Resources

The legal sector has been dramatically affected by two major disruptive forces over the past two decades: technology and the 2008 financial crisis. These forces are reshaping the legal industry as firms become more efficient, productive and adaptive with their business models to meet client demands.

This digital transformation of the legal sector has reached a tipping point, marked by 3 distinct factors that your firm needs to consider to mitigate risk, and seize opportunities to secure growth in the future.

Download this executive brief to explore these 3 factors which include:

• Why your firm is facing a technical tipping point
• Digital risks that influence your law firm’s financial health
• How to leverage digital security as a competitive advantage

Don’t become complacent with what works today. Start protecting your future.

Today’s clients demand more from their law firms than ever before. To remain competitive in this client-empowered era, firms must re-examine the role of technology.

Download this eBook to learn how strategically re-thinking your firm’s technology can benefit your bottom line. You’ll learn how automation and AI can help your firm:

• Win more business
• Streamline processes and save time to boost profitability
• Deliver client success
• Handle data correctly in the client-empowered era

Legal departments face increasing pressure to operate more like the rest of the business, by tracking, measuring, and demonstrating cost effectiveness, and thus should be asking for more from their outside counsel.

Progressive law firms and alternate legal services providers recognize the shifting demands, and are adapting and evolving the delivery of their services to meet new expectations.

Start ensuring the law firms you work with aren’t stuck in the past. Download this guide to learn 5 new expectations you should have for your outside counsel. Including:

• Produce scalable resources and solutions
• Provide a multidisciplinary team to ensure effective collaboration
• Commit to ingenuity and innovation
• And more!

Today’s clients expect more transparency and responsiveness than ever. In response, top law firms are exploring opportunities for innovation in how they do business.

Learn how the right technology strategy can:

• Enable the data collection and analysis that will help your firm differentiate, boost lawyer productivity, and drive sales
• Give business development teams new efficiencies for creating proposals and conducting RFP prep
• Utilize AI and automation to manage and mine data—and deliver deep and actionable insights

In our technology-enabled era, most law firms have moved away from manual processes to embrace electronic timekeeping. However, many continue to struggle with time entry accuracy and bill rejections related to noncompliance with outside counsel guidelines (OCGs).

Firms know something needs to change, but so far, they haven’t found the answer. In short, they have arrived at a crossroads.

We’ll look at the factors that point to a need for change in time and billing technology. We’ll also explore a better path forward: the concept of “compliant time,” which offers a new way to streamline timekeeping and improve time-capture accuracy while also ensuring adherence to OCGs.

When given a choice, 75% of people prefer to make payments with a credit or debit card. Payment disputes can be costly and time consuming. Take steps now to protect your firm against them, and provide your clients with an easy way to make payments.  

To do this, you can add a credit card authorization form to your intake paperwork. Download this kit for two sample authorization forms to help you get started. Including:

• Client authorization form, either to pay a current invoice or to authorize future scheduled payments.
• A form to cover authorizations for friends and family members who are making payments on behalf of your clients.

The business of law is changing, and literally no corner of a large law firm operates exactly like it did several years ago. The process for evaluating and onboarding new clients in law firms is no exception.

This eBook outlines why and how these big trends are causing shifts in law firm approaches, provides insights and practical tips on what firms must do to adapt their business acceptance models, and identifies specific areas where technology can help.

Download this eBook to learn about these trends and their impacts:

• Law departments tightening terms with law firms
• 10 years of decreasing realization rates
• All partners needing to be rainmakers
• Strategic global business alignment
• The privacy, cybersecurity, and anti-money laundering regulatory tsunami

Plus – get a checklist to assess the gaps in your firm’s acceptance approach in this changing landscape.

If there’s a single word that sums up the workload of the modern in-house legal team, it is “contracts”. Often outlined by business teams and passed to the legal department for a “quick once-over” before they’re signed. There may be little value that the GC can contribute when brought in at this stage.

There is a better alternative: to screen throughout the life-cycle.

Download this guidebook and learn how automating contract pre-screening can deliver numerous benefits to your legal team and organization at large. Including:

• Time savings
• Increased efficiency
• Identifying business opportunities
• Contract review consistency
• Enterprise risk reduction

Law firms of all sizes are appealing targets for hackers because of confidential information such as trade secrets, insider information, social security numbers, and large trust accounts.

The relatively lax law firm security standards and a culture of collaboration – accessing sensitive files across any device at any time – call for better security strategies. Secure content collaboration platforms fill a key role in building a strong cybersecurity strategy for your firm.

This brief will outline five key requirements content collaboration platforms must have to support law firms in today’s mobile environment. Learn how your firm can secure the most sensitive files while keeping pace with the demands of the attorneys-on-the go.

Download this brief that covers:

• The current threat landscape for law firms
• Why content collaboration matters to law firms
• Five non-negotiable requirements while choosing a content collaboration platform

Whether you are pitching a new client, or an existing client on a new matter, setting case strategy, walking into a settlement meeting, or want to learn about litigation trends to set your practice group strategy, the key ingredient to your success is solid competitive intelligence.

Learn how you can leverage Legal Analytics to analyze the history and behavior of your clients, prospects, and competitive counsel, at both the firm and individual attorney level. Instantly compare the litigation performance of law firms and parties, side-by-side, to make data driven decisions.

Download this information brief to explore 4 Legal Analytics use cases. Including, how to:

• Analyze litigation behavior of specific or entire party groups
• Quickly assess law firms you are up against to identify strategic advantages
• Compare firm insights side-by-side, for a deeper understanding of their cases, timings, resolutions, and more
• Evaluate a potential attorney’s experience and results to support the right hire

PLUS – Get “The Impact of Legal Analytics On Law Firms” Infographic illustrating who uses Legal Analytics firms, the top use cases, and time-savings associated with each.

Business management training has never been a staple of the lawyer’s education. The good news is, lawyers can become better business managers, though it won’t happen overnight.

Tackling inefficiencies in law firm processes is an area of business management that will set you well ahead of the curve, and the results will show up on your bottom line. For the most part, law firms just do what they do, as they always have done; but don’t necessarily have an effective plan on how to do it.

Download this white paper to discover solutions that help you address the five common law firm inefficiencies:

• Communication
• Document management
• Staff management
• Payment processing
• Collections

Start creating efficiencies now to build effective habits that will save you time and improve your bottom line moving forward.

Empowering your law firm with Legal Analytics provides powerful information to monitor, track and leverage previous case law information that can help shape your firm’s business and case strategy.

This deep dive into 2018 securities litigation report details the impact of Delaware’s recent case law in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and post-deal litigation. Discover how the flexibility and depth of powerful data analytics reveals trends and shifts in this developing new landscape.

Access this article to learn how:

• To track the findings and resolutions of developing or established case law.
• 3 key cases reduced the likelihood of success on breach of fiduciary duty claims and injunctions on post-deal litigation in Delaware mergers and acquisitions law.
• These decisions only reduced such litigation within the Delaware Court of Chancery, while increasing similar litigation into federal courts.

In the increasingly competitive legal environment, successful legal project management (LPM) is more important than ever.

To sustain a winning edge in the highly competitive business of law, Legal Analytics is becoming a necessity for all LPM leaders. During this on-demand webcast Michael Tilley, an experienced practitioner, will share his secrets of success, and discuss how he is using Legal Analytics to:

• Excel at creating Alternative Fee Arrangements that are equitable and competitive
• Respond to overnight RFPs
• Identify and onboard the best talent
• Support the firm with critical requests for reports, trends, budgets and benchmarking data

Legal Analytics has evolved significantly since the beginning of the decade to incorporate a wide range of practical areas. Yet, its purpose remains the same – to help law firms and businesses practice law more effectively and efficiently.

Lex Machina recently partnered with ALM Legal Intelligence to survey 300+ leaders at Am Law 200 firms regarding the value of Legal Analytics, how they leverage its power to deliver legal services to clients, and how it supports more effective business operations.

Download this white paper to explore the top four benefits legal analytics delivers, and best practices in these areas:

• Winning the case
• Getting the case: attracting new clients
• Pricing projects
• Cost Savings

Drawing from the 2017 Commercial Litigation Report, which examines the key axes of legal data and their interactions (focused exclusively on litigation in the federal U.S. District Courts), this infographic delivers data and trends on:

• Time to judgement
• Top damages by type
• Top plaintiffs, defendants, and law firm representation
• Makeup of the commercial claims field
• And more!

PLUS – Learn how you can leverage Legal Analytics to strengthen your strategy, tactics, and gain the winning edge by utilizing the power of data-driven insights and trends in commercial litigation. The data sheet provides an overview of:

• Questions that Legal Analytics helps you answer
• Unique commercial litigation data available for your firm to access

What responsibility do lawyers really have to understand the technology they use?  

According to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) revised Model Rule1.1, and specifically Comment 8, most state-specific guidelines have removed an attorney’s ability to claim that he or she lacks requisite technological information or expertise. Technological incompetence is not just a practice-of-law issue; it’s an ethical one.

Law firm’s and attorney’s responsibility is to be aware through self-education or guidance from a technology partner. That responsibility extends beyond basic software into the realm of data protection and safeguarding sensitive information.

Download this white paper and learn how cloud-based software helps you meet ethical duties associated with technology. It covers:

• The implications of Model Rule 1.1, Comment 8 for law firms and attorneys
• How the cloud helps you meet satisfactory security responsibilities
• Key benefits cloud software offers

Your words, your tone, the way you present your ideas, how often you share updates—these things, large and small, can determine the success of your client relationships, and by extension, your practice.

Download this Guide to start forming strong client communication skills using habit forming processes. You’ll learn common communication mistakes, how to avoid them, and best practices for ensuring the most successful outcomes for your practice.

This guide covers:

• How to make a positive, professional first impression
• How to boost your interview skills to uncover insights and build trust
• Set realistic expectations
• The importance of empathy and emotional intelligence

Does the AI phenomenon still seem confusing or obscure to you? Are you comfortable with the processes and methods on which you’ve relied on for years as a lawyer? Law firms of all sizes must prepare for and adapt to the change—or get left behind.

The application of artificially intelligent-based tech tools is having a real impact on the way law firms practice and run their businesses. And while it may surprise you, such tools are even within reach for small law. Tech companies are building software solutions that firms of all sizes and can use as cost-effective alternatives to the traditional means of practicing law.

Download this white paper to learn the ways AI is driving change in small law, and the opportunities available to your firm to explore cost and time-saving solutions; including:

• 3 drivers that are fueling the transformation of the legal landscape
• How legal work is being fundamentally challenged and changed
• Examples of how AI is already benefiting law firm workflows and bottom lines

Starting your own business can be simultaneously exciting and nerve-racking. It requires careful planning, commitment, longer hours, and usually a reliance on an unsteady income at first.

Yet, the prospect of being your own boss, setting your own hours, building a business, and carving your own path can be extremely rewarding.

Download this eBook for a step-by-step guide that walks you through all the essentials to launch a successful law firm in the Digital Age, including:

• Choosing a practice area
• Establishing Your business
• Budgeting for success
• Finding an office
• Marketing your firm in the digital age
• Networking and earning clients

Modernizing your law firm requires more than just new technology. Updating your agreements to address today’s technology concerns is crucial.

Download this kit containing five optional provisions addressing a lawyer’s potential use of newer technology, billing, or legal requirements to secure private information, or to advise clients of file destruction policies.

Forms included:

• Privacy Policy
• Digital File Maintenance Clause
• Disposition and Destruction of Client Files Clause
• Disclaimer of Liability for Use of Cloud Storage or Technology Exposing Client Information to Hacking
• Sample Language for Billing and Credit Card Use

We live in a world in which the internet expands the reach and impact of online defamation, invasions of privacy, bullying and more. This shifting landscape alters the traditional role of lawyers who are increasingly playing a counseling and litigation role in protecting clients’ reputations.

Today, the challenge becomes identifying often anonymous online attackers, convincing internet service providers and websites to provide relief, and orchestrating reputation-preserving counterattacks.

This white paper outlines a modern, proactive approach to protecting your clients’ reputation amidst today’s internet communication free-for-all.

Download this white paper to learn this approach, which also includes:

• Identifying and determining legal liability
• Understanding section 230 of the Communication Decency Act and if it applies
• 10 recommended strategies to address negative communications

The Digital Revolution is reshaping the way the legal industry conducts business as more and more services become digitized, virtualized, and mobile. How clients pay for services is changing too.

Is your firm equipped to meet the digital payment demands of today’s business environment?

Learn how your firm can gain greater operational efficiency and significant time savings by offering modern online payment tools for your clients.  Discover the benefits of embracing digital payment tools, and why they’re a key aspect of providing an exceptional, modern client experience.

Download this eBook for an overview of:

• What makes a modern client experience
• Traditional concerns with accepting credit card payments
• How lawyers are optimizing cash flow and workflow with modern tools

Adopting online payments is no longer a question of if, but when, as more of your clients will choose competitors who do offer this option.