Peer to Peer Magazine

PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 44 are not the best people to tackle every job, law firms started hiring non-lawyer experts to manage everything from finance to business development and, of course, technology. More recently, this has spread to hiring pricing officers, project managers and e-discovery experts. The back office has become the new front office, with many operational roles having strategic client-facing responsibilities. In 2020 and beyond, prudent firms will take this further still by marshaling multidisciplinary teams, some with no lawyers on them. Firms could hire sales teams to develop new business, reserve certain work for only paralegals and leave nurturing client relationships to customer service and account representatives. The most notable change, however, might be in the nature and variety of lawyers firms will deploy. Lawyers in today's medium and large firms tend to specialize by area of practice and industry experience, and they can be separated by those who bring work in and those who manage or perform the work. Larger firms have also invested in research lawyers and practice support, or knowledge management, lawyers. With continued advances in technology, greater connectivity and quicker response times, and increased disaggregation of legal services, law schools will produce and firms will recruit a broader mix of lawyers with a wide range of very distinct skill sets. With lawyers freed from routine tasks associated with today's legal work, what will 2020's lawyers spend their time doing, and what new niche roles could arise? QUALITY ASSURANCE As work becomes segmented, quality assurance takes on greater prominence. When products were made by one person, that person checked the quality throughout the product's creation. As factories and assembly lines emerged, with multiple hands working on discrete tasks along the way, safeguards were needed to ensure quality at critical points in the process well before the product was finished. The same holds true for legal work produced by teams. As firms embraced knowledge management, quality assurance became one key component of that department's work. For instance: • Knowledge management's creation of model documents and checklists assures quality early on • Legal project management assures quality throughout • After-action reviews assure quality at the end In the coming decade, lawyers should have more time for quality assurance, adding more check points to deliver even better results. To truly differentiate themselves, firms should hire lawyers particularly skilled at one type of work that all lawyers currently do. For example, firms might hire lawyers to do nothing but write. In addition to writing client-facing thought leadership, position papers, articles and books, these lawyers could completely overhaul the firm's transaction documents to provide sleeker, plain-English, precise agreements easily understood by clients. Legal writers might also draft all of the firm's briefs and oral arguments for litigators, and perhaps edit every piece of written work product that leaves the firm. Another example would be someone who strictly focuses on negotiations and strategy. Firms that assemble teams of lawyer specialists on client matters will assure both quality and efficiency by having the most skilled people doing the right job every step of the way. While some of this occurs today, we'll see more lawyers developing expertise in niches of legal work and moving away from expertise in legal subjects or industries. LAWYERS UNPLUGGED Though not new to the law, another niche specialty that might emerge in firms is the strategic problem-solver. You might ask, "Isn't this what lawyers are trained to do?" Sure, but consider today's environment, where email, instant messaging and cellphones keep lawyers and clients connected around the clock and around the world. Many lawyers feel the pressure to be always available to answer questions immediately. Coupled with the volume of information and other distractions bombarding people throughout the typical workday, finding uninterrupted time to sit and think problems through is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Much has been written about the deleterious effect continuous interruptions and distractions have on our ability to concentrate, pay attention and just plain think. Firms also might consider dedicating lawyers particularly skilled at analysis, but not so keen on day-to-day management or interacting with clients and other counsel, to devising solutions to complex problems and developing strategy for matters. Working in a disconnected environment with large blocks of quiet time, these specialists could help their firms substantially reduce risk, enhance quality and develop fresh approaches and solutions for clients' matters. Providing space to do nothing but think could help firms recapture what connectivity has eroded and spark creativity — creativity that might lead to innovation. SOLVING THE INNOVATION DILEMMA In almost every industry, the real differentiator is the ability to innovate. The legal market is no different, and leading firms have turned their attention to FEATURES Providing space to do nothing but think could help firms recapture what connectivity has eroded and spark creativity — creativity that might lead to innovation.

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