Page 223 - 2019 - Leaders in Legal Business (n)
P. 223
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.
208
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.
208
