Innovation in legal services Is it possible?

In recent years, the strategic priorities of the organizations have been focused on digital innovation and transformation, issues for which legal departments are not exempt because the legal item faces movement and evolution, as external and internal customers are changing rapidly.

Legal services have to be adapted to continue to be support and support within this changing environment, and innovation is perhaps a good formula and methodology to address this context.

During February, I had the fortune to participate in one of the most important technology events for the legal industry, as is the case with the Legalweek NYC 2020. A tremendous experience that allowed me to strengthen my knowledge and the vision that Alster We have about the most relevant opportunities and challenges that today affect information, technology and knowledge management professionals in firms and legal departments.

The different panels of Legalweek were focused on the innovation for legal areas, but in my experience as a legal management consultant, I can say with certainty that the innovation in the legal area It's a complex thing.in large part, because the education and training of lawyers is based on risk control, aversion to it and the need to mitigate deviations from potential results, which obviously leads to some difficulty in changing and is change, the main constant of innovation.

It is a fact that in today's world one cannot pretend to provide a service in the same way, to solve matters in the same way or to think that everything we have done in the past must continue to be done in the present.

So, Today legal innovation is almost a requirement:

• Because of the economic pressure that arise from internal and external customers, there are demands to be more strategic and efficient.
• The comparison in innovation that occurs in other sectors of the market or areas of the organisations and that should bethe legal sector.
• The rapid adoption and need for data science and data analytics, as a catalyst that influences the speed with which different sectors are innovating and transforming digitally.
• The interest of many lawyers in focusing on the high-level law and not in repetitive worldly tasks which could otherwise be automated.

Probably one of the usual reactions I have a chance to observe in our customers is the frustration and fear because the word innovation implies greater changes in behavior and actions. However, Do you think so? that innovation is only restricted in large steps?

Perhaps, to the surprise of some, the answer is: no.

Innovation can happen in small things of day to day. You should think about innovation all the time, processes that we run on a daily basis, internal procedures or how we offer services. It is not necessarily to find something new, but a new way to make it simpler, faster or more efficient something we were doing.

But where to start innovating?

• In the first instance, it is necessary to be aware that innovation is something that must and can arise from any member of the legal department or firm and not to expect innovation to be something that emerges from people with technological profiles.
• Secondly, the use of agile methodologies are extremely useful for innovation projects, one example is the design thinking.
• Finally, it is important assess the appropriate time to innovate and use pilots and concept tests.

According to the article of Forbes Understanding The Agile Mindset, professionals have an agile mentality when they are concerned and sometimes obsessed with innovating and offering greater value to the customer. As a result, these organizations acquire the capacity to adapt quickly to a changing market, developing competitive advantages that support their behaviour.

One of the agile methodologies that we see more and more in place to address the legal challenges facing organizations is the Design Thinking.

This method is a problem-solving process that begins with the understanding of the client's unmet needs. From this knowledge, it is fused with a process of innovation that includes the development of concepts, the creation of prototypes and experimentation.

When Design Thinking is applied to companies, the success rate of innovation projects improves substantially.

When implementing Design Thinking lawyers and legal areas can, with clarity and dynamism, define priorities, devise, prototify and implement new ways of doing things, making mistakes in controlled environments and thus mitigating the risks that change implies.

In AlsterWe have had the opportunity to work with prestigious companies to improve their legal processes and how these processes can be the subject of digital transformation. In each of these challenges, we seek to apply these methods so as to ensure a better reaction to the changes and thus ensure the success of the project.

So here are some tips of what we have learned from these experiences:

• Many law professionals are aware of the relevance of innovation and seek to create value for their customers and employees, the major obstacle is to lead these processes and, in this, the use of methodologies such as the one described above can be of great use.
• Legal innovation is not limited to the implementation of new technologiesIt also seeks to adopt new strategies and use proven methodologies from other sectors.
• There is no professional path to become a legal innovation expert, practice makes the teacher.
• Select critical processes and to approach each as an individual project will make it much more effective.
• Selected as the process, drawing it (literally) will be of great use, for later find where it is modified.
• When you have refined the, you have to try it with model customers. Make a risk-reducing pilot And only then, with all the learning, can you think of automating and making it more efficient.

By Guillemo Teibo, CIO in Alster Legal