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On the fast track to success
At the Liquid Legal Institute we encounter many colleagues in law firms and legal in-house departments who realize the need for change – but simply don’t know where and how to start digitalization projects. We have brought together our collective expert knowledge and experience to fast track you into the digital future. How? By providing the tools to unlock your imagination in our DigiGuide2.0.
Why should you keep reading?
Because we’ve been there. We are a group of high-ranking representatives of legal departments and law firms. Digital transformation is on the agenda of most of our members. We worked together on the publication of the DigiGuide 2.0 as a part of a project at the Liquid Legal Institute e.V. A unique international think tank that cares about the advancement of the legal industry by sharing our collective experience.
What to expect from the DigiGuide2.0
In a crowd-writing project we gathered best practice tips and ready-to-use checklists to start to digitalize your workstreams.
Chapter 1: Starting with the right mindset and some important strategic thoughts, outlining the project with a focus on real pain points and target state definitions, we also describe how to secure the all-important support from above.
Chapter 2: Is a step-by-step guide on how to run the project. Putting the team together, conducting market research, designing, developing, testing and launching the solution – and what it takes to get positive user feedback. Go live – and now?
Chapter 3: Is about the important phase after the launch when it comes to troubleshooting and stabilizing change, further enhancing the product or service and managing success.
Here are some high-level recommendations taken from the DigiGuide2.0:
Start with a clean slate
Forget what you know. Forget what you see. Elevate your mind, look around you – and think. We know it’s hard to imagine things differently from the way they are. But, for digitalization projects in particular, one ability is undeniably crucial – to dissociate yourself from the way we have always done things and to start with a clean slate. An open mind.
Adapting to clients’ needs
It is essential to adapt to new circumstances. We have to cope with increasing workloads and budget constraints while meeting clients‘ or employers’ expectations at the same time. Law firm clients are no longer willing to pay high hourly rates for lawyers to perform standard tasks and repetitive work. Companies expect more efficient work from their lawyers and businesses ask for ready-to-use solutions from legal departments. For these reasons, we must focus on the core of our legal work. Those services where we do not add value with our legal know-how must be handled more economically.
Adding value
To achieve this, we’ll provide you with the tools to recognize the services that add value. How to make our services distinct and measurable. Deconstructing legal work. Leading to the standardization of high-volume and low-value tasks and the emergence of legal process outsourcers.
Remember, people have feelings
But whatever you do, put the people factor first. People have feelings. Sometimes projects fail, just because we haven’t considered the importance of matchmaking. Match the right people with each other. Employees, sponsors, external support. Create an environment that lets people grow. Sometimes you just need to match people with the right method. A method that will lead to success.
Progress through errors
We strive for success. Nonetheless, failure is an option as well. We advise you to act and fail quickly. Learn your lesson and move on. Even if your project doesn’t immediately achieve optimal outcomes or even ‘fails’ with regard to specific goals, such initial failure doesn’t necessarily mean the whole project will collapse. With the right mindset and troubleshooting you can even progress through errors.
Stabilize success
Once you have succeeded, we want you to remain in the winning zone. Stabilize your success by keeping your mind open for infinite digital change. How?
Just don’t stop now. Keep reading online on GitBook – here.
With the compliments of:
- Dr. Martin F. Biehaule (GSK Stockmann, Senior Manager)
- Evgeny Ioffe (Liquid Legal Institute e.V.)
- Kai Jacob (Liquid Legal Institute e.V. / KPMG Law, Partner)
- Joachim Kämpf (ECE Group, General Counsel)
- Astrid Kohlmeier (AK|LEGAL DESIGN/Liquid Legal Institute e.V.)
- Carolin Kothe (Liquid Legal Institut e.V. / KPMG Law)
- Dr. Anita Lamprecht (Liquid Legal Institute e.V.)
- Dr. Rainer Markfort (Dentons, Partner)
- Marcel Ritter (Telefónica Germany, General Counsel)
- Dr. Valérie M. Saintot (Liquid Legal Institut e.V./ Adjunct Professor, former Head of the Legislation Division, ECB)
- Dr. Markus Sengpiel (Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft, Partner)
- Dr. Roger Strathausen (Liquid Legal Institute e.V.)
- Hanny Vonderstein (Wolters Kluwer, Global Product manager Document Application)
- Dr. Bernhard Waltl (Liquid Legal Institute e.V. / BMW Group, Legal Operations Officier)
- Dr.rer.nat. Jobst Wibbelmann (Liquid Legal Institute e.V. / Noventive IP)
d.schindler@liquid-legal-institute.org
