Head of transformation for Banco Santander’s legal department Gloria Sánchez Soriano talks to The Lawyer on what the in-house function of the future will look like and the skills lawyers will need to fully take advantage of the legal technology available on the market.
Earlier this year Lara Oyesanya joined Swedish bank Klarna from Barclays, where she served as senior legal counsel since 2010. Ahead of her session at the In-house Financial Services Conference, Lara talks to The Lawyer about the legal challenges of digital innovation and the way in which technology is transforming the in-house lawyer’s relationship with external […]
Eversheds Sutherland global co-CEO Lee Ranson was one of 70 judges across private practice, in-house and the Bar who debated a record number of entries to narrow down the shortlist for The Lawyer Awards, in association with Travelers. How did you find the judging process for The Lawyer Awards? I very much enjoyed the process. […]
In our latest 60 second interview with The Lawyer’s Business Leadership Summit speakers, Kennedy Van der Laan’s legal service designer Jelle van Veenen talks to The Lawyer about law firm technology strategy and how design thinking can help with the innovation process.
Is it better to develop your own technology or buy it externally and bespoke it for your own needs?
Generally, it makes little sense for a law firm to develop software. Development is costly, time-consuming, and requires a high level of expertise. Software development also implies a long-term commitment to maintenance and support, which is also costly. Economically, it makes more sense to buy software from dedicated vendors that sell their product to a large number of customers, and use their margin to keep investing in development and innovation.
In practice, however, this is not always an option. At Kennedy Van der Laan |Sync, we talk to several software vendors every week, looking for tools that can potentially improve the way our clients work. What we find is that there are many technically advanced products out there, but only a fraction of them fit (or can be made to fit) the challenges of our clients. Our solution to this is usually one of the following:
We adopt a promising startup and coach them in order to improve their product-market fit
We pick products that have the flexibility that we need to achieve the right fit
In some cases, where there is a great demand for a certain product that is not being met by the market, we choose to develop our own products.
What are the biggest blockers to technology adoption?
For any innovation, be it a new tool, service, or product, three aspects are essential. First of all there needs to be a clear benefit for the user. This benefit has to outweigh the cost of using (and learning to use) the product by a sufficient margin.
Second, the innovation must be easy (or even fun) to use. The user experience has to be great, and it needs to integrate well with other tools and processes.
Third, users must know where to find the innovation and how to use it. The innovation needs to be readily available at the right time and place, and proper training and marketing efforts have to be made so that people can actually use it.
When technology adoption fails, it usually is because one or more of the above aspects have not been met. This happens, for instance, when a new technology seems to be so promising that it is implemented without properly considering the specifics of the organisation where it will be implemented. To improve the chance of success, any innovation process should start with proper interdisciplinary research. Methods such as ‘design thinking’ are essential for getting the right people involved at the right time, and reconsidering the people and processes that will be affected. Sure, this brings up some extra costs at the initial stage. But it can prevent a costly project from failing later on.
Are investments in legal tech all about reducing cost or is legal tech actually about increasing a law firm’s value proposition?
Over the last decade, we have seen technology-driven companies take over big parts of certain industries by offering a new response to lingering inefficiencies. In the legal industry we are also starting to see that specific tasks can now be handled more efficiently or more effectively by technology. Consequently, clients are becoming less willing to pay substantial hourly rates for commodity tasks such as drafting documents. Law firms could attempt to keep their share of this market by investing in their own technology offering, but chances are that tech companies will be able to do this more effectively by leveraging large-scale offerings.
The rise of legal tech is changing the legal market. I do not think that it is wise for law firms to seek to keep their current share of the market by competing directly with tech offerings. The smart thing for law firms to do is to observe how new products and services affect their clients, and to invest in new service offerings that respond to these new types of demands.
Tell us 2 truths and one lie (in any order) about yourself.
I have a Phd in law, but have never attended more than two classes in law school.
I once recorded a soundtrack. To a book.
I strongly believe that robots will take over the legal profession.
Jelle van Veenen is part of the 120+ managing partners, C-level executives and business services leaders gathering on the 25 September 2018 at the Business Leadership Summit in association with Propero to spend a day focusing on defining your law firm strategy in a tech driven future. For more information on the conference, a copy of the agenda, or to inquire about attending, please contact Nathan Graham on +44(0) 20 7970 4672.
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition, litigators have been moving en masse in Paris this year and we take a look into one of the bigger moves; Denmark’s Plesner passed the psychologically impactful DKK1bn mark for the first […]
Forsters has hired a team from Winckworth Sherwood, including former senior partner and head of employment Jo Keddie. Joining on 2 April, Keddie will lead its employment and partnerships practice. She will move with colleagues Danielle Crawford and Daniel Parker, who will join the team as counsel and senior associate, respectively. Forsters said that the […]
Ward McKimm, Shearman & Sterling’s European and Middle East regional managing partner, is leaving the firm less than two months before its Allen & Overy tie-up goes live. A statement from Shearman and McKimm read: “Shearman & Sterling and Ward McKimm jointly confirm that, after a nearly-30 year career as a leading high-yield and leveraged […]
Ex-Albanian Prime Minister challenges Home Office The Special Immigration Appeals Commission will today (18 March) hear the former President and Prime Minister of Albania’s bid to overturn a 2022 Home Office decision to bar him from the UK. The hearing, which is featured as one of The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2024, is expected to […]
Paul Weiss is continuing its London office expansion, hiring another private equity partner from Clifford Chance. Oliver Marcuse is set to join the US firm, just months after former magic circle colleague Chris Sullivan made the same move. Marcuse was promoted to the firm’s partnership in 2022, having spent his career at Clifford Chance. Secondments […]
This report contains: an analysis of the Scottish legal market as a whole, covering key locations and sectors the challenges and opportunities of doing business in the country analysis of the Scottish independent firms’ efficiency
This report contains: a look at the profitability and growth of Quinn Emanuel’s London office since its opening in 2008 an analysis of Quinn’s bench strength and how it weighs up against competitors an overview of Quinn’s practice in London
This report contains: The Lawyer‘s new global elite index which ranks firms on four key financial metrics analysis of the magic circle firms’ growth trajectories in the US insights from industry experts on firms poised for global dominance in the next decade detailed analysis of the magic circles practice area performance using data from The […]
This report contains: An overview of claims heard at a selection of courts in the UK during 2023
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Demand for partner laterals in London is at an all-time high. A recent report by Edwards Gibson reveals a staggering 101 partner moves in the first two months of 2024 alone. This marks a 7 per cent surge from last year’s figures and a 9 per cent increase over the five and 10-year averages. Despite […]
It was one year ago that the news broke about the sudden liberalisation of the Indian legal market. Excitement was cautious and few expected anything drastic, but it was a crucial first step in the market opening up. It’s been on plenty of firms’ minds since, as was illustrated by Osborne Clarke’s hire of Charles […]
As The Lawyer prepares to analyse the annual performance of US firms in the UK market, we can reflect on a transformative year. At the start of 2023, Milbank secured its deal with Dickson Minto’s London office, while Shearman and Allen & Overy weren’t even a thing. Paul Weiss also had no English law capability. […]
The Dutch legal market is uber conservative; it has witnessed little by way of disruption to force the kind of sweeping changes seen here in London. Amsterdam is not the city where firms can rack up mega fees; big-ticket M&A work is not done there as often as it is here. That said, if you’ve […]
With the financial year-end fast approaching, partners are under pressure to get clients to settle their bills. Cashflow is a top concern with costs rising, just shaving a few days from the lock-up total can boost the cash pot. Some firms manage this spectacularly well. Analysis on the March City Signal channel of The Lawyer […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition, litigators have been moving en masse in Paris this year and we take a look into one of the bigger moves; Denmark’s Plesner passed the psychologically impactful DKK1bn mark for the first […]
Forsters has hired a team from Winckworth Sherwood, including former senior partner and head of employment Jo Keddie. Joining on 2 April, Keddie will lead its employment and partnerships practice. She will move with colleagues Danielle Crawford and Daniel Parker, who will join the team as counsel and senior associate, respectively. Forsters said that the […]
Ward McKimm, Shearman & Sterling’s European and Middle East regional managing partner, is leaving the firm less than two months before its Allen & Overy tie-up goes live. A statement from Shearman and McKimm read: “Shearman & Sterling and Ward McKimm jointly confirm that, after a nearly-30 year career as a leading high-yield and leveraged […]
Ex-Albanian Prime Minister challenges Home Office The Special Immigration Appeals Commission will today (18 March) hear the former President and Prime Minister of Albania’s bid to overturn a 2022 Home Office decision to bar him from the UK. The hearing, which is featured as one of The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2024, is expected to […]
Paul Weiss is continuing its London office expansion, hiring another private equity partner from Clifford Chance. Oliver Marcuse is set to join the US firm, just months after former magic circle colleague Chris Sullivan made the same move. Marcuse was promoted to the firm’s partnership in 2022, having spent his career at Clifford Chance. Secondments […]