Page 21 - Leaders in Legal Business - PDF - Final 2018
P. 21
frameworks of timelines, budgets, and reporting responsibilities around legal work, to legal
process mapping, which involves the step-by-step breakdown and efficiency analysis of the
stages involved in frequently undertaken tasks. It’s not enough for law firms to offer the best
“product” anymore; the race now is to provide the best productivity and the best operational
platform for lawyers, and thereby generate the most effective outcomes and solutions for clients.
Process analysts will often make the difference between the winners and losers of this race.
NewLaw
A term first coined by Dr. George Beaton of Australia, “NewLaw” can be broadly
defined as any model, process, or tool that represents a significantly different approach to the
creation or provision of legal services than what the legal profession traditionally has employed.
NewLaw providers are a unique hybrid of buyer and seller, providing services and support both
to law firms and to clients (as well as to each other). Over the past five years, a virtual Cambrian
Explosion of NewLaw providers has jolted the global legal marketplace. A powerful NewLaw
player is as likely to disrupt and unseat a traditional law firm as it is to overturn a strategic
consultancy, a marketing platform, or a technology offering. Examples of NewLaw entities
include:
• New-model law firms such as Riverview Law, Valorem Law, and Keystone Law
• Project-based legal talent providers such as Axiom, Caravel, and Lawyers On Demand
• Managed legal support services like Novus Law, Radiant Law, and Elevate
• A host of technology-powered law business such as Lex Machina, Premonition,
KMStandards, MetaJure, Neota Logic, Avvo, Kira Systems, Relativity, Koncision,
Clio, Ravel Law, ROSS Intelligence, LexPredict, and Modria.
NewLaw firms refuse to fit easily into either the “supplier” or the “provider” categories
of the legal support ecosystem. More such entities will emerge in the coming years, further
blurring the lines between direct suppliers of legal services to clients and complementary
providers of support and guidance to those suppliers. This ecosystem is going to become more
complex and diverse, not less.
So, when you read through the comprehensive and incisive essays to follow, cataloguing and
analyzing today’s legal support ecosystem and the challenges it faces in future, keep two things
in mind: just how quickly this entire professional support structure emerged, developed, and
established itself over the past 30 years; and just how quickly and completely everything we
know and recognize.
7
process mapping, which involves the step-by-step breakdown and efficiency analysis of the
stages involved in frequently undertaken tasks. It’s not enough for law firms to offer the best
“product” anymore; the race now is to provide the best productivity and the best operational
platform for lawyers, and thereby generate the most effective outcomes and solutions for clients.
Process analysts will often make the difference between the winners and losers of this race.
NewLaw
A term first coined by Dr. George Beaton of Australia, “NewLaw” can be broadly
defined as any model, process, or tool that represents a significantly different approach to the
creation or provision of legal services than what the legal profession traditionally has employed.
NewLaw providers are a unique hybrid of buyer and seller, providing services and support both
to law firms and to clients (as well as to each other). Over the past five years, a virtual Cambrian
Explosion of NewLaw providers has jolted the global legal marketplace. A powerful NewLaw
player is as likely to disrupt and unseat a traditional law firm as it is to overturn a strategic
consultancy, a marketing platform, or a technology offering. Examples of NewLaw entities
include:
• New-model law firms such as Riverview Law, Valorem Law, and Keystone Law
• Project-based legal talent providers such as Axiom, Caravel, and Lawyers On Demand
• Managed legal support services like Novus Law, Radiant Law, and Elevate
• A host of technology-powered law business such as Lex Machina, Premonition,
KMStandards, MetaJure, Neota Logic, Avvo, Kira Systems, Relativity, Koncision,
Clio, Ravel Law, ROSS Intelligence, LexPredict, and Modria.
NewLaw firms refuse to fit easily into either the “supplier” or the “provider” categories
of the legal support ecosystem. More such entities will emerge in the coming years, further
blurring the lines between direct suppliers of legal services to clients and complementary
providers of support and guidance to those suppliers. This ecosystem is going to become more
complex and diverse, not less.
So, when you read through the comprehensive and incisive essays to follow, cataloguing and
analyzing today’s legal support ecosystem and the challenges it faces in future, keep two things
in mind: just how quickly this entire professional support structure emerged, developed, and
established itself over the past 30 years; and just how quickly and completely everything we
know and recognize.
7
