The rise of data—and the associated analytics and tools to turn that data into insight—has been a godsend in the eyes of many. Greater access to precise information to inform decisions? More accurate metrics to gauge financial performance? A means to demonstrate—in numbers—how to invest for greater return? Sign me up! Yet on the path to adopting more data-driven frameworks, pitfalls lurk. From the obvious (poor data) to the unforeseen (a purely analytical approach to motivating change), the data frontier is fraught with perils—dangers that, to the untrained, can have unintended and undesirable consequences.

While one of law firms’ greatest data hurdles comes in the form of siloed data of questionable quality (due in part to input standards put in place in the Cretaceous period before firms had an adequate vision of data’s future utility), firms are increasingly aware of this challenge. Many are tackling it head-on with large scale data clean-ups, new middleware (software that sits on top and aggregates data from multiple existing systems such as finance, accounting and CRM) and training and education to improve initial data capture at intake and elsewhere. The next frontier, then, comes in what law firms—and especially law firm leaders—do with the data. It is here where the perils are less obvious, more nuanced and, arguably, higher-stakes.