Following on from my previous blog (Do more and do it quicker) I thought I would continue on the ‘time’ theme but with a fee earner focus.
Lawyers are beginning to accept that case management solutions such as Lexis® Visualfiles™ are essential to deliver efficient, effective and responsive legal services that today’s demanding customers have come to expect. Despite this, I am sure many case management developers/project managers will still be experiencing resistance when attempting to get fee earners to embrace such a solution.
A major issue seems to be around the adoption of a case management solution; fee earners need to contribute some of their time, and this time (whilst undoubtedly value-add) will be non-chargeable. When targets and billing are key it can be difficult to persuade fee earners that this will be time well spent and in the long term will more than cover any lost chargeable time. Putting it bluntly, without contribution from the lawyers who will be using the solution it will never really reach its true potential.
When I was an in-house developer this ‘not enough time to contribute to making the use of time more efficient’ was a never ending circle that I frequently found myself in, especially with some of the legal teams that were not involved in high volume work. I assumed that because the firm had been using a case management system for a number of years everyone in the firm understood its capabilities. They did not. When demonstrating something fairly standard I would frequently get the answer “I didn’t realise it could do that”, making me think, what else do our fee earners not realise Visualfiles can do for them?
So how can you help fee earners to see the benefit of all sacrificing short term loss for long term gain? One initial step to changing attitudes is simply through short demonstrations to ensure understanding of what Visualfiles can do. Set up a workshop - most fee earners will be happy to give up an hour, over lunch usually works well. Carefully select what you demonstrate to really highlight the time saving capabilities that will appeal to the fee earners in question. Things like: report production (accurate and fast); document generation (standardised and precise); scheduled tasks actioned by the Robot (automated and completed when due without need for intervention or prompting).
It is surprising how quickly time (that couldn’t be spared before) is found once fee earners get an enhanced understanding of just how much a case management solution can be used to action day to day routine (but necessary!) tasks quickly and efficiently. Once you have them on board for matter management you can then move on to demonstrating the workflow capabilities and you’ll hopefully experience far more willingness from the fee earner to get involved.
For more information on Lexis® Visualfiles™ please visit here >>
About the Author: Clare Goldstone
Having initially joined Lexis Nexis Enterprise Solutions in 2013, spending nearly 2 years as a Senior Application Consultant within the Professional Services Team, I have recently returned to take on the role of Visualfiles Client Advisor. Prior to this I gained extensive understanding about how firms can successfully adopt and utilise Visualfiles from my 11 years working in-house at two top 100 law firms in roles which combined business analysis, project management and configuration of Visualfiles solutions. During my time away from the legal realm I worked as a Senior Business Analyst for a multi-national avionics company working closely with clients, key stake holders and end users to improve and enhance messaging and tracking software solutions. I also have corporate and public sector experience having worked previously in project management roles within the Oil and Gas industry and at an Education Trust.
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