Business of law: best practice in legal work

Read the other FT Innovative Lawyers Europe ‘Best practice case studies’, which showcase the standout innovations made for and by people working in the legal sector:

Practice of law
In-house

Standout

Travers Smith: Winner
Originality: 9; Leadership: 9; Impact: 7; Total: 25
The firm has launched YCNBot, a free, open-source service to allow organisations to deploy ChatGPT in a safer way. Launched in May, the service enables other organisations, including rival law firms and in-house legal teams, to build a bespoke, individually branded “your company name” (YCN) chatbot quickly and easily. The technology allows organisations to exploit generative AI while protecting privacy and security of sensitive data.

Addleshaw Goddard
O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total; 24
The firm offers its financial services clients online assessments of the risks and obligations they face under new consumer duty rules from the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK regulator. The service identifies areas requiring action and helps clients track progress.

Highly Commended

McDermott Will & Emery
O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22
To help clients navigate Germany’s complex financial regulatory obligations, the firm developed a free self-service tool. It can help them assess which regulations might affect them and can make suggestions on how to comply.

Clyde & Co
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21

The firm last year relaunched Clyde & Co Newton, an artificial intelligence-assisted platform that automates insurance claims and reduces case handling times by a quarter. The platform has the ability to “read” more than 99 per cent of all so-called claim-for-valuation documents, and is able to value automatically 79 per cent of all motor and employers’ and public liability claims under £25,000.

Commended

Dentons
O: 6; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 20
The firm has developed ExpeDDite, a system to automate parts of the due diligence required in mergers and acquisitions. It includes a scoping questionnaire, automatically creates templates for the review, and generates a final due diligence report.

Gómez-Acebo & Pombo
O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20
Spain introduced a federal wealth tax on individuals in 2022, which is expected to affect 23,000 taxpayers. The law firm created a portal for new clients wishing to challenge the tax. This automates the uploading of relevant tax details and generates an appeal. The firm expects to manage more than 3,000 tax returns using the system.

Macfarlanes
O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20
The legal technology team created a centralised portal to help fund and asset management clients keep track of all their historic documents and data, across multiple contractual agreements.

Mayer Brown
O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20
The team in Germany created a time-saving risk management tool to help companies accurately classify direct employees and independent contractors, to comply with local tax laws and strict reporting obligations. Based on answers to a questionnaire, the tool generates a risk assessment and report for clients. It has reduced lawyers’ time on each submission from an hour to approximately 15 minutes.

Ecija
O: 7; L: 6; I: 6; Total: 19
The Spanish firm developed a service with estate agency Zome Real Estate to cut the amount of time taken to complete sales of property in Portugal. The lawyers designed the contract automation side and Zome migrated sales transactions on to the platform.

Shoosmiths
O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19
The firm developed a tool for UK high street discount chain Poundland to manage store acquisitions — including a hub for documents that produces easily accessible real-time reporting on progress.

Standout

CMS: Winner
Originality: 8; Leadership: 9; Impact: 9; Total: 26
The firm’s German network launched a specialist team last year, in response to a growing trend in mass litigation. A change in the law in 2018, compounded by consumer anger over VW “dieselgate” and other scandals, has broadened interest in and eased access to collective legal actions. The team have developed a shared digital platform to deal with group claims, so lawyers and clients can access case documents and track progress easily.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
O: 8; L: 9; I: 8; Total: 25
The firm supported a multinational tech client with a mass claim litigation involving 20,000 cases using case management software and machine learning to extract data from a mountain of case documents. It estimates that the tools have more than halved the time taken on case intake, generating pleadings and reading pre-litigation letters.

Fieldfisher
O: 8; L: 9: I: 7; Total: 24
Last year, the firm launched its Berlin-based Fieldfisher X division, a specialised unit for legal tech and operations with a particular focus on Germany’s booming mass litigation market. It aims to service clients threatened with, or already facing, group claims for damages based on antitrust breaches, data leaks, misleading corporate announcements and other allegations, as well as other “scalable” services driven by improvements in legal tech.

Taylor Wessing
O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24

The firm’s strategic digital ventures team have developed a platform to support early-stage funding and UK Companies House filings. The paid-for service offers clients access to self-service guidance and aims to streamline legal workflow for start-ups. This reduces the time needed to create financing and other corporate agreements.

Highly commended

Asters
O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23
Following Ukraine’s imposition of martial law in February 2022, the Kyiv-based firm established a crisis support team so clients could access emergency advice on issues such as liability for military service by male citizens and restrictions on leaving the country.

Uría Menéndez
O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23
Technology team and competition lawyers at the Spanish firm created a tool that streamlines the management of litigation work. The service automates workflows and gives clients real-time access to the progress in their case.

A&L Goodbody
O: 6; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 21
Merging the firm’s project management, e-discovery, investigations and legal technology capabilities, it formed one of the largest client service delivery groups in the Irish legal market, giving it a competitive advantage with large-scale client work.

Commended

Wiersholm
O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20
The Norwegian firm has adopted a new approach to managing and accessing work projects based on the maxim “plan, brief, execute, debrief” pioneered in the US military. Commended individual: Harald Hellebust

Womble Bond Dickinson
O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19
Planning large-scale development projects can take years. To speed up this process, the firm introduced former project managers from the construction industry as a permanent part of its planning and infrastructure team, helping the firm win new clients.

Standout

DLA Piper: Winner
Originality: 8; Leadership: 8; Impact: 9; Total: 25

The firm’s automated environmental, social and governance due diligence tool generates a comprehensive view of relevant risks to inform clients’ purchasing or merger decisions. The tool uses artificial intelligence to search sources — such as annual reports, accounts from similar companies, media coverage, regulatory announcements and published research — in order to identify concerns that match clients’ priorities.

Ashurst
O: 7; L: 8: I: 8; Total: 23
The firm expanded its Australian in-house risk advisory business by bringing it to the UK a year ago. This broadened clients’ access to its consulting, legal and technology professionals, who advise on how to manage complex business dangers including cyber threats.

Deloitte Legal
O: 8; L: 8: I: 7; Total: 23
A new platform, Voyager, acts as a dashboard to allow clients to manage work across all their legal entities in one place. It tracks workflow across the business, creates diagrams of the organisation’s structure, and manages signatories.

Highly commended

Addleshaw Goddard
O: 7; L: 7: I: 7; Total: 21
The firm’s new client services team integrates consulting, leadership training for general counsel, and legal tech services alongside legal advice — to deepen its relationships with in-house legal teams.

Dentons
O: 7; L: 7: I: 7; Total: 21

The firm developed Exit+, an advisory service including a free online tool, aimed at private business owners considering selling their companies. The offering, launched in November 2022, was developed in collaboration with merger and acquisition advisers, accountants and wealth management professionals.

Fieldfisher
O: 8; L: 7: I: 6; Total: 21
The firm’s integrated financial advisory business, Fieldfisher Capital, enabled it to guide clients further on replacing the defunct UK interest rate benchmark Libor with its recommended replacement Sonia (Sterling Overnight Index Average). Although officially retired since 2021, the old benchmark continued in use into this year.

Standout

Ontier: Winner
Originality: 9; Leadership: 9; Impact: 7; Total: 25
A new business model at the firm redistributes ownership and profits among partners and employees. Two types of stakeholder, aside from lawyers, are recognised in the new structure: technical legal specialists, and sector experts.

Cuatrecasas
O: 7; L: 9; I: 8; Total: 24
The firm has introduced a more detailed measurement of the performance of associates being considered for promotion to partner at the network, using formalised dashboard reports. Partners appointed last year have performed better than in previous years, says the firm, adding that associates also benefit from receiving clearer guidance on their best path to achieving promotion.

De Groote-De Man
O: 9; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 24
The Belgian-based legal network has overhauled its business model, giving individual practices the autonomy to decide their yearly targets and set their own salaries. Internal surveys show team satisfaction is up and revenues have risen.

Shoosmiths
O: 8; L: 7; I: 9; Total: 24
The firm launched its first formal employee bonus scheme last year, which pays all employees up to 7 per cent of their annual salaries based on the firm’s profitability, client feedback, and hitting travel reduction targets.

Highly commended

Ecija
O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23
The firm has a chief happiness officer, Alejandra Riquelme, working alongside the human resources team, who is responsible for the emotional welfare of staff. This has been supplemented by a “corporate happiness plan”, which includes the option for employees to work remotely from anywhere in the world for four weeks a year.

PLMJ
O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22
A new post of “people advocate” has been created, which applies to individuals who act as health and safety representatives for other colleagues at the firm.

Pinsent Masons
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
Feedback from regular staff surveys is used to help the firm retain and recruit its lawyers. Information gleaned from this research shapes human resources policy and has helped reduce turnover among its fee-earners over the past three years.

Commended

Aequo
O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20
The Ukrainian firm developed a “business at war” approach following the Russian invasion last year, focused on retaining staff and turnover. According to the firm, its number of fee earners has reduced by only 17 per cent compared with a market average of 45 per cent.

Avellum
O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20
Since Russia’s invasion, the Ukrainian firm has offered staff access to therapists, training, workshops, and other organised regular activities to help keep up morale.

PwC Tax & Legal, Spain
O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20
To meet longer-term staffing needs, the firm has updated its training approach, including the addition of a stint for all new hires in its “digital hub”, to give them a thorough grounding in technological skills.

Standout

Abreu Advogados: Winner
Originality: 9; Leadership: 9; Impact: 7; Total: 25
In 2022, the Portuguese firm’s “knowledge institute” was reorganised into four hubs: innovation; legal technology; sustainability; and public affairs. Since then, the institute has launched a book on start-up law, sponsored a chair of ESG Impact at Nova School of Law in Lisbon, and produced papers on a range of fintech topics. The legal tech hub focuses on encouraging digital working and take-up of accredited legal tech training in the firm.

Linklaters
O: 8; L: 9; I: 7; Total: 24
The firm’s disputes team received training in legal design techniques, which aim to present legal systems and complex documents in a generally understandable format. For example, the team used these skills to represent regulatory changes in visual form to a client’s senior leaders. The overall goal is faster and more confident decision-making.

Highly commended

Macfarlanes
O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23
The firm developed a programme to send personal assistants and high-performing staff without a legal background on three- to six-month secondments to other parts of the organisation. This has helped build relationships and skills and has led to some staff taking up permanent roles in different areas.

Travers Smith
O: 8; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 22

The firm worked with Oxford university’s Saïd Business School to create a 10-month environmental, social and governance and sustainability training programme. The course aims to improve understanding among staff of how these issues affect clients’ businesses. It is delivered in monthly modules with three hours of contact per month.

Garrigues
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
Junior lawyers with tech expertise led a programme in 2022 to encourage more senior colleagues to embrace new technologies. Monthly sessions inform around 70 partners about legal tech, robotics and AI, including an introduction to a no-code automation tool making it easier for lawyers to build apps.

Commended

A&L Goodbody
O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20
The firm worked with the Irish Management Institute to create a two-year training programme at the business school for its associates. Launched in January 2022, it focuses on leadership and law firm management skills.

Standout

Dentons: Winner
Originality: 8; Leadership: 9; Impact: 9; Total: 26
The firm built a tool to deepen client relationships, pooling data from across its network of offices and practice groups on prioritised clients. It maps and analyses their dealings with the firm and flags opportunities for new work. The number of clients spending more than €2mn a year in Europe has tripled, three years ahead of target.

Pinsent Masons
O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24
By creating a new platform in 2022, the firm was able to bring together details of all UK construction disputes that it has advised on since 2017. Since these cases were dealt with through private adjudication, and the firm has one of the largest practices in this field, it has created a valuable internal resource to help inform on tactics and advice to clients. Commended: Louise Forster

Highly commended

White & Case
O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23
The firm’s merger and acquisitions practice worked with its technology team to gain insights and spot trends in the terms used in clients’ funds documentation. The database can identify similar, but not necessarily identical, features of different funds so that comparisons can be made between them.

Littler
O: 7; L: 8: I: 7; Total: 22
Feedback from clients showed that they particularly valued the firm’s knowledge in employment and labour law across Europe and beyond. To build on this service, the firm invested in a new system designed to ensure information and insights in the field are fully collected and shared across its network.

Garrigues
O: 6; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 21
The Spanish firm developed a digital platform to automate the creation of proposals sent to clients for work — integrating processes for the firm’s own know-your-customer and anti-money laundering checks. In 2022, the firm produced 3,000 such proposals compared with 500 that were drafted manually in 2020, and halved the drafting time taken per proposal.

Shearman & Sterling
O: 6; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 21
The firm created an on-screen dashboard system for lawyers to see aggregated data, including details of client matters, billable hours and relevant expenses. The data can be looked at in fine detail, either closely or more broadly to assess patterns, for example in revenue collection and billing.

Commended

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
O: 6; L: 7: I: 7; Total: 20
The firm launched an artificial intelligence-powered search engine, called BCLP Discover, across its global network last year, giving its lawyers information on previous client work, win rates in contested cases, and whether a draft document already exists. The platform integrates data from across the firm, as well as external feeds from Thomson Reuters to collate intelligence about the firm’s clients and their matters.

DLA Piper
O: 7; L: 7: I: 6; Total: 20
The firm developed a tracker tool to survey and identify opportunities for new work among financially struggling midsized businesses. This digital tool combines proprietary and third-party data and uses a scoring methodology with sector-specific indicators, to model risk for businesses and help the firm market its legal services.

Cuatrecasas
O: 7; L: 7: I: 5; Total: 19
The Spanish law network has created a tool to anticipate new business growth areas, based on its own internal historic data. The AI-driven system was initially launched in the intellectual property team and is now being integrated in tax and employment areas.

PLMJ
O: 6; L: 7: I: 6; Total: 19
The Portuguese firm has introduced a more data-driven approach to measuring performance, following a review by the firm’s general counsel and head of compliance into business processes, including security, data management and corporate governance.