The law may tell a tale as old as time, but when it comes to the actual practice of law, it’s important it keeps pace with the changing times. Read on to gain some perspective on the tidal wave of trends that are shaking up the legal world.
Business, technology, and diversity: three not-so-fleeting trends changing the world and the way that lawyers do business.
Business
If anybody ever told you that legal work and business go hand-in-hand they’re 100 percent on the money. It’s true that our clients may want truth and justice, but what they fundamentally crave is efficiency – they all share a get-the-job-done-clean-and-quick mentality. With the explosion of big data and the need for ongoing analysis to make sense of it all, increasingly law firms are feeling the pressure to develop into sophisticated, well-organised data centres. As the demand for streamlined, cost-effective solutions grows, outsourcing of work is becoming the norm. Today, problem-solving and a collaborative leadership style are must-haves rather than niceties for lawyers who still have to balance personnel issues, bureaucracy, and client needs. Making an investment in some business training might make all the difference.
Technology
This business zeitgeist is the direct result of the age of digital transformation, which is having a profound effect on every aspect of our culture and our professions. In a world where AI and automation will become integral to the simplest of tasks, the role of these tools in everything from contract review to the preservation of evidence mustn’t be understated. If we consider how many current and future cases hinge on the introduction of electronic data evidence, technology’s hand in every aspect of the law should be apparent. Lawyers may even find themselves competing with technology for clients. Just ask the flourishing virtual law offices springing up around the globe or that old standby, Google, Attorney-at-Law. More tried-and-true traditionalists could give themselves a leg-up of leverage by investing in blogs or an active, professional social media presence.
Diversity
Anyway, what is social media but an attempt to forge connections and foster communication across all barriers? Diversity – whether in characteristics or opinions – always brings change. Some firms today have a workforce which boasts as many as four generations working side by side. Each generation will have its own perspective on about topical workplace issues like work-life balance, retirement plans and schedule arrangements for example. In a highly competitive field like law, which is packed with strong-minded individuals, those strong and often divergent opinions can create a workplace Hades or a haven of collaboration.
The choice is ultimately ours. Entire fields such as green law have been driven by the injection of new viewpoints. Likewise, globalisation and the diversity it brings has erased many of the borders for international law firms and for domestic firms that merge talents from around the world.
Managing complex processes and decisions
Real-time visibility into your contracts is the first step towards managing complex processes and decisions about the future. Without this insight, it’s impossible to accurately assess where your organisation stands, or what the right decisions are moving forwards.
To get there, you need the best contract management software, and we believe that’s Contract Insight. Four Business Solutions has worked with many prestigious companies to help fine- tune and enhance this feature-rich, software system that addresses the entire contract lifecycle through functionality that is powerful, flexible, easy-to-use and workflow-driven.