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Recent research suggests that clients are increasingly concerned about the quality of client experience and business value that law firms provide. Traditionally, the depth of expertise provided by different practice areas combined with industry-specific knowledge, were key for market differentiation. Over the past couple of years, overall service delivery to clients has shot to the top of the legal business agenda.

So, how could you ensure that you have the time and resource to focus on delivering outstanding client experience to your customers? How do you surprise and delight clients by consistently, and quickly, delivering high quality work?

Here are our top tips for focusing wholeheartedly on, what should be, top of mind for law firms of every type and specialisation:

Leverage technology to be future-ready

The legal industry has made unprecedented changes to its ways of working, particularly the adoption of technology.  

Recently, we have seen millions of pounds in funding being available to legal technology companies via two government-backed award schemes. The Enabling Data Access Innovation Lab, organised by Whitehall-funded Innovate UK, will award up to £3.5 million to bring Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the accountancy, insurance and legal services sector.

Currently, we are witnessing lawyers turning to technology to support them in fulfilling their jobs more efficiently, and effectively allowing them to focus on what really matters: their clients. Technology adoption can help lawyers complete client queries faster, spend more time focusing on the client issues directly, and focus on the legal problem itself. Software can give you clarification on points of law, give practical guidance, provide links to primary sources and daily alerts on key developments in your practice area. Sophisticated error-checking software can also help you proofread documents up to 70% faster and can aid with the tracking and audit of GDPR compliance tasks, protecting the firm from harmful cyber-attacks.

Law firm innovators looking to improve the client experience may wish to invest heavily in such tools, in aiming to position themselves ahead of the technology curve.

Research takes time – find the quickest route from A to B

Documentation and drafts take a significant amount of time to produce and review. 

Considering the demands of the profession today, lawyers are finding new ways to consider improving the efficiency of researching client queries and drafting documentation. No doubt, senior managers will value examples as to whether research time can be reduced, and productivity boosted without compromising the quality of output. This is a common challenge and one which, if the technology provider is working hard enough, should be addressed and proven clearly in the event of an initial trial period of the software.

Another way of creating efficiencies in drafting and documenting, is by investing in the correct software application. With the right software, with just one click, you can quickly access all the information you need for a client’s case. From precedents, to toolkits, case law and legislation and integrated with other tools,as well as the primary sources – technology is super-powering legal research.

Product deep-dive: How we can help

½Û×ÓÊÓƵ has 200 years of experience providing information services to the legal sector. Our suite of software tools provide complete coverage of updates in case law and legislation, with efficient software tools, allowing you to check your work thoroughly, at the click of a button, as well as perform in-depth analysis into sectors and practice areas at the level of complexity you need.

According to our clients, one of the many advantages of the suite of software tools is that you can significantly reduce the amount of time spent on research, and drafting documents, while mitigating the inevitable risks to client experience, and reputation, of documents going out containing simple errors.

Our research has shown that 85% of lawyers believe client demand is having as much of an impact as regulation. Click below to explore our fully-integrated tools, and to understand how we can support you effectively in your role:

LexisLibrary

• A well-trusted source: 98% of top 100 law firms – based on ranking in The Lawyer UK, 2016 – subscribe to LexisLibrary
• The only place to find sources such as Halsbury's Laws of England, Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, All England Law Reports, Atkin's Court Forms and more
• Advise with confidence, backed by extensive, authoritative content with over 700,000 case law documents

LexisPSL

• Comprehensive resources for 35 areas of practice so you can key information on your sector - sector-specific news, practice guidance and industry updates - more easily
• A wide range of key legal forms, templates, calculators, checklists and flow-charts to help you work through repetitive, everyday tasks faster
• Get instant clarification on points of law with concise and practical guidance on legal questions, as well as accessing primary sources to back up your argument

LexisCreate

Write legal contracts and documents without distraction.  Lexis Create lets you create the perfect legal document every time.  it is a tool within the Microsoft environment that pulls together all the legal content, tools and calculators you need to create brilliant legal documents the first time.

LexisCreate will supercharge your legal writing.  It will let you easily find and reuse the clauses you and your colleagues have already written and insert them with one click.  When you need inspiration, you can search the huge ½Û×ÓÊÓƵ database of precedents and clauses from within the document. Do a legal proofread at speed and ensure your document is client-ready.  Our smart pattern-matching software will check your work with the lens of an experienced lawyer - spotting errors in definitions, capitalisation, numbering, pagination, and dates.  It will find those inconsistencies that could make your document non-enforceable in court.