The cloud and beyond
By Joanna Goodman
Tech journalist Joanna Goodman explores how technology innovation is transforming high-street law firms, kickstarted by the pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic closed the high-street, forcing firms online. A year later, the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s 2021 Technology and Innovation in Legal Services report found that nearly all firms surveyed used technology to deliver legal services, with 87 per cent using video conferencing and 66 per cent storing data in the cloud. There was also an increased uptake of legal-specific technology. The tech that firms rely on became a platform for innovation.
But tech also represents a dilemma. While automation boosts productivity and profitability, high-street firms need to focus on the individuals and small businesses who rely on their advice.
Making a difference
At Family Law Partners in Brighton, Director of Innovation and Technology Alan Larkin has been working with the University of Brighton on an AI client onboarding questionnaire since July 2014, when it became the world’s first online family law triage system.
During the pandemic, Family Law Partners gave over 50 other firms free access to the system. ‘There is a submissions counter and, since 2020, 5,229 members of the public have made submissions to their lawyers using the software,’ says Larkin. The advantage of a system like this is that it ‘supports accuracy and reduces risk because clients input their own information. Lawyers can then dedicate the first client meeting to guidance and advice, rather than data collection’.
Larkin believes that it is important that the client journey focuses on human interaction. ‘We are on our fourth iteration, and we have built out the client journeys and made the language more nuanced,’ explains Larkin. ‘It is not replacing the human factor, but it is a soft landing. It has broken the negative elements of the first exchange between client and lawyer – and there is no charge for pre-consultation.’
Virtual and paperless
Solicitor-advocate Ursula Rice is owner and manager of Family First Solicitors in Oxford, which became virtual and paperless during the pandemic. The firm uses multiple cloud solutions – a practice management system (PMS), video conferencing, e-signatures, online cashiering and HR. Rice believes that more integration between systems and applications could boost practice management and the client experience.
However, Rice also argues that people could find filling in a comprehensive form before even appointing a lawyer off-putting. ‘The first interaction between the client and their lawyer involves a lot of homework,’ she says. ‘Lawyers are keen to make their lives easier, but the best way to do this is to improve the client experience, rather than offload the weight of administration onto the client,’ she says. She does agree with Larkin that the pandemic was a game-changer, making online the default for client interactions, including with public services, the courts, and the Land Registry.
Rice is sceptical about automation but having adopted cloud systems, video conferencing and paperless processes, she sees further opportunities to extend the firm’s reach beyond its physical location. Larkin and Rice agree that technology improves risk and compliance. E-signatures mean that more Family First clients sign and return their client care letters. Larkin’s professional indemnity insurance premiums have reduced because Family Law Partners’ online client questionnaire mitigates the risk of disputes related to the accuracy of client information.
'Lawyers are keen to make their lives easier, but the best way to do this is to improve the client experience, rather than offload the weight of administration onto the client'
Ursula Rice
Focusing on the client experience
In 2020, Ben Darby, Managing Partner of Darby and Darby Solicitors in Devon, started a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the University of Exeter to develop an integrated practice/case management system. However, communication between systems is still challenging. ‘We have rolled out e-signatures, and although the Land Registry allows them, we have to jump through so many hoops to verify the signature, we may as well get the client in to sign,’ he says. And on identity verification: ‘Although we use online apps like Thirdfort and SmartSearch, clients still send their passports through the post!’
Darby’s rationale for building a bespoke PMS is that ‘[legal] tech is too lawyer centric and doesn’t streamline processes for consumers. Only a small percentage of what solicitors do is law – and law is a necessary or distress purchase in which clients are emotionally invested. If we find a way to automate routine, non-contentious processes, we can then distil and focus on the cognitive elements of our work.’
Darby sees conveyancing as fertile ground for innovation. But while the pandemic accelerated change, the infrastructure is still catching up. ‘Solicitors have to work with multiple platforms. If transactions were centralised, at the Land Registry, for example, a property could sell three times in three years. The lawyers’ expertise is pulling the threads together and communicating with all interested parties. Theoretically, blockchain and conveyancing are a marriage made in heaven. But the Land Registration Act dates back to 1925 and not every piece of land is registered.’
On chain, at the cutting edge
Cutting-edge technology is also hitting the high street. In March 2020, a week into the UK’s first lockdown, Natalie Foster launched Inspire Legal, ‘the virtual high-street law firm’. Inspire Legal operates a consultancy model (self-employed lawyers working online on a consultancy basis); and although it has an office in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, all documents and business processes are digital and online. The firm handles conventional business-to-consumer work using a standard cloud-based CMS. However, it is developing a bespoke blockchain model for smart legal contracts, which will make it the UK’s first on-chain law firm. ‘Our blockchain conveyancing software is an end-to-end platform that allows any legal transaction to be completed using smart contracts – asset values are exchanged using non-fungible tokens,’ explains Foster.
Getting creative with YouTube
Many high-street firms do not have the resources to develop bespoke solutions, so they innovate using what is freely available.
In London, private client solicitor Nino Cuffaro envisages problems with e-signatures and remote witnessing. ‘When it comes to wills, probate and mental capacity, it’s important to ensure that someone vulnerable isn’t being pushed into signing a document,’ he explains. ‘A computer may do things faster, but how does AI assess whether someone understands what they are signing, or may be signing under duress?’
‘When it comes to wills, probate and mental capacity, it’s important to ensure that someone vulnerable isn’t being pushed into signing a document’
Nino Cuffaro
In 2020, Cuffaro launched a YouTube channel, ‘Talk Legal with Nino’, where he posts light-hearted videos discussing topical legal issues. They were originally created for aspiring lawyers, but when he shared them on social media, they attracted business. ‘In future, I want to use [the channel] to help people starting out in law, and people to be able to reach out to me and flag up issues and obstacles.’ Like Rice, Cuffaro is using his virtual, online presence to expand his business – and his brand – beyond the high-street and his local area.
The future of the high street
As Darby observes, ‘innovation is the application of invention. We need to learn what is available to us to transform high-street legal services.’ For now, many high-street firms are focusing their innovation on ‘human interactions, enabled by technology, better operating systems and practices.’
Having been forced online by the pandemic, high-street firms are now starting to innovate with technology. Cloud systems streamline and integrate processes, automation saves time and money, and new communication channels have opened up.
However, high-street firms advise individuals and small businesses, so when it comes to customer interaction, they need to decide carefully what to digitise to avoid alienating the people and communities they serve.