Glenlegal 2019 – IT and Innovation (Better together?) Kerry Westland

Goals and tasks for innovation teams – Prof Michele DeStanfo 2018 Differentiate the law firm Develop a culture of innovation at the law firm Delight clients to derive business Curating ideas and facilitating innovation processes and execution Analysing technology available for lawyers that is or can be used by the firm to enhance transparency, increase access, create efficiencies, and please clients Analysing, unbundling, and reconfiguring processes to enhance transparency, and create efficiencies inside the firm to improve client service Aiding in new business pitches, responses to RFPs, and panel reviews Engaging with clients to better understand their needs, develop relationships and collaborate to provide more client-centric, effective and efficient services Networking with legal innovation communities across the globe

Innovation and Legal Technology – what we do Developing new income streams for AG new products and services Selling solutions and products to clients for annual recurring revenue. New Products Value through margin enhancement through the Divisions via a number of inflight projects This is a priority and focus of the Firm’s leadership. Internal Efficiency Projects Includes working and enabling on some of the largest matters in the firm Live Client Work Supporting relationship conversations and pitches including Some element of support in most client relationships and most pitches. Pitch / BD Support Associate secondees Trainees Embedding technology in the DNA of AG Embedding digital transformation

Clients - pitches “Two recent examples (one for commercial and one for real estate of innovative, customer focused service, delivering smarter and more efficient ways of working (through technology, streamlining, process re-engineering or otherwise). Please explain how this delivered demonstrable improvements and/or benefits for the client. Responses should be limited to no more than 800 words for each example.” “Please provide details of how you have used AI with previous / current customers to streamline their legal processes.”   

Clients – work (Case Study 1) Management of a major private equity auction, for the sale of over c.150 client sites. Over 2,000 bidders signed up the initial disclosure. Sale divided into any number of possible portfolios, ranging from single site sales to bids for the entirety of the 150. The wealth of information required for the sale of each site, and the endless potential bidder and portfolio combinations, meant a technological solution was required for the sale to be processed. Client requested that bidders were walked through a clear and user friendly system, which captured all the relevant documents and information and allowed the client oversight of the bids that were coming in. The system also progressed successful bids to a transactional platform, where AG and the Client can track the legal aspects of the deal from start to finish. Document automation built in using data collected to produce documents for each sale. Platform puts all the information in one place, easily accessible to the client and their advisors. Mock up built within 3 days for pitch. Live system used for bids 2 weeks later. “Transfer of 15,000 properties from one entity to anoth.”

Clients – work (Case Study 2) Advising on a multi-billion pound sale of one of our FTSE 100’s businesses. Involved the property due diligence and transfer of over 15,000 of properties Previous exercise involved 8,000 properties and took nearly 8 years Tasked by client to create a system to enable this to be done in 3 System was used by client, surveyors, 5 law firms and numerous third parties including the land registry Functionality includes automating the production of documents – legal and reporting, sharing of information across all parties and producing real time progress dashboards. Permissioning tools ensure third parties only have access to the relevant part of the site Workflows enables tasks to be pushed from one party to another. Lead to cost savings of £1m in fees and £40,000 in postage costs for the client. Designed by client’s process team, AG’s RE lawyers and Innovation team Mock up built within a week and live system released 2 months later.

What this means for IT and Innovation Some cross over but fundamentally different roles Need to accept the value both teams bring Demand from clients increasing and becoming more complex Rapid design and development of solutions required Does not always mean new technology but rapid testing of new solutions is important Balance between innovation and security IT to act as enablers – help don’t block Can be really successful when we work together