Legal Week has teamed up with leading employee survey company Best Companies Group to identify the UK and international law firms with the best technology.
The Legal Week Best Legal Technology ranking and report will allow law firms to gauge the effectiveness of their IT at a time when they are coming under increasing pressure from clients to improve their efficiency, transparency and data security.
At the heart of the report will be the results of an employee survey which asks lawyers to rate the effectiveness of the technology at their disposal. It will cover hot topics such as tablets, remote working, cyber-security training, collaboration software and the pressure clients are exerting on law firms to improve their technology.
The results, which will be published in October, will allow firms to benchmark the performance of their technology, identify gaps in their capability and build the case for future investment.
There will also be a new element to the research in the shape of an IT directors’ survey, which will identify law firms’ strategic priorities. The launch comes as a host of leading law firms move to boost their efficiency in the face of client demands for better value for money.
Last month Legal Week reported that Linklaters, Clifford Chance (CC), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hogan Lovells, Herbert Smith Freehills, Ashurst and Baker & McKenzie were all bulking up their project management capabilities. And in January, CC senior partner Matthew Layton appointed Bas Boris Visser, managing partner of CC’s Amsterdam office, to a new role of global head of innovation and business change as he unveiled a strategic plan to put innovation and change at the heart of the firm.
Firms that took part in the research last year – and were named as having the best legal IT – included Berwin Leighton Paisner, DLA Piper, Slaughter and May and Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co.
The partnership with Best Companies Group will see Legal Week harness its expertise in order to significantly increase survey response rates at participating firms, while at the same time making the data gathering process less obtrusive.
