Innovation in Law Firms: Implementing Successful Projects

Innovation in legal services remains a hot topic, yet technology adoption does not always keep up with the hype. While there is a plethora of academic and professional research about the area, there is a lack of guidance on the practicalities of helping professionals actually get innovation right.

This book focuses on implementing innovation and the innovation process in a law firm, from pilot to adoption and everything in between (whether that be within the law firm itself or undertaken by the law firm’s clients). Divided into four parts to reflect the innovation lifecycle of examine, explore, develop and reflect, this book is a practical guide for those starting or doing innovation in law firms. Students keen to know how innovation is implemented in practice will also find it useful.

Innovation in Law Firms is packed with insight from the authors who lead the award-winning innovation team at Weightmans, and who have experience of starting innovation from scratch, as well as viewpoints ranging from the strategic, board-level perspective to the on-the-ground experience of actually doing innovation projects. It is practical rather than theoretical in style and aims to fill some of the adoption gap by exploring the highs and lows of innovating in law firms, and outlining practical steps that can be taken to mitigate some of the potential pitfalls. Whether at the start or part way through an innovation journey, this book allows readers to dip in and out providing guidance on specific issues as they arise as part of the innovation lifecycle.

table of content

Part 1: Examine

Introduction: what has Donoghue v Stevenson got to do with innovation?

1. A faster horse or the moon on a stick?

2. Getting started – big picture

3. Getting started – proof of concepts and methodologies

 

Part 2: Explore

4. Skills, team and bringing others with you – recruiting your ‘pirates in the navy’

5. When it works – lessons learnt

6. Change management

 

Part 3: Develop

7. So, you want me to collaborate?!

8. When things go wrong – bouncing back from lessons learnt

9. If you build it, who is coming?

 

Part 4: Reflect

10. Barriers

11. Politics – JFDI (maybe using fairy dust?)

12. The next shiny thing… looking forward