ABA Section of Business Law

ABA Section of Business Law
Business Law Today
November/December 1998

The Computer Wizard

The law firm technology committee

The purpose of this column is to provide a fresh start for the law firm technology committee process, and to suggest approaches likely to work well. Technology is a big and costly part of the practice of business law. Changes in technology are happening so fast that the cost of new programs and equipment must now be treated as expenses instead of capital investment. Useful lives are getting shorter and new products appear month after month.

Because having a proper perspective and an appropriate level of sophistication regarding technology is now a necessity, today's law firm must have a technology committee that responds to the ever changing law practice landscape while following a comprehensive plan and respecting budgetary constraints. Therefore a review of how the firm's technology committee is operating is timely.

First of all, a law firm should produce a mission statement for the committee. Considerations will be the size of the firm, the willingness of members of the firm to spend money on and embrace technology, and the demands of clients for features and interacting with the firm using computers.

Some mission statements primarily focus on internal issues: What do the lawyers and other users want in order to enable them to be more productive and efficient in the practice of law? Others focus on external issues: What are clients demanding and what are other firms doing to attract clients by making better and newer technology available? Thought should also be given to whether the committee should be totally or partially self-executing (and therefore able to implement decisions without further approval), or whether firm management will play a role in evaluating what to do and when, and how much to spend.

After the mission statement is approved, the membership of the committee should be determined. The biggest mistake that firms make in appointing the members of a technology committee is including only those committed to, and familiar and comfortable with, the use of technology in the practice of law. Instead, the committee should include a representative group of those who question and have difficulty understanding the role of technology in law firms.

At least one member of the committee should be active in firm management. If firm management is a part of the evaluation and decision-making process, the likelihood of a more efficient process and successful results are greatly increased. It is also wise to include representatives from different practice areas within the firm. While committee responsibilities should be viewed as responsibilities to the firm as a whole and not to any one practice area or another, the knowledge and experience that those active in different practice areas will bring to the deliberative process will make that process much more effective and more likely to be responsive to a greater number of users.

The committee should also include at least one member of the information services staff or the firm's chief information officer or a comparable staff person, and minutes should be kept.

Meetings should be regularly scheduled and a proposed agenda should be circulated to all users prior to each meeting of the committee, with an invitation to suggest additional items and to provide suggestions regarding the proposed items. A committee chair should be designated and a suitably modified Robert's Rules should be followed, so that the meetings have structure and an appropriate level of formality.

Among the first operational responsibilities of the committee should be the preparation of a list of goals for the coming year based on the mission statement and suggestions made by users and firm management. With these goals in mind, a budget for at least one year and perhaps for a several-year period should be prepared. The budget can be the foundation on which planning and implementation is based.

Monthly updates of the budget are necessary, and changes should be the result of a formal process of amendment and consensus. In this way, the temptation to respond haphazardly to pressures for changes can be reduced and the risk of making short-term decisions based on less than adequate information can be avoided.

The committee should periodically evaluate how technology is really being used and determine methods for making things easier for users. Advice should be sought from users and clients of the firm who use technology to work with the firm. No firm will, for long, want to be viewed as technologically behind clients and other professional firms; therefore, the committee should try to anticipate client needs and avoid disappointing client expectations.

If you have questions or comments about this column, contact Golberg at Goulston & Storrs, 400 Atlantic Ave., Boston, MA 02110. Phone, 617/482-1776; fax, 617/574-4112; on the Net, http://www.healthlawyer.com or e-mail, goldberg@abanet.org