This is a live post from the Reinvent Law Silicon Valley conference in Mountain View, CA. Please forgive any typos or errors in conveying what speakers say. Now up, in a six minute Ignite-style talk, is Kevin Colangelo, managing partner of Youson & Irvine on Building the Law Factory.
Prior to current law firm, was an executive at legal process outsourcing provider Pangea3. Will give insight into what it took to build a law factory.
Getting work done and efficiently can be accomplished in any location; does not have to be done in India, where Pangea3 (PS) started. In 2013, the template for efficient legal services is better known. In 2005, when P3 started, there was no model, no template for practicing law more efficiently, for leveraging process and technology.
It’s imperative to change the operating model. Law + Tech + Design + Delivery is Reinvent Law approach. P3 focused on People, Process, and Technology. The technology was the easiest part. We were able to log all calls, e-mail, attachments. So all workers could track all client matters.
Process discipline is not that hard. It requires defining, measuring, analyzing, training, testing, and continuous improvement. We shared with our clients the processes we used. Transparency is good. Helped show defensibility of work.
People is always the biggest challenge. Lawyer are similar everywhere, resistant to change. Uses analogy of Henry Ford building the first-ever assembly line. Ford needed to add culture to make the assembly line work. P3 made sure that everyone was engaged, irrespective of role in organization. Says that this culture is very much lacking in BigLaw today.
The Law Factory is a great place to be – if you maintain the culture.