Last week in Time to visit the legal sausage factory - Questions for clients to ask their lawyers in 2017 I suggested that it was time law firm clients learned more about how their law firms actually work, because:

• it's probably not as good as what the client thinks; and
• the only way that the much needed changes to the legal profession will occur - and which clients say they want - is if clients demand and require it. 

Perhaps a little controversially, I suggested many law firms may be similar to sausage factories - we like the end product, but we wouldn't be that happy if we saw how its actually made relative to standards we are used to seeing in other industries.  This may be unfair on some firms who really do work efficiently, but if that's the case, they're keeping pretty quiet about some real competitive advantages they could be marketing on.

In any event, it should be relatively easy to work out if things are as good as they should be - just ask the right questions.  Law isn't unique.  Clients should be carrying out the type of due diligence they commonly undertake on other suppliers - getting their hands dirty and undertaking site inspections, process analysis, bench marking and regular reviews. 

I've come up with 13 questions.  To get things started, the first question I suggest asking is can you show us how you actually work?  

2017 is when the changes will become real

2017 will be a big year for the legal profession. 2016 was a year everyone talked about "disruption" and all the changes that are going to happen. 2017 will be a year where the changes start to be seen and therefore become “real” in the minds of many lawyers.

Those lawyers and organisations that have been trialling technology will move to more extensive adoption. They will start to publicise it and the benefits they can offer, as they seek to differentiate and profit from it.

There is an increasing awareness of the changes that are coming, as stories like this (Rebooting the Legal Profession) profile what the leading firms in Australia and elsewhere are doing and planning.  Last week's blog (Shit Just Got Real! Changes to law ARE coming) gave a wider view of what is happening.

Yet there is still reluctance to look at new legal technology…

And yet, there is still a reluctance from many law firms to even look at adopting new technology. As one lawyer put it to me in 2015, given they are well paid for taking hours to do jobs that can be done almost instantly with automation, “why would we do anything until the day before we have to?”.

18 months later lawyers are still unsure what new technology will mean for them, and whether it will replace or enhance them. They are waiting to see others move first, so they can be “fast followers”.

Two circuit breakers are needed

This reluctance and uncertainty means that two things will be needed to encourage broader and faster adoption:

Happy New Year everyone! 

Typically the Christmas/New Year period in New Zealand is a time of rest and relaxation after the pre-Christmas rush that occurs every year.  This means it could be easy to miss the large number of interesting articles that surface around this time of the year, recapping on what happened in the previous year and predicting what will happen next year.

It would be a shame to miss these, because there’s still a sense of complacency and lack of knowledge in New Zealand about the amount of change that is coming, and how much time law firms will have to adapt to the change when it arrives.

We’ve captured the most interesting articles we read over the past couple of months and listed them below.  I think it is staggering how much is happening internationally, and have little doubt that 2017 will see a lot more progress than we’ve seen to date. I hope this helps you to see how real these changes are, and factor them into your plans for 2017.

What do you think about this?  Are there any other interesting articles you think should be mentioned?

In these earlier posts I set out 7 Key questions for in-house lawyers considering if document automation could help your organisation, and 8 ways document automation could help your in-house team.

In this post I look at 6 types of documents which your organisation is likely to produce regularly, and how they can benefit from automation:

• procurement documents
• agreements for supply of goods and services
• property documents
• employment agreements and related documents
• checklists
• company secretarial documents

In this earlier post, 7 Key questions for in-house lawyers considering if document automation could help your organisation, I looked at 7 key questions that an in-house lawyer can consider when thinking about whether document automation could help them and the business they support.

In this post, I've set out 8 potential benefits from using a cloud based document automation solution.  While most of these benefits relate to document automation generally, I've also noted some of the benefits in working with a partner like LawHawk which can allow you to access high quality document automation solutions more easily - as a managed service, where you only pay for agreed deliverables, without the costs of trying to figure it out yourself.

Document automation is not just for lawyers in firms

While the LawHawk system has been designed to make it easy for law firms to pick up document automation to provide better service to their clients at a low per-use cost, it is also suitable - probably more so - for in-house teams. 

In-house teams don't have an obsolete business model to protect - they simply have more work than they can get through, and a more urgent need to find solutions - for them and the businesses they support.

To work out if document automation could help you, consider these 7 questions:

I'm really excited that Allen Li has joined LawHawk, starting 14 November. Allen has most recently been working as a derivatives lawyer in London for a global bank, and experiencing first hand the global trend toward automation and its significant benefits. Before that we worked together at Buddle Findlay so I knew what a great asset he would be for LawHawk and its customers when he came back to New Zealand. 

I recently wrote an ebook on technology, and how it can help lawyers be more successful, after speaking at a conference and finding there was real interest in the topic.  Covering more than 50 different technologies, it has been downloaded many times, but the Law Society was also interested in adapting it into an article for LawTalk, which they have now done.

You can read the LawTalk article here, and it is also set out in full below.  The full ebook (which contains some more detailed information, a number of graphics, and more hyperlinks to the various suppliers) is also still available for download here: http://info.lawhawk.nz/tech-and-disruption-ebook.

My earlier post (Senior associates: 10 ideas for taking more control of your career) struck a chord with a number of people, with the number of shares and comments I received confirming that there definitely is an issue with Senior Associates (and senior in-house lawyers too), and a desire to do something about it. Interestingly, a number of Senior Associates also told me they would have liked to have shared it, but were concerned about how their Partners would have reacted. Food for thought on how those relationships are going... 

While my core message for Senior Associates was to take control of their own lives, they can’t do it alone and depending on where their mind is at, how confident they are, and their history with the firm, they might not make a start by themselves. However, they might if their supervisor or someone else who is looking out for them gives them a nudge and a few tips on where to start.

So I wanted to provide some tips for Partners and Directors of law firms who know a Senior Associate who has more potential than they have been using and who they would like to help kick on. You don’t have to be a direct supervisor – in fact, it might work even better if you are not, or if two or more people are involved as mentors. This framework can also work for less senior team members too, but I think it should work really well for Senior Associates, who have greater ability to take individual action.

I really like the framework outlined below, even more because it's come from someone who really knows his stuff, and is being used in real life at ASB Bank.

As I've written about before, purpose and meaning are big things for me in gaining and maintaining motivation, and it's increasingly important to younger lawyers coming into the profession.

LawTalk recently published an article I wrote on this containing six recommendations for how you and your team can find meaning and satisfaction.  You can read it here, and the full text is also set out below.