Put people first to advance the future of law
I recently caught up with the regional managing partner of an international law firm to discuss where they are in their embrace of digitisation. He explained that whilst the regional partnership supports the latest digital productization coming out of their London HQ, in his words, “aside from the odd bell and whistle, we’re still delivering legal services much the same as we did 10 years ago”.
Why isn’t there greater uptake of technology by law firms right now? Surely the combined effect of the 4th industrial revolution and the Covid-19 pandemic made technology uptake a strategic imperative for every law firm? Not so, it seems. The problem is skills gap. Unless law firm leaders start investing in re-skilling, upskilling and redeploying their current workforce, they will fail to secure the future of law.
Setting the scene
The Future of Jobs Report[1] tells us that the future of work is already here. Much as a result of ‘double disruption’ caused by technological advancement and the Covid-19 pandemic, professional services firms transformed their organisational strategies by rapidly accelerating their digital transformation plans. According to the 2020 Future of Jobs Report, 93% of professional services firms accelerated their digitisation of work processes, with 86% expanding remote working. The pace of technological adoption is continuing to accelerate post-pandemic with the adoption of cloud computing, big data analytics, AI and distributed leger technology. But this upward trend in rapid adoption of new technology has identified an urgent skills gap.
The need to upskill, reskill and redeploy
The shift to technology creates the need for investment in human capital to reskill, upskill and redeploy. According to the 2020 Future of Jobs Report, the ability of firms to harness the growth potential of new technological adoption is hindered by a significant skills shortage.
Emerging jobs
There are many emerging job roles that are necessary to meet the demands of the advancement in technology provision. The top 10 roles in high demand in professional services firms, according to the 2020 Future of Jobs Report, are:
1. Digital Marketing and Strategy Specialists
2. AI and Machine Learning Specialists
3. Data Analysts and Scientists
4. Business Development Professionals
5. Internet of Things Specialists
6. Business Services and Administration Specialists
7. Project Managers
8. Process Automation Specialists
9. Lawyers
10. Financial Analysts.
Firms will not achieve the ROI on technology adoption without the right specialists in place to capitalize on its potential.
Job mobility
There are many job roles that are becoming redundant as technology uptake unfolds. The top 5 roles identified by the 2020 Future of Jobs Report as increasingly redundant within professional services firms are:
1. Administrative and Executive Secretaries
2. Accounting, Bookkeeping and Payroll Clerks
3. Data Entry Clerks
4. Relationship Managers
5. Legal Secretaries.
This creates a ready-made market of talent available for redeployment within firms.
Skills development
There is a new set of skills required for the technological law firm of the future. According to the 2020 Future of Jobs Report, the top 10 skills in high demand in professional services firms are:
1. Analytical thinking and innovation
2. Complex problem solving
3. Critical thinking and analysis
4. Creativity, originality and initiative
5. Active learning and learning strategies
6. Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation
7. Emotional intelligence
8. Leadership and social influence
9. Persuasion and negotiation
10. Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility.
It seems, however, that these opportunities for change are not yet being fully harnessed by law firms.
Closing the skills gap
The 2020 Future of Jobs Report identifies the key barriers to adoption of new technologies by professional services firms to be:
1. Shortage of investment capital
2. Skills gap in local labour market
3. Insufficient understanding of opportunities
4. Skills gap among organisation’s leadership
5. Lack of flexibility of the regulatory framework
6. Inability to attract specialised talent
7. Lack of interest among leadership.
This translates into two principal areas of concern. First, a natural time lag in developing and deploying new skills. Second, and more significantly, the absence of strategic leadership in prioritising investment in future skills.
According to the 2020 Future of Jobs Report, in the absence of ready talent with the necessary skills, 94% of business leaders surveyed expected their employees to pick up new skills on the job. Whilst employers reported that they already provided access to reskilling and upskilling to 62% of their workforce, employee engagement into these courses lagged behind, with only 42% of employees taking up employer-supported opportunities.
What this tells us is:
- Law firm leaders must adopt a coherent and proactive strategy to upskill, reskill and redeploy their talent, as a strategic imperative. Partner performance criteria must also be changed to measure uptake and success.
- Upskilling and reskilling will not happen on its own; new skills learning needs to be a blended approach drawing on internal and external expertise, new education technology tools and formal and informal methods of skills acquisition.
- Job transitions need to be systemised; planned and mapped, integrated into development plans and performance criteria, objectives and goals with appropriate measurements and course corrections, where necessary.
It takes courageous leadership to advance the future of law. Law firm leaders should embrace the opportunity to harness the growth potential of technology by putting people, and their futures, first.
[1] The Future of Jobs Report 2020, World Economic Forum, October 2020.