The onslaught of Coronavirus (COVID-19) is transforming how we live and work in ways profound and superficial alike. The legal profession won’t escape unscathed. In his March 19, 2020 article in The Times “Technology Is Key to Stopping Coronavirus Wiping Out Law Firms,” legal thought-leader Richard Susskind argues that “[i]f law firms . . . cannot find a way to work remotely in the coming weeks, Covid-19 will rapidly run them into the ground.” He implores them to embrace technology like “Signal, Zoom, Slack and Google Hangouts” to survive. We agree, but these are just the (new) table stakes. Change in underlying behavior and processes will be needed–and those who don’t change, will certainly not thrive, and may not survive.
Since we founded Priori, a legal marketplace for in-house teams to find attorneys for projects globally, we’ve watched law firms wrestle with adopting new ways of doing business, from easy wins like using the same technologies their clients are using to participating in robust RFP processes to compete for new business.
