Intrinsically, law is collaborative, and excellent collaborative practices are necessary to manage the complexity of today’s legal challenges.
Modern cloud collaboration tools are affordable, easy to adopt and deploy, and an indispensable part of any lawyer or paralegal’s professional toolbox.
For seasoned lawyers, collaboration is a natural way of working. Often, however, even experienced collaborators discover new ways to leverage cloud collaboration tools, that include voice, video and messaging, for maximum gain with strategic, financial and talent-related outcomes.
Law firms recognise the need to integrate video collaboration technology into their workflow, as in-house lawyers combine their specialised legal knowledge with inputs from experts the organisation to tackle complicated issues and opportunities that span disciplines and locations.
For example, a client planning to offer e-commerce services across Europe would demand an ongoing, comprehensive, cross-organisational effort. A cloud collaboration service brings together in-house lawyers with their counterparts not only in IT and security functions but also marketing, billing, the e-commerce vendor, payment provider, customer service, and others.
Teams can communicate and collaborate on project workstreams using high-quality voice, high-definition video or team messaging with secure file or content sharing from any device to get work done quickly.
As the use of cloud collaboration grows in legal firms, more lawyers are going global with their expertise and skillset. Top legal experts can be tapped for services and support over video by clients in any location, without the need to travel.
While the need to communicate with clients across the country or globally is generally the purview of large law firms, smaller legal firms can also benefit from cloud collaboration technology.
For instance, a small UK firm consulting on specialist German case law can instantly contact the foremost expert in the field, who is semi-retired and living in Malta, using video collaboration, from the comfort of their UK office.
Similarly, small practices can offer an agile response to timesensitive demands. Cloud collaboration tools enable them to provide expert legal services across the country, unlocking additional revenue that might not have been possible earlier.
Current economic uncertainties require firms to realign their business models and focus on efficiency gains. Many UK legal firms are reviewing ways to restructure their costs while delivering the same high levels of client service through the use of technology.
While technology investment might be faltering, the anticipation for it to help transform and drive firms forward remains high. 62% of firms expect technologies to help them shift away from the billable hour, and 86% of firms believe technology will facilitate alternative pricing arrangements.
Cloud collaboration tools go beyond just lowering the costs for travel, they also increase efficiency and flexibility, enabling fee-earners to fit in more client meetings, liaising with barristers and collaborate on cases in a shorter time from anywhere. That opens up the possibility of offering clients fixed fees for services, as opposed to hourly charges.
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