The Case for an UK-based, Law Firm — Championed Startup Accelerator
Globalisation, the financial crisis and the rise of entrepreneurship pose a great challenge for the legal profession. Let’s face it, law is one of the few industries where little has changed when it comes to the services, their delivery and integration, customer engagement and branding. The legal industry is not leveraging the potential that tech and innovation are making accessible. And it’s not just the case of the legal profession in emerging countries — these follow the trail left by law firms active in big economies, which use the same business models since what seems forever.
Changes are not easy to take in — and it’s true that these business models are functional to some extent. But adopting a lean(er) approach and creating an environment where efficiency is the main goal would make the law firm adapting to today’s challenges a leader of the pack.
The above may seem like a threat for a seemingly functional mechanism. But law is essential to every aspect of a functional business environment and society. Then, what may appear as a threat is actually an amazing opportunity for whomever decides to take the first steps.
This is Not a STORM helps bold organisations gain a whole new level of business opportunities and brand awareness. This can be achieved by fostering compelling experiences for their clients and standing out through novel approaches regarding the way they deliver services. This is also an exercise into how law firms can keep its millennial workforce engaged by the challenges the legal profession brings.
This approach is a lean approach. By leveraging their unique assets to grasp available opportunities through smart contexts, a law firm can see better results, faster and with no wasted resources.
Industry challenges and opportunities
Global competition is intensifying and some competitors don’t look like much competition right now (DIY law and digital services marketplaces).
Have you heard of UpCounsel? It’s one of the leading marketplaces for legal services in and out of US, and in the summer of 2015 it secured $10 million in funding to expand its reach and help more companies avoid the hassle of contracting legal aid. At about the same moment, IronClad, a startup part of the latest batch in Y Combinator (one of the most coveted startup accelerators in the world), announced its launch with an aim to automate legal work for companies and legal counsels.
Tech and innovation provide a huge opportunity for law firms. Take UK for instance: it’s a hub for all big law firms and business, but also one of the three European hubs of entrepreneurship according to TechCrunch . A law firm should leverage this advantage by looking over at why startups have it so good here.
Innovation is present all around a law firm’s environment, among its clients and collaborators alike. Expanding their network by creating smart partnerships would allow a law firm take advantage of other organisations’ processes, technologies, offerings, channels, and brands. This way it can capitalize on its own strengths while harnessing the capabilities and assets of others.
To grasp this opportunity, a law firm can partner with startups to explore new ways to deliver services, create legal products, delight existing customers — through idea challenges and hackathons. Also consider partnering with coworking spaces, incubators, accelerators and open communication lines UK and EU-based startups.
Clients want to spend as little as possible on corporate and commercial law services, while the expected added-value is increasingly value-sensitive.
The opportunity here is to separate from the herd: clearly define your signature or superior methods to do your work by enabling your firm to use unique capabilities, function efficiently, adapt quickly, and build market–leading margins and client portfolios. Explore ways to reorganize assets — human and intangible — in unique ways that create value.
Where to start? Bridge venture capital and corporate venture capital funds, key players in disrupted industries (financial, retail, healthcare, automotive, transportation) with high-growth ventures.
What is one of the leanest approaches to doing this? Through focused networking events. In parallel a law firm can experiment with high performance frameworks and tools (customer development, UX, design thinking, open allocation, etc.) through an idea lab.
Our blasphemy: the law firm catalyst
The law firm catalyst — a complete innovation programme designed to put a law firm in an undisputed leadership position — is our proposal for law firms that want to go the extra mile from the beginning. It will deliver value in 2 key strategic areas:
(I) creating a wide pipeline of high value / high-growth clients;
(II) creating new revenue sources and reduce operational costs.
By implementing the programme, a law firm creates new partnership, business and PR opportunities, otherwise unavailable without a lean approach.
For the first part it is important to have an approach that upholds the law firm as open, accessible, standing out with an innovative way to deliver services.
The second part is achievable by partnering with, and supporting the development of startups as digital channels to engage clients, deliver legal services, or productivize recurring services. This means using the digital services of others to increase efficiency and visibility of your legal practice.
The catalyst has 3 independent components that can be rolled out in a staged approach. This way, with minimum resources results can be observed and little time is wasted on complicated strategies.
Stage 1:
Using the inside-out approach, you will first delve into the what, why and how of your current operations, to then see what are the solutions that best fit your practice. Specialised workshops will enable you to understand your problems, your collaborators’ problems and the goals you want to reach.
Stage 2:
A dedicated website (and slack channel) as communication channel; partnerships with UK and EU universities, coworking spaces, incubators, accelerators; and dedicated engagement models, products, services, guides, educational tools, etc. for startups and entrepreneurs.
Idea challenge or hackathon for digital products that represent new ways to engage clients and deliver legal services, as well as automating and productivising recurring and common activities. These are all already established ways to innovate that are being implemented as you read this in other industries.
Stage 3.1:
Bridge investors and large corporates with your high growth network through focused network events.
Idea lab — where lawyers, entrepreneurs and experts work together on transforming ideas into new products and services, using best operational and organisational startup tools and frameworks.
Stage 3.2:
Acceleration programme helping innovative ventures moving up through mentorship, investment and access to your network.
Dedicated programme helping high growth EU startups establish presence, get investment and open business opportunities in the UK
A practical approach to the implementation
I know the previous part may look complicated, but here’s the kicker: it is simpler than it seems, provided you take a lean and focused approach. Start by defining specific desired outcomes and take a lean approach to implementation. Here is a recipe for this:
> define clear objectives, aligned with your strategy (we’ll provide the tools)
> explore possible models for the innovation programme (we’ll provide the case studies)
> design and plan the first iteration of the programme — keep in mind it should be a minimum viable version (we’ll help you through)
> run the first iteration and measure results (we’ll do this with or for you)
In other words and to simplify, this is what we can do together:
1. Needs Analysis
2. Programme Design
3. Launch, Measure & Learn
If you are ready to explore these new opportunities, do get in touch with us!
A critique to existing approaches or Why I wrote this
As everyone is entitled to his (ahem, stupid) opinion, here it goes: looking at most mock-up innovation programmes run by law firms, with a few notable exceptions, I see approaches ranging from ill-conceived to outright unfair. The market is unforgiving and most of these initiatives disappeared.
Let’s focus on what actually works — initiatives where the law firm gives value first, and:
> spends time and resources on forging meaningful relationships with future successful ventures
> makes an effort to help startups by facilitating meaningful connections with potential investors and business partners
> understands the needs and the way high growth ventures operate and adapt their approach, sharing their know-how and network
Whether you’re a boutique law firm, one specialised in tech or part of the Magic Circle, there are innovation solutions for everyone. I’d love to hear your thoughts on these issues, any feedback is highly appreciated, so do get in touch with me. You can reach me at t@thisisnotastorm.com. Cheers!
[A big thanks goes to Tudor Stanciu, Roxana Balan and Smaranda Ignat (my teammates) and Jonas Altman (our advisor) for their input and feedback]