Law firm IT leaders give their view: Daniel Gasparro (Howrey)

26
Jan
2011

Geoff Zodda

The year 2011 will bring a lot of change to the legal technology industry. We at Legal IT Professionals wondered how law firm IT leaders look at the near future. To find out, Geoff Zodda put together ten questions and selected 5 IT leaders  from major law firms to answer them.

Today, it is Daniel Gasparro's turn to answer the questions. Daniel is CIO at Howrey.

Will the role of the CIO/CTO change in law firms as some experts have predicted in the next year?
Yes – for the most part the change has already begun.  The epicenter of the change is the cost of legal services. It is a buyers’ market; clients are setting the rates, driving down revenue and profits. As a result, law firms have less money to invest and operate the business, including IT. Given these changes, CIO has to be more concerned with the bottom line (e.g., IT Costs as a Percentage of Revenue) than the “wow” factor of IT.  Going forward this will mean fewer funds to invest and maintain IT.

Will major IT projects that had previously been postponed as a result of the recent economy, such as upgrades, rollouts, and conversions, going to be re-initiated?
Depends – the projects that have a clear / measurable business benefits (e.g., drive top line revenue growth, increase profitability and statutory/ risk requirement) will be funded.  Moreover, IT will be driving fewer projects. A non-IT Program Management Office will emerge, which will oversee investments and ensure business goals are met. Programs most likely will have 5 components – people, policy, process, technology, and economics.

Will current trends across the legal industry drive new technologies to emerge or come to the forefront in the next year? 
Not really. The focus will be more on standardizing on how technology is implemented and supported.   Specifically, clients expect law firms to exercise more discipline /rigor in the handling/ administration of information.  (e.g., ISO or ITIL compliant)

Will the majority of firms within the AMLaw 250 develop SharePoint or other web-based portals in-house?
They should not, home grown portals are not market-differentiators; they add cost and complexity that take away from profitability. IT departments within law firms need to shed the “invented hear” mentality.

Where will be the major areas of growth departmentally within law firm IT groups? 
Web 2.0 applications (preferably cloud-based) that focused on

• Revenue Analysis -  Improving revenue realization / forecasting and staff utilization
• Relationship Management – using social media (e.g., Lexis Connected, LinkedIn) to drive stronger relationships with clients, alumni and lateral hires
• Knowledge and Learning – leverage what people know to drive business growth and deepen institutional knowledge
• Client Portals – that support Project Management goals of clients

Risk / Compliance –the focus will be on process compliance (e.g., ITIL v3, ISO 27001) to handle information handling needs of clients

Which of the major software vendors will have the greatest impact on law firms’ spending in 2011?

Hubbard One, Microsoft, and Google

Are law firms going to continue with VoIP technology or is there another trend on the rise within telecommunications?
No –change. Just outsource if possible

What types of applications will begin to be utilized that haven’t been widely used in the past?
Driven by client demands for Project Management - SharePoint usage will increase.

As law firms continue to take on sizable litigation matters, will firms build up their litigation and e-discovery support practices internally, or outsource services?
Outsource. This is not a core-competency of the corporate IT department. It was placed there many years because to ensure proper management of the technology. Over the years, costs related e-discovery have been steadily increasing within the IT department at the same time full-service e-discovery providers have emerged that are able to leverage costs (labor, disk, license, etc.) more effectively, thus drive down pricing to clients at the same time reducing errors through standard processes.

Will firms centralize their IT departments or will they build them within the individual offices?
Centralized within a “Shared Services Center” at low cost facility. Also within the center will be other transactional services (e.g., benefits, finance)