Practice Innovation: How Law Firms Deploy Tech to Support Lawyers and Service Clients

What does innovation at a law firm look like? How do you match client/lawyer needs to the internal resources that can address them? I explore this with Benjamin Llinas, Matter Optimization Manager at Linklaters, a global law firm.

Ben is that unicorn in the law firm org structure sitting at the intersection of supporting lawyers, servicing clients, and deploying technology. His work is part art, part science. Part technologist, part psychologist.

His work requires not only technical acumen, creative thinking and problem solving, but also the emotional intelligence to connect with lawyers to ensure they are using and benefitting from the tech being deployed.

Ben and I talk about how AI is impacting the business of law firms, the day-to-day work of its lawyers, and the demands of its clients. But Ben reminds me that AI is just one out of the many ways that technology can streamline legal practice. If you know how to look for it, you will find a lot in the existing arsenal for streamlining legal operations at a law firm.

The bigger challenge, in some ways, is identifying the specific needs of a lawyer/project/client. And so much of our conversation is about the process of un-packing a workflow and finding the right bits and pieces that can be automated -- whether it's using the latest snazzy AI-powered solution or an Excel macro.

Because what you don't want to do is jump to a conclusion and buy an expensive end-to-end, out-of-the-box solution that does too much and too little all at once. You will have served your internal client better by putting in the effort up-front to parse the workflow, break it down into its distinct parts, and come up with the right plug-and-play mix mix of buy/build solutions that achieve the best outcome overall.