The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/549141
WWW.ILTANET.ORG 45 innovation. Though "Director of Innovation," "Chief Innovation Officer" and similar leadership positions have cropped up, skeptics doubt whether a profession steeped in tradition and notoriously slow to change will ever embark on honest-to- goodness innovation. Yet, the biggest obstacle to innovation in law firms again comes back to time. Lawyers in busy practices have not had the time for the activities that foster innovation. In the book "The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators," authors Clayton Christensen, Hal Gregersen and Jeff Dyer observe that the world's leading innovators actively engage in five behaviors. Innovators: • Associate seemingly unrelated information • Look for questions rather than answers • Observe intensely and get out in the world • Network with people with radically different views • Continuously experiment and test new ideas Does that sound like your average lawyer? Probably not. As technology continues to free lawyers from time- consuming tasks, lawyers will have more time for associating, observing and questioning. And, as law firms invest in more diversified, non-lawyer experts from a range of fields, lawyers will have more opportunities to network daily with people holding far different perspectives. Firms will be better- positioned to give these teams room to experiment with novel ideas, knowing that other teams within the firm are efficiently and effectively producing high-quality work on clients' matters. In addition to developing new legal technologies, these internal teams could find new solutions to old problems, figure out what clients most need and invent new service lines that both increase revenue and truly delight clients. RECRUITING AND TRAINING FOR THE FUTURE In this brave new world of law, firms must radically change what they look for in lawyers. The art of identifying and attracting a winning mix of diverse lawyer skills will supplant looking for the "right fit." A winning mix will include a balance of lawyers who develop and manage client relationships, others who can do work efficiently, still others who can assure and produce quality, and those who can sit uninterrupted and solve complex problems. The mix will include legal technologists to design client-facing products, customer service people to help nurture relationships and a diverse team of creative thinkers to play with new concepts. The most successful firms will be those always looking for opportunities to ensure lawyers have the time to do the real lawyering they do best and that provide diverse, engaging and inquisitive environments that challenge everyone. Your documents. Integrated. cleanDocs is the most advanced software on the market for managing metadata risks for desktop and mobile users. Fast Remove metadata in sub-seconds Secure Remove 100+ metadata types Enterprise Enforce corporate cleaning policies Flexible User interaction with some policies Unified Metadata management for all TRY NOW Unified metadata management for desktop and mobile www.docscorp.com/unified