Old-fashioned principles for new-fashioned legal technology

When it comes to convincing lawyers and law firms to adopt new technologies, two factors are the best motivators, a panel of experts said Tuesday: the innovations must save the attorneys’ time and help the firms make money.

It may sound like a given, said Nicole Bradick, chief strategy officer at CuroLegal, a legal strategy and technology consulting company, but creators of software and other technologies might not realize that a perceived lack of usefulness and ease of use for attorneys are the two biggest obstacles that prevent firms from adopting new systems.

“Usability right now is the most important thing we need to focus on in legal technology,” said Bradick, who spoke on a panel about the impact of technology innovation on the legal profession at the International Legal Technology Association’s educational conference at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. “We haven’t done enough there to let lawyers believe the software is going to be easy to use and easy to incorporate into their daily lives.”

For the stubborn partner who is resistant to moving to a new system, the key is to demonstrate that the innovation will solve problems rather than create new ones, said Joshua Lenon, a fellow panelist and lawyer in residence at Clio, a company that develops law practice management software.

“For that guy, you’ve got to solve his pain,” Lenon said. “That’s how you get him to adopt, by saying, ‘This will get you the same result, but without the headache you go through every other Thursday.’ You have to really drill down to the specific pain of that lawyer.”

Bradick said reluctance can be overcome on both ends: the technology creators, whether they are building apps or software, should think through the user experience before beginning to code, she said. For buyers, it’s important to conduct user testing before committing to a particular product.

Firms should also understand the idea of hype as it relates to technology, Lenon said. According to the Gartner Hype Cycle, a model for understanding popular adoption of new technologies, what is innovative now will be commonplace in two to five years, he said.

As an example, Lenon cited a 2010 report claiming media tablets were reaching “peak hype.”

“Five, six years later, the media tablet is an everyday reality — it’s something your kids use, it’s something your lawyers use,” Lenon said. “What was innovative at the time is now mundane.”

Attorneys and law firms should be skeptical but open to new technologies, while realizing that it will take time before those technologies truly begin to aid their productivity, he added.

“Look for early implementations, but don’t necessarily be the early adopter,” he said. “Some of the most successful technologies were by later comers — the iPad was not the first media tablet, but it is the most popular. Cornering markets comes from the good versions, not the first versions.”

Ryan McClead, innovation architect at software company HighQ, said firms sometimes mistakenly believe they need the “latest and greatest” technology in order to innovate. In reality, he said, it’s more important for attorneys and technologists to be working together to tackle the firm’s problems.

“That’s not easy — lawyers and technologists take different paths through this world, they speak different languages, they approach every problem from completely different angles,” he said. “But all of those obstacles become strengths if you can get them to work together.”