Building the Data-Driven Law Firm

Like so many other professions, law is becoming increasingly influenced by an overwhelming amount of disparate, fragmented and complex data that can both help and hinder business. Data comes from a wealth of different sources, both internal and external, constantly changing, never still. Keeping control of all that data is one challenge; leveraging it to the greater good much harder.
Despite the huge amount of data in the average law firm, data-driven decision-making is relatively new and uncharted. With the hugely disruptive changes that have occurred in our ways of working over the last two years, the issue of data is now front and centre.

This second edition of Building the Data-Driven Law Firm looks at how the use of data has become inextricably linked with the practice of law; how it can be utilized to the good, and the safeguards that must be put in place to mitigate the bad; how Big Data will revolutionize the way lawyers work, and the cases they will work on; and how new uses for data (including blockchain and the Internet of Things) will influence the law firm of the future. Bringing the book bang up to date, new content features how we can keep data secure in the changing world of work, how data can be used for business development and client satisfaction, the implications of data bias and data theft, and whether the way we use data is even useful anymore.

Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

About the authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Chapter 1: A single source of truth for your firm
By David Curle, legal content and research lead, Litera
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Removing barriers that separate data into silos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A single source of truth for strategic planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A single source of truth for marketing and business development . . . . 3
Data in marketing strategy and communications..................... 4
Data in biography content management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A single source of truth for winning more business - pricing and scoping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A single source of truth for service delivery excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Experience management for staffing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Collaboration - identifying and addressing white space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Legal project management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
A single source of truth as the engine for strategic growth . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 2: Unlocking contractual data
By Shilpa Bhandarkar and Doug Donahue, Linklaters | CreateiQ
Defining "contractual" data and appreciating its potential . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Accessibility of contractual data and the need for "structured" data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
What digital platforms and structured data enable us to do . . . . . . . . . 14
What this looks like in practice: Derivatives industry case study - ISDA Create . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
What does this mean for law firms? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 3: Law firms' approach to talent and the current lack of data collection
By Phil Burdon and Tom Spence, Donoma Advisors
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
What areas of data are currently used in the industry? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Is there greater potential to use people data? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Desire for change exists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Challenges for change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Critical factors for success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Chapter 4: Data Bites
By Joanne Frears, solicitor, Lionshead Law
Definitions and interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Big Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Big Data, smart data, and value-add . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Data, trust, and confidence in the profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Outliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 5: Data in a remote environment
By Silvia Bauer, Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
General data protection requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Regulations for technical-organizational measures for mobile working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Data exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Control rights for mobile working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chapter 6: Building a data-driven business development strategy
By Yolanda Cartusciello, PP&C Consulting
Learnings from data: people say one thing and do another . . . . . . . . . . 55
Bringing data into content marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Using data to inform business development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Using data to inform the "go/no go process" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Using data to improve proposals and interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Using data to improve service delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The new data frontier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chapter 7: Analyzing data to increase efficiencies - the client's perspective
By Mori Kabiri, InfiniGlobe LLC
What are metrics, KPIs, and KRIs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
What's the report on reports? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Where to source the freshest data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Financial reports that make cents (sense) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Operations analysis and results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
More advanced invoice data analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Chapter 8: Why your data might be useless
By Jaap Bosman, consultant - partner
Snake oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Data, an early experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
25 percent savings on external legal spend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
CRM frustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Financial analysis - risks and shortcomings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Much of the data is "useless" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Data analysis for law firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Prediction and prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Data are the alpha and the omega . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Chapter 9: Data in the 2020s
By Paul Brook, Dell Technologies
Data at the top table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Hot or not? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Threats and opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

About Globe Law and Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103