Legaltech News interviews Greg Lambert about how law firms can use data for business intelligence

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Mind the Data: How Law Firms Can Use Data for Business Intelligence
Greg Lambert of the Am Law 200 firm Jackson Walker discusses how employee data is shaping his firm’s business.

Data mining is a burgeoning practice across all industries but, as with all things technology, law tends to go against the current. Yet that isn’t to say that all firms are turning a blind eye toward technology.

Greg Lambert, Chief Knowledge Services Officer.

Among those looking ahead and deriving value from their data is Jackson Walker, an Am Law 200 firm that began mining its own data to enhance its business intelligence (BI). Legaltech News recently got in touch with the firm’s chief knowledge services officer, Greg Lambert, to discuss the benefits of law firm data mining, challenges to adoption, the attorneys’ response and more.

Q: In today’s data-driven world, what benefit does mining big data for BI offer?

My experience is that, a lot of times, the information you want to mine is typically between the ears of the attorney, and trying to get that out of them is near impossible. You try to take some of the work product that they do, the amount of data surrounding the work that they do, and create a story that way from the information that you can gather. Because, if you’re waiting to get the story from the attorney, you’re going to be waiting forever.

Q: Are attorneys receptive to the idea of using data over their insights for information?

I think it depends on what you’re mining. The easy stuff to mine for us is the action items that they’ve taken that create some kind of trail. That can be their time entry, what kind of industries they’re working on—that stuff has been around for years.

But now, we’ve expanded. We’re trying to look at the documents that are created, the types of documents, some of the information that’s inside the documents, the items that leave a paper trail, docket information.

The [attorneys] I’ve talked to have been positive about it because they don’t have to do much. And there’s a lot of information that we pull from that doesn’t tell a specific story, but rather it lays the groundwork to fill in some holes.

Q: Anything that makes them resistant to data mining?

Emails. There’s an extra level of sensitivity because those tend to be client correspondence, so they want to be extra careful on what is exposed. For example, a lot of law firms would love to be able to grab information out of the attorneys’ emails to help supplement the (customer relationship management) system.

And I think you’ll find that attorneys are usually very hesitant and want to know specifically what you’re going to be pulling out of there. It could be things as simple as a client meeting or a title or phone number change, but they really are hesitant because they think those correspondence have an extra layer of protection ethically, and so they want to be very careful on that.

Q: How do you get attorneys on board with data mining?

I think you have to be transparent in what you’re trying to do. We’re trying to determine the types of work that we worked on the past, and trying to be able to leverage that experience to help us handle new matters and new experiences that are coming in.

And so I think if you’re telling them what you’re looking at and very specific on what it is you’re pulling, I think then they tend to accept it. Especially if you layer in the “If we do this, it’s less questions that we have to ask you.” The last thing they want is another layer of administrative questions.

Q: Advice for firms looking to mine their data?

Start simple, and find what the needs are of either the attorneys themselves or the clients. If clients are asking the attorneys to be more specific in how they manage their matters, there’s some value in mining the experience that they’re already had. It’s not perfect, but it gives you something to start with.

Most firms that get themselves into trouble are the ones that try to eat the whole elephant in one sitting. Once you’re successful and you can show the attorneys or client that this is relevant info or this is helpful, then you can start ramping up your game, but if you start trying to do it all at once, you’re probably going to fail.

Reprinted with permission from Legaltech News.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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