All changes in IT use within law firms are ultimately business-led, so why is business process management (BPM) such a hot topic of conversation in law firms at the moment? To understand why, we must first have a look at the history of IT use within UK law firms.
From the late 1990s onwards, law firms became more business-oriented and implemented practice management systems (PMS). These differed from the simple accounts systems they replaced, by offering better reporting and relatively simple tools to make fee earners more efficient, including auto-mated time recording and billing. The driver for this phase of automation was law firms themselves, with an element of peer pressure from other law firms.
