Over the last few years we have seen huge amounts of time, effort and money poured into re-engineering law firms and legal services. The dotcom revolution promised online legal services, bidding and tendering, a new competitive landscape and more. Larger firms, with their greater resources, have made some progress in these areas and many smaller firms, whose practices operate in the arguably more commoditisable areas, have developed impressive case management systems to improve the profitability and service delivery of their transactions. In a few notable cases, there have even been spin-offs operating under a new business model.
But there has been minimal impact on most law firms’ core business. As an economic downturn looms, speculative investment has been cut. Firms will be looking to traditional ways to keep revenue up and costs down – lawyers using core technology to service client needs.
