In the end, it's always about money

Wolters Kluwer's Future Ready Lawyer Study 2021 was eagerly awaited, as it provides an opportunity to track changes due to the pandemic. There is one aspect in particular that I would like to address here: the growing willingness of legal departments to change.

A quarter of in-house counsel surveyed said they were looking to change law firm(s). The figure has doubled since the previous year. A key reason is the lack of use of technology in law firms. That's worth a closer look.

One would like to think that a client could care less how the lawyer handles his mandate, as long as the time, quality and price are right. To paraphrase Bertram Burtscher (Freshfields): Whether hordes of "ants" (a term used by me) are involved in due diligence or AI-supported software - who cares, as long as the result is right. 

But that is obviously no longer true. Apparently, the awareness is spreading among in-house counsel that the use of technology in law firms can lead to better quality results. Presumably, however, it's not about the technology per se, but about the transparency of the processes for the client. Or thinking one step further: in the end, it's about the best possible quality and - surprise! - it's about money.

Digitization of legal studies (cont.)

Last week I wrote about an event of the Department of Innovation and Digitalization of Law at the University of Vienna (Prof. Nikolaus Forgò). A panel discussion had also addressed the question of the low level of digitization of law studies in Austria. Today I would like to take up this topic and dig a little deeper.

Thesis 1: Digitization is preceded by standardization

If we assume that there are about 20,000 active law students in Austria, then this would be an attractive number for a digitization project. However, if you look at how diverse the teaching and examination methods are, even outside of Corona, the number quickly becomes relative. Oral and written exams, multiple choice, comprehensive papers, course exams - the list goes on. There are good reasons for each individual form of examination - from the perspective of the respective faculty/university and the examiner/department. But what does one want to digitize? Teaching or learning?

Thesis 2: Before digitization comes the why

The finding that the study of law has not really changed for decades is correct. In other fields of study, things are different; medicine, for example, students now learn in a case-oriented manner in dialog with their professors; in the past, they had learned thick volumes by heart. But when we talk about change, we should first clarify what the real goal is:

• Is the teaching itself to be digitized? 
• Is the learning-process of the material to be supported by digitized methods/means?
• Or is the real goal to provide students with knowledge and skills of digitization as such via the digitization of studies? ("Computer skills")

Depending on that, answers and possibilities will be highly different. One thing should be noted, however: If the high goal of legal studies is to give students an understanding of structures and to enable them to recognize contexts, then this is the highest of all development levels in relation to digitization. It will be correspondingly difficult to make progress here - even if standardized teaching and examination methods were agreed upon.

Why isn't the study of law in Austria becoming more digital?

In a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Department of Innovation and Digitalization of Law at the University of Vienna (Prof. Nikolaus Forgò), the question was why law studies in 2021 would still be the same as they were 30 or more years ago.

Of course, there are initiatives: ReddyForLaw by MANZ, for example, a multiple-choice-like knowledge check and the most successful app of the market leader. Or Timebite and Studo, both community-driven information platforms. Another example is Lawstar, a marketplace for legal courses. But truly revolutionary is different. Why is that?

I think it is due to the self-image of law schools in Austria and the professional training system as a whole. "Law schools have an interest in placing their students, and as the roles of legal ops increases, they have an opportunity to move their students into those roles," Connie Brenton was recently quoted on the American platform law.com. She is the HR manager at data management and cloud giant NetApp.

In Austria, on the other hand, the faculties continue to insist on the model of teaching fundamental knowledge without taking into account professional qualifications. The several years of follow-up training required to qualify as a judge, lawyer or notary also prove them right. But one thing is clear: Where there is no job-specific training, there will be no knowledge transfer in the areas of digitization, automation or knowledge management.

Don’t filter out your customer

 The two sides of Customer centricity

Yesterday, I involuntarily witnessed a customer phone call. You know, in German-speaking countries, "managers" regard large-capacity compartments of express trains as walk-in telephone booths. The man had to conduct an escalation conversation with a dissatisfied customer. In doing so, he moved very skillfully between appeasement, assurances, but also pressure (“Yes, what am I supposed to do now, I can't change the situation either”). At the end of the long phone call, the customer was satisfied to the extent that the conversation could end on a consensual basis.

Things only got really exciting afterwards, when Mr. Manager followed up in one-on-one meetings and/or conference calls with his employees. The fact that the tone of voice changed depending on the person being talked to is not unusual. Between the lines, however, it was clear that the customer's concerns were dismissed as an annoyance - mistakes happen and capacity problems are externally determined.

If you communicate this to your employees, you can spare the expense of customer centricity programs. It is then a mere mask that does not promote genuine customer understanding, but filters it out. Just like the masks in the pandemic.  Customers in project business, on the other hand, are well advised to invest a lot of energy in contract design - even if it hurts and puts the brakes on. Otherwise, they will be just as defenseless against the supposedly inevitable defects in (software) development as the unfortunate person on the other end of the line was yesterday.