The Great Technology Transformation Happening in Law Firms Right Now

Now more than ever before, there is urgency in implementing cloud solutions that enable firms to conduct business outside of the office – but will it create lasting change?

As the script was flipped on “business as usual,” law firms have been forced to rapidly adapt in order to enable work to take place outside of the office. Some firms were mostly prepared for this. But many found themselves clearing the shelves of computers from every Best Buy in a 20 mile radius to enable a now-remote workforce. How can firms quickly adapt and what will all of this mean in the long term?

The concept of virtual work – or working from home –  is not new, neither is the technology that powers it (although it keeps getting better). However, the legal industry has been slow to embrace these advancements. Simply put, law firm culture is one that revolves around the “brick and mortar” office. While there are many compelling reasons to enable flexible work within an organization, such as improvements to efficiency, productivity, job satisfaction and talent attraction, as well as better diversity and inclusion and increases in cost savings, law firms, by and large, resisted this shift.

In addition to the law firm professionals moving to working from home, their clients are scattered as well – making the way firms service and communicate with them change to handle the shift. Optimizing for remote work is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s now critical to law firm operations and client service.

In a recent article published on Forbes.com titled COVID-19 Will Turbocharge Legal Industry Transformation, Mark Cohen writes “The coronavirus has turbocharged law’s move to a virtual workforce and distance learning. The well-fortified walls of resistance have been breached with breathtaking speed. Office and school closures, social distancing, and stay-in-place measures have been met with widespread industry deployment of underutilized technological tools, an urgency to alter the status quo, a must-do, adaptive mindset, and rapid adjustment to new operating procedures. Legal culture has not, of course, had time to process this, but it has demonstrated that it can, when pushed, alter entrenched methods of educating and delivering services.”

There is no denying the fact that firms that have worked to create flexible work solutions through virtual tools have the competitive advantage in the COVID-19 economy. For those that have not yet made the shift, there are phases that need to be addressed:

The short-term challenge: technology

The right technology can enable your firm not only to operate as well as it does today – but also bring about improvements in collaboration, client communication, efficiency and security. This is the time to embrace the great cloud migration by going beyond technologies like email and document management to address all core law firm operations. This includes, but is not limited to, timekeeping, billing and compliance management and collaboration between attorneys, staff and clients.

The advantage of many cloud-based technologies is that they can be implemented in a much shorter time frame than traditional on-premise solutions and do not require in-person training for users to get started. These factors make cloud-based solutions for running a virtual firm a feasible option in the wake of the current crisis.

The long-term shift to a culture that meets the future of work

Beyond implementing the technology to enable remote work, firms will have to come to grips with the changing nature of work. This global shift toward flexible work has been a long time coming and is not limited to the current pandemic, although recent events have certainly accelerated the need for it. Therefore, in order for firms to successfully meet the demands of today’s events and be prepared for tomorrow’s trends and challenges, they must work to change the culture of the modern law firm to embrace remote work. The ability to continue doing business, regardless of location, should be the standard for all law firms.

While the COVID-19 pandemic may be a catalyst for technology transformation within many law firms, it is certainly not the end of the need for remote work – for many firms, it is the beginning of a wonderful future that leverages cloud-based technology to allow firms to operate at their most efficient, productive and collaborative levels while attracting the best and brightest talent and most lucrative client base to their firm.

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