The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/271291
WWW.ILTANET.ORG 47 We asked our experts: Should we expect lawyers to attend classroom training on Word styles and other document processing/production skills? HOW THEY SEE IT IVAN HEMMANS It depends on the working style of the lawyer in question. First-year lawyers need more of the skills necessary for working on documents and keeping them well-formatted than senior lawyers do. Senior lawyers might spend time guiding the language in the document rather than keying in the edits themselves. CURT MONTAGUE I believe they should, but will they? Attorneys should know how to use Word just as well as they know Outlook. An attorney's top tools are email, the Internet, document processing and mobile devices. Not everyone is on the bandwagon yet for lawyers to be proficient in technology. Some firm leaders are proactively looking at efficiency as it relates to client service and profitability. As general counsel apply pressure for transparency in work being billed, these firms are developing lawyer outreach and technology coaching programs and increasing their competitive advantage. They're working hand-in-hand with their clients to determine expectations and to innovate processes, workflows and skills development. Other firms have leadership who recognize the need but do little to nothing to create change. Many believe the typical lawyer still thinks along the lines of the billable hour; they will not be motivated to change their technology know-how or daily processes until they have their own client-driven experience. A client needs to come along and demand it. Then there's the question of whether a lawyer should be doing the work that requires technological competency or if those tasks and skills are better relegated to lower- or non- billing resources. Process mapping and legal project management make their way into this conversation, and suddenly you have a complex web of who's best for what kind of work. If done correctly, you find efficiency in the results. Yet, even with correct role-to- work definitions, there are opportunities for every worker to do things faster with the right technology know-how and fast access to answers when the know-how is lacking. PAMELA HART When I first started at the firm many years ago, it was common to see stacks of paper and Redweld files on desks, floors and any available surface in lawyers' offices. Lawyers used to print and hand markup documents. Today, many lawyers have gone paperless. For many lawyers, it's easier to draft and edit their own documents. Having a good working knowledge of how to use styles and numbering, document cleanup and comparison tools, and metadata scrubbers is essential for efficiency and the stability of their documents. While classroom training is convenient for trainers, it isn't typically effective for lawyers. By building relationships with our lawyers and learning about their practices, we can work with them individually to weave together the technology and their workflow, to deliver exactly what they need, when it's needed. JASON MILLIGAN There should be a certain level of proficiency for attorneys as it pertains to document processing skills. Although they might not need to have the same depth of knowledge as a legal assistant, they should have a baseline ability. They should understand the importance of a cleanly formatted document and that the potential for issues increases with every poor behavior they bring to the document. Their assistants will be able to respond to urgent filings and other document demands if the documents are easy to modify. And as the role/ratio of assistants continually changes, attorneys might not have the luxury of waiting for an assistant to complete a task for them. Knowing these skills, even on a basic level, will serve them well. When younger associates come on board, we typically try to show them how easy it is to apply schemes to a document and generate a TOC. Letting them know they can rely on their assistants for further modifications takes a little off their plates and makes them more open to using schemes in their own documents. The Race (or Walk) to Lawyer Technological Competency