The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced many legal practitioners to shut their law firms’ doors forever. Those legal practitioners who are lucky enough to be able to continue with their operations after the economic restrictions imposed, are now faced with the reality of heavy overheads, which are antiquated with the new target to efficiently and cost-effectively meet client requirements while staying above the bottom line. But many legal practitioners do not make full (or any) use of the various tools available to the legal profession. Why and what are the perils of this path?
The status quo, which is historically observed within the operations of a law firm, are paper-based and require manual and physical operations. These are inefficient and ineffective tools to meet the needs of today’s client. Adhering to the status quo is commonplace in an industry known for its risk aversion. However, the reality of the situation is that the clients of today expect more from their legal representatives, because the client’s needs have evolved to seek one thing above all others, namely value for service. In order to achieve this balance between serving clients and keeping a legal practice afloat, legal practitioners have to face the reality that the operational structures of the conventional legal practice has to change, with an embracing of the Fourth Industrial Revolution being the key-point on which to pivot.
In the article ‘Tomorrow’s lawyer, today’ (www.golegal.co.za, accessed 2-10-2020), Alicia Koch succinctly summarises the increased velocity at which the COVID-19 pandemic will propel the legal industry’s transformation: ‘It will propel law into the digital age and reshape its landscape. The entire legal ecosystem will be affected – consumers, providers, the Academy, and the judicial system. Digital transformation has been a C-Suite priority for years, but the legal industry has scarcely taken notice and is unprepared. The coronavirus will change that. It will produce a swift, comprehensive, top-to-bottom re-imagination of the legal sector.’
Taking the plunge does not necessarily involve a full rework of a legal practitioner’s business operations (although there is an argument for this course of action); it simply depends on your legal practice’s requirements and needs, as well as the requirements and needs of the clients you are serving.
A good starting point for any legal practice intent on digitising their operations would be to employ purpose suited practice management software. Suitable practice management software will assist legal practitioners to –
In ‘How South African SMEs can survive and thrive post COVID-19’ (www.mckinsey.com, accessed 2-10-2020), Shakeel Kalidas, Nomfanelo Magwentshu and Agesan Rajagopaul state: ‘Digital and new technologies create an opportunity … to enhance their reach and efficiency at lower costs, overcoming the scale disadvantage they have relative to larger players … [and] can focus on key areas of competitiveness in their value chain, product, and/or operations and identify the best technology levers to enhance competitiveness.’
The BDO South Africa report titled ‘COVID-19 is accelerating the rise of the digital economy’ (www.bdo.co.za, accessed 2-10-2020) summarises the point of the matter: ‘If there were any lingering doubts about the necessity of digital transformation to business longevity, the coronavirus has silenced them. In a contactless world, the vast majority of interactions with customers and employees must take place virtually. With rare exception, operating digitally is the only way to stay in business through mandated shutdowns and restricted activity. It’s go digital, or go dark.’
In an era of technology, digitisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution innovations make high-impact changes to the way in which business is conducted, and legal practices are not exempt from being disrupted. Far from this being the only truth, the failure to digitise certain aspects of a legal practice could result in a legal practitioner having to turn work away. For example, in the Office of the Chief Justice new regulations have started being implemented to transform the court processes to a digital process, and legal practitioners in Gauteng are obliged to utilise a paperless system to have matters registered and documents uploaded in order for a case to be heard. In these cases, it is a matter of legal practitioners having to keep up or be left behind.
The way in which the ‘typical’ legal practice could operate is a thing of the past. The ever-changing technological environment and advances in legal practice software solutions, coupled with the demands of today’s client, make the need to employ smart solutions a must for any legal practice seeking to maximise efficiency, while minimising costs. In order to facilitate the transition, legal practitioners operating legal practices, whether established and long-lived in the market or new to the industry, would do well to educate themselves in regard to the benefits of taking their businesses along the path of digital transformation.
Arniv Badal LLB (UKZN) is a Practitioner Support Supervisor in the Risk Management Department at the Legal Practitioners’ Fidelity Fund in Centurion.
This article was first published in De Rebus in 2020 (Nov) DR 4.
