Law Firm Transformation: a practical aproach to the methodology that will transform your organization - The Program

Changes in the legal profession have been constant in recent years, partly due to the irruption of technology in both lawyers’ and clients’ activities. The world has become more complex. More and more factors are influencing the decision-making process. Security and certainty are becoming scarce and the lawyer is evolving to assist in a risk-based approach rather than providing foolproof answers.

All this places the legal professional before a challenge that sometimes seems impossible to solve: to give immediate answers to complex needs that require diverse and constantly changing knowledge and information.

The legal function is changing rapidly and with it, the way lawyers practice their profession. The digital transformation will accelerate all these changes in the coming years, incorporating disruptive elements that will radically affect the legal services environment as is already happening in other business sectors.

In this module, we will look in depth at the factors that are influencing this change in the legal profession and the role that the digital transformation plays in all of this.

In the first session of the module (diagnosis of the current legal business), we will analyze organizational models, market sharing, revenues and profitability. We will study market trends and how law firms are addressing them from the perspective of (i) people management; (ii) systems and processes; (iii) supply and (iv) demand.

The second session (how to manage innovation and the need for focus) will work on identifying the pillars of innovation in the legal field (technology, project management, knowledge, processes, prices…). This analysis will address different areas of action (resources, information, prediction, opinion) and will work on how to drive change in people, taking into account generational changes and new individual priorities.

Following sessions of this module will provide the understanding and general knowledge about the basic technologies to perform among them in a labor daily role, always explained from the user standpoint, not the engineer one:

• Session The data: concepts and basic technologies for its management
  Data concept Will be reviewed, stating the difference between data and information.
  We will explain why the world has evolved from the “analogic to digital”, which means operating with data, and what the conceptual bases of today’s electronics are (Moore’s law; processing and storage units; computing and storage techniques). We will see what the evolution of both is to the cloud.
  We will review the main operating systems/database types/data networks/internet operation. Finally, we’ll end up pointing out the ways in which the data is valued (monetization) and we’ll see some examples of data presentation.
• Session Data usage and storytelling
  Software is eating up the world, a multitude of tasks and functions, whether performed by machines or by people, that in the past were performed by hardware (machines or tools handled by people) are now performed by programming software, virtualization, applications, etc. All-as-a- service models (e. g. Renting a car instead of buying it outright is taking over at all levels. XaaS X as a Service in English.
  We will see how data is managed in the world, what legal aspects are involved in it. We will describe the use of the data by large corporations and social networks, i. e. what the OTTs Over the Top know about us, and we will end with indications on how to prepare presentations with data; build storytelling; and some examples of all this.
• Session New Enabling Technologies (I)
  We will make a definition and explanation of what is meant by: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Extended Reality.
  Big Data: we will describe how it is applied, what are the 3 V’s in this area, and what uses and monetization is being given to it.
  Artificial Intelligence (AI): we will describe how it is applied, what are its types, what is the difference between AI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning, and what are its uses and applications, and future challenges. Virtual and Augmented Reality: we will describe how they are applied and how they differ, ending with some notes on their future challenges.
• Session New Enabling Technologies (II)
  We will make a definition and explanation of what is meant by: Blockchain, Internet of Things IoT, Cloud, and Edge Computing.
  Blockchain: we will describe how it is applied, what it is for, and what are its main uses and applications.
  IoT: we will describe how it is applied, what are the uses and applications in different industries and verticals.
  Cloud: we will describe how it is applied, why its use is becoming widespread, what the difference is between public and private cloud, which are its main players worldwide, and its uses and applications.
  Edge computing: we will describe how it is applied, what its uses and applications are and how it will change numerous business models.
• Cybersecurity session 
  We will study what the great challenge of digitalization is: physical vs. logical security and we will see what cyber security is, what certifications are used, and we will explain basic concepts such as what a firewall is, an antivirus, etc. We will distinguish between the concepts of: Cybersecurity, information security, network security, vulnerability assessment, information assurance in order to differentiate the aspects of corporate and personal cyber security, describe the main types of attacks and point out future challenges.

New business models

Throughout history, technological innovation has accompanied human development in successive industrial revolutions, causing great changes not only in production models but also in social models. We are immersed in the fourth industrial revolution, the digital one, the fastest and most disruptive of all time. It is not a change in technology, but it is much deeper what affects the culture of society, business and the way we interact.

In a hyperconnected world, with a massive use of technology, the competitive environment has changed and companies not only compete with their analogous companies to offer products and services, but new innovative actors appear that are divided into different areas of the chain of Value of each industry. The success of these new players is the consequence of development of an innovative and disruptive user-centered business. In this sense, technology plays a key role in the development of the strategy, it is the great facilitator of new business models. Where the client and the strategy are the key and the technology the medium.
The great impacts that we live in this fourth industrial revolution, or digitalization, are:

1. New competitive framework. We will study the new dynamics, as well as the opportunities in this competitive environment, the super consumer, the community, social networks, mobility…
2. New business models. In recent years, new digital business models have been developed: e-commerce and MarketPlace, Freemium, subscription, comparators, aggregators, Peer2Peer, Crowdfunding.
3. Knowledge and relationship with the client: Digital Marketing, Big Data and customer experience design.
   Ecosystems and Sharing Economy.

The economic model of Sharing Economy is that in which the assets or services are shared between individuals, either for free or through fees, usually through the internet.

The Sharing Economy creates markets that allow the exchange of products and services as well as the emergence of new categories. They are networks based on crowds, the supply of capital and labor comes from professional networks of decentralized individuals rather than corporations. The lines between types of work are blurred, creating jobs per project compared to traditional full-time jobs.

But are we citizens of our social networks? Do they have the ability to know us better than our own governments?
In the future, the work will be for projects in more liquid organizations, but the current system of independent workers is incompatible with this flexibility of a new labour market.

Different governments are working on new formulas in the legislative framework that provide more flexibility and allow workers to have different agreements and combine different types of contractual relationships.

Implementing a digital strategy requires in most companies a change in their culture, leadership and organizational models. Concepts like resilience, growth mindset, “agile” teams … are part of the vocabulary of any organization that is digitized.

Those are some of the challenges for managers that require new ways of leading:

• Decentralization and at the same time need for greater global collaboration
  Incorporation of a labour mass that prioritizes the purpose of the projects, the values of the company… when deciding where to work.
• The need to innovate and adopt continuous innovations.
• Open innovation and collaboration even with competitors.
• The change in customer expectations, in the way they access services, and how this impacts our organizations.

During the module we will use some case studies to better analyze and understand how different entities in the legal sector have addressed these challenges.