A mandate to innovate
For Michelle Mahoney, Executive Director of Innovation at King & Wood Mallesons, it is an exciting time to be in law. The role sees her experimenting with new technologies, collaborating to create new solutions for clients and exploring new ways of working – pushing the boundaries of innovation to benefit the firm and its clients.
“Innovation is one of our top strategic priorities,” said Michelle. “It is important that we have the capability in place to continue to help our clients be successful. We have always been a pioneering firm. We see ourselves as a disrupter and we are happy even to disrupt ourselves.”
According to Michelle, disruption in the profession falls into three key themes:
- Working smarter with process refinement and digitised service apps;
- Technological breakthroughs such as blockchain and cognitive computing; and
- Advising on new areas of law.
“In general, these are leading to a refinement in how we service, think and remain relevant,” said Michelle.
“For those who are brave enough to step outside their comfort zone, there are exciting opportunities for collaborating with members of the innovation ecosystem to co-develop new solutions for clients. Collaboration and innovation go hand-in-hand,” said Michelle. “Collaboration and diversity of thought are essential to help you think and work differently. We have a growing ecosystem in Australia. As a firm, we are committed to both being a supportive and active participant. Over the last few years we have embraced hackathons; working with leading universities to deliver unique learning experiences for their students and to harness fresh thinking. Universities are one of the strong pathways to innovation.”
From Michelle’s perspective, the future of law is full of promise.
“With the delivery of legal services, technology will be a critical driver and enabler,” said Michelle. To this end, she cited the introduction of blockchain, smart contracts, distributed energy and the continued development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, such as machine learning and expert systems. “In the next ten years, I think AI will develop to a more sophisticated level where we will see this technology increasingly and effectively assisting lawyers with their legal tasks and enabling lawyers as virtual assistants.”
To help lawyers transition to new technology, investment in the right type of training is needed.
“Our lawyers need exposure to experiences and opportunities which drive ‘learning by doing’, not just thinking, such as running experiments and embracing design thinking. At our firm, we are deeply focused on helping our people become future-ready. We are seeking to build strong problem-solving muscles in our people, to help them gain a deeper understanding of client pain points. To do this, we have been prepared to try new things to start shifting the dial. We have actively encouraged our people to have a voice using crowdsourcing and running challenges. This enables them to identify solutions, not just problems. We have also embraced design thinking and run experiments for our lawyers to test their ideas, learn to prototype and refine their thinking.
“Regardless, if you are an in-house lawyer or in private practice, problem-solving skills and adaptability are key,” said Michelle.
For new lawyers looking to enter the profession with an edge, Michelle encouraged life-long learning around an increasingly diverse skill set.
“Keep immersing yourself in new experiences to help build strong problem-solving skills and empathy, which can be just as important as legal skills,” said Michelle. “When we look for talent for our firm, we are looking for people who are more ‘T’ shaped than ‘I’ shaped – people who have a breadth of interests, who can think analytically and are also adaptable. We are looking for more than depth of legal knowledge.
“I would also advise new lawyers to try and understand the new technologies that are beginning to influence the way legal work is being created and delivered. We are only going to see the influence of AI technology in law increase with lawyers working alongside this technology.”
The Centre for Legal Innovation is an important driver of disruption and conversation around adaptation in the profession.
“The legal industry needs to transform itself – just like every other industry,” said Michelle. “The race is on for organisations to become digital and agile; to disrupt or be disrupted. The legal profession needs to stay ahead of regulatory changes and market trends to help organisations navigate the changes ahead.
“As an industry we need to remain relevant to everyone we serve – that is the litmus test. This means we need to start getting more comfortable working alongside the new technologies. We need to see technology as simply part of what we do.”
Outlook and Microsoft Word are now standard tools of every lawyer, but Michelle noted this was not always the case.
“We had to make the transition to these tools and now we don’t think twice about it. It is with increased open mindedness and agility that we need to keep moving forwards on this continuous reinvention journey.
“Innovation is good for the profession. We are a traditional profession and risk adverse by nature. Clients are looking to law firms to help them find solutions to their problems which often go wider than just legal. As a profession we need to bring new skills to the table that go wider than legal knowledge.”
The Centre for Legal Innovation’s event Artificial Intelligence in Legal Practice Summit on 20 October 2017 will expand on and cover many of the topics discussed. This event has now sold out but please stay tuned for the coverage of the event as well as future CLI events that may be of interest to you.