It’s time to rethink the concept of legal work
The legal industry is self-centred and there is an urgent cultural change law firms must promote if they are to transform their business into a client-centric model.
It’s time to rethink the concept of legal work
The legal industry is self-centred and there is an urgent cultural change law firms must promote if they are to transform their business into a client-centric model.
It's 11.50 pm and the corporate partner has just sent an email to the legal counsel of one of the firm's clients with the due diligence report, finalised under the pressure of the deadline.
It's been 20 days of work by a multidisciplinary team of lawyers specialised in various areas of law who have completely immersed themselves in the complex universe of contracts, licences and legal contingencies of a company that was the target of the analysis, resulting in a consolidated final report of 300 pages. This document, an exhaustive and detailed piece of work, addresses all the relevant findings – identifying risks and essential recommendations for the client's strategic decision-making.
The next morning, the company's legal counsel receives the document and has just a few days until the meeting with the board of directors, where a decision will be made. Sending the gigantic document produced by the law firm to the board is unthinkable, not only because of its size but also because of the overly technical legal language that makes it difficult for most directors to understand.
For this reason, he starts reading and condensing the essence of the report to guide the decision-makers. From the in-depth analysis carried out, two slides are drawn up for the presentation, designed to illustrate the most critical and decisive points in a summarised way.
The situation reveals an often-bitter reality: hundreds of hours of intensive, highly technical work result in an extensive piece of work developed with precision by experts, which often doesn't reach the hands of the final decision-makers or, when it does, it has already been resumed and, pragmatically, transformed into a few topics.
“We are now on the edge of a transformational moment in the legal industry. Artificial Intelligence is ready to revolutionise work processes, and clients are likely to benefit from it, perhaps even before lawyers.”
Ring a bell?
This case illustrates how the legal industry is self-centred, how it manages and incentivises its resources from a productivity perspective, which to some extent conflicts with a client-oriented business vision. The very concept of the business model, centred on the billable hour as a unit of measurement, means the law firm is focused on how many hours it takes to provide the service, while the client is simply concerned with the deliverable.
There is an urgent cultural change law firms must promote: they must listen to their clients, understand how their business works and what their systems are; that is, transform their business into a client-centric model, because only then will they be able to design truly differentiated services and delivery models. Otherwise, the work produced by law firms might be confined to someone's desktop.
If lawyers send something, get paid and don’t care about how the solution is implemented or even if it is useful, there is a problem – and this is also a cultural aspect to be addressed.
It is essential to bring to life the created work, linking it to the organisation in such a way that generates real, transformative impact and increases engagement between client and trusted advisor.
For instance, if a client asks for a contract review, as well as being delivered in a report format, the analysis should also be able to integrate the client's internal management systems. By doing this, in the initial stage when planning the work, all touching points must be considered, especially how the client will integrate the advice into his processes.
We are now on the edge of a transformational moment in the legal industry. Artificial Intelligence is ready to revolutionise work processes, and clients are likely to benefit from it, perhaps even before lawyers.
It’s time to rethink the concept of legal work. Rather than merely reacting to legal issues, law firms and their lawyers should be proactively guiding clients with more insightful, practical, and efficient services, ultimately benefiting both their practice and their clients' businesses. They need to train and develop not only legal skills but also client communication, project management, and business understanding.
Law firms need to foster an environment where innovation in service delivery is encouraged, and where every team member is aligned with the goal of enhancing client satisfaction and long-term partnership.
This also means strengthening their teams by incorporating professionals from diverse fields who possess the ability to rethink client service alongside lawyers in a challenging, disruptive, and collaborative manner.
This multidisciplinary approach not only enriches the firm’s perspective on client needs but also promotes an environment where innovative solutions can emerge. By doing so, law firms can create a more dynamic and holistic service model that pushes the boundaries of traditional legal practice and enhances the value delivered to clients.
This strategic reorientation towards client-focused service will differentiate a law firm from its competitors and increase its intrinsic value to clients, fostering stronger and more enduring relationships.