Alston & Bird's Knowledge Serives Group

What do These Technologies Really Mean to Law Firms? “THIS TIDAL WAVE IS HUGE.”
Four years of development, implementation and reflection have yielded insights into what these technologies can mean for law firms.

• Actual use is the real metric. To begin with, Alston & Bird learned, putting the technology infrastructure in place so everyone can get online should be an initial objective. But actual use, not just capability, is the real metric. It involves at least a casual-and hopefully a daily-use of a Web browser.
• Lawyers must have good reasons to go online. Providing them with pointers to relevant content on the Internet, the use of Web-based third party resources and the publication of internal and client-related content on an intranet provide such reasons. A firm must solve this chicken-and-egg problem before it can take substantial advantage of its newfound capabilities.
• Network effects. Once the firm's members are using the Web, the "network effects" can kick in. Network effects are exemplified when an entire enterprise has reliable e-mail and everyone in the organization becomes familiar with it. Initial usage is low, but once the effects of this new, networked technology are felt, those who refuse to take advantage of it are quickly out of the loop. The flip side to the network effects is that the value of the technology to the organization rises dramatically with usage (value=users² ). This is because the enterprise can leverage this interconnectedness in new ways.

After four years with the Internet, intranets and extranets, all A&B lawyers and staff definitely know how to use their Web browsers. This foundation enables the firm to deploy all new applications with the same technologies, bringing to bear the cost and training savings that the technologies afford. It also means a client team can move forward with an extranet without worrying about whether all the lawyers on the team can or will participate.

In short, the firm has built a foundation of usage and understanding, of technology personnel and infrastructure, and of successes, failures and expertise. Now, the firm its ready to engage clients with these technologies in evermore interesting, powerful ways.

The New Electronic Environments
“THIS IS ABOUT SERVING CLIENTS IN THE 21ST CENTURY.”
Many law offices want to frame the intranet/extranet/Internet discussion as a technology investment. Although technology components must be budgeted, a law office will make a grave mistake if it frames the project in these terms.

To begin with, implementing these technologies is not about money. Inexpensive Internet technologies are available. An office raising the cost spectrum is simply hiding other issues. The bottom line is that a firm can set up a static intranet on an existing file server without additional investment. Even a standalone Web server can be set up for a few thousand dollars. Indeed, a firm can outsource the cost of hosting an intranet to an external provider. At an absolute minimum, a firm can put in place a standalone, inexpensive PC with a dial-up Internet account for anyone to access.

Arguably, the important issues are not technology issues. With the advent of "black box" implementations (at the lowest level, WebTV exemplifies this approach), the barriers to using these technologies are de minimis. Clients, competitors and America's children are using the Internet for countless purposes. Children from different cities, states and countries are learning to play cooperatively through virtual games. Consequently, making technology implementation the primary issue is misleading. Indeed, this is no longer even a question about the human/machine interface, since users can learn to use a Web browser in an hour or less.

Years of experience show that the only proper framing of the issues is to focus on human factors, firm culture and the ability and willingness of lawyers and staff to embrace the realities of the 21st-century economy. At the core, these technologies are about creating collaborative electronic workspaces, decentralizing and transferring information and knowledge, and developing extra-organizational teams. These new electronic environments raise issues of collective action within the context of the new media. Law offices now must address issues that might have been avoided in the past. Will we draw arbitrary lines about who will or will not use technology? Will we impose hurdles to Internet use by our staff, fearing they will "fool around" on the Internet? Can the office culture accept that it must decentralize content ownership to make the new electronic venture successful? Has the organization established a climate of collaboration and information sharing? Is the firm secure enough in its strategic position that it can permit the inevitable knowledge transfer among extra-organizational teams collaborating in extranets? Has the firm reconciled itself with the fact that electronic workspaces are becoming surrogates for personal contact and that this means personnel will become more "glued to the computer screen?"

Law practice long has stressed individual expertise, knowledge and relationships. While advanced

	John Hokkanen (john@hokkanen.com), Chief Knowledge Counsel, heads the Knowledge Services Department at Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia, and has acted as chief architect of the firm’s intranet and extranet applications. You may obtain a copy of his informational CD-ROM "Law Offices and the Internet" by using the on-line form at www.alston.com/cdorder.

business degrees focus on group projects, law programs evaluate on the basis of more solitary activities. If the 21st century will involve long-term partnering between organizations, not individuals, then the electronic corollary becomes important. There will be increasing knowledge and expertise transfers on behalf of corporate clients.

At the same time, the spin-offs from these technologies offer huge opportunities for a law firm. Firms that combine legal expertise with technology to create and offer legal products and services through the Internet can help existing and new clients across the planet.

The issue confronting law firms is not one of technology or money but of innovation and the grasping of these opportunities. Understanding how to create, for example, the "portal site" on labor compliance issues is one thing; executing this understanding is another. It can mean bringing together not only technology and legal experts, but also Internet marketing and extra-organizational entities (e.g., consultants) with whom the law firm may not even have a relationship.

Organizations that focus on "How can we add value to the client relationship?" will do fabulously well in the next century. Firms that do not may find themselves increasingly marginalized in the new economy, with growth opportunities dwindling. This is what Internet technologies really mean to a law firm.