Canadian Lawyer

18 J U L Y 2 0 1 6 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m T E C H S U P P O RT Although it's not particularly well known in Canada yet, the growing and likely to be dominant Corporate Legal Operations Consortium is setting an agenda based on the concept of a legal services ecosystem. The stated mission according to its web site is: "To help legal operations professionals and other core corporate legal industry players (e.g. tech providers, law firms, LPOs, law schools, etc.) optimize the legal service delivery models needed to support the needs of small, medium, and large legal depart- ments." There are other associations and they are quite good, but, curiously, they insist that individual members must be lawyers — even if they are part of an in-house department. Increasingly, in the commercial context, lawyers are not the straw that stirs the drink. They are but one feature in a broader supply chain and as solutions become largely technology or process driven, the best outcomes are going to be achieved by cross-disciplinary approaches. Richard Susskind doesn't have the monopoly on the idea, but has articu- lated it best and often that the law does not exist to provide a living for lawyers. If you're selling something, anything, why wouldn't you focus first and fore- most on those that provide you with the revenue to pay your bills? Somehow, this fundamental precept has been missed by traditional providers of legal services who service clients well, even when the ladder is leaning against the wrong house. Of all the data that might interest smart clients, lawyer and law firm rankings and ratings do not make the cut. Clients are more concerned with managing their budget, which doesn't necessarily mean cutting costs, but at least controlling spend with a level of transparency and quantifi- able efficiency gains. They use metrics, dashboards, and tools to optimize their spend and nowhere in that calculous are they required to exclusively utilize lawyers or law firms for management of contracts, content, IP, compliance, data, records, e-signature, policies, process, and espe- cially knowledge. When it comes to innovation, while slow in uptake, there is still a laud- able attempt being made by many law firms. Regrettably, there is also a fair amount of dubious marketing of those efforts whether the results are real or merely aspirational. So how to mea- sure successful innovation? Consider that Deloitte aims to have 30 per cent of revenue from services that weren't being executed in the prior two years. It's a bold target that drives a run rate of between 24 and 28 per cent. It's also s much as talk in legal and broader commerce overall these days centres on David v. Goliath or even the clash of the titans (think BigLaw), there's a very faulty set of assumptions around this type of thinking. Taking the view that it's us versus them unduly limits the possibilities not just for better delivery of current services but also creation of new forms of value in the best interests of the ultimate client. An ecosystem approach with some level of co-ordination among many contributors provides the best and most interesting outcomes. It's also a key driver of innovation. Many readers of this column are not blogosphere/Twitterverse addicts and perhaps discover trends and consume ideas in the mar- ket by reading print, word of mouth, or their own experience. That's so adorable! You can't lay claim to common sense if you are not attempting to view the broadest context possible. Separating signal from noise is a challenge, but that doesn't mean you should cease questioning assumptions and even your own experience. A Remaking the law fi rm ecosystem It's not the end of lawyers or law fi rms but defi nitely a reshuffl ing of their importance in the broader value chain. By Jason Moyse and Aron Solomon O P I N I O N @aronsolomon @jasonmoyse

• Cover