Page 202 - Leaders in Legal Business - PDF - Final 2018
P. 202
Legal directories of one sort or another have long been a mainstay for many publishers.
They continue to provide valuable intelligence to readers, and serve as both a marketing tool and
a competitive benchmarking tool for firms. They are still driven by advertising; as of yet, no one
has moved to fees based on the number or value of the introductions made.
Much of the innovation in this space will come from new market entrants, many of which
bring with them “freemium” models. Just as with so many services outside the space, they work
toward proof of concept and build user bases by offering a free service before introducing
premium features.
Tailored Knowledge
In our lifetimes publishing will always be associated with books, but modern legal
publishing is as much about data mining and digital analysis as it is about the printed page. Law
libraries may still be filled with rows of weighty reference tomes, but lawyers now practice in the
digital space.
The future of legal publishing is about streamlining the workflows of lawyers and law
firms, giving them access to the latest legal data and market analyses on an individual basis. This
will be delivered through the power of artificial intelligence to collate, curate, and learn, and
from using the most authoritative sources. In addition, they will have the ability to create
documentation on the fly — the contracts that underpin transactions or agreements needed to
react to legal or market changes in real time, and the knowledge and training to do what it is they
do. It is about the most efficient delivery of bespoke know-how for every lawyer.
Editors are now digital curators, knowledge professionals, leading teams of coders, and
technologists, producing products more complex and more efficient than lawyers can create or
supply. This is the value-add that the successful legal publishing industry must create. Merely
cataloguing information is now the domain of the search engines; however, books will always be
useful things against which to lean your tablet.
Onward or Downward?
Those publishers with a blend of revenue streams from subscriptions and advertising —
as well as, increasingly, software licensing — will have a more secure future. The holy grail of a
high annual renewal rate, providing predictable revenues, will give publishers the best
opportunities to invest in developing products that capitalize on the changes taking place and the
technology available to them. While there is a risk that new technology from outside the legal
sector may eat their lunch, the legal publishers of the future that successfully embed themselves
in customers’ workflow through the intelligent application of technology to information will play
a more valuable role in the legal services market.
One thing is certain in today’s technology-driven, more-with-less era of seemingly
limitless free information: Those delivering legal content must demonstrate real, improved
outcomes for customers or face extinction.
188
They continue to provide valuable intelligence to readers, and serve as both a marketing tool and
a competitive benchmarking tool for firms. They are still driven by advertising; as of yet, no one
has moved to fees based on the number or value of the introductions made.
Much of the innovation in this space will come from new market entrants, many of which
bring with them “freemium” models. Just as with so many services outside the space, they work
toward proof of concept and build user bases by offering a free service before introducing
premium features.
Tailored Knowledge
In our lifetimes publishing will always be associated with books, but modern legal
publishing is as much about data mining and digital analysis as it is about the printed page. Law
libraries may still be filled with rows of weighty reference tomes, but lawyers now practice in the
digital space.
The future of legal publishing is about streamlining the workflows of lawyers and law
firms, giving them access to the latest legal data and market analyses on an individual basis. This
will be delivered through the power of artificial intelligence to collate, curate, and learn, and
from using the most authoritative sources. In addition, they will have the ability to create
documentation on the fly — the contracts that underpin transactions or agreements needed to
react to legal or market changes in real time, and the knowledge and training to do what it is they
do. It is about the most efficient delivery of bespoke know-how for every lawyer.
Editors are now digital curators, knowledge professionals, leading teams of coders, and
technologists, producing products more complex and more efficient than lawyers can create or
supply. This is the value-add that the successful legal publishing industry must create. Merely
cataloguing information is now the domain of the search engines; however, books will always be
useful things against which to lean your tablet.
Onward or Downward?
Those publishers with a blend of revenue streams from subscriptions and advertising —
as well as, increasingly, software licensing — will have a more secure future. The holy grail of a
high annual renewal rate, providing predictable revenues, will give publishers the best
opportunities to invest in developing products that capitalize on the changes taking place and the
technology available to them. While there is a risk that new technology from outside the legal
sector may eat their lunch, the legal publishers of the future that successfully embed themselves
in customers’ workflow through the intelligent application of technology to information will play
a more valuable role in the legal services market.
One thing is certain in today’s technology-driven, more-with-less era of seemingly
limitless free information: Those delivering legal content must demonstrate real, improved
outcomes for customers or face extinction.
188
