The Innovation Report reflects how technological advances have allowed each office to address the modernization of the service in a personal and committed way, applying tools such as robotization, blockchain, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence -machine learning and cognitive- and design thinking.
In this way, professional firms that address innovation have achieved:
1) reduce the effort in documentation management by 75%(EY Abogados) and a 15% the time spent assessing legal risks (Garrigues);
2) they can predict with almost 90% the sign of judicial resolutions (Écija);
3) create competitive advantages by implementing blockchain in decision making (Deloitte).
4) And, streamline the most mechanical work of lawyers through artificial intelligence in projects such as Luminance (Pérez-Llorca) or applied to e-Discovery (DLA Piper) for large-volume document searches.
The main objective of this Report is to expand and update the impact of digitalization and new technologies in the legal world, collecting testimonies about the consolidation of these business models, methods of attracting talent, legaltech tools and all those advances that the main actors in the sector have already integrated into their structures.
In this regard, José Ángel Sandín, CEO of the company, confirms that “innovation is the main focus of our publishing house” which has become a pioneer in promoting and promoting the use of technological tools in the legal sector. "In Lefebvre – The Law, “We understand innovation as the key for the client to obtain better functionality in the service.”
In this way, betting on the technological challenge is now more than ever an opportunity for the main firms in Spain by billing volume. In fact, Ignasi Costas, head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship area of RCD, states that “innovation is the possibility you have of knowing the needs of your clients in depth.” Likewise, he emphasizes that “looking to the future, another of the challenges for legal firms in addition to digitalization is internationalization.” And, in the same line, the founder and executive president of Écija, Hugo Écija, points out that “today, no one doubts that innovative effort is the means to permanently reinvent ourselves with the aim of differentiating ourselves and providing added value to the client.”
Millennials and innovation
The new generations are a fundamental part of this change due to innovation in the legal sector. Millennials become actors and, in turn, demanders of a new professional concept. For Luis de Carlos Bertrán, managing partner of Uría Menéndez. “innovation is a philosophy closely linked to the new millennial workforce: younger generations who enter the labor market with different aspirations, which forces us to pay special attention to issues such as flexibility, conciliation or diversity".
A criterion that also supports Pilar Menor, managing partner of DLA Piper, For whom being in contact with the best talent also requires “a new style of integrative leadership, capable of motivating and retaining a new generation of digital natives whom we are already hiring.”
A new legaltech panorama
All of this has given rise to the creation of Innovations Hubs (KPMG Innova Talent) and think tanks (Innovation Think Tank Garrigues), which eliminate organizational hierarchies and propose co-working spaces such as Fuse (Allen & Overy) between professionals of all levels. , and also co-creation forums that in InBeta (Gómez Acebo&Pombo) are proposed together with clients.
In addition to analitycs or the intensive use of data, systems that develop capabilities typical of human intelligence, free professionals from their workload and allow them to dedicate time to new projects. This is the case of the creation of collaborative management software such as Ontier 360, the design of intranets adapted to the needs of the lawyers of the future (Uria Menéndez) and collaboration and advice programs for startups such as Herbert Smith Freehills Startup School: initiatives that generate true value in organizations.
Innovating is changing the legal sector as reflected in the new Innovation Report, business law, prepared by Lefebvre – El Derecho, the leading legal publisher in innovation in Spain.
Fountain: HRDigital
