Post-pandemic, it is safe to say that business model evolution including how we work and the digitization of everything is impacting business strategy and operations. Additionally, the demand for smaller firms and corporate legal departments is increasing.
For smaller law firms, the impact is just as real.
Facing pressures to increase productivity, reduce risk, improve efficiencies, and remain competitive, all while enhancing the client experience, smaller firms have an opportunity to respond and explore a new playing field driven by technology.
Legal technology is changing everything for large and small firms alike, and the long-standing challenges of working more efficiently, increasing productivity, delivering excellent client service and results, and colossal business interruptions globally, mean there is a lot of ambiguity.
Technology is no longer a nice-to-have—it is a must-have.
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Adapting to Workforce Changes.
Managing, collaborating and engaging with, and keeping a workforce together is taking a toll, and disruptions continue. However, while a degree of uncertainty persists, disruption has encouraged a renewed flexibility in how organizations think and approach how they manage their business.
Video meeting tools like Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams have quickly become a part of the regular narrative. And for smaller firms specifically, technology should be viewed with a positive outlook—they need to acknowledge this and understand how it will play an increasingly important role in being more resilient and achieving business continuity.
While some downsize staff and reduce physical locations, most will realize the need to rely more heavily on technology. The cloud, a quiet topic during the past few years, has quickly become relevant. At RBRO Solutions, we are noticing much of our client base moving to or planning to use a cloud-based system.
For those firms hesitant to make adopt and adapt, making change without dramatically increasing their costs will impede a transition—they lack the expertise or proper guidance to move forward. To help firms understand their options, we are increasingly engaging with clients and prospects to show them how to take advantage of the improved security and flexible access of the cloud. Paramount to these discussions is letting them know that there are options.
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What Works Best For One May Not Work Best for All.
When talking about cloud computing, clients need to understand the dynamics of what happens and how. And when it comes to making the decision for what is best for a firm and how they are going to move to the cloud, they need to consider:
- What the firm needs;
- When they need it;
- How this will impact their clients; and,
- The degree to which they can have a variety of processes, applications, and systems on-premise, off-premise, and/or as a hybrid model.
Ultimately, they will need a trusted partner to provide the proper guidance based on their specific needs.
We advise our clients and prospects to engage in conversations with their own employees and their clients. By doing so, firms will be better able to understand their current technology stack, what would improve it, how a new system will enhance organizational processes and recommendations for improvements.
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Making the In-House Argument and Winning Over the Entire Organization.
Getting a small law firm on board for change or convincing other parts of an organization means prioritizing the speed, ease, and efficiency of legal services.
Small law firms need to manage client expectations and in-house law departments need to deliver their services to all corners of an organization.
Additional reading:
- Legal Tech: Time to Convince the C-suite to Invest and Adopt
- Successfully Migrate to the Cloud
- Law Firms Need Technology to Improve Client Services
When workflows are streamlined, employees and departments can focus on business-critical issues more effectively, without putting a strain on resources. With the cloud, process bottlenecks are removed, time spent on manual tasks is significantly reduced, and overall efficiency is boosted. And as a small firm grows, the scalability element is addressed far more easily.
By embracing technology, law firms and legal departments will also gain access to better data analytics, which helps legal services boost their effectiveness. , said data won’t replace human judgment but will enhance it.
The next generation of the small law firm or corporate legal department who are most successful will have figured out how best to use the cloud to meet client expectations, act to mitigate and identify risk and be more resilient to change.