Taming data with a growth minimisation strategy
Chris Giles
Once a law firm understands why data minimisation is important, it’s time to act by putting policies(...)
Don't put off data minimization
Chris Giles
The uninitiated may be tempted to view data minimisation as a bit of a housekeeping exercise, and no(...)
Once a law firm understands why data minimisation is important, it’s time to act by putting policies and actions in place that deliver a data minimisation strategy. In this second article on the topic, Chris Giles suggests how firms can tackle this pragmatically and effectively.
Every day, in every way, your firm is accumulating data that needs to be managed. And, as outlined in the first article, your firm is at increased risk if you hold excess data.
The uninitiated may be tempted to view data minimisation as a bit of a housekeeping exercise, and not something that should concern the most senior individuals in the firm. However, Chris Giles respectfully disagrees. In this, the first of two articles on data minimisation, he explains why it deserves C-suite attention and a firmwide policy implementation.
Data is everywhere, it’s ubiquitous, and frankly it’s getting out of hand. Around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are now being generated every day.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to revolutionise the legal sector from chatbots disputing parking tickets, to contract analysis tools, and legal research. We’re about to see an industry first with an AI legal assistant defending a speeding case in a US court, where the AI will listen to the proceedings via a smartphone before advising the defendant on how they should answer through an earpiece. This represents a significant milestone and signifies that AI has already been accepted as a black letter law with its use set to become more commonplace over time.
Now almost three years ago, the pandemic’s onset brought pervasive, perpetual and exponential change to business models across every industry. However, one of the most widespread shifts remains the obligation to digitally transform.
While the legal industry has been known to take a traditional approach to conducting business and is well-known for its reluctance to adopt modern technologies, the global pandemic all but forced law firms to embrace them at a much faster pace than the legal industry had seen to date. From increased cloud adoption to AI integration, the tools now utilized by law firms hold the power to spark a new era of law firm business models.
In the cycling world, the margin of victory is often mere seconds—which means small factors, from aerodynamics to the temperature of an athlete’s sleeping quarters, can impact performance. While these details may seem infinitesimal, they compound into more meaningful and large-scale performance gains in aggregate.
British Cycling team coach Sir Dave Brailsford famously applied this theory of aggregating marginal gains in 2002 to snap the country's Olympic gold medal-less streak. Just 13 years later, the team made marginal improvements that resulted in three Tour de France titles and 14 Olympic gold medals, a remarkable turnaround in performance.
The legal sector remains one of the most document-intensive industries today. Yet, many smaller law firms continue to keep huge troves of data onsite, in digital format and as paper copies. It’s expensive and time-consuming to manage, exposes them to security risks, and is a poor fit for today’s hybrid workplace. Clients are increasingly demanding better data management from their legal advisors.
By moving to unified cloud-based document management platforms, smaller law firms can punch above their weight — benefitting from the same kind of seamless digital workflows as their larger counterparts. That’s the way to improve productivity, client service, and business outcomes.
How do you measure your return on what is probably the largest investment your firm makes each year? Whether it is a major capital investment in a new document management system or the ongoing maintenance of software, hardware and systems, many millions of £s/$s are spent every year by law firms and legal departments.
User adoption of these systems must be seen as critical. Implementation of new technology projects will not meet expectation, or could even fail entirely, if the teams tasked with driving adoption don’t prioritise helping users through technology and process changes.
When the pandemic hit it forced law practices to modernise. Those still using old paper methods quickly needed to adopt new tech and those already using digital systems needed to make sure they were easily accessible for staff from home and able to operate under these new pressures.
Everyone was suddenly adopting new ways to work and finding the new technologies they could use to continue delivering the same service level to their clients.
The legal sector is on a digital transformation journey. While some business processes have been successfully digitised, there are firms that are still relying on manual input, or legacy systems, to complete tasks. Even those firms that are investing in IT modernisation have not necessarily been able to drive the expected benefits. Legal processes are still often time-consuming and stressful for both lawyer and client. This not only creates a poor client experience, but it can also dominate the time of high-value members of staff who should be delivering more profitable services.
We live in an era in which data volumes are multiplying exponentially – representing a clear and present hazard for law firms from potential data breaches and the soaring costs of data storage. Here in part two of our data disposition series, Chris Giles suggests how firms can go about controlling data’s proliferation.
The LawTech landscape is currently at its most buoyant - with tech start-ups developing some of the most innovative and ground-breaking solutions as well as acquisitions from larger organisations taking place across the sector. There’s been a significant amount of investment in this space by providers and venture capitalists alike, and nothing to indicate it slowing down.
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