One way corporate legal teams can provide a maximum return is to take on the responsibility of being strategic business advisors. Unfortunately, taking on these additional responsibilities is causing a resource crunch, forcing teams to run their legal function as a business. Some legal teams have turned to point solutions like Trello, Dropbox, or Google Apps to meet their immediate needs. However, those are not nearly as efficient, productive, or scalable as legal practice management platforms.
In Legal Tech’s Predictions for the Business of Law in 2023, Ian Clouse, Patent Partner, Holland & Hart puts it bluntly:
“As Warren Buffet has said, ‘It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked.’ Many law firms speak about the virtues of automation and innovation in the practice of law, but cling to time-honored ways of doing business. The uncertain economic environment that we are entering will expose which firms have been serious about innovation and which firms were merely paying lip-service to it. The big winners in 2023 and beyond will be those firms that are already making sizable investments in innovation and have adopted a culture of adaptability that is open to new ideas.”
But, what should your firm look for amongst the myriad of choices?
Legal Practice Management Software vs. Point Solutions
Point solutions are created to solve a specific problem (i.e. file sharing). The main benefit of a point solution is that it can be deployed quickly. It’s usually purchased as standalone software to improve process efficiency, reduce costs, and manage projects. However, point solutions have some serious drawbacks:
- Interoperability isn’t great. Since these types of applications do not share information with other apps, they create information silos. You’ll definitely experience this pain point if your current project management tools don’t share information with any of the other tools you use. Working within multiple systems requires duplicating data entry which is incredibly time-consuming.
- Using a variety of point solutions can increase your security risks. If one of several point solution vendors is hacked, it could expose your entire company to a security breach. Having everything connected within a single legal practice management platform means that only one system needs to be secured, and maintained with consistent patches and updates.
- Point solutions typically only provide value to a single department. Just as they create information silos within tools, they also create information silos within people — instead of helping multiple departments collaborate in real-time. There are many features within practice management tools specifically for easy communication and collaboration.
Some companies pick a point solution because technology resources and budgets are tight and they need a “quick fix.” These factors often lead to knee-jerk software selections. In many cases, these quick decisions result in several software purchases made without consideration of other departments or looking at the needs of the firm as a whole.
The lack of interoperability between point solutions makes way for more purchases to fill the void. The irony is, teams will probably spend more with multiple-point solutions trying to save money than they would by purchasing a single-platform solution.
Moving to a Legal Hub
Platform solutions provide multiple legal and business solutions within a unified user experience. Because they share data, they have the ability to adapt and optimize existing workflows. And as the business grows, they make it easier to scale.
Teams can easily get the advantages of a platform solution using a legal hub. A legal hub combines several tools and resources and offers the opportunity to optimize effectiveness and improve performance over time.
A legal hub like CARET Legal provides:
- Improved collaboration. Traditional legal teams have relied on tracking using documents and spreadsheets. This cumbersome method of tracking does not accommodate growth. Instead, legal teams need to be able to access information in real time from a unified data source.
- Improved efficiency. A legal hub allows a legal team to monitor cases and make sure they move forward. It ensures all critical client and case information is captured and stored in a secure location.
- More time to add value. Becoming trusted business advisors allows corporate legal teams to add value to the business. In order to have time for these extended roles, legal teams need to improve efficiency by using a legal hub.
- Risk management. Legal teams have been offering document sharing with clients for a while. However, this information must be managed by the team. By using a legal hub, the legal team has better control over shared information and can reduce risk.
Allow your corporate legal team to spend more time practicing law and providing value with CARET Legal. Our legal practice management hub provides a unified user experience that allows your legal team to adapt and optimize your existing workflow as your business grows. You’ll be able to access all your matters, automate important documents, and keep your data safe from cyber threats — all while being set up to scale.
