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How Top Am Law 100 Firm DLA Piper uses Technology to Win Business (…and how you can too)

Practice Management

DLA Piper is not only a top Am Law 100 firm but also a global leader with lawyers in over 40 countries worldwide. Like many legal firms of all sizes, they serve multiple business segments and different practice areas. With so many areas of expertise, how can they stand out to new prospective clients?

How DLA Piper stands out

One practice area of expertise for DLA Piper is technology. To position themselves as a thought leader expert in that area, DLA Piper creates and regularly shares relevant content that demonstrates their firm is “in the know.”

DLA Piper blog: Technology’s legal edge

This global technology sector blog has its own website. On the homepage, you can subscribe to get newsletter updates. DLA Piper further promotes their trending knowledge in the “featured topics” in the navigation bar. Each featured topic is significant in technology today and likely helps DLA Piper drive website views because of it:

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Blockchain
  • Data Governance
  • FinTech
  • Telecoms

A blog is a simple way to demonstrate what you know about a specific legal field or niche. If you’re already following the latest trends of interest to a particular business niche or segment, consider creating a blog and newsletter to share your thoughts on what’s new. The purpose of your blog isn’t to be a news source; instead, you need to share your perspective or point of view about how what’s happening in your area of expertise affects the legal industry and your prospective clients.

DLA Piper global technology summit

In Spring 2021, DLA Piper held its seventh biannual Global Technology Summit. It was virtual this time,  with nearly 600 attendees. Their goal with the summit is to provide insight and analysis into the emerging technology and legal trends affecting business today. In reality, this is another fantastic vehicle to demonstrate to existing clients and prospects that DLA Piper is deeply immersed in their business vertical.

After the event, Victoria Lee, DLA Piper partner, co-chair for the firm’s global technology sector, summarized their key takeaways, which included:

  • The importance of defining data as an asset
  • Establishing legal policies to help protect data
  • How emerging technologies like Blockchain will continue to revolutionize industries such as financial services
  • The need for cybersecurity across rapidly developing technologies
  • The vital role of technology leaders in diversity and inclusion

Learning from the leaders

DLA Piper created a forum for experts in the technology space to collaborate about industry trends to reinforce their position as a market leader and demonstrate their ability to evolve.

How can you learn more about how your industry peers are evolving? Make time to attend webinars or live presentation events where experts in your field share their insights about trends and technology.

By tracking how the nation’s largest firms are evolving, you can apply their key learnings to your firm to evolve with the industry leaders.

Your opportunity to evolve starts now.

Check out ALM’s upcoming webcast, where The National Law Journal ranks the nation’s largest 500 law firms. Most insightful will be the charts and insights on shifts over the past year. As with many industries, leaders are grappling with questions of which pandemic trends with stay. Needless to say, COVID-19 affected headcounts at the nation’s largest law firms. How will they move forward?  Will firms bolster their legal teams heading into 2022? Will they rely more heavily on outside specialists? What new opportunities will that open up for others?

The information you learn in webcasts like this can change the course of your firm. Save your spot to be in the know about leading law firms and their strategies for success.

The big picture trends revealed in this webcast don’t just impact the nation’s largest law firms; it affects the entire industry.

Consider the trends when evaluating your firm.

Once you’ve attended the webcast, think about what you’re good at and how it relates to law firm trends. Connect the kind of cases and legal matters you like to do more with any specific areas of expertise with how the legal industry is trending to find focus areas. In other words, if big law is outsourcing more specialized work to third parties subject matter experts where you thrive, then spend more time touting that area of business and look to collaborate.

What law firms would you like to emulate?

What legal firms do you most aspire to be like? First, take a closer look at their business. Then, take advantage of free industry resources from prominent firms and ALM’s webcast. For example, you are free to subscribe to their newsletter in DLA Piper’s case to get regular updates on technology and legal matters.

“The riskiest thing we can do is just maintain the status quo. “ -Bob Iger

 Technology at the forefront

What you undoubtedly already realize is that even the big law firms never rest on their laurels. Instead, successful firms stay at the forefront of evolution. Although no one can predict how quickly any industry will change with the introduction of disruptors like technology, the survivors recognize and react to the trends by moving forward.

Get your house in order

Do you have processes that are slowing down your cases? Your first priority is to identify and optimize the bottlenecks. Doing so will mean that you’ve recognized your data is an asset and that you’re taking steps toward delivering a modern client experience.

For more information on optimizing your law firm’s processes, visit AbacusNext to start your journey to a better practice.