Over the past yr I’ve read a lot to indicate #vendors still believe law firm purchasing power / decision-making is distributed, decentralized, and sits with the partners, who therefore need external help to navigate #Legaltech . In my experience this is simply no longer true. (1) https://twitter.com/legaltechbro/status/1344767793359556608

In most large law firms, purchasing decision-making for Legaltech resides with the KM / Innovation function. Yes, partner buy-in is valuable. But these functions serve as the central experts on #Legaltech. They identify use cases & select technology accordingly. (2)

They are mandated with being across the #legaltech market, and understanding what tools address which use cases. They also deeply understand the internal culture, systems & environment, & thus serve as more effective experts in this regard than external providers. (3)

Process generally is: 1. Use case identified, requirements gathered 2. IF tech is the answer, existing tech solutions evaluated for suitability 3. IF these are inadequate, scope #legaltech market for solutions 4. Identify best fit solutions for requirements, demo same to users(4)

5. Feedback from demo is added to internal business case, charter submitted (to IT / security / GC / etc) 6. Pilot is conducted w users, suitability of solution evaluted 7. IF solution meets requirements / obtains positive feedback during pilot, routed for implementation. (5)

This central role of KM / Innovation in law firms is why we are seeing new roles at firms - a proliferation of “innovation” roles, product manager hires, vendor side hires, tech hires to work with these groups and the practices. (6)

Vendors who ignore these centralized functions and the key roles they play, who instead go straight to partners, will have less luck selling to law firms. Partners don’t know what other tech the firm already has. They don’t know how to develop requirements. (7)

End result of that scattergun, partner-first sales approach is often pressure being put on KM / Innovation to bring in tech that doesn’t work with existing firm systems or is replicative of existing functionality. (8)

Not sure if vereins operate like this - they may be too big to have centralized global functions. But if you are wondering what innovation dptmts do @ firms - that’s what we do. Also develop proprietary discrete solutions for lawyers & clients, but that’s another story.(9)