Feb 22, 2017
Law firms are under increasing pressure to change the way they practise, often turning to technological innovations to improve efficiencies and reduce costs, according to a recent article in Law Times. In the piece, reporter Marg. Bruineman interviews experts from a number of firms to discover what they’re doing differently to keep up with the changing times. One of the lawyers she consults for insight is Mara Nickerson, Osler’s chief knowledge officer, and an acknowledged Canadian industry leader in legal services innovation and services delivery. According to Mara, much of the push for innovation is motivated by clients and a changing business environment.
“It’s really very driven by the industry and the market and the need to reduce the cost of providing legal services,” Mara explains, highlighting the importance of the firm’s practice management and innovation efforts that have included initiatives like the access privacy group’s online tools for clients and the competition group’s merger notification analysis.
“We recognize that [in] this changing legal industry, in trying to introduce innovation and change the way we practise with our clients and internally, it is a change management initiative and we actually have a change management consultant,” she continues.
“In the end, any change is going to be driven largely by our clients and by the imaginations of our lawyers, but the underlying fundamental issue is the need to bring down the cost of how we provide legal services.”
To learn more about innovations underway in the legal industry, read Marg. Bruineman’s full article, “Focus: Change with firms driven by different factors,” dated February 13, 2017.