Law new refers to the practice of providing legal help in a different way than traditional firms. It involves finding ways to deliver services more efficiently and using innovative strategies that can benefit clients. It can also involve creating a niche practice that offers specific types of help outside the primary focus of a firm’s main legal efforts. Typically, this new focus will involve the use of technology and a flexible approach to fees.
This is a rapidly evolving field and it can be hard to pin down exactly what the term means. However, it is clear that this type of practice can be beneficial to clients and it may help a legal firm become more profitable. This is why it is important for all legal firms to consider this option as a way of providing additional help to their clients.
Historically, the practice of law has been an industry that has tended to focus on price. Many lawyers have focused on cutting salaries and reducing the use of full time staff in order to cut costs. This type of approach is still in place but there is a shift in focus. The goal now is to focus on delivering high quality services for an affordable price. Law firms are trying to find new ways of doing this by making strategic investments in technology and looking at other ways of delivering legal services.
The legal industry is about to undergo a major transformation. In the future, it will more closely resemble its corporate customers and society at large. It will be more diverse – cognitively, demographically, culturally and experientially – with a multi-disciplinary team that is tech proficient, creative, empathetic and collaborative. It will have an integrated platform-based delivery structure from which agile, fluid and on demand resources with verifiable, material expertise and experience can be sourced. Profit will be derived from customer impact that produces high net promoter scores, rather than a legacy economic model based on input.
It will be a multidisciplinary legal workforce that will include traditional lawyers, “legal techies,” process/project managers and data analysts. It will not lead with technology, but with a business strategy that is designed to address a client/end-user challenge. Fit-for-purpose technology must be a component of a delivery plan that is reverse engineered from the end-user perspective. It is only then that the law will truly be made new. To learn more about leveraging law new for your firm, contact us today. We would be happy to share our experiences and provide you with the tools necessary for a successful transition.