This a short version response to Dennis Kennedy's short version of his great article yesterday.

In Seven Legal Technology Trends for 2007 - Widening the Digital Divide in Law Practice, your expressions “technology-forward lawyers” and “technology-backward lawyers” are absolutely apposite and apply equally in the UK.  The current backdrop is simply the Legal Services Act once enacted later in 2007.  Which firms will embrace the opportunities for change and progress, and which will bury their heads in the sand?

Only last night, I attended a major event at The Law Society in London on “Alternative Business Structures” under the Act.  Professor Stephen Mayson, Director of the Legal Services Policy Institute, began his address by saying he was alarmed at the general “complacency” and “ignorance” within the profession about its future, based on his experience of talking to firms up and down the land.

If a law business is not using IT to gain at least some competitive advantage, it does beg the question what is the real purpose of having IT?  Technology in a law practice is surely more than just a simple utility like water and electricity?

1. Reacting to Microsoft.

Fully agree.

A. Upgrading to New Microsoft Versions.

Agree, but for those firms currently not on 2003 or even XP, and there will be many, the gap will only widen.

B. Macintosh and Linux.

Agree.  Niche firms are better positioned and more agile to choose, but Microsoft and Microsoft Word in particular remains the standard legal desktop / application, and only a confident firm is likely to change.

C. Open Source, Freeware/Shareware, and Web 2.0.

Agree.  Only last Wednesday and Thursday, did I attend the annual two-day Legal IT Show 2007 in London held in early February each year.  I did not witness one exhibitor promoting social tools, and nearly all the vendors were the usual suspects in practice management, case management, legal publishing and digital dictation.  Evolution, not revolution, here then.

2. E-Discovery - Evolution, Not Revolution.

To my knowledge, there was not one e-discovery product on show at Legal IT 2007.  I suspect that is partly because the show needs to cater for all the different types of UK law firm and their disparate needs.  As a result, many of the “best of breed” solutions aimed at the larger or wealthier firms are show-cased offline, or via the leading legal systems integrator, Tikit, who did exhibit but not with any of their technology partners, like Interwoven.

E-management of documents, emails, records, etc is still maturing in the UK and is a long way from being fully mature.  Your recent LegalTech show in New York with its approximate 60% share of e-discovery vendors, and the make-up of our show, probably reflects the difference in legal cultures.  However, of more interest, both in the UK and the US, is what advantage these products could bring to non litigation matters, e.g. heavy-duty transactional work which is very document intensive.  I suspect a great deal.  A case for knowledge sharing across practice areas.

A. Tools for Everyday Cases.

Adobe 8 is already here, but I wonder how many UK firms have not even moved to Adobe 7, which itself was a major advance on Adobe 6.  The electronic signature capabilities of Adobe, for example, are sadly unknown and unused by many lawyers.

B. Litigation Support Managers.

The UK already has a mature industry for professional support personnel, which would include Litigation Support Managers, but the broader role and the skills set needed may blur the distinction between so-called fee-earning lawyers and professional support lawyers / managers.

C. “Big Iron” for Big E-Discovery.

Technology-forward and technology-backward resonates here.  Deeper IT budgets will also exacerbate the gap between the haves and have-nots.

3. Making Sound Business Decisions about Technology.

Agree.

A. Audits and Cost Savings Efforts.

Agree, but measurement generally of a simple mix of qualitative and quantative improvements has often been constrained by a combination of the absence of decent performance toolsets, which work across multiple back-end systems, and the right institutional mindset to measure, review and change behaviour as a part of a constant business process.

B. Applying Honest-to-Goodness Business Principles.

Agree, but on technology, most UK firms much prefer to follow rather than lead.  With new entrants to, and new investment in, the market post the Legal Services Act being disruptive influences, a law firm not fully understanding how much of its current business is commodity, rather than premium value, can only cloud the final judgment of its future.

C. Outsourcing Revisited.

Definitely agree, but by way of comparison, in the case of offshore outsourcing, the UK’s early experiences of sub-continent call centres of the UK’s major high street banks have not all been good news.  Perversely, outsourcing, whether onshore or offshore, is perhaps likely to be the choice of larger and wealthier firms, rather than smaller and less profitable firms.

4. The Security and Disaster Recovery Combination.

Agree.  Law firms have limited IT budgets, so this has to be one of their priorities.  Allocating budget to develop social tools for business use, for example, may be squeezed because of this higher threat.

A. Recent Redefinition of Disasters.

Agree.

B. Applying Recent Learning to Setting Priorities.

Agree.  Allen & Overy’s fire last year is a good example.

C. The Combo Disaster.

Agree.  For example, UK legal continues to send unencrypted email.  Reputational risk remains for all firms, “but for the grace of God”.

5. Portability Becomes a Priority.

Agree, but in the UK, there has been a recent move away from laptops to Blackberries.  Is this yet another sign that legal lags other sectors?

A. Movement to Laptops.

Agree, and this may be a function of the current big topic in UK legal on the work life balance and more flexible working.  But the trade off is also a need for more security (see further below).

B. The Decline of the Blackberry?

Very many lawyers are still to get Blackberries.  Will ships pass in the night without realising the business changes at work?

C. Encryption Arrives.

Agree.  In the UK, there are also several statutory drivers, which should impact here to drive change, although change will not be fast, and they are in relation to e-Conveyancing and, within that, Home Information Packs.  But broad adoption of e-signatures remains somewhere in the future.  The Land Registry's e-Conveyancing system is not due to be fully operational until 2010!

6. The Internet is Back.

Agree.  With so many of us influenced as consumers by Google, YouTube, MySpace, Skype and various other news media sites, static law firm websites look positively last century.  One might expect greater use of RSS feeds as firms try to make their web offerings more modern and useful to clients.

A. Yellow Pages and Local Search.

Agree.  UK lawyers will crave ever more filtered search functionality, assuming that is, they are prepared to pay for its development and then use it properly.

B. Creating a Meaningful Web Presence.

Agree.  The process has already started.

C. Email Alternatives.

Agree, but again the UK legal sector lags other sectors, so many are still catching up.  Alternatives like Transaction Dealrooms have not been a success, so UK lawyers will need a lot of persuading.  Having said that, much email could easily be switched to RSS feeds and the increasing functionality within the latest versions of document management systems can help alleviate problems of the last five years.  But more effective collaboration with clients would be better served outside email in richer collaboration tools.

7. Collaborative Tools and Toolboxes.

Agree.  Microsoft Sharepoint is already at work here in some of the large firms.

A. Document Tools.

Agree.

B. Let’s Conference.

Agree. Work life balance, flexible working, business continuity planning, will all influence this change.  As consumers, we can already do it for free with the likes of Skype.

C. Web 2.0.

Agree, but the bulk of the UK profession will still need a lot of education (see Stephen Mayson quote above).

Conclusion.

Agree.  Anyone who has travelled on the London Tube will have heard the immortal platform announcement “Please mind the gap”.  The Legal Services Act is due to be enacted this 2007 and, for that reason alone, the UK’s legal landscape will forever be changed this year.  2007 is indeed the year for law firms to plan to get their IT house in order and “fit for purpose”, otherwise, as passengers, they may never be able to cross the gap to catch the trains which carry their clients.