Interview: online legal service delivery

with Paul Greenwood,
director of knowledge and information services,
Clifford Chance

The delivery of legal services is transforming to meet the needs of a global marketplace. This is particularly demonstrated in the development of online legal services where the client can access legal advice anytime and anywhere. Caroline Poynton talks to Paul Greenwood, director of knowledge and information services at Clifford Chance, about their online service and how he sees it adding to the overall progression of the firm.

1. The June issue of Managing Partner had an interview regarding the impact of technology on legal service delivery. Would you agree with the views expressed in that piece and for Clifford Chance, what were the main drivers for implementing an online service delivery option?

I agreed with most of the views expressed though would perhaps take a more cautious view of the timescales involved. I think one of the lessons that the dot-com collapse helpfully reminded us of is that unless there is a direct pressing imperative, people do not easily change their behaviour, and, even with the most intellectually compelling business logic, progress with technology will tend to be slow if it involves people changing. Despite the fantastic benefits of e-mail, it took five years to become established and even now there are people who do not use it. Firms that look for immediate pay-off or radical change will be generally disappointed. Those who have the patience to see their investment through, because they know how it fits into their overall strategy, usually enjoy the greatest benefits.

At Clifford Chance our online services are not a separate stand-alone operation, they are part of our business. The aim is to provide clients with unique additional benefits that they would not get from other law firms in a way that is complementary to our overall service and chosen position in the legal profession. Our services therefore reflect Clifford Chance’s strategy of delivering seamless cross-border advice in a client-friendly way but they do this through a cost-effective online interface rather than person-to-person.

This means that clients have an efficient way of accessing up-to-date guidance on key issues without incurring extra cost, and that hopefully our lawyers get to devote a higher share of their time to more complex, professionally satisfying issues. We do recognise that what we have today is still only the early incarnations of what we aspire to achieve in the long run but we have to continue to move step-by-step in line with what the market wants and how quickly it is ready to change.

2. How have your clients responded to your online services and has it attracted new business?

Sophisticated clients expect more from their main outside counsel than just the provision of legal services on a project basis. They expect to see additional benefits resulting from their relationship and they expect innovation and new ideas to come through. For example, this can include things such as secondments or developing customised training programmes. The provision of online services very much fits into this model of innovation and I think it likely that online services will start to become an expected part of the overall service range. For Clifford Chance, as well as generating direct revenue, there is no doubt our services have attracted new business from existing clients and in some cases have attracted completely new clients to the firm.

3. What are the risks/challenges of implementing an online legal service delivery option and how have you overcome them?

Well, as we discussed earlier you have to be in it for the long run. You can cause more harm than good by selling a service to a client and then changing or closing it because it turns out to more complicated than you expect.

The key challenges are getting high-quality content in a form that is useful to clients, consistent across very different jurisdictions and with a mechanism for ensuring it is kept up-to-date. Compared to that, the technology is the easy part. We have managed to meet these challenges partly because of the culture of the firm that is usually supportive of such initiatives, and partly because of the visibility they have with key clients. Nearly 4,000 people from our major clients are now registered with our online services and with that level of penetration there is no problem motivating people to ensure the content is up-to-date.

4. Do you ever worry that, instead of delivering a better service, you might be moving to delivering a ‘one-size-fits-all’ product that suits nobody in particular? What is the strategic rationale?

Law firms are service businesses, and Clifford Chance will remain a firm that delivers high-level legal services to clients in a personalised way. Online services will only ever be a support to that main activity and I think it is important to remember that. Part of the challenge will be to identify where online services can help by providing clients with access to key tools, and improving the productivity of the relationship without compromising the nature and style of the relationship which has to remain flexible to the needs of the client and the personal style of the people involved.

Nonetheless one of the strategic challenges for law firms, and other types of service businesses that employ highly skilled people, is that the talent pool is becoming increasingly stretched. This is part of a long-term trend caused by the fall in birth rate since the end of the baby boom in the 1950s and 60s. In nearly every developed country the birth rate is lower than is required to sustain the population, and this has been going on long enough to feed through into the recruitment market. The number of young people coming through has been steadily falling and is not going to improve anytime soon, and this is against a background of a growing raft of employers trying to hire ever greater numbers of the top ten per cent.

There is in consequence a pressing strategic need for all firms to consider how to make best use of this scarce and expensive talent and part of that consideration must be looking for mundane or repetitive tasks which are not fulfilling for lawyers and, at their fee rates, are not great value for clients and trying to find ways to deliver them in a more efficient way. This is the great promise of technology and the vision of Clifford Chance’s online services.

Paul Greenwood is the director of knowledge and information services at Clifford Chance. He can be contacted at:paul.greenwood@cliffordchance.com