May 8, 2007
Law Firm Technology Insights from the IT Director of Ashurst
The London online publication Citytech devoted its April 27, 2007, issue to an interview with Chris White, Director of Information Technology for the international law firm Ashurst. The firm was named Law Firm of the Year at the Legal Business Awards, held on February 8 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
White started his career in the corporate sector. As an outsider now on the inside of the legal community, he has a fresh take on how law firms approach technology. He says in the corporate world he spent a lot of time fielding inquiries for technology but in law firms the big difference is that it’s the other way around. White said, ‘People don’t come to us at all: we have to do the pitching.’ ”
That doesn’t mean that law firms don’t embrace technology. I always find it interesting when I hear people say law firms are behind the rest of the business world when it comes to technology. They are not. The factory floor in every law firm is automated. It is just that the factory output of a law firm involves words and documents. Law firms differ from the commercial world in that the owners of law firms are revenue-producing assets. As White notes, “Lawyers have greater pressure and are pushing technology to the limits. They need everything immediately….lawyers need technology they can depend upon.”
Two comments from this head of technology for one of the world’s major international law firms deserve to be heeded by those charged with technology decisions in midrange firms:
“….Lawyers love to work in Outlook…”
“BlackBerry was the easiest thing to implement and had the biggest fee back [payback]”
White also noted that “There is a great tendency to overcomplicate technology but it turns users off.” To that end, Ashurst buys existing products rather than attempt to build its own systems. He notes that there is no sustainable advantage in developing your own.
Outlook® and Blackberry™ are illustrative of the point—law firms prefer existing, widely accepted products that they can rely on and deploy quickly. Why blaze a new trail when an existing one can get you there quicker with fewer missteps? From White’s perspective, it is how a firm embraces and uses software that creates the competitive difference. White uses a car analogy. “You can have two identical Ferraris with one racing driver and a man on the street. The racing driver is going to get the best from the machine…..It’s about process, culture and how people use the system which makes a far more valuable implementation.”
For more about Citytech, go to www.citytechmag.com.
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Filed under Technology by Tom Collins
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