data collection

The balance of power in law firms has shifted. Now clients are driving legal relationships, pushing for less traditional, alternative fee agreements and heavily scrutinizing invoices for cost control. Larger market trends include flat overall growth for law firms in 2018 and a significant uptick in corporations taking legal work in-house and shrinking the market for firm services, according to a recent report from Altman Weil.

To thrive in the new era of the empowered client, law firms must modernize the way they operate. This requires changing office culture, developing core competencies and adopting more innovative ways of working. From pitches and proposal responses to deepening client relationships through better targeting and cross-selling efforts, forward-thinking, modern law firms are harnessing technology that paves the way for a new approach to business fueled by data.

Leveraging the Existing Knowledge Base

Today's law firms struggle to fully utilize all of the data already available to them. Important information distributed across a variety of systems, within detailed spreadsheets or inside the heads of subject matter experts, is difficult to discover and collect quickly. Technology solutions that unify this knowledge base and apply intelligent automation to capture the right data and deliver it at the right time expedite information gathering and sharing at every stage of client interaction.

Insight into the full breadth of their capabilities helps law firms support new opportunities and expand business in existing accounts. By fostering a culture of collaboration and investing in technology that provides easier access to accumulated intelligence, firms can better leverage their knowledge base to streamline the client proposal process, create targeted pitches and respond more quickly to inquiries.

Improving Performance

Once firms have a robust knowledge base on their lawyers, clients and matters, it is not only easier to address client requests and anticipate needs, but also possible to better track legal team performance and begin to understand the various flavors of service the firm provides. By analyzing a breadth of data from past matters, firms uncover the most effective and profitable engagements and can begin to compare, contrast—and now optimize—pricing and project management approaches.

Growing in Today's Client-Centric Environment

Winning new business and nurturing existing relationships with excellent client service are essential to law firm growth. Client centricity isn't new to firms; after all, the client is the center of business. However, in this client-empowered era that firms now operate in, it comes down to how firms are serving the client and the nature of this work, making it essential to have a handle on all the valuable data available at the firm. Though business development is central to every successful firm, associated tasks remain largely manual, time-consuming and fragmented, and replete with inefficiencies that can translate to lost opportunities in today's client-centric environment.

A unified knowledge base, insights on account performance and the ability to automate manual data- gathering processes help business development teams work more independently on opportunities that bring the most return on investment (ROI). With efficient access to data, business development can focus efforts on developing targeted marketing campaigns, creating compelling proposals and building client relationships, while legal teams spend the least amount of billable time pursuing new business.

According to a recent article by Harvard Business Review, companies that use AI in business development efforts (aka, sales), have increased leads by 50 percent. AI is stepping in to increase outreach by not only amplifying the data available, but also helping to segment and target the right customers. It is no longer about guessing the right price to maximize profit or what expertise to bring forward to win the work, rather, it's about intelligently predicting.

By streamlining manual business development activities with data analysis tools and automated intelligent solutions, firms will identify the most rewarding new business prospects and uncover cross-selling opportunities with existing clients. It comes down to operationalizing the data available at the firm so that business development can get a seat at the table bringing forward data-driven insight that elicits action.

Forward-thinking Firms Invest in Technology

A recently released Intapp survey of more than 300 leading law firms sought to identify where firms fit on the data-driven insights and intelligent automation adoption curve. The survey indicates that forward-thinking law firms (i.e., those making investments in technologies such as AI and intelligent automation in order to modernize the way they run their firms and service their clients) are embracing a client-centric technology strategy as a driver for growth and as a way to differentiate themselves from the majority of firms which are lagging behind.

Although 86 percent of law firms surveyed agree that automation is important to deliver insights and analytics to clients, only 18 percent have made the investments necessary to embed this capability into their service delivery models. In addition, 44 percent of respondents view intelligent automation for opportunity identification and cross-selling as very important, yet only 16 percent report they are currently utilizing data-driven insights for this purpose. Certainly, the barriers present at a law firm—the divide between lawyer and professional, partner structure and compensation model—are to blame for some of this slow adoption.

According to the survey, the “pacesetters” earning $700 million-$1 billion in revenue are making the most significant technology investments to date across the entire client lifecycle, with 81 percent planning to invest in client development. Survey results indicate that the highest-performing firms are also making the most significant investments in innovative technologies to support business acceptance and client delivery. It is clear: The winners are making the investments necessary to transform their delivery of legal services to best serve the client and it is paying off.

Differentiating in a Highly-competitive Market

While data is king, how law firms use it to differentiate themselves and win new business is what reigns supreme. Data fuels strategic, client-centric business development initiatives, including marketing campaigns to target appropriate clients and advanced techniques to quickly and accurately capture internal experience. Data analysis uncovers the most effective teams and profitable engagements, optimizing pricing and project management approaches—and, ultimately, setting firms apart to win new business in today's client-centric legal environment.

Jennifer Roberts is responsible for the analytics and research component that supports thought leadership and new initiatives at Intapp. Leveraging her skills to advocate, evangelize and build data-fueled products and insight. She examines the legal industry to drive analytical intelligence that informs strategic decisions and solves organizational needs. Prior to joining Intapp, Jennifer was responsible for the innovation and development of thought leadership content at Thomson Reuters, working with law firms to develop insightful and actionable content as well as working internally to educate the field.