Making the move to IT

Earlier this year, Stuart Whittle waved goodbye to his case load to embrace a new role as an IT professional at Weightman Vizards. For many lawyers it would be an unthinkable transition, but, as Whittle explains to Caroline Poynton, he’s now in a perfect position to bring the firm’s people and processes closer together for the firm’s long-term strategic success.

Can you tell me a little more about your current role at Weightmans?

I accepted the role of IT partner in January 2004 when Patrick Gaul, our managing partner, approached me and asked if I was interested in the position. I am responsible for the firm’s IT strategy: getting a better handle on what we’re doing, planning ahead and working to integrate the firm’s IT with the overall business strategy of the firm. With that in mind, we have set up an IT steering group (ISG), which I chair, to assess every aspect of the firm’s IT. It’s made up of the managing partner, the directors of HR, finance and marketing, my two IT colleagues, and an equity partner.

Because there is so much going on in the firm, the key is to get the right information both internally and externally. For example, we need to know what our clients want from us and we must ensure that we are in a position to deliver on those needs. We are also trying to take a more strategic view of the medium and long-term IT needs of the firm and its clients.

Is this strategic approach to IT a new development for your firm?

Our approach had previously been more short term and tactical. We’re now trying to change that to look more long term to get our IT to tie in with our business-management process and our business strategy, so that IT is meeting the overall goals of the firm. The ISG is focusing on the needs of our case handlers and their client-service delivery, and we are including marketing to ensure that we are making full use of our CRM capabilities, while also tailoring that into our KM strategy. It’s an all-encompassing group that is working hard to gather all of those things that are floating around to get some consistency in our approach.

Becoming IT partner has been a big career change for you considering that you were formerly one of the firm’s fee earners. What was behind your decision to change and how have you found the transition?

This is a full-time role for me and I have given up case handling completely. I think I’ve been quite fortunate because it is something that I enjoy doing. Before I took on the role in January, I had talked to our managing partner about what we were going to do with our IT and who would be the best person to do it. It was a combination of both my interest in IT and law and consultation with the partnership that led to him asking me to use those skills for the benefit of the firm more generally.

What were the biggest challenges to taking on an IT role in the firm?

I had anticipated that the biggest challenge was going to be persuading my partners that the investment of my time in IT was worth the downside of me giving up my case work. However, I have been pleasantly surprised that most of the people in the partnership and staff have been very positive towards the new role. I think that’s probably because we had talked about it and we knew that somebody had to do it.

I’ve also been quite fortunate because I haven’t set a precedent in the firm in terms of giving up case handling. For nearly five years, we’ve had a best-practice partner who purely concentrates on the knowledge-management side of the business.

If you look at my background, you’ll also understand why the partnership thought that I would be best suited to the role. For most of my professional career, I worked

in the professional-indemnity department, where I largely dealt with claims made against solicitors. I ended up tending to handle more complex, document-heavy claims, including multi-party cases. It was through those sorts of claims that I became interested in how we can use IT, even if just at a basic level to get an edge over the competition. I wanted to be able to turn up at conferences with all the information

I needed at my fingertips and was very aware of how I could use IT to impress our clients. As a consequence of my interest in and aptitude for IT, the firm encouraged me to develop and invested in my skills through numerous courses, which I think has been instrumental to me being asked to take on this role. At the moment, for example, I’m part way through a part-time MSc in IT.

It is still early days but have you experienced anything in the role so far of which you are particularly proud?

I’m proud that the firm has taken such a positive view of my appointment to this role. People seem to value what I’m doing and where we are going with IT.

In terms of the general landscape, do you think law firms are making the most of the technology options available to them?

The answer is a typical lawyer’s one, that is, I think it really depends. By nature, lawyers tend to be a fairly conservative bunch so there are few bleeding-edge developments. However, there are some impressive things happening here and there. There are also areas that we all need to work on to get more out of our technology.

What do you think lawyers find most challenging in their use of technology on a day-to-day level?

The real difficulty for lawyers is that learning curve, when they’re presented with something in IT that they are not familiar with. Your working day as a lawyer is very demanding and the last thing that you want to do is spend 10-20 minutes learning how to filter a spreadsheet, for example. The real challenge is finding a way to get lawyers to want to make an extra bit of effort to tackle the curve.

Our solution is a rolling plan, which is based on communication and education. Hence, we’re providing, from equity partners down, one-to-one mentoring to train them to manage the systems and processes they actually need for their role. It comes down to showing them that the training benefits them, whether it’s making a process quicker or facilitating a better service for their client.

How does your firm’s use of technology compare with your main competitors?

In some areas I think we’re fairly far ahead and competitive. For example, everything in our firm runs through Citrix, which I know other firms are in the process of considering. We have also had case management for about four years. However, there are other areas that we are just beginning to look in to, such as digital dictation, which we are looking to pilot this year. I believe we are on a par with many firms of a similar size and bigger, gauging the response to our development programme, and I anticipate some major gains for the business in the next 18 months.

Can you tell me a little more about your plans for digital dictation?

We are currently in the process of tendering and hope to pilot it in eptember/October. I’m confidant that it will be a success. Any firm you talk to who has rolled out digital dictation rarely has anything bad to say about it.

I think it’s a good example of IT making people’s lives easier because, from the lawyer’s point of view, you’re actually doing the same thing – you’re still talking to a hand-held device. It might be connected to the back of your computer, but it’s not massively changing the way you work. Nevertheless, it is delivering benefits in terms of controlling workflow and work turnaround by eliminating delays incurred in passing tapes around the office.

E-mail management has been raised as a problem for law firms in recent months, in terms of volume, security, data management, etc. What are your views on this now indispensable business tool?

Security wise we don’t have an issue. The biggest issue for us is making sure that e-mails hit the relevant case file. Here, e-mails are put into the case-management system or people print them off, and usually lawyers do both. Part of the education and KM programme will include how to manage information, including e-mails.

As a lawyer and IT professional, what advice would you give for bringing the IT team and lawyers closer together?

This is a real issue for law firms, but again, I believe the right approach is through communication and education. For example, our IT manager and I regularly join team meetings, spending 10-15 minutes talking to our lawyers about what we are doing with IT, where we are going, what they can expect and the benefits IT should have for them and their clients. We also have a programme of surgeries where we spend some time in each office providing an open forum for people to talk to us about the issues that they face on a day-to-day basis. We also work hard to educate people as to why things are the way that they are, and to get ideas from people about what they want to get from our systems.

Most of all, it’s simply about making sure that the IT department is seen as an integral part of the firm.

What specific goals do you have for the firm’s IT over the coming months?

The real key for this year is to improve our case-management system, which will enable us to deliver an even better service to our clients. A recent internal survey highlighted the staff’s readiness to move to the next stage of development of our systems, driven by the changing needs of our clients and the benefits that case management has already brought to specific practice areas.

Stuart Whittle is IT partner at Weightman Vizards. He can be contacted at stuart.whittle@weightmans.com