular enough and require manual review in order for business development staff to identify cases that may be a good fit for the specific attorneys and practice groups. Firms that are able to customize alerts and hone in on cases of interest that are a good fit have a competitive advantage. Generative AI shows promise in improving this process and making alerts more actionable by enabling firms to extract and normalize insights from other sources than just the docket, including filings such as legal complaints, further speeding up the process of determining whether particular cases are good targets for the firm. Respond to Requests for Proposals Quickly with Accurate Data Firms that have a centralized repository, such as a data lake or warehouse, to store and use critical data such as financial data, attorney experience data, matter data, and external legal data sources, have an advantage over firms that do not as they are able to respond quickly and accurately to requests for proposals (RFPs). Law firms constantly face challenges with data quality and accuracy connected to both their internal and external data. Clean data is a prerequisite to quality analysis. If your firm uses external litigation data, transparency into a product's normalization process and access to the underlying data that aggregated analytics are based on is necessary to build confidence in results and ensure that you are providing accurate data in RFPs and pitches. Ensure that the products you are using are taking advantage of industry standards, such as SALI, the Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry, to structure and normalize their data. Assuming you have accurate data, understanding your attorneys' experience before a particular judge for a specific type of case relative to your competition helps you articulate your advantage and focus on your firm's strengths. For example, is your firm faster at achieving outcomes than competitors? If your firm generally takes longer to resolve a case, is there a compelling reason why? Being able to drill into relevant, granular data, including timing and outcome data, provides context that helps position your attorneys and firm to win new business from your clients. Working with business development professionals at firms, there are two issues that come up repeatedly that hamper business development. The first is the lack of coordination and collaboration between different law firm departments. Responding quickly to RFPs with accurate information is critical to winning business. If business development professionals do not have direct access to the data they need and have to rely on others, it inhibits their ability to respond quickly and often results in losing business. There's no simple solution to breaking down silos within firms. In sales, we look for allies and internal champions, people who not only understand the value of what we are selling but also have the ability to improve processes and drive change within the firm. "Law firms constantly face challenges with data quality and accuracy connected to both their internal and external data."