In Texas and nationwide, the rapidly expanding frontiers of technological knowledge are revolutionizing the practice of business law. The excellence of a law firm’s legal prowess is still vitally important, but it is no longer the sole criteria that companies use in turning to outside counsel for business law assistance. The successful practice must now be technologically savvy and innovative as well, according to experts in the field.
The idea of attorneys remaining aloof from the tides of technological discoveries and innovation is no longer a valid premise. Client companies require attorney-client interrelations that are attuned to the digital innovations that will increase efficiency and streamline workflows. The old model — with the client waiting for attorney responses and access — is becoming rapidly obsolete.
The new model requires the successful business law attorney to generate communications and substantive activities in accordance with innovative new tools. Law firms must have strong internal IT departments that can develop and/or implement dynamic measures such as client engagement apps, real-time portals, activated dashboards and similar communications platforms. These allow clients to know in real-time the status of the case without having to wait for physical attorney accessibility.
These digital innovations will change the way in which clients and attorneys communicate and interrelate with each other. Efficiency will be improved by using new techniques of moving the flow of work through the stages of the legal process, and in communicating with the client about that movement and its progress. Real-time visuals, accessed through innovative digital portals, will tell the client the story it wants to know without the harrowing time-wasting efforts that burden that process in too many practices today.
The business law attorney in Texas will be as dependent on these new technological innovations as attorneys anywhere else. In fact, geographical boundaries and impediments to consulting with one’s attorney will not generally be impacted by factors such as distance, location or even by current physical accessibility of any one person. New efficiencies in the attorney-client relationship are critically important to those attorneys who will thrive in the business law environment of the 21st century.
Source: lawtechnologytoday.org, “How Innovation Is Becoming as Important as Good Lawyering,” Nov. 21, 2017