Ethien's presentation to the Law Society In-house Division annual conference June 2016 attempts to answer these questions and gives tips on how in-house legal teams can get the best out of technology.

1. “What have the techies
ever done for us?”
Can technology help lawyers
lead a happier life?
Sue Pratt
Paul Taylor
www.ethien.com

2. Agenda
• Legal technology: quick overview and ones to
watch
• Tips for getting a happier life with technology
• where to start
• how to build a compelling business case
• how to get the best deal
• how to avoid the technology graveyard
• Case studies: how lawyers are using digital
delivery in practice
• Overview of Ethien

3. • In the middle of a busy working day, with a
never-ending deluge of emails, smartphone
always at our side constantly checking our
messages or struggling with clunky unintuitive
systems which seem to add to our workload ….. it
can be tempting to ask “what have the techies
ever done for us?”
• Technology can seem to be part of the problem.
But maybe the reality is different from our
perception. Maybe the techies have done a lot
for us, and maybe we just don’t realise it. Or,
maybe they or we haven’t approached things in
the right way…..

4. Why?
• In Monty Python’s hilarious ‘what have the
Romans ever done for us’ scene in the movie “Life
of Brian” it’s fairly obvious what the benefits of
Roman innovations like roads, sanitation and
public baths are.
• Sometimes, it isn’t so clear.
• A few years ago, I heard about a CEO who asked
his digital team to develop an app. When asked
‘why’ he struggled to do give a good business
justification. I think the best he could come up
with was, “well, our competitors have one”.

5. Why?
• It can be tempting to look at something new and
shiny and think we must have that but stopping
to ask ‘why?’ is critical
• Which problems does it help fix? Is it
quicker/cheaper/lower risk/better quality than
doing the same thing manually? (or preferably all
of these.)
• Does it create new opportunities, such as
connecting better with customers or partners or
allow you to launch new products or
• And just because someone senior is the ‘Highest
Paid Person with an Opinion’ doesn’t make
them right….

6. Beware of the HiPPO

7. Why?
When talking to in-house lawyers, they
tell us about the good and the not so
good aspects of their working life.

8. The good and the not so good ….
60
%
40
%
Legal
processes
not
optimised
Wasted time
spent on non-
legal admin
work
Retrieving,
editing,
sharing and
storing
documents
Generally
happy with the
way legal work
is being done
Good
relationship
with law
firms,
happy with
what they
deliver
Enjoy
working in
the legal
team
Get on well
with
business
colleagues
Interesting
work
Poor or non
existent
technology
platforms

9. Why?
In recent research, we found that half of
in-house lawyers said more than 30% of
their time was being wasted.

10. How much of your time is wasted?
None None to 20% 20 to 30% 30 to 40% 40%+

11. Imagine if that figure could be
reduced…..
All that wasted time could be recycled on to
other work. Perhaps working on those
important but not urgent tasks that help your
organisation avoid a law suit in the future or
make more informed decisions on product or
market strategies.

12. Imagine if that figure could be
reduced…..
• Or perhaps it allowed you go home a bit
earlier to see the kids before they go to bed.
• Wouldn’t that make you happier?

13. Example
• Casey Flaherty was the GC of Kia Motors. He decided to test
associates at his law firms on their legal tech competency,
using standard applications like Microsoft Word and Excel..
• The issue for him was time. Being billed by the hour, he
realised that if the associates weren’t being efficient, it was
costing his company money. All his law firms failed the audit
and so he reduced their rates unless and until they passed!
• He stresses the goal is not the audit in itself, but reducing
waste/cost-cutting, benchmarking, rate negotiations/invoice
review and professional development. (From
http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/could_you_pa
ss_this_in-house_counsels_tech_test)
• In fact, he eventually stopped being a GC and now runs a
business helping others with a Technology Competency
Audit. (http://www.techassessment.legal/)

14. When thinking about using technology..
Start with what you have
• Use your existing technologies better
• Look within your own organisation

15. Use your existing technologies better
• Start close to home. Look around your team or department for ways
to improve what you do today. Much of a lawyer’s time is spent
receiving emails and instructions in MS Outlook and delivering their
output in the form of a Word document.
• We see that most lawyers only use about 20% of the functionality of
Outlook and Word. Taking minutes rather than hours to do a
particular task will make a big impact when multiplied across many
documents and people. Carry out a skills audit of your own team
(and law firms if you use them) and get people properly trained in
the tools you already have.
• Find out who in the team is the most expert user of Word and get
them to run a regular “hints and tips” session for others. It’s
surprising how quickly people can improve their skills.
• Ask your existing technology suppliers to show you what else you
could be doing with your current tech and speak to other
organisations that use it. Find out what else it can do for you.

16. Look within your own organisation
• Look within your own organisation at what
technologies are being used and how they are being
used.
• Go and meet colleagues in other areas and find out
what they use. Are any useful to the legal team?
• Make friends with your IT team, they may have just
the bit of technology you need. IT can get vilified for
all sorts of reasons, but this is often without real
justification. In any case they will normally be pleased
that you asked and you’ll score brownie points which
can come in handy later.
• If you’ve done all that or can’t find anything useful,
then (and only then) is it the time to look outside…..

17. Legal technology: quick
overview and ones to
watch

18. Reactions to and perceptions of
technology
Anything that is in the world when you’re born is
normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way
the world works.
Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen
and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and
you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the
natural order of things.”
From Douglas Adams ‘The Salmon of Doubt’

19. Reactions to and perceptions of
technology
• Our reactions to technology like Microsoft Word, the
internet, smartphones, automation and artificial
intelligence as technology can be influenced by our
age.
• To test this, just ask yourself: “When you have a
problem with your smartphone who do you go
to?”
1. Your spouse
2. The EE/O2/Virgin call centre
3. Your 12 year daughter
• Our perception of “technology” can promote a sub-
conscious resistance to change.

20. When it comes to legal technology…
• There’s certainly a lot out there
• And new ones are emerging all the
time
• Look at mature technologies first
• Keep an eye on emerging technologies
• Ask your law firms

22. Legal technology: quick overview
• This is just a flavour of what’s out there
• It can be hard to categorise solutions;
providers keep adding new features and
products overlap with each other
• Technology is just a tool. It doesn’t fix
everything and it can be confusing with such
a huge choice of vendors.
• But, its worth persevering.
• It’s also worth keeping an eye on emerging
technologies, both in legal and generally.

23. Interesting technologies….
On its own but even more powerful
when combined with other technologies,
RAVN can interrogate existing systems
to extract data from contracts and
present it for use in either a report or a
document generation tool such as…..

24. Interesting technologies….
Documentaal is a great entry point
document generation tool – simply a
ribbon in MS Word but with the
functionality of far more sophisticated
document generation systems such as
Contract Express and HotDocs

25. Interesting technologies….
HighQ is the law firm system of choice
for collaborative working and sharing of
information and files with clients in a
secure environment – on a pay as you
go model.

26. Interesting technologies….
A standalone product capable of
working alongside most document
management systems to automate the
process of getting documents approved
and signed, returned and stored.

27. Interesting technologies….
Blockchain is the technology that
underpins Bitcoins. Santander recently
became the first British bank to start
using this technology for recording
international payments. Many see
Blockchain as an opportunity to track
assets throughout their supply chains
and electronically initiate or enforce

28. Legal technology areas of opportunity
In use Internal Existing New
Law firms can provide you with
systems, if you ask them…
Refresh Repurpose Multi-use Expert

29. Tips for getting a happier
life with technology –
where to start

30. Get some help
• Given the wealth of technologies available, it can be
overwhelming. So as you start looking, get some help.
• If you have an in-house business systems contact or
business analyst in IT, get them involved early. [These
guys aren’t too techie but generally hang out in that
department.] They can help translate your wishlist in
to the kind of document that an IT person or supplier
will understand. If you haven’t got one, ask a
consultant or Ethien to give you some help.
• Don’t believe everything that the tech vendors tell you.
Vendors with one solution to sell will tell you that it’ll
do everything you want. That’s typically not the case.
Remember if your only tool is a hammer, then
everything looks like this…..

32. Get some help
• Do write down your list of things that
the new technology needs to do, but
don’t stop at that.
• Think wider. This is where procurement
and IT can come in to their own.

33. Technology and supplier checklist
• Capability
• How easy is the tech to
use?
• Is it multi-use ?
• Does it support your
changing needs over time?
• What options are there for
integration to other
systems?
• Company
• What support services do
they offer?
• What’s their culture like?
• How financially stable are
they?
• Clients
• How many existing clients
users are there?
• Any major client wins or
losses?
• How can you connect with
and learn from other
users?
• How many happy clients do
they have

34. Tips for getting a happier
life with technology
How to build a compelling
business case

35. Legal tech can create value in many
ways…
Technology can be used to solve a problem or create an outcome in
one of 4 key areas for in-house legal teams…..

36. Some examples
• Business Partnering - we have seen clients use technology to
improve the way they partner with the business by
implementing a collaboration platform that dramatically
increased the speed at which legal work was completed by the
in-house team and their panel firms. It received rave reviews
from the COO/CFO.
• Risk Management – we have helped clients reduce the risk of
making mistakes in contracts by automating their standard
templates.
• Efficiency – we have also helped clients implement technology
which enabled legal work to be done by less experienced
external resource offshore and this saved one organisation
$20m in one year
• People – one organisation is using a low-cost tech platform for
online legal training, sharing best practices and knowledge
across its legal team working across 25 offices, and most
importantly to connect with each other and share ideas.

37. Five golden questions
It can be useful to work
through the five golden
questions:
• How do you measure it?
• What is it now?
• What would you like it
to be?
• What's the value of the
difference?
• …Over time?
This supports an
evidence-based approach
to help you gain
investment. And gives
you a sense of what its
worth to you, which can
be helpful in supplier
discussions.
So, if you decide to
implement technology its
helpful to show how it
impacts one or more of
these areas and to do this
you’ll be looking at some
metrics.

38. Tips for getting a happier
life with technology
How to get the best deal

39. How to get the best deal
• If you have access to a procurement
specialist, get them involved early.
• Go for win:win with the supplier. You
want their A team after all.
• Put yourself in the supplier’s shoes. Are
they looking for reference customers in
a new area, for a new product?
• What else can they offer? Restricted
price increases in future terms, service
credits, free consultancy days….

40. Tips for getting a happier
life with technology
How to avoid the technology
graveyard

41. How to avoid the technology graveyard
• Get buy-in from
leadership team
• Keep things simple
• Allow budget and
time for change
management
• Ask for help from
IT…
• … but keep control
• Find an experienced
project manager
• Learn from best
practice examples
• Create a
communications
plan
• Create a training
plan
• Agree metrics/KPIs
• Measure before and
after

42. Case studies
“What has the legal department ever
done for us?”

43. Global publishing company
US contract
management
system
Seven week end-
to-end contract
process
Business and
client
dissatisfaction

44. Solution:
• Foundations of a contract management life-cycle system:
Initiation – Preparation – Negotiation – Approval – Execution –
Storage -
Management – payment of royalties etc
• Devised a business “self-service” model
• Using Novatus and AdobeSign (formerly EchoSign)
Requirements:
Quick to deploy (3 months available)
Ruled out a major IT project
Utilisation of existing resources
Future proof – need to integrate with planned deployment of
an enterprise finance solution
Requirements & solution

45. • Contract generation by the business from existing internal
data
• Legal team has ability to track progress and generate
reports
• Lawyers can focus on bespoke work and are alerted to
material issues
• Improved risk management
• No additional capital investment on hardware or software
• Low admin overhead
• Improved business author satisfaction
Contract creation to execution now has the
potential for completion in days not weeks

46. No unified tender
bid system
30% win rate leads
to heavy “wasted”
costs
Business and
management
dissatisfaction
UK utilities company

47. Solution:
Combined use of people, new processes and existing technology
HighQ Collaborate (Word & Excel)
• On-line instructions
• Structured Review Templates
• Agreed reporting formats
• Central clarification questions and responses
• Post award review and approval
• Data transfer to operations team
Requirements:
Price
Appropriate risk analysis & quality assurance
Collaboration across internal business functions
Ability to cope with seasonal fluctuations
Improved reporting and MI capture
Requirements & solution

48. • Collaborative working platform for internal functions and external
advisers
• Inbuilt quality assurance and consistency of reviews
• Immediate alerting of “No Go” issues
• Internal approval processes re-engineered to leverage
advantages of new legal review system
• Resourcing and fluctuation risk addressed by external law firm
• Foundation of fully integrated tender management system
Outcomes
Significant reduction in the legal review
cost of the contracts

49. UK Telecoms company
No unified property
management system
Mistakes are very
costly to the business
Reporting
obligations increase
without a matching
increase in
resources or budget

50. Solution:
Combined use of people, new processes and existing technology
HighQ Collaborate (Word & Excel)
• On-line instructions
• Shared calendars and event notifications
• On-line document repository
• Automatic generation of correspondence and court
documents
• On-line progress reporting of cases and fees (data
visualisation)
Requirements:
Collaborative working between in-house teams and external
advisers
Progress tracking and reporting
Low administrative overhead
Ability to access and transfer data to & from legacy systems
Requirements & solution

51. • Use of new solution underpins fixed price model
• Single data entry used across multiple workflows
• Significant reduction in risk profile
• Self-service reporting and document generation
• Completed documentation and contract data capable of transfer
to client’s regulated systems
Outcomes
Same platform used to develop a commercial
contract review system and an employment
tribunal management system

52. Case studies – common themes
• All use existing technology
• All fast to deploy with no additional
software or hardware purchases
required
• All have exceeded their original
anticipated benefit realisation
• All have entered their respective
“business as usual” environments
• All have continuous improvement
programmes
All initiated by the in-house legal teams
but have had significant impact on the
wider business

53. Case studies
“What has the legal department ever
done for us?”
A lot !!

54. So….. apart from all that, what have the
techies ever done for us?
Or more importantly, what could the
techies do for us

55. Overview of Ethien
www.ethien.com

56. We have deep legal expertise
Having held leadership positions in leading law firms and legal departments, who
have delivered some of the most complex and innovative projects in the legal
sector.
Complemented by
Experts from award-winning consulting, services and technology organisations
armed with fresh thinking and insights from other sectors and industries.
We recently launched Ethien..

57. Our purpose
Insight
We bring new
thinking to help
solve old problems
Identify
We find innovative
ways of working
Implement
We deliver integrated
consulting, services &
technology solutions
HELPING LEGAL AND COMPLIANCE TEAMS
MANAGE COMPLEXITY, RISK AND CHANGE

58. Our business model
Law Firms
Consulting
Business
Partnering
Spend
Analytics
Legal
Operations
Managing
Change
Client
Consulting
Optimise
Profits
Interim
Resourcing
Legal
Service
Centres
In-house Legal
Digital Delivery

59. Thanks for your time
If you’d like to find out more, please contact:
Sue Pratt - spratt@ethien.com
Paul Taylor - ptaylor@ethien.com
© Ethien Ltd 2016