How Are Law Firms Innovating in a Disruptive Era?

Published by ADB Insights, Gillian Scott comments on how law firms are adapting and innovating during the pandemic. (Prior to joining Lenczner Slaght)

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"Contract management was the biggest identifiable headache that we saw,” Gillian tells ADB Insights.

She says that for many businesses, staying on top of contracts, contract negotiation and due diligence — all while working remotely — has proven to be cumbersome.

“There were instances of clients wanting to look at their portfolios with force majeure issues when the pandemic hit in March and April,” she says. “They were scrambling to look at each contract because summaries weren’t accessible or comprehensive.”

Gillian says that while clients, more than ever, are seeing the value in automation tools, there can be a “disconnect between making the funding available to fix those problems and recognizing the need to do so … For legal innovation and operations it’s often about finding the right person to talk to about these solutions — the decision makers are often divorced from the day-to-day users of the tools.”

Gillian also explains that new opportunities to innovate may yet to be realized, particularly with respect to force majeure and commercial leases.

“Part of being in the innovation space is anticipating the fires that have not yet come,” she says.