Efforts to transform legal service delivery have been dubbed “law new.” It’s a term that has been applied to legal technology, legal operations and alternative business models. It’s a term that’s difficult to pin down, yet one that captures a process of change for the industry as it continues to evolve with the speed of business and society.
Like the rest of the economy, the legal industry is experiencing unprecedented change at a dizzying pace. The speed of change requires a shift from legacy delivery to customer-centricity. The legal industry will more closely resemble its corporate customers and society at large in the future by becoming more holistically diverse—cognitively, demographically, culturally and experientially. Its workforce will be more creative, tech and data-proficient, empathetic and collaborative. The industry will operate in a more interconnected way with other enterprise business units as it delivers accessible, affordable, on-demand, scalable, legal products and services that address challenges and capture opportunities at the speed of business and society.
As a result, legal service providers will be more aligned with the needs of their clients and their overall strategic goals. This shift will enable them to create more efficient, more cost-effective, risk-aware, value-driven services that produce higher net promoter scores and enhance the client experience. It will also help them to avoid significant lost opportunity costs and deliver better-informed risk assessment and business decisions.
The evolution of law new will produce a more fluid, on-demand and integrated legal service delivery structure from which agile, flexible and dynamic resources with verifiable expertise and experience can be sourced. It will also provide an alternative to the current legal services model of relying on in-house and external law firm providers with different economic models, cultures, remits, and technology platforms.
The legal industry will be more streamlined and efficient as it operates from an internally focused platform-based delivery structure that is designed to support real-time needs and meet growing demand. It will also offer a more competitive pricing model based on output and net promoter score rather than on outdated input-based economics. The resulting legal service delivery model will be more fully integrated with the business, which will enable its people to work with other parts of the company in ways that drive innovation and value creation. It will leverage data to predict, anticipate and proactively meet business needs, which will free up the legal function to identify and capture more significant business opportunities. It will also allow it to reduce the risk of litigation, free up valuable management time and resources, and ensure that all legal decisions are driven by sound data and analysis. It will become a truly global business partner to its enterprise customers and contribute significantly to the success of their businesses.