Peer to Peer Magazine

81 WWW.ILTANET.ORG this one thing, but I'm spending too much time doing it." We started De Novo to give people a place to take those ideas. We were afraid we wouldn't gain any traction, but that was not the case. We had lots of ideas coming from all over the place and quickly learned the most successful ideas were the ones where an aorney had heard about something from a client. That might seem obvious to folks, but it created a shi in our mindset from being focused on internal improvement to being client-focused in many ways. An aorney will say she has a client that needs help with a business process, and we can provide that. We have excellent lawyers, as do many firms, but we can provide service to clients in a different way. The more we innovate, the more we're creating new opportunities. different way of delivering legal services. This includes helping companies work through legal analyses of common questions such as whether an employee is entitled to overtime and whether an individual can be engaged as an independent contractor. We've developed applications that generate commonly used documents for clients (e.g., employee agreements, independent contractor agreements, nondisclosure agreements and non-competes). It's been a great experience. We also rolled out CaseSmart for class-action litigation. Wage hour class-action is a huge part of our practice, and it cries out for efficiency because of the sheer volume of work. We're continuing to utilize Liler's CaseSmart approach –– re-engineering, alternative staffing and technology –– to deliver these services. Another area is of focus has been our service solutions, with which we have several different products. Liler GPs, for example, is a comprehensive database of 50 state laws, and it tracks recent legislative and regulatory developments so clients can stay current about minimum wages, living wages, paid sick leave laws, etc. The overall theme is that we're looking at all areas of our practice and finding ways to deliver beer, more efficient service to our clients at a more predictable cost. Andy Peterson: De Novo, the innovation team within Davis Wright Tremaine, is a group of individuals who run somewhat of a research and development lab. We started the group about two years ago, and we've created a lot of cool solutions for the firm's partners and clients. It was an honor to be recognized among peer firms like Bryan Cave, Liler and Seyfarth, and the experience of presenting our work at ILTACON was really rewarding. That external acknowledgement has skyrocketed things internally! We're excited about all of the new projects on our plate. How has innovation driven success at your organization? Andy: Innovation at our firm started with pockets of people who would sit down for lunch and say, "I've got these things I'm working on, and I feel like I'm recreating the wheel every time" or "I wish I could fix ILTA's Peer Award Finalists Innovate for Application Delivery ASK THE EXPERT When you go to a client and show them ways to drive efficiency and the new products and services we've come up with, it is a competitive advantage and a market differentiator.

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