Innovation in Law Firms

Implementing Successful Projects

By (author) Stuart Whittle, Catriona Wolfenden

Publication date:

23 October 2024

Length of book:

191 pages

Publisher

Globe Law and Business

ISBN-13: 9781787429550

Innovation in legal services remains a hot topic, yet technology adoption does not always keep up with the hype. While there is a plethora of academic and professional research about the area, there is a lack of guidance on the practicalities of helping professionals actually get innovation right. This book focuses on implementing innovation and the innovation process in a law firm, from pilot to adoption and everything in between (whether that be within the law firm itself or undertaken by the law firm’s clients). Innovation in Law Firms is packed with insight from the authors who lead the award-winning innovation team at Weightmans, and who have experience of starting innovation from scratch, as well as viewpoints ranging from the strategic, board-level perspective to the on-the-ground experience of actually doing innovation projects. It is practical rather than theoretical in style and aims to fill some of the adoption gap by exploring the highs and lows of innovating in law firms, and outlining practical steps that can be taken to mitigate some of the potential pitfalls. Whether at the start or part way through an innovation journey, this book allows readers to dip in and out, providing guidance on specific issues as they arise as part of the innovation lifecycle.

About the authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Introduction: What has Donoghue v. Stevenson got to do with innovation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Chapter 1: A faster horse or the moon on a stick? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Client-led innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The business of law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter 2: Getting started – big picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Getting started with no money and no team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The importance of a vision (and Board support) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 What does success look like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 “You know this might not work, right?” – being comfortable with the uncomfortable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Forming, storming, norming, and performing – bringing together people with curiosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Listen, talk, network, and listen some more – deciding what to do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 It’s not just about the technology – starting the hearts and minds journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Chapter 3: Getting started – proofs of concepts and methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 The ideation process – creating a hopper of ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Does it solve a problem and is it doable? Prioritizing ideas . . . . . . . . . . 34 Running a pilot – from timing and success criteria to risk approval and everything in between . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 An A-Z of useful (legal and non-legal) methodologies – taking what is useful and applying a liberal dose of common sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Example pilot action plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Chapter 4: Skills, team, and bringing others with you – recruiting your “pirates in the navy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 How it helps to be a jack of all trades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 How to encourage rebel ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Intrapreneurship – finding your “pirates in the navy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Innovation is contagious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 It is not the size of the innovation team that matters, but the careful curation of it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Chapter 5: When it works – lessons learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Not all subject matter experts are born equal – how to spot the right ones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Ensuring you have the right people, in the right room, at the right time, on the right page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 How to help your subject matter expert with innovation . . . . . . . . . . . 82 How your subject matter expert should help you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 We have an interested client, now what? Minimum Viable Products and managing expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Is it repeatable and scalable (and does it always matter)? . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Chapter 6: Change management – dealing with people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 The “I’ve promised the client an app for that” lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 The naysayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 The keyboard warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 The obdurate litigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 The “That should be free for my client” lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 The enthusiastic amateur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 The “Can we have an app for that” lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 The technology visionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 The overcommitted lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 The baffled-by-Excel lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 The only interested the week before my appraisal lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . 109 The gold dust lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Chapter 7: So, you want me to collaborate? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Internal collaboration – working with lawyers and business services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Working with clients – the moon on a stick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Working with external suppliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Working with other law firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Working with academia – is there a disconnect between research and reality? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Working with funding bodies – dealing with life at a different pace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Working with micro and start-up businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Chapter 8: When things go wrong – bouncing back from lessons learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Solving the wrong problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Solving a symptom and not a root cause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Seduced by the art of the possible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Boiling the ocean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Being swayed by the loudest voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 The wisdom of crowds or following like lemmings? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Assuming the end user knows what they want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Having a solution before you know what the problem is . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Spending time on the urgent rather than the important . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Failing – not enough? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Chapter 9: If you build it, who will come? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 From pilot to roll-out – hurdles, pitfalls, and the problem of reacting to anecdote rather than data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 What are you measuring – what does adoption success look like? . . . 152 Innovation solutions becoming business-as-usual – how do you gather momentum and let go? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Following the crowd – adoption because everyone else is using it . . . 157 Chapter 10: Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Professional obligations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 People and organizational barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Chapter 11: Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Marketing teams – awards and the warm PR glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 IT teams – products, architecture, and security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Risk teams – a changing risk appetite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Internal client and legal teams – just do it (even if we cannot define “it”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Chapter 12: The next big thing – looking forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Has all the digital lipstick gone? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Towards a sustainable innovation model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 What next after the O-shaped lawyer? Upskilling future leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 About Globe Law and Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Stuart and Catriona are both highly regarded leaders in the world of legal innovation, known for their ability to not only generate groundbreaking ideas but to make them happen in the real world. They have consistently demonstrated a knack for developing the right capabilities within their teams and Weightmans, creating an environment where innovation is not just a buzzword, but a driving force evidenced by tangible success. What sets them apart is their hands-on, battle-tested experience and consistent delivery of results. They have earned their reputations by rolling up their sleeves, leading from the front, and navigating the complex and often gritty process of driving change and implementation. Their approach is real and is streets apart from the theoretical - they’ve been in the trenches, learning from challenges, overcoming obstacles, and refining their methods through real-world successes and lessons learned. The battle scars they carry are a testament to their resilience, adaptability, and ability to lead and turn innovative ideas into operational excellence. They not only envision the future but create it. For these reasons and more this book is essential reading.