A plethora of legal startups, companies and law firm subsidiaries augmenting traditional legal services have adopted the moniker of “new law” to promote their innovation. But what does that mean? In a practical sense, it is fresh icing on the stale cake of legacy legal delivery paradigms.
New law is a broad category of strategies that are designed to address complex and unanticipated legal matters without disrupting the core business of existing clients. These can include a broad spectrum of new technologies that allow for efficient, cost-effective, and innovative ways to deliver legal assistance. It can also involve engaging with underserved communities to create legal solutions that have not previously been available to them.
The new law concept is a very important part of the practice of all lawyers and it is imperative to understand how this process works. The benefits of this type of legal help can be enormous and all firms should explore this type of work to see if it can provide them with a new source of revenue and a way to grow their business.
It is also a form of work that can be an important component in a well thought out strategy for a legal firm that is focused on the best interests of its clients. The key is to focus on the client and the types of legal aid that they need in order to achieve their goals. This can be done by combining traditional legal work with new law techniques in an appropriate manner that is designed to meet the needs of the client and the specific case.
There are some fundamental principles that all firms need to consider as they begin exploring this concept. The first is that this type of work should be viewed as a separate service line within the firm that can serve a niche market. This means that it can be used to generate revenue and client satisfaction in a way that does not interfere with the main focus of the firm.
The second principle is that the new law concept should be viewed as a means of delivering value to the clients of the firm. This can be achieved by providing the highest quality of legal help in the most efficient manner possible. This is done by leveraging technology, creating processes that streamline work and allowing the lawyers to focus on high impact work for their clients. This approach will enable the firm to deliver legal services in a very cost effective and innovative manner that will set it apart from its competitors.
Finally, the new law concept should be viewed as an opportunity to collaborate with other business units and outside partners. This is essential to addressing the increasing complexity and fluidity of global challenges that cannot be solved by any one function, enterprise or stakeholder group. For example, pharmaceutical company collaboration to develop the Covid-19 vaccine is an example of a successful form of industry wide collaboration. Legal departments are beginning to explore collaboration and integration through horizontal and vertical consolidation, joint ventures, managed services and other collaborative mechanisms.