The soft economy

George I. Rudoy, the Director of Global Practice Technology & Information Services, who by his own admission has a long job title, works at Shearman& Sterling LLP in New York. Just back from San Francisco, he has a schedulethat would barely allow most of us to breathe. Speaking at Legal Tech next week, he says his theme will focus on the newage of legal technology. “We might already be in the middle of it,” he says laughing. The new age for legal services and law firms will or has arrived because there is a realization, he says, that technology is an absolute must in law firms. “It’s not just your generic technology like DM or emailsystems, but more specific technology for the business of law.” George saysthere is a new notion. “People need to be both technologists and businessanalysts, as well as understand end deliverables. We came up with the ideaof the Head of Practice Management, which fits with some firms but notothers, so it may get refined.” He thinks there is much more to it than isolated litigation support, library or KM functions. “It’s a combined effort of technologists, ex-legal assistants who became technologists and‘recovering attorneys'. These individuals appreciate the challenges and thedeadlines and tend to be more outward looking.” George paints a scenariowhere lawyers won’t have to search for solutions by contacting different departments around the firm, but instead have someone like the Head ofPractice Management analyze their business problem, develop a strategy,coordinate departments, and carry out the solution. “Tell me what service or solution you want and I will translate that into a vision.” He confirms.“It’s not just about a liaison; it's more than that. We sit in with theattorneys and attend their 'business pitch' meetings to highlightcapabilities like speed of service, deliverables, and cost management toclients. Attorneys are comfortable with the idea that we participate incase discussions, and it gives us an opportunity to give each case theproper assessment and consult on the use of technology it requires.”George says he would typically expect to deliver ‘the full servicepackage.’ “Although the idea isn’t new, I believe we, the technologists,should work very closely with the legal assistants. Some firms evendecided to merge the technologists and legal assistants under the umbrellaof Practice Management. At the end of the day, we must be a businessorientated group that is strongly aligned with marketing and business development initiatives.” He says the idea is picking up steam, and more firms are appointing directors or chief executives of practice management.At this time, he says there are no more than ten such people in the world,with only four or five being officially recognized as Heads of PracticeManagement. I asked if it means the techies should get MBA’s, but hedoesn’t think it is essential. “We are business savvy and earn our workingMBA’s by being close to the economy of the law firm.” He suggests the realskill is in being able to understand how to help a client beyond supporting a case. “You can see how it is put together. I go along to client pitchesthese days and have an opportunity to tell our clients that Shearman attorneys are much more efficient and effective in delivering their legalservices because they are strong users of technology. No two pitches arethe same so I focus on understanding the client's unique business needs toget their full attention.” George says this is a good way to differentiateShearman & Sterling from other firms competing in this space.George believes today's legal technologists even have an opportunity toprovide some of the solutions for the economic problems currently beingexperienced in the USA. “It’s more than evident that we are in the middleof a recession. We’ve already seen an AmLaw 100 law firm recently lay off asignificant number of attorneys, and the others will most certainly follow.The more progressive thinkers have already started to downsize, which couldprove to be crucial. In past down cycles, the litigation and bankruptcycase load arrived to balance the books. However, this time it is nothappening yet, or, according to some sources, will not happen at all. The government is in rescue mode, so not only is transactional work down butthe bankruptcy work isn’t appearing, and companies save money and settlelitigations rather than go to trial.” This highlights how difficult it may eventually get for law firms. “The current economic conditions might influence the way that legal services are delivered, as well as the degree of technology used to augment these services in order to stay competitive.It will influence not only the choice of internally used products, but also creates an interesting environment for the industry vendors. We can make adifference with clients with improved technology, but vendors are going tohave to be sensible; they can’t just keep raising their prices. "If I have a department of twenty people and little work in the pipeline, the first answer isn’t to lay off staff that took significant resources to hire. We may get a new case the next day but I can’t buy all the necessary softwareon the fly. However, if I have a relationship with a vendor who could workin the way most suited for case needs and be hired for the duration of thecase, then that is what I am going to do.”George doesn’t hold out much hope that the question of technology helpingattorneys during difficult economic times will get much air time at LegalTech and other Legal Technology events because he says it takes time formajority of people to catch on. “I spoke about Unicode compliance andcross-border document collection challenges for more than a year beforeothers picked up on the notion.” He stresses the point. “But I hope this one will be recognized fast - technology will help firms in tough times. It will help win and keep clients if you can say you apply technology againstthe practice of law to stay effective and efficient, especially in fiscally challenging times.”