Legal service providers can implement one simple change to erode the negative perception
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Most corporate legal departments in the US believe their law firms or legal service providers are not innovating, but a simple step could erode the negative impression.
Research from Acritas showed that 69% of senior in-house counsels in America believe they haven’t seen their law firms or legal service providers innovate in the last 12 months. The legal market research firm said, however, that their research shows a wide range of sophistication among firms and service providers.
“What is innovative to one client is normal practice to another. Our research clearly shows legal departments and their external legal service providers are at different stages of evolution,” said Lizzy Duffy, VP at Acritas US. “More basic levels of innovation can be made more impactful with new and different approaches, for example document management systems delivered through an app or warning notifications added to contract management systems.”
This is why a simple change could have a major impact on the perception of GCs on law firm innovation.
“Some law firms would benefit from a better understanding of the changing legal landscape, both in terms of solutions and providers and have an innovation plan. However, most law firms simply need to do a better job of communicating to their clients the innovations on offer,” Duffy said. “Innovation isn’t always about technology. It’s about having an entrepreneurial mindset and looking for ways to do things differently. It demands people with that drive and a supportive culture that allows people to try things and accommodates the failure that always attends invention.”
Acritas said that corporate legal departments are also investing in innovation, with 41% of US in-house teams having innovated internally. This is just slightly less than the average for legal departments worldwide, which is at 43%.Duffy said that leading innovation in the legal market are technology or knowledge providers.
Acritas examined the first-hand experience of more than 2,000 GCs through its “Sharplegal” service. The service studies where innovation is happening, who is driving innovation, what types of innovation exist, and what the implications are for in-house teams and for a modern law firm. The study also examined the changing landscape of legal service providers, as well as the rise of the Big Four and other consultancies and their threat and differences to traditional firms.
