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SMALL SCANNERS PAGE 14 LAPTOP REPLACEMENT? PAGE 16 EDI DIVERSITY PLEDGE PAGE 18 MANDATORY MUG SHOTS PAGE 20

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Aric Press: http://at.law.com/LTN1412AP

Survival Curve Reacting to the writing on the wall. BY STEVE FLETCHER

hae firm's management committee

s hired a consultant to resurrect a neglected strategy plan. "What if you could purchase technology that would enable you to do legal work in half the time?" she asks. "Searching, drafting and review of standard agreements; leases, loan agreements, employment contracts. You could quickly locate the best practice work you've already done, to help you craft new agreements in a fraction of the time."

"What would it cost?" a partner asks. "Assume it's free, but that's not the Who hasn't speculated where our

firms are on the technology curve: Leading edge? Bleeding edge? Falling behind? Can we ever catch up? Those days are gone. The curve we must now watch is survival. On that continuum are four critical questions.

don't make their hourly quota. Billable ranking even factors into who becomes issue," asserts the consultant.

"That's always the issue," another a partner. partner declares. It's no surprise that the corporate

legal world finds this process unaccept-able. When a firm's incentive is to bill more hours—and the client's is to con-trol costs—it's no wonder why clients have been reducing the number of out-side counsel and handing more work to firms committed to reducing costs, pro-viding creative fee arrangements, and adopting project management skills to predict and manage matters.

"And that's one of your problems," the consultant replies. "This is about gaining a significant competitive advan-tage by lowering costs and increasing your value to clients." 1. THE BILLABLE HOUR: HOW CAN WE

FORKLIFT THIS MESS? "By cutting our fees in half?" the managing partner asks. "Why would we When a firm lives solely on the billable

hour, it's in trouble. If you charge clients by the hour, you reward attorneys who bill long hours and punish those who

do that?" The consultant looks around the

table, then quietly says: "to survive."

ILLUSTRATION BY JON REINFURT LTN I December 2014 I 13

® ACTION ITEMS

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UNABRIDGED: http://at.law.com/LTN14125

ANNERS ot-fed portable scanners are small and lightweight, d easy to use, but useless if you need to copy a document in a client's conference room, a government

office or a library. A portable scanner can be a lifesaver. Many are so small thatthey can fit in your jacket pocket or purse!

!PHONE 6 HOVERCAM MINI 5 TAOTRONICS TT-DS003

Apple Inc., Cupertino, Calif. Size/Weight: 5.44 x

2.64 x 0.27 inches. 4.55 ounces.

Pathway Innovations and Technologies Inc., San

Diego. Size/Weight: 1.2 x 0.8 x 7.1 inches. 5.6

TaoTronics Inc., San Jose); Size/Weight: 9.8 x 1

x 1.1 inches. 5.1 ounces. Price: $69 to $89. Price: From $199. ounces. Price: $240 to $250. The wand-style scanner helps you copy

almost any type of document. It offers an 8.5-

inch scanning width and three scanning reso-

lutions as well as the ability to output files in PDF

or JPEG. The device saves scans to a microSD

Before you shop for a stand-alone portable

scanner, consider using your iPhone (or iPad)

and its excellent built-in camera to scan docu-

ments. Scanner Pro and Scanbot are the best

apps.

More like a camera than a scanner, the Mini

5 copies documents from any angle or distance.

It folds to the size of a large candy bar—com-

pact enough to carry in your pocket or briefcase.

At its base is afold-down USB plug that connects

directly to your laptop. It has an autofocus cam-

card. Uses three AA batteries. Pro: Highly convenient; no extra hardware

cost; flexible (if you don't like one scanning app,

Pro:Compact; lightweight; selectable reso- era and LCD light. lutions and formats.

you can easily switch to another). Pro: Faster than a conventional portable Con: You'll need to practice in order to reli- Con: No on-device scanning controls; scan-

ning larger documents can be tricky and requires

lots of practice.

scanner; easy to use. ably create good scans. Con: More expensive than most portable —John Edwards is a technology writer,

based in the Phoenix area. scanners.

The issue becomes efficiencies. If you can't commit to a set price to create commercial leases—and you haven't loweredyour costs to do that work—the

productivity, but that doesn't equate to client value because they don't pay for secretaries' time. So you're back to the cost-cutting strategy. Except that's

3. CYBERSECURITYAND RISK: ARE WE

SIMPLY DODGING BULLETS?

client will likely find a firm that will. no strategy.

Another spot on our survival curve is cybersecurity. There are two types of law firms today: Those who've had a security breach and those who will. As for how firms are addressing security and risk, a few are acquiring an arsenal of weapons, while the majority seem to

Said Jim and Matt Hassett, in "Legal Pricing in Transition," a LegalBizDev white paper, "Clients generally do not live in an hourly billing world. They know their actual costs of doing busi-ness and plan to make a profit above those costs. They have pricing risks and plans to manage those risks. Clients often wonder why their law firms can-not do the same."

Seeing efficiency gains simply as reductions in billable hours is a recipe for disaster.

Sure, if your firm bases most of its fees on hourly billing, the march toward greater productivity will be more diffi-cult. You'll have further to go to deliver what clients want—lower costs, with far

be content to dodge bullets.

greater predictability.

Data security used to mean firewalls to keep garage-bound hackers from breaking into your network. But it's not 1990. Today it's about managing risk and compliance with federally man-dated (and now enforced) regulations on privacy and personal health informa-tion. It's about building and maintain-ing policies and procedures and creat-ing mandatory awareness training pro-grams. It's about hiring dedicated secu-

2. HOW MUCH CAN YOUR FIRM DIGEST?

A recent Altman Weil survey rein-forces that clients aren't happy with the current delivery methods: "Only 4 percent of chief legal officers are satis-fied with the traditional service deliv-ery model ... an unambiguous indicator that the old model is not sustainable."

When you find opportunities to improve efficiencies, expect resistance from those clinging to the billable hour. Some will want to focus only on staff

14 I December 2014 I LTN email: LTNpressreleases@alm.com

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ITEMS

WEDEIDEMEI

WATCH THE VIDEO: Stanford Law's CodeX: http://at.law.com/LTN1412CX

25 INSPIRATIONS Innovator Awards spotlight tech creativity and leadership, Sound Bite

Stephanie Kimbro,

a Stanford Law School

fellow, teaches legal

technology and works

with startups. Q: What are common

problems when legal tech companies are

started by no n lawye rs?

A: It's hard to monetize services. Rules that prohibit fee-splitting and referral restric-

tions make it difficultfor companies to come

up with ways to innovate that allow them to

scale faster. No n lawye rs may notbe aware of

ethics rules for lawyers using their technol-

ogy platform. It's challenging to build attor-

ney networks while trying to market a site to

consumers. Lawyers are reluctant to invest

time if they are not assured that prospective

clientswill come outof it. Maria Zilberman, The Recorder.

Unabridged: http://at.law.com/LTN14122.

I SI ,New

Thhea Recorder, our sister publication, 0 Josh Becker, CEO of Lex Machina,

s announced its inaugural Inno- which is leveraging data in litigation. vators Awards, honoring 25 original approaches to the delivery of legal ser-vices. Among the winners are names that are veryfamiliar to the LTN community:

0 Robin Feldman runs Startup Legal Garage at UC-Hastings College of the Law. Result: free legal services and experience for students.

0 Julio Avalos: GitHub's legal depart- 0 Janelle Orsi, chief of Sustainable ment is open-sourcing its legalese. Economies Law Center, is director of the

Resilient Communities Legal Cafe (pro bono legal advice to small businesses).

O Itai Gurari & Adam Hahn: Judicata founders created a tool to turn unstruc-tured case law into organized data. 0 Daniel Lewis, Ravel Law Inc. helps

v. Bryon Bratcher: Reed Smith's "Peri- lawyers cut time searching for cases. scope” analyzes data to improve results and reduce document review costs.

0 Craig Jacoby, Matt Bartus & Peter Wer-

0 Garry Mathiason, a Littler Mendelson ner created Cooley GO, offering some-day clients free advice, and basic busi-ness documents, on the fly. partner, is building a robotics and artifi-

cial intelligence group. 0 Mark Radcliffe, DLA Piper partner, v. Ron Dolin, Stanford Law School, helps clients create corporate venture

leads a movement to use legal technol-ogy and design to improve access to justice in underserved communities.

programs and drive innovation. Check out the full list: http://at.law.

com/LTN14121.

rity and risk professionals who over-see everything—physical security, elec-

also adhered to by their outside firms. The Association of Corporate Coun-sel has articulated these requirements in the ACC Value Challenge, something

vival, there are opportunities. But the clock is ticking. Firms must start listen-ing to clients—and not just the loyal tronic security, legal compliance issues.

Thankfully, the International Legal Technology Association's LegalS EC community is growing in substance and numbers. There are plenty of IT pro-fessionals who get the critical nature of cybersecurity—now we just have to convince firm management to invest in the right tools, and the right people for this battle.

ones they've had for decades. that every firm should study carefully. It's time to replace tradition with a

clear understanding of your clients' business and how the firm can help

One of the greatest opportunities to further partner with clients is through technology innovation. The problem is, many CIOs and chief knowledge officers don'tyet have a seat at that table. But they must continue to impress upon firm management that solid partner-ships with clients require more than good lawyering and long-standing rela-

tionships. New billing arrangements, project management and technology are great ways to enhance client value.

them achieve their objectives.

4. YOUR MOST POWERFUL PARTNERS: ARE

THEY YOUR CLIENTS?

London-based analyst Richard Suss-kind has been preaching this mes-sage for decades. As he summarizes: "To meet the needs of clients, we will need instead to dispense with much of our current cottage industry and rein- vent the way in which legal services are delivered. Just as other professions are undergoing massive upheaval, then the same must now happen in law. Indeed,

They'd better be. The landscape has changed. Corporate counsel have been inundated with pressure to reduce out-side legal costs, improve their budget-ing efforts, and assure that regulatory compliances that hit them directly are

SILVER LINING it is already happening." Steve Fletcher is CIO of Parker The good news: there are some silver

linings. Where there's a threat to sur- Poe, Adams & Bernstein.

www.lawtechnologynews.com LTN I December 2014 I 15