Canadian Lawyer InHouse

25 canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse february 2015 There's also the need to be more produc- tive, better organized, or even changes in corporate culture that get in-house counsel looking at software as a possible answer. However, cost and the challenge of force- fitting tools made for law firms into a gen- eral counsel setting can make the purchas- ing and deployment process complicated. There may also be shifts in technology and business models that could change the way such tools are acquired — where corporate counsel are not necessarily considered the primary customer anymore. the tipping points for in-house software Although several vendors that offer specific software for in-house counsel exist today, including Legal Suite, they all face a formi- dable competitor. It's not another company, it's an attitude among some in-house law- yers that they can do well enough without it. "It's hard to justify the cost," says Dan Pollack, a lawyer based in Toronto who runs his own private practice while also serving as a part-time in-house counsel at Masterfile Corp., a stock photo image li- brary. "I've been approached a few times by vendors for various products, including the larger, well-known vendors. They have very good products, but whenever we've gotten to costs it seems prohibitive. We can manage the files we have." It's not that the price tag of legal software isn't worth it, he adds. It's just that in many cases they were designed for companies so big they basically have their own internal law firm. Matter management software isn't helpful when you're not dealing with a lot of matters, and billing isn't necessarily relevant either. And considering that Canada is large- ly a nation of small- and medium-sized busi- nesses, Pollack is probably not alone. On the other hand, when companies get bigger, they may find themselves still acting like small-time operators in terms of legal processes. Darren Gower, marketing direc- tor at Eclipse Legal Systems in the U.K., said his firm often comes across customers that suddenly feel out of their depth. "You'll find them trying to handle every- thing with Excel and Word. The files will be here, there, and everywhere," he says. "Once the volumes are too great, and you're dealing with a lot of complexity, it no longer lends itself to this piecemeal approach." Eclipse offers software called Proclaim, which includes a version for in-house law- yers with modules for diary and task lists, automated document production, and pro- cess management. Similarly, Legal Suite's product spans contracts, insurance, litiga- tion, and a host of other areas. The other obstacle to using more standardized tools, Fischer says, are corporate IT departments, who sometimes suggest workarounds using products like Microsoft SharePoint to store files and documents. "They'll sometimes block us a little bit, because they'll tell (in-house teams), 'Look, we have people on the bench, so we can develop something for you,'" he says. "But then, what IT implemented doesn't work, or they are not able to maintain it. IT depart- ments have experience in managing soft- ware, not necessarily creating it." As such, some of the off-the-shelf corporate counsel software is probably a lot better than products that turn out to be better suited for paralegals or third-party law firms, says Lorne O'Reilly, general counsel at Superior Plus Corp. in Edmonton. His department recently deployed contract management software so it could evolve from using simple spreadsheets to something that can receive invoices, analyze and track progress on claims, and so on. He says in-house lawyers who get on top of the technology early will save themselves considerable frustration later on. "Most often we're in the situation where we need to do something to expand our ca- pabilities because we are under-resourced," he says. "The organization prefers to have other resources allocated to operations or finance. Legal is left to do what it can. For many operations, though, there is an oppor- tunity for better processes. Software can help do that." disruption ahead? Right now many of the vendors in this space are niche players, and one potential issue for lawyers is what will happen to some of the tools in the longer term. In other areas of business software, the trend has been to- wards consolidation, where the largest com- panies buy up tools with an existing market. Then there are startups, like Salesforce.com, that focus on a particular piece of a business and wind up dominating. Could the same thing happen with corporate legal software? Andrew Bartels, an analyst with For- rester Research based in Cambridge, Mass., is doubtful there are a lot of legal software M&As on the horizon. "Both Oracle and SAP already have their maTTHeW billiNgToN

• Cover