After the alarms and excursions of earlier today and getting out the latest issue of the Insider newsletter, here are a couple of gentler topics...
• First off LiliConnect (the legal IT networking group) are holding another evening meeting – this time on the 9th February at the Andaz Hotel near Liverpool Street Station – when the guest speaker is India Gary-Martin, the MD & COO (Technology & Operations) at JP Morgan. Full details on the attached PDF.
• Secondly, we don't know why he has a blue ball on top of his head but David Thorpe is off running the London Marathon again this year on 22nd April, this time to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation charity for sick children. Please sponsor/make a donation – and be generous as you know it will take David until June to recover!
by Dee Caporali, director for Access, specialist in providing HR software to the legal sector
With the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) now a licensed regulator for alternative business structures (ABS), this month marks the start of it accepting applications from legal firms. As one would expect, Chief Executive Antony Townsend welcomed the news, stating on their website: “It means the public can have confidence that ABS providing reserved legal activities will be regulated according to the same rigorous professional standards as traditional law firms." If all goes to plan, the SRA should announce its first successful applicant early this year.
It will certainly be interesting to see how things materialise. All firms, regardless of whether or not they go the ABS route, will have to be more competitive and innovative in their approach. Undoubtedly some tough decisions need to be made in this new deregulated environment which will see the commoditisation of legal services.
Technology will play a part in helping firms strengthen their position, whether this is through streamlining business processes and cutting costs, improving customer experience, or managing human capital more effectively. In terms of the latter, with more competition for the best lawyers it will be vital that firms look after their most valuable asset. A cliché perhaps but crucial to future success and firms are increasingly focusing their attention on HR technology.
The introduction of ABS would mean a huge shift in how firms operate, from the individuals they employ to the training they receive as well as succession planning. There is a strong likelihood that firms will be a mix of legal and non-legal professionals as was highlighted in research commissioned by Access to mark its 20th anniversary, titled The Future of Technology: transforming mid-market business operations*. A growing belief that multi-disciplinary practices (MDP) are the future business structures of legal professional services organisations will bring solicitors together with accountants, independent financial advisers, estate agents, surveyors, and other professional services providers, all under one roof. Clients will be able to obtain advice on conveyancing, tax and financial planning, personal injury and wills, from a single firm. Given the potential varied scope of professional services offerings, firms need to consider technology that is wider in scope than the traditional practice and case management systems used up until now, integrating the different areas of the business as well as managing the diversity of talent.
HR systems will help to smooth the process from identifying the need for new skills, to meeting staffing requirements and ensuring that professionals with the right expertise are allocated to clients – this is especially important given the SRA’s move towards a more qualitative style of measuring professional conduct and service delivery to customers. Succession planning is another area of rising concern for firms, given they are turning away from the traditional route of promoting partners within the organisation. This means they will need to carefully review the incentives they have in place if they are to avoid haemorrhaging the brightest talent with the increase in competition for their services.
The bottom line is that technology is an enabler that can help firms more efficiently manage their business; for the HR director in particular it helps them to automate as many of the day-to-day administrative tasks as possible, alongside supporting recruitment drives, CPD, personal development/training programmes and self-service – and crucially providing the business intelligence needed for HR teams to play a strategic role in the firm’s direction, and ultimately their success.
There's no hiding place from Orange Rag editor Charles Christian, who today has the first of his new monthly legal IT opinion columns go live on the Legal IT Professionalswebzine. Here's the link – enjoy and feel free to disagree...
It is not big, it is not clever, you are just naughty boys who need to put your money where your mouthes are...
Earlier today we sent out an emailing offering a special offer to subscribers for the LawTech Futures event – the message quite clearly said the details were in the attached PDF. This states that is a special offer for law firmsetc however this hasn't stopped All the World & His Uncle Consultants & Vendors trying to scrounge free tickets.
Why can't they have free tickets? Because it is unfair on the vendors who are sponsoring the event or paid for stand space. So, if you are a consultant or a vendor who wants to come to the event, you can come but you have to pay the commercial rate. This, incidentally, is also exactly the same policy as all major legal conferences operate. We'll be re-emailing the invitation but here are those terms you have been studiously ignoring...
Conditions of Invitation & Acceptance: · This invitation is offered to subscribers of the Legal Technology Insider without cost - Typical value £490 + VAT · Should you not be able to attend this event, this invitation is transferable to other full time members/employees of your Firm, Chambers’ or Corporate Legal Department · All guests must be directly employed with your Firm, Chambers’ or Corporate Legal Department · This invitation is not to be offered or transferred to consultants, vendors or suppliers · This invitation cannot be re-sold, redeemed or exchanged for cash or credit · All acceptances must be registered via the online ‘Delegate Registration’ page at www.lawtechfutures.com · All acceptances must register LTisub100 within the ‘Invitation/Discount Code’ area within the online registration form at time of registration, or the typical value may be charged · Netlaw Media reserves the right to cancel any invitation at its discretion & without explanation · Netlaw Media reserves the right to cancel all invitations when this event reaches full capacity – subscribers of the Legal Technology Insider are urged to register quickly as this event will sell out. · Only registrations made via the on-line delegate registration page will be accepted, under no circumstances will entry be offered at the door.
So, it's that time of the year: Friday 13th, the trains are running late, it feels a long time since Christmas and all you have to remind you of those happier times are a pile of credit card bills. Time for something new? Maybe a new job? Or what about some new word games...
• Word's up: Deloitte's are predicting that Gamification will be one of the Top 10 Tech Trends of 2012 more and more businesses are using it to positively charge their marketing, advertising, training, and customer relationships. Non-the-wiser? Basically 'gamification' means adding an interactive games element to a business process – apparently McDonalds are whizzes at this. One lawyer (who shall remain nameless) suggests it could have a role in law firms... • Play your Cards Right (setting a fee rate) • Give Us A Clue (know your client) • Partners Win Prizes (they get more money) • Trainees Win Prizes (they get a job offer) • Endurance (from Japanese TV - trainees are forced to undertake a series of humiliating tasks, the winner gets a job offer - which means they can continue undertaking a series of humiliating tasks for the next 15 years when they might get promoted to partner)
During 2012 all legal practices will have to have a designated officer for legal practice (COLP) as well as a compliance officer for finance & administration (COFA). As the burden of monitoring and enforcing compliance increases firms need to devise systems and processes to support their Compliance Officer to effectively and efficiently monitor their practices.
In order to do this Linetime have released their Outcome Focused Regulations & Lexcel v5 module. This module is available as part of the Liberate practice management and case management systems and supports: • Managing policy and office procedure documentation • Case overview, featuring the file review checklists & monitoring areas of compliance ie money laundering, conflict check, risk status, key dates • Client care documentation (Charging structures, Client Objectives, Agreed next stages, Terms & Conditions, Equality & diversity monitors) • Monitor progress (Quick access to view all files and their current compliance status, File review checklist and risk monitor, High risk - automatic notification to risk officer, Risk register, Complaints register and manager, Personnel Management)
If you would like to see a demonstration of the new Linetime software they are holding a CPD accredited breakfast seminar in conjunction with LBSLEGAL on Thursday 19th January 2012 at the Carrwood Business Park, Selby Road, Leeds LS15 4LG. 3 hours CPD accredited - £45 + vat per delegate. For more information and to reserve your place call Kathryn Holmes at Linetime Limited now on 0113 250 0020 or email kathrynh@linetime.co.uk
Just when you thought the Word comparison debate was finally over, here is something else to consider; this time from a law firm looking at how law firms do comparison now and whether Word 2010 is a game-changer?
For law firms, there is one fundamental question: What do you want to do with your comparison document? Do you want it: • as a track changes document to improve efficiency when collaborating on documents with other parties; or • in a traditional redline format that presents some changes in an easier to understand way (eg table structure changes), but that you shouldn’t use as an editable document?
The answer depends on the contents of the document and the purpose of the comparison but, usually, track changes comparisons should meet your needs. If you aren’t yet convinced of the efficiency benefits when using track changes, check out Sherry Kappel's excellent presentation** for the New York Word Legal Users Group (in particular slide 18 and 19).
If I send my first draft to another firm for their comments, would I prefer the amended document to be: 1 a track changes document where I can efficiently accept, reject and change the other firm's amendments; or 2 a traditional redline mark up document showing the changes made to the document, with a clean revised document that I can amend further?
Surprisingly, my preference would be 2. Why? Not because I don't like the efficiency of track changes, or because of concerns over native Word comparison accuracy. It's because I want to recreate the track changes compare document using my original document and the clean revised version.
So if I wanted a track changes document, why wouldn't I just use the one supplied by the other firm? The problem is that most third party comparison products now have an option to save their mark-up document in a Word track changes format. The quality of these documents is variable and one vendor has stated, with good reason, that its track changes documents are not suitable for further amendment. This is because its track changes document often contains serious numbering corruption issues and because the compare process replaces automated features with manual text.
When I receive a track changes document, I have no idea how the sender created it, and therefore whether it is safe to use or not. Even if it is "safe" there is still a risk the sender has selected choices in a third party product that have stripped out some of my document formatting (eg automatic cross-references or table of contents).
We have warned our lawyers and secretaries to watch out for track changes documents where the numbering is broken. In these cases, or where there is doubt, we are asking the sender to provide a clean copy of the amended document.
To avoid the problems described above, I create my own comparisons using my preferred choice of comparison software. And if I want to produce a track changes document most suitable for further editing, the best choice is to use the native Word comparison engine.
Instead of third party vendors explaining the limitations in using native Word comparison, perhaps they could tell us about the deficiencies or dangers of their comparison products when producing track changes documents?
* Kim Walton is the Professional Services Development Manager at SNR Denton UK LLP. She is also on the organising committee of the UK Document Excellence Group.
The 2011 Clio Apple in Law Firms Survey results have been tabulated and 763 people participated, 80% of which were practicing lawyers and 20% of which were law students or non-lawyers. 76% of respondents were lawyers at firms with 10 attorneys or less. Many of the survey respondents were relative Mac newcomers: 25.3% of respondents had switched to Mac within the past year. Co-sponsored by MILOfest, this year’s results show that Apple products are going strong and gaining ground with small firm lawyers at the expense of previously dominant legal technology players, such as Research in Motion. Widely-used products in the survey included iPhones, used by 60.9% of respondents; Dropbox, used by 25% of respondents; iCloud, seeing high adoption at 15%; and Android phones with usage at 13%. Evernote, a note-taking app not included in last year’s survey, debuted at 14% usage. OpenOffice had gained 2 percentage points since last year, showing that open source technology is appealing to solo and small law firms. Why are lawyers continuing to “go Mac”? 46.5% of respondents said they chose Apple hardware over PC options because the technology was more reliable and secure. Usability was next on at 33.8%. Familiarity due to home use of Apple/Mac products was 9.8%, and surprisingly aesthetics and design came in fourth at only 3%. 76.5% of law students said that when they graduate, they plan on choosing a Mac platform for their office. his statistic shows that Mac has a bright future in legal, since the new generation graduating is heavily Apple-oriented. “This is the second year Clio has conducted this Apple in Law Firms survey to benchmark the degree of adoption of Apple products and other emerging technology in the legal industry,” said Clio CEO & Co-Founder Jack Newton. “Apple hardware and devices - especially the iPad and iPhone - continue to capture the attention and dollars of lawyers, cloud-based applications have won attorneys’ confidence and gained more traction. With the majority of law students planning to use Mac apps in their law practices upon graduation, we can reasonably predict a longstanding trend toward continued expansion of Apple products within the legal industry.” (Clio’s parent company Themis Solutions Inc is based in Vancouver, British Columbia)
All legal professionals and law students were invited to participate in the survey, regardless of size and location. The survey aimed to determine to what extent lawyers and law students are now using Apple products, and whether there is clear evidence of an increasing trend of the legal industry “going Mac” in the future. For more information on the 2011 Clio Apple in Law Firms Survey or to receive the complete survey results, email info@goclio.com
by James Smith, Training Manager, Quiss Technology plc
Uncertainty over the future of the UK economy remains but many businesses are beginning to look forward once more. With organisations leaner than ever and with little current desire to increase the headcount, UK businesses should train their existing workforce and give them the necessary skills to aid growth. Now is not the time to be cutting training budgets but a time to invest more.
In the current economic climate it is tempting for businesses to cut spending on training, but research shows those which do not train their workforce are almost three times more likely to fail than businesses that do. As companies look to grow their way out of recession, their ability to process, manage and interpret information will ultimately define their success or failure. Organizations must ensure the IT skills of their workforce keep pace with advances in technology and software.
Training is no different to any other business process: it is changing to better reflect the needs of modern business and has come out of the classroom to a large extent, with on-site floor walking now proving very popular. With workforces cut to the minimum and a lack of cover affecting almost all organizations, they can ill-afford to have employees away on day-long training courses, when it could be done with the employee sat at their desk. This not only minimizes the amount of working time lost, but ensures the individual is trained using their own equipment and data in a working environment with the ability to use real-time examples.
Trainers might be on site all day but only spend 15-20 minutes with each individual, working on specific areas of interest that help that person with their day-to-day job. All the learning is done in short concentrated sessions, with the individual setting the pace they learn at. We find this approach makes understanding topics easier and greatly increases the knowledge retention.
New skills the individual may require can be worked on there and then to give an immediate increase in productivity, with a heightened level of confidence. Working with people in their environment, immediately puts them at ease and not embarrassed to ask a question they may not ask in a classroom setting. At a time when training budgets are under scrutiny, removing the costs associated with training away from the office, like accommodation and travel expenses, is one way to make a budget go further and bring new skills to more people.
This new approach was highlighted recently, when we undertook a tailored training programme for Kepak Group, one of Europe's leading food processing companies. Helping employees with a good understanding of Microsoft Excel, we were able to develop course content based on very specific actions, to help increase productivity in their day-to-day activities. This bespoke course would have required attendance on three standard Excel courses to cover the same aspects in the level of detail we achieve.
Tailored training also offers a small but significant further benefit to a business; horses for courses. Why spend your valuable budget, training employees with general skills that may help them find another job as their competence improves, at the company’s expense. Better to train the IT skills specific to their role and improve their performance for the business paying for the training.
An important aspect of good training is that it helps nurture and develop the talent within a business. It delivers greater benefits than external recruitment and also proves more cost-effective in the long run. Exhibiting commitment to a workforce by constant, on-going training is shown to increases staff motivation and improve staff retention, with individuals feeling more valued if they are receiving training to help their personal and professional growth. The importance of IT skills in our professional and personal lives ensures it will remain one of the most valuable training areas an individual can experience.
Fortunately, almost every business is now beginning to recognise the importance of good IT training to the future of their business. They are turning to the most obvious and viable alternative to hiring in new talent and training their own employees to new heights of efficiency and productivity. Offering tailored training, in bite-sized pieces, at their own desk is definitely the future.
Yes, we are in a festive mood here at the Orange Rag (oh no we're not, we've got a newsletter to finish ...Ed) so here are some early stocking fillers (no cliche left unturned)...
• First off a big thanks to Lewis Silkin for sending us our first Xmas card of the season (see part of it below). Inside, the card sets a few tasks including: spot the lawyer sledging in his briefcase - the office romance under the mistletoe - the snowman wearing sunglassess - the man wearing the 'festive' jumper - the four very lost penguins - and, of, course you need to spot the hidden Claus.
We think a number of opportunities have been missed here including: spot the IT consultant enjoying a modest business lunch + spot the five gingerbread IT salesmen, including the one who has had his leg pulled off by the firm's IT director for failing to deliver a product on time and on budget.
• Next, let's get the party started with some music – forget iTunes, just phone up Mimecast and listen to their on-hold muzac which is the loudest we've ever heard in our lives.
• Finally, here's a good example from the US of how to do a Christmas-themed corporate promotional video that delivers a message yet is still amusing. (Our thanks to Rob Lancashire at Bighand for sending us this link – CDW work with Bighand in the US.)
Next week we hope to have news about the Insider Panto.
