Re-engineering IP Law Firms to Adopt a Growth Mindset

In a recent webinar with IPWatchdog, John Lanza, a Partner with Foley & Lardner, Sangeeta Shah, Chief Executive Officer for Brooks Kushman, and Jayne Durden, Vice President of Law Firm Strategy for Anaqua, discussed the key drivers of growth for law firms and how law firms can better leverage technology solutions like data analytics and automation tools.

 

Much of what IP lawyers do can be more effectively facilitated and streamlined with technology. Yet most law firms are not well prepared for widespread digital transformation. Key elements often cited as necessary to digital transformation in an organization are integrating digital technology, client experience, operational agility, culture and leadership, and workforce enablement. To make this shift, forward-thinking firms are placing their growth in the hands of Chief Executives and Partners who know the legal business but are adept at running and growing an increasingly agile firm. In this blog, we look at the key trends the panel discussed and how Anaqua is helping law firms to:

 

• Ensure technology is the backbone of how they are running their business
• Utilize analytics to measure firm performance and IP operations workload
• Integrate technology and systems to better connect IP data
• Create more accurate IP forecasts and budgets

 

Embracing Digital Transformation

Even though there is a need for digital transformation-led growth, only 29% of law firms believe they are prepared and understand technology solutions. Change can be disruptive and given the operational nature of law firms, not making any change often becomes the preferred choice, however, it’s not sustainable.  Forward-thinking law firms, considering ways to support growth, find themselves looking to technology as the solution.

 

Using Analytics to Measure Firm Performance

Better visibility into a firm’s performance is another key challenge the panel discussed. Measuring and tracking key performance indicators around efficiency, cost, and quality is what's needed for IP law firms to get to that next level of growth. Utilizing a higher level of data analytics and having seamless integration between various tools available are real drivers for change.

 

When webinar attendees were asked how technology should help with improving productivity:

• 47% indicated better information to enable and support their attorneys
• 37% said they needed greater visibility into attorney and staff workloads

 

IP attorneys and operations managers are looking for tools to understand the workload level and to be able to periodically review, assign and manage their teams’ efforts. Such a data-driven process rather than ad-hoc workload management supports work allocation and identifies bottlenecks.

 

Anaqua recently released new Workload Management and Performance Analysis dashboards in PATTSY WAVE that help law firm leaders to better manage the large volume of work at scale. To align better with the client’s goals, law firms are also looking to measure the efficiency and success of their prosecution practice using key performance metrics such as average pendency, allowance rate, etc. Such key metrics, aligned with the client’s goals can enable law firms to track and benchmark the firm’s performance and identify areas of productivity and improvement. This dashboard is a great tool to help measure the success and efficiency of your practice over time.

 

Performance Analysis Dashboard in PATTSY WAVE

 

Integrating IP Technology

Law firms are also often looking at how they connect their docketing software with their document management tools. Jayne Durden discussed how through the acquisition of Connectivity (formerly SeeUnity) – the leading integrator of technology for law firms and corporate legal departments, Anaqua is helping law firms with DMS connectivity. In PATTSY WAVE, for example, law firms now can have bi-directional integration between their docketing software and document management system (DMS):

 

PATTSY WAVE - DMS Integration using Connectivity

 

Creating Accurate IP Budgets

When asked about other challenges attendees face in getting external and internal data, the number one concern raised was better accuracy in forecasting IP budgets for clients. Jayne mentioned how Anaqua’s Global IP Estimator® software helps 75% of the top law firms in improving the accuracy of their budgeting. It also provides the ability to strategize cost-benefit analysis using multiple “what-if” scenarios which significantly avoids guesswork in the entire IP budgeting process.

 

Conclusion

With ever-changing and challenging times, law firms are striving to be as efficient as possible to grow their business. More and more law firms are recognizing the critical role that technology has in supporting their firm’s growth into the future. It is pertinent for law firms to have tools and data at their fingertips that can improve client relationships, decision-making around workload, firm performance, and budgeting.