law firm and tech experts grapple with the numbers and discuss: how to harness data for added value

How can law firms leverage data for actionable insights? How do legal businesses structure their data-gathering and cleansing processes? Who should own and drive the collection of data and how can departments work together for firm-wide benefit?

These are some of the questions Briefing asked our panel of data gurus in our latest webcast, held on 29 June 2021, and available for viewing now. Our speakers included:

• Sadie Baron, chief marketing officer, Reed Smith
• Bob Hetherington, partner and head of management information, Weightmans
• Vincent Perrin, regional vice president for professional services, Salesforce
• Chaired by Richard Brent, editor-in-chief, Briefing

Back to basics

With data-rich repositories of knowledge considered by many to be the ‘new oil’, waiting to be tapped, processed and refined, how can this valuable commodity be used to generate value for clients – and, if they’re not careful, might firms end up drowning in data?

The first step is getting data centralised, said Hetherington – at Weightmans, that has meant developing a single source of truth and having practice management, case management, finance, HR and client relationship management systems feeding into a single data warehouse. 

But it’s not all about technology. Sadie Baron added that partners particularly could be prickly when it came to sharing contact and client information – but said adopting a data-sharing mindset is essential to a modern law firm’s functioning and its power to develop clients: “Everybody in the firm needs to understand we’re actually in the business of data these days – every email sent, phone call made, RFP received – they’re all data points. But there’s still a feeling that data collection sits ‘on top of’ the day job – so how do we embed data extraction as part of everyone’s day and demonstrate the value in doing so?”

Pinpoint value

At the same time, she added that firms should prioritise which data is the highest priority to collect and cleanse. “You can obsess too much about data hygiene. Pick your battles – only cleanse and enhance data that really matters to you.”

So, where is the demand for all this data coming form? “Clients aren’t just interested in basic reports any more – we’ve seen a lot of demand for benchmarking. They also want us to help drive their strategies and integrate their data into our systems,” Hetherington explained.

Sharing does create value, added Perrin, saying a reluctance from lawyers to ‘give up’ ‘their’ data is a common obstacle. “There’s a lot of effort needed in legal to deliver what’s basically table stakes in other industries – but that means the potential for gains in legal is huge.”

Hear more data-based insights in the full webcast recording

Want to watch the video on YouTube? Click here.