At the beginning of the month, we played host to the Birmingham Law Society’s very first Legal Tech Virtual Forum. Delivered as part of the President’s technology initiative, the event featured over 17 sessions and attracted more than 400 delegates across a jam-packed 3-day agenda.
In this article, we’re going to explore some of the key learnings from the event and highlight how you can access all of the sessions on-demand.
The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation
Digital transformation isn’t new to the legal sector. However, the pandemic has acted as a catalyst, accelerating many firm’s digital transformation programmes. This was a common theme across many of the seminars, but was particularly clear in Derek Southall’s session LegalTech 4.0 – Areas to address now to outperform the market in a post-COVID world. As the title suggests, Derek not only explores the drivers for digital transformation in the current climate, but also how you can adapt now to ensure you remain competitive post-pandemic.
Your tech strategy should be informed by data
In the digital age, your firm’s data should be the lifeblood of your business – informing decision-making and guiding your strategy. Alan Larkin from Family Law Partners explored how data can be used to identify opportunities for your firm in day one’s panel session “The evolution of legal service delivery”.
Similarly, Gerard Frith from Kemp Little emphasised the importance of data in his session “Our journey from traditional law firm to digital innovators”, saying:
“Data is so critical. If you don’t have data, one of the first pieces of digital transformation that has to be done is to get that data.”
It’s not just about technology
Innovation isn’t just about technology. Mapping your internal processes and designing your services can be just as transformational for your firm. This is the core theme of Sarah Blair’s session “Supporting innovation through service design”, where she’s joined by Katie Murrie to explore the basic principles of Service Design methodology and how it can be used to support your innovation efforts.
Get the basics right
Having the right technology basics in place is a critical foundation for innovation and digital transformation. Our very own Matthew Newton discusses this at several points throughout the forum – exploring how outsourcing some, or all of your IT infrastructure can free up your internal teams to focus on driving change, rather than simply “keeping the lights on”.
Matt explores a critical part of your firm’s IT infrastructure in “Public, Private or Hybrid Cloud?” – where he looks at all of the different cloud options a firm can choose to deploy, and which are best suited to different situations.
This is just a snapshot of some of the insights shared during the Legal Tech Virtual Forum 2020, there’s plenty more to learn in the full library of on-demand sessions. So if you missed the event, would like to watch again, or share with your colleagues, you can register for access to the recordings at forum.oosha.co.uk.
