The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/271291
PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 46 PAMELA HART Sr. Technology Training & Staff Professional Development Manager at Hunton & Williams Have you ever driven home and not remembered driving there or suddenly "come to" behind the wheel? We are "coming to" and realizing traditional secretarial tasks are now being performed by lawyers. For years, lawyers and staff had a clear division of labor. Secretaries typed, edited, formatted and filed correspondence and documents. Lawyers are now taking on these responsibilities. Lawyers are receiving record numbers of email messages that need to be filed, but the days of lawyers and staff working late into the night at the office are dwindling. Technology allows lawyers to leave the office, see their families and log in from home to continue working. They are working without their secretaries, who now have three to four additional attorneys to support rather than just one or two. We would be doing lawyers a disservice to ignore their need to use technology efficiently. IVAN HEMMANS Manager of Technology Development and Communications at O'Melveny & Myers The staffing changes we have seen across the legal industry mean fewer people to get more work done, which points to the need to improve efficiency. Getting more work done can also mean expanding the places from which one can work, which points to the need for ubiquitous access to firm resources wherever Internet access is available (or offline access to data when there is no Internet connection). JASON MILLIGAN Knowledge Manager/Process Improvement Manager at Michael Best & Friedrich Due to client demands, staffing changes and a desire for more work-life balance, we are seeing more requests for project management solutions. Legal project management has been a hot topic for a number of years, but articulating and agreeing to what exactly that means — or what is included in such a solution — have proven to be a challenging task. We are also seeing a trend in administrative tasks that were once done by attorneys shifted to billers with lower billing rates or non-billing positions. This shift allows the attorneys to focus more of their time on billable work. CURT MONTAGUE Manager of Technology Services at Sheppard Mullin I see a lot more "remote" access from attorneys, and we seem to be getting more self-sufficient attorneys who work on routine tasks themselves. I'm not sure staffing changes correlate directly with this change in attorneys becoming more efficient, but I believe there is some relation. There is pressure from the industry, and clients' needs are changing. At a previous firm where I worked, a client wanted the partner to bring his laptop and work on documents with them on-site. The partner's secretary had always worked on the documents and styled them using multilevel number schemes. He was unable to perform this on-site and asked for training. He had been billing the client for document production although he did not perform the task in other circumstances. Clients' expectations are changing this dynamic. Clients are being more particular about the details of their bills. This goes hand- in-hand with alternative fee arrangements putting pressure on attorneys to be more efficient and work within a budget. We asked our experts: How do you see trends in client demands, staffing changes and a desire for more work-life balance converging to create a new desire among lawyers to become more efficient with routine tasks? HOW THEY SEE IT If you can show a lawyer just one or two things that save them precious minutes, they will be more open to further coaching down the road.