The events of the past year have driven home the importance of many messages and strategies that the legal marketing industry has been mulling over for years. One truth that has become particularly evident is that being a data-driven law firm is no longer an innovative goal or strategy, but instead a requirement from our internal and external clients.
If our firms and departments want to leverage artificial intelligence, automated intelligence, data visualization tools, and the like—we need to first get our data “house” in order. At a conference a few years ago, a speaker referred to the amount of data that law firms create as our “exhaust.” By this definition, she illustrated that data is quite simply a byproduct of the legal work that we do for our clients: a compilation of billing notes, documents, new business intake, conflicts, docketing, awards, rankings, and more. Whether we realize it or not, all of these processes that occur regularly within our firm’s workflow create reams of data that can be converted into actionable insights which can allow law firms to better target new clients, anticipate needs for current clients, create better and mutually-beneficial pricing proposals, and overarchingly grow revenue.
