Five Ways to Boost Potential for Law Firm Innovation

Gabrielle Orum Hernandez, Legaltech News

Matt Homann shares some quick helpful hints for legal administrators to jumpstart innovative thinking in law firms.

At the Atlanta Association of Legal Administrators’ annual conference on Wednesday, Matt Homann, CEO of Filament and founder of Invisible Girlfriend, provided tips on dealing with risk-phobic attorneys while pushing for a more innovative firm.

1. Create a culture of sharing ideas.

Good ideas often go unvoiced when people are afraid of being responsible for the consequences of failure. “It feels a lot easier to fail alone,” Homann said. 

“In the startup community failure is a badge honor. In the legal community its not.”

Although the risks of adopting new practices in the legal community can be much more substantial than in other industries, sharing ideas about new practices is risk-free. Allowing all staff, from attorneys to legal assistants, to feel empowered to share ideas about possible practices can yield great insight that would otherwise go untapped.

Establishing practices of sharing ideas broadly can help attorneys move beyond their own set practices. “The idea that’s obvious to you is not obvious to everyone else,” Homann said.

2. Ditch the term “non-lawyer.”

Perhaps preaching to the choir, Homann told the room that non-attorney staff deserve a better title than “non-lawyer.”

“It is absolutely a crime for people to use the term non-lawyer. That’s not only a prevalent thing in the legal industry, it’s damaging,” he said.

Given the increasing importance of administrators, technologists and project managers in law firms, Homann said that legal administrators should push for more respectful titles. “Next time you hear the term ‘non-lawyer,’ if you’ve got the political capital in your firm, push back.”

3. Embrace the beta.

Law firm executives tend to roll out new technologies or innovation strategies in an all or nothing way – either they steer away from new strategies because of the risks involved, or they push them out to the full firm all at once.

Homann said that finding ways to test new ideas in small, measured ways can offer firms the kind of confidence they might need to pursue a strategy more widely across the firm.

“It’s not top down massive initiatives, its simple experiments, learning lessons, and partnering with clients that help you figure stuff out,” he suggested.

4. Welcome ridiculous constraints.

Homann said that attorneys can take their commitment to precedent into the way they conduct business, making it difficult to think outside the box or try new things.

Exercises that force attorneys to operate within “ridiculous constraints” – limitations that would likely not occur in reality – can help attorneys move beyond their tendency toward tradition.

“Use a constraint that changes the way they have to look at it,” Homann said.

5. Set aside time for people to think.

Although attorneys have a reputation for being outgoing, law firms are rife with intelligent introverts. Homann said that finding ways to cater to the thinkers on staff can elicit great insight for innovating.

“You’ll see the people in the room who you thought didn’t have any good ideas have the best ideas. You’re giving them an opportunity to use their brains in the way it works best,” Homann said.

“They’re giving more value to the firm than the firm thought they possessed,” he added.

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