Remaining relevant in the legal services market of the future Dr Imme S Kaschner Hive Legal, Melbourne

The Kaleidoscope Scenario “Remaking Law Firms “ (American Bar Association Publishing, 2016). Ecosystem encompassing a variety of legal service providers, suppliers, and consumers of such services. Distinction between BigLaw and NewLaw to show certain business model characteristics. Supply chains provide commoditised building blocks enabled by personnel with a variety of legal and non-legal qualifications, and appropriate technology.

Cooperate, enable, supply Kaleidoscope relationships Relationships are varied and complex between suppliers and consumers of legal services and products and supply chain elements. buy, invest Compete, outsource Cooperate, enable, supply

Key characteristics to remain relevant Legal services of the future need to be Connected Tech-enabled Outcomes-priced

Connected Being aware of developments in client sectors, client companies, and the regulatory space. Law is a knowledge business. Knowledge acquisition and the ability to use that knowledge go up exponentially in networked communities. Meaningful connections enable the development and delivery of best-fit services and products.

Tech-enabled Humans are limited in the amount of data they can process per time, and store. Computers are better at gathering, storing, transferring, searching, and comparing data. Law businesses run on numbers. Collecting and crunching those numbers needs tech. Commit resources to an ongoing process to identify the right technology at the right price and the right time.

Outcomes-priced Time billing focusses on the process and the provider’s opportunity cost to provide legal services. Apple growers like trees. When clients have a choice, they want to compare apples with apples. The value to the client can be captured through alternative fee arrangements (eg fixed prices, retainers, or success fees where permitted).

NewLaw example: Hive Legal Connecting as needed to serve clients, often with flexible work arrangements. Connecting with an international network of law firms (Mackrell) to refer clients to overseas services and sometimes collaborate, and in turn provide services for inbound referrals. (Probably the most radical) Connecting to allocate and get the work done, without logging time.

NewLaw example: Hive Legal Tech-enabled: Our cloud-based infrastructure allows us to work efficiently where and when preferred. Tech-enabled: Allows for some integration with client systems if desired.

NewLaw example: Hive Legal Outcomes-priced: Services are mostly provided on a fixed price basis, unless clients request time billing. Outcomes-priced: Options include matter pricing, fixed fee menus, milestone pricing, retainers. Outcomes-priced: Complete transparency from the beginning.

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Thank you All theory, dear friend, is grey-and yet life’s golden tree grows green. JW v Goethe