At their heart, law firms are people businesses. Their success is built on knowledge and know-how, on capabilities and competence, and on relationships and trust. Legal expertise is not enough on its own; what constitutes a good law firm and what makes a good lawyer go much deeper, and what counts as good service for clients can take many forms.
It follows that optimising experiences for all parties involved within the business of law is crucial. By solving pain points, smoothing out processes, enhancing connectivity and communication, and improving access to information, relationships with clients and colleagues can be strengthened for the benefit of all concerned.
It’s about making it easier for people to do their jobs well and making them feel like they are part of a dynamic, cohesive team – and that includes your clients, as well as your lawyers and your other staff.
But how can law firms make that happen?
Of course, the human element is critical in creating strong relationships. However, tech tools are also a major part of the equation: making everyone feel more connected and enabling each person’s experiences of the legal process to be optimised in a number of ways, namely by delivering:
Collaboration
When people work closely together, relationships tend to develop faster and last longer. But that doesn’t have to mean that lawyers must be in constant contact with their clients or colleagues over every little detail by phone or email. Today, sophisticated collaboration tools have been designed to bring teams closer together, even when they are working in different locations, in such a way that minimises demands on their time, and makes lawyers both proactive and responsive.
For example, by setting up easy-to-use client portals, lawyers can share the latest insights, data and documents with colleagues and clients, so that they are always up-to-date and can then take any action required on their part. They can see what work has been completed, what’s underway and what’s up next, providing full transparency over matters and increasing oversight. That’s not just important for your lawyers, it’s a key selling point for clients: they want to be involved and have a sense of control at every stage of project management. Establishing such a portal also demonstrates an impressive level of commitment to – and focus on – them as a client.
Convenience
With legal budgets under pressure and constant demands to do more with less, anything that reduces the amount of time and effort required to achieve a particular outcome will be extremely welcome both by clients and staff.
For clients, that might mean having access to a self-service facility set up by their law firm, where they can securely view matter status, review files, sign documents, see data dashboards, or receive reminders and alerts, without having to ask for the information or trawl through emails or internal systems to find what they need.
For lawyers, convenience could come in the form of solutions that put critical information at their fingertips, that automate workflows, make the process of e-discovery quicker, speed up research or enable the auto-creation of contracts or other documents. All this eases the burden of repetitive, manual tasks, makes them more efficient, frees them up to focus on higher-value work, and gives confidence that the risk of inconsistency and human error is reduced.
Knowledge-sharing
As well as ensuring that relevant matter-related insights are shared seamlessly within internal and external teams, facilitating knowledge-sharing more generally within law firms themselves is essential so that key information and know-how are passed
down. Systems that can capture an individual’s intelligence about a client or matter are clearly critical in case they move on or retire, to ensure that the relationship stays with the firm and not the individual and that client service continues seamlessly despite changes of personnel. Leveraging such data can also help with business development, for instance by identifying cross-selling opportunities.
As well as capturing information in a formalised way within practice or matter management systems, some firms are developing more informal means of sharing intelligence such as creating knowledge hubs on particular topics on intranets, where people can post insights or communicate with colleagues via messaging boards. This can help with career development and team-building in more ways than one. Younger lawyers can benefit from the wisdom of older colleagues, and they are empowered to get more involved themselves, sharing opinions and learnings of their own to contribute to a richer, more collegiate working culture.
Fostering a culture of confidence for all
As is so often the case, it’s not just the outcome that counts but the experience along the way. Clients are more likely to want to continue working with law firms who clearly care about their business, focus on their needs and find smart solutions to work together efficiently, as well as delivering the right result in the end. Lawyers and support staff want working processes to be streamlined and teamwork to be seamless so that they can both learn from and support each other, delivering the best value to clients and feeling a strong sense of professional satisfaction for themselves.
Ultimately, it’s all about having confidence in the processes you’re using and the people you’re working with, creating a culture that makes it easy to interact, share knowledge and get the job done well. Using the right tools to optimise the way you work will provide strong foundations on which long-lasting relationships with clients and colleagues can be built, so that you can attract and retain top talent as well as a high-quality client base. That’s a win-win for all concerned.
