Review of Legal Tech Branding 2019 – 2020
Top 30 UK law firms– cont
Few firms still keeping quite Despite all the momentum for change, a full third (33%) of the UK’s Top 30 law firms (10) have not yet joined the journey to brand their tech, or have taken only a few steps. Some firms (Hogan Lovells, Gowling WLG, Irwin Mitchell, Macfarlanes, Taylor Wessing and Withers, for example) have yet to add to their websites an overarching tech and innovation proposition to draw together approaches and solutions. Despite promoting Clyde Code, Clyde & Co fails to contextualise its commitment by detailing its overall approach. So too DAC Beachcroft and Simmons & Simmons: despite the latter’s involvement with Simmons & Simmons Adaptive and Simmons & Simmons Wavelength, it has yet to pull together all aspects with an overarching narrative to describe how its range of solutions and products can benefit clients.
Making content work harder In the early months of lockdown, some firms spent time focusing on upgrading their content. Clyde & Co added new content for its smart contracting platform Clyde Code. CMS did similar, bringing to the surface credentials that were previously filed deep within the bowels of its corporate site, and adding ‘Innovation’ to its main navigation. Some firms refreshed their content in line with new websites (Pinsent Masons and Slaughter & May, for example). Allen & Overy’s thought leadership approach was seen in 2014 with ‘Unbundling a market’; more recently it came up with ’The A&O Legal Innovation Benchmarking Report’, which presents research into legal innovation based on interactions with more than 90 in-house leaders. Although thought leadership still plays a key role in how most firms brand their tech, surprisingly few (other than Clyde & Co with its ‘Glass Report 2020’ investigating the trends and developments affecting legal leaders, including a section on technology and innovation) have adopted a research-led approach to thought leadership. Clifford Chance Applied Solutions stepped up its content and developed its blogging platform (Transformation through tech) to distribute tech related content from more than 45 contributors. So too Slaughter & May, featuring a similar number of contributors for its blogging publishing platform The Lens. Meanwhile, DWF has developed its Brave New Law programme, a thought leadership platform for GCs that explores the future of law in a series of interactive workshops (virtual and physical) as well as in articles and interviews. In addition, DWF Ventures created a short film featuring its Legal Design Challenge: a day-long exercise using collaboration to develop contracting solutions. Ashurst Advance also took advantage of film content to showcase its Legal Hackathon. Film and animation have gained popularity as modes of communication in the last 18 months. Addleshaw Goddard, BCLP Cubed, Clyde Code, DAC Beachcroft and Slaughter & May have all added animated or filmed content to their sites. In the audio space, Linklaters launched its own podcast series, Linkubator, a trainee-led programme for discussing the latest trends and topics in legal technology and innovation. Nextlaw added more content to its Ignite podcast series, while Allen & Overy used a podcast to discuss the topic ‘How should the in-house function respond to the forces disrupting its operating model?’.
8
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator