Attorney Responsiveness – A Super Power

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In the midst of finalizing a significant deal for your company, you receive the second round of redlines on the Master Purchase Agreement from your client. Along with some contextual notes, you promptly forward it to your legal counsel.

What happens next? The truth is, whenever legal assistance is enlisted, be it for business or personal matters, prompt communication is eagerly anticipated. A response within 24 hours barely scratches the surface of satisfaction. Whether it’s a pivotal order for your company or the closure on a new home, these occasions come with pressing timelines. Urgency is an integral aspect that contributes to the demanding and relentless nature of the legal profession. Work is typically conducted under time constraints and often without prior scheduling.

Responsiveness

Responsiveness stands out as one of the top characteristics which we all look for in an attorney. Exceptional attorneys strive to strike a balance between their caseload and client correspondence.

In a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters, attorneys were asked, “What do you think makes lawyers, such as yourself, stand out to clients”?

64% of standout lawyers identified service-related factors as key contributors to their standout status. Among these factors, responsiveness emerged as the top service quality cited by attorneys.

Trust

“Speed is the most important component of the customer experience. Two-thirds of customers assert that speed is as important as price, as noted by Ruth Carter, quoting Jay Baer in his book, “The Time to Win.”

Baer further emphasizes that responsiveness fosters trust. “You’ll bolster trust by surpassing your client’s expectations in terms of speed.” This is precisely how a timely response resonates with me. It reassures me that my attorney is diligently looking out for my best interests and comprehends the urgency of the matter.

A good mobile solution with the assets that lawyers use everyday streamlines the process, enabling them to swiftly review documents and provide concise feedback to clients, followed by a comprehensive response.

Facilitating Responsiveness

At Mobile Helix, we specialize in facilitating responsiveness. Our LINK App integrates both Outlook Email and the firm’s Document Management System into a single, encrypted app. Our aim is to simplify and expedite attorneys’ ability to work efficiently from their smartphones and tablets. The fundamental objective behind our work – to help attorneys to better serve their clients.

If you are not familiar with the LINK App’s workflows, including document annotation, I encourage you to take a brief look at LINK in this informative 2-minute video.

-Maureen

Okta Businesses at Work 2024 – Legal Applications are the Growth Leader

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Okta has application usage data which you simply will not find anywhere else. This year’s report draws data from their anonymized 18,800 global customer base. Okta is a leader in identity and access management products. You may download the full “Okta Businesses at Work 2024” report here.

Growth in app categories: Legal software is the leader in customer growth

Source: Okta (My Annotations) – Growth in App Categories

Okta kicks off this year’s report with a spotlight on Legal applications, which was the leading app category in growth of number of customers.

“There’s no time for deals or
contracts to get hung up in legal. So, as we look
across the most popular app categories, it’s no
surprise that legal tools have locked up a win,
claiming by far the highest growth by number
of customers (35% YoY) and substantial 34%
YoY growth by number of unique users. Apps
including Ironclad, LexisNexis, and LegalZoom
drive this remarkable growth story. (Fun fact:
Ironclad contract management software was
our eighth-fastest-growing app in 2022.)”

-Okta (my bold type)

Let’s look at those three applications:

Ironclad – Offers Contract Management software, which includes moving sales contracts through the processes of review and sign-off to speed the business process.

LexisNexis – Provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics, now including Generative AI. LexisNexis is a premier product in legal research.

LegalZoom – Its online platform for business formation helps entrepreneurs by providing legal, tax and compliance products and expertise.

With that promising look at the growth in Legal applications, let’s take a look at four more charts in the Okta report.

Growth of the 50 most popular apps

Source: Okta

There are two leaders here. 1Password is the fastest growing application by number of customers at 39% YoY. Amazon Business with the fastest growing by number of unique users at 89% YoY growth. Law firms are ramping up usage of password managers like 1Password as one of the essential tools to prevent phishing and social engineering exploits.

Not to be missed by law firms is the growth of KnowBe4 at over 20%. KnowBe4 is a Security Awareness Training product, with a focus on phishing awareness. In 2022 I cited that KnowBe4 was the leading Security Awareness solution used by 62% of law firms surveyed in the International Legal Technology Association’s 2022 Technology Survey.

Most popular apps

Source: Okta

It’s easy to see the trend of law firms in the “Overall” ranking. Microsoft 365 is rapidly being adopted, as firms migrate from other Microsoft on-prem products. Number five, Zoom, and number eight, DocuSign, are nearly ubiquitous at law firms. Number ten is KnowBe4, the Security Awareness training SaaS application.

Fastest-growing apps by number of customers

Source: Okta

Data compliance applications make a first time appearance in the fastest growing app ranking by number of customers. Vanta holds the number one position with 338% YoY growth. Drata ranks number six, with 91% YoY growth. Data compliance software is growing at law firms as firms are subject to regulatory and client requirements.

Most popular security tool categories

Source: Okta

Okta entitles this section: “The perimeter shifts.”

They observe that VPN/firewall continues to lead the security tool category, as it has since 2020. However, deployment of VPN/firewall grew 12% last year versus 31% in the prior year. 57% of customers have deployed VPN/firewall tools.

The second fastest growing category in security tools is Endpoint Management and Security, deployed by 43% of customers. This category has grown consistently since the emergence of work-from-home.

For those interested in legal or enterprise technology there is much more in the Okta report worth looking at in detail. You may find the report here.

– Maureen

The Unicorn is 10 Years Old – My Four Favorite Charts

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Ten years ago, Aileen Lee, the founder of seed stage VC firm, Cowboy Ventures, studied the characteristics of VC-backed companies. In the 2013 report, “Welcome to the Unicorn Club,” Lee coined term “Unicorn” to describe those privately held startups with a $1 Billion or greater valuation. Unicorns were off to the races.

Now, ten years later Aileen Lee and her “Cow-lleagues” have taken another deep dive into VC-backed startups. They have just published, “Welcome Back to the Unicorn Club: 10 Years Later.” And, yes, after a pandemic and years of near-zero interest rates, things have changed. The slide version of the report is 54 slides long, mostly graphs. Here I provide a four chart teaser of the gems in “10 Years Later.”

The Unicorn Club in 2013

2013 – Cowboy Ventures

It all famously started in 2013 with 39 unicorns, out of thousands of companies analyzed. Consumer companies dominated at 80% of the value of analyzed companies. Facebook eclipsed the others at $121B valuation. Facebook was the sole Superunicorn, defined as over $100 Billion valuation. Watch this data point: Enterprise Capital Efficiency was stellar at (26X).

Unicorns Grew from 39 to 532 in a Decade

2023 – Cowboy Ventures

Fast forward to 2023. Unicorns grew by 14X to 532. Consumer flipped in value with Enterprise with Enterprise now at 78%. There are 15 Superunicorns, over $100B. OpenAI leads the herd. Ten years later only 7% of the pointy headed beasts have exited, down from 66% ten years ago. Enterprise Capital Efficiency went off a cliff, from 26X to 7X. There is much more about ECE to dig into in the report. Here’s a not-so-fun fact, “60% are what we call ‘ZIRPicorns’ – they were last valued between Jan 2020 and March 2022, when interest rates were near zero and multiples at peak.” ZIRP, refers to Zero Interest Rate Policy – money was low-cost and company valuations were high.

The Deeper Story: Papercorns and ZIRPicorns

2023 – Cowboy Ventures

While there are 14X as many Unicorns as in 2013, 93% of the Unicorns are “Papercorns,” which have not exited. That is, their value is on paper only, not substantiated in the recent marketplace.The chart shows that as the cost of money increased, the number of new Unicorns decreased precipitously. ZIRPicorns make up 60% of today’s Unicorns. ZIRPicorns were last valued between January 2020 and March 2022 when public multiples were at their peak and interest rates were near zero. Their challenge: raising funds or M&A, which in many cases will involve a down round. Cowboy Ventures writes that they expect abrupt shutdowns in 2024. They also write that there are many healthy Unicorns which will grow larger.

NYC Up, SF Down (As a Percentage)

2023 – Cowboy Ventures

While the SF Bay Area grew in number of Unicorns, it lost in percent of companies based there. NYC climbed from 11% to 19%. Cowboy Ventures offers that COVID effects likely played a role in the wider distribution of Unicorns.

What Did Not Change Very Much?

Take a wild guess. If you guessed gender diversity, you are correct. Cowboy Ventures generously says, there is “LOTS of opportunity to increase diversity in founding teams.” In ten years, the number of startups with a female co-founder has grown from 5% in 2013 to 14% in 2023.

“There are more founders named Michael, David and Andrew than there are women unicorn CEOs. At this rate, we won’t reach equal gender representation until 2063,” per Cowboy Ventures.

Fellow data-lovers there is much more in “Welcome Back to the Unicorn Club: 10 Years Later.” I recommend the further data on Enterprise Capital Efficiency.

Let me know which data appealed to you.

-Maureen

2024 Report on the State of the US Legal Market – My Four Favorite Charts

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The catchy take-away from the Thomson Reuters “2024 Report on the State of the US Legal Market” is that law firm leaders who don’t respond to the shifts in the legal market in the past 15 years may share a destiny with Pan Am.

The US airline, Pan Am, was the largest international carrier in the mid-20th century. Pan Am filed for bankruptcy in 1991, after decades of tremendous growth in air travel. For those who recall Pan Am, it’s a vivid illustration. You will see the tie-in below.

Looking at today’s legal market, the Thomson Reuters report is full of data and graphs which quantify recent trends.

Key Trends:

  1. There is a shift from the “Transactional Decade” of the 2010’s. Money was easy to borrow and transactional practices, including Corporate, M&A, and Real Estate climbed.
  2. More recently, the majority of growth is in counter-cyclical practices such as Litigation, Bankruptcy, and Labor & Employment.
Practice demand growth in 2022 & 2023, Thomson Reuters

3. The past few years have seen an aggressive increase in law firm rate growth. “In 2023, the rates clients agreed to pay law firms for new matters grew by more than 6%…”

Worked rate growth, Thomson Reuters

4. At the same time, the collection rate on those fees is down. Clients are are moving tiered legal work to lower cost firms. This is where the Pan Am lesson comes in – respond to the market or get left behind.

Collected realization against worked rates, Thomson Reuters

While we are devouring graphs, let’s not stop there. If you are brave, take a look at a perennial favorite, profit per lawyer. The growth seen in the pandemic year of 2020 and the pandemic recovery year of 2021 have have not been repeated in the past two years.

Profit per lawyer growth, Thomson Reuters

I encourage you to download the report. The Thomson Reuters “2024 Report on the State of the US Legal Market” has 20 graphs and charts, including staffing, expenses, and, as you might expect, “Reaction to AI in the legal profession.”

Whether you are in a law firm, corporate legal, or legal tech, there is timely data here which you won’t find anywhere else. I’m sure that there are a couple of graphs which will be helpful in your next ops review.

-Maureen

Social? See you over on LinkedIn

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On January 2, 2024, The Guardian reported that, “Fidelity, which owns a stake in X Holdings, said in a disclosure obtained by Axios that it had marked down the value of its shares by 71.5% since Musk’s purchase.” The number of monthly users is down 15% in the past year. X has lost major advertisers like IBM, Disney, and Apple, says MarketWatch. Also from The Guardian, “the European Union issued a warning to Musk after it found that X had the highest ratio of disinformation posts of all large social media platforms.”

Whew.

Image: Techeela.com

Now is as good a time as any to let our readers know that we are amongst the former users of Twitter who have decided that X is not worth it anymore. We, Mobile Helix, took the month of October 2023 off from posting on X as a test. While there is a personal loss of not seeing updates from friends and partners in the #legaltech space, we see no business loss.

This blog and our website, http://www.mobilehelix.com, are the major sources of news about our new product releases, webinars, and other updates. We cross-post many of our blog posts to LinkedIn. We post fun news and #legaltech news on LinkedIn, too. As most businesses in enterprise or B2B markets will tell you, LinkedIn is a far better medium for reaching your community than Twitter ever was.

But Twitter was fun. It was fast. It was sassy. And it was vast.

There likely will never be another phenomenon like Twitter. Many people you knew, and most brands, some with hilarious personas, were all posting to the same platform. Now people are posting on X, Threads, Post, Mastodon, Spoutible, and Bluesky, to name a few. For us, social media will be LinkedIn and our own publications.

See us over on LinkedIn.

-Maureen

Nourishing Hope: Why We Give to the West Side Campaign Against Hunger

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In a world often characterized by its challenges, there are organizations that stand as beacons of hope, making a real difference in the lives of those facing adversity. New York City’s West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH) is one such beacon.

This year, WSCAH has supported over 14,700 families who sought WSCAH’s assistance in accessing healthy foods. The regular distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, and milk has not only provided immediate relief but has also promoted nutritional well-being among those in need. We especially like that 55% of the food distributed annually is fresh fruits and vegetables.

If you are in the Upper West Side you can see them in action in the community. Take a look here.

WSCAH is a home town organization for us as part of our team is located in New York. We are especially grateful to our customers, many of whom are in New York, who make it possible for us to support WSCAH.

We wish you warm and happy holidays!

-Maureen

From Work-Bench: The State of Enterprise Tech in NYC, 2022 Funding Report

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All of enterprise software business has a nexus with New York City. I recommend reviewing the publications from Work-Bench, the NYC based venture capital whose tag line is, “We invest in game changing enterprise startups.” They are data-oriented people with interesting insights on funding for NYC-based enterprise tech startups.

Work-Bench has recently published “The State of Enterprise Tech in NYC: 2022 Funding Report.” You can download if for free with a registration here. It’s quite visual and a quick read.

Let’s look at the key data for last year. In 2022, $6.2B was raised in enterprise tech in NYC. This is less than half of what was raised in 2021 at $16.7B, but more than in 2020 and 2019. Total deals ere also down in 2022 to 163 from 237 in 2021.

Below is the “money chart.”

Work-Bench NYC Enterprise Software Startup Funding: 2014 – 2022

2022 funding was weaker for large growth stage rounds.

Series C and above rounds went off a cliff: 24 in 2022; 78 in 2021.

Series B increased slightly to 40 in 2022 from 39 in 2021.

Seed and Series A rounds were close to 2021 levels.

The Work-Bench report includes detailed data by round type.

The data in the report is reported by full year. I suspect that if we were to see the data by quarter we would see that the first half of 2022 was an extension of 2021 investment rates, with the second half of 2022 slower.

You can click through to the Work-Bench NYC Enterprise Tech Enterprise Tech Index. Here’s a chart from the index showing the top publicly traded enterprise companies in NYC. The first three are Datadog, MongoDB, and UIPath.

Work-Bench New York City Enterprise Tech Index Top Public Companies

Those of us in the legal tech sector see the parallel in investment to Work-Bench’s data. I keep an informal log of investment in legal tech. In that log, investments in broadly legal tech companies in the second half of 2022 were at half the rate of the first half of 2022.

A final thought from Work-Bench’s 2022 report, “There were no meaningful exits across M&A and IPOs.”

We can see now that 2021 was over-heated. We are living through the consequences of that excess growth funding now, as in the layoffs in tech companies and slowdown in M&A and IPOs.

-Maureen

Litera: The Legal Tech Juggernaut Takes a Breather

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Remember 2021 and 2022? Litera was buying so many companies that at times it was hard to keep track.

In August of 2022, I was at the ILTACON conference at National Harbor, Maryland. Litera had acquired two companies in the previous week, business intelligence company, BigSquare, and talent management software company, Micron Systems. These followed the substantial acquisitions of Foundation Software, Prosperoware, Workshare, and Kira Systems. Per Crunchbase, 15 acquisitions in the past 5 years.

I attended the Litera session, which was in a ballroom. Standing room only. The sense that something special was taking place was palpable. Litera’s new CEO, Sheryl Hoskins, introduced herself, mentioning her active duty in the Army. She was impressive .

Historically at ILTACON the companies with a big presence have been Thomson Reuters, Intapp, iManage, and NetDocuments. But in 2022, Litera had the momentum. They also had the ample pockets of Hg. And Hg was looking for growth.

A lot has changed in the economy in the past six months. The threat of a recession has loomed large. Interest rates are up. Law firms have laid-off associates. Many of the big tech companies have laid-off thousands of people.

From where I stand, legal tech appears to be holding strong. Very few legal tech dedicated companies are public, so we don’t get a quarterly window, or even an annual window, into revenues and profits. However, layoffs in legal tech have been limited thus far. At least two e-discovery companies have had layoffs. On the other hand, Exterro just acquired e-discovery rival Zapproved. Several legal tech firms, including NetDocuments, iManage, Aderant, and Litera are actively hiring.

It makes sense for Litera to take time to work on integrating all of the solutions which it has acquired in the past three years. Keep an eye on Litera. If we manage to have a soft landing, look for Litera and Hg to lead the way again.

-Maureen

2023 Report on the State of the Legal Market by Thomson Reuters

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Each year I look forward to the State of the Legal Market report in order to get a more granular look at the past year in legal services.

In 2022, the demand for transactional law firm services declined, most notably in Big Law. But law firms continued to hire apace. The result was a drop in productivity and profits. Profit Per Equity Partner growth was down in 2022. But PPEP is still at a healthy level compared to pre-pandemic.

That is the top line view from the new 2023 Report on the State of the Legal Market by Thomson Reuters with the Georgetown Law Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession.

The following three charts illustrate the slow down in demand and PPEP growth as well as the fact that profit per lawyer is still good compared to 1Q 2020.

This report is a one-of-a-kind. It has has 22 more charts, Including associate compensation, expenses per lawyer, lawyer turnover, collection realization, and more. If you work for a law firm, or if, like me, you provide solutions to law firms, there is certain to be data which will round out your view of 2022 and give you a picture of what 2023 may bring.

You can register for a free download of the full report here:

https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/legal/state-of-the-legal-market-2023/

– Maureen

What is Workflow Automation in Legal? A High School Internship

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This fall I have been fortunate to mentor an internship with Blake and Joaquin, two juniors at Design Tech High School, “DTech,” in San Mateo, California. The subject of this internship was Workflow Automation in Legal. Blake and Joaquin did the research, wrote the copy, and created the graphics. They did an outstanding job.

Take a look. Do you now know what Workflow Automation in Legal is?

What is Workflow Automation?

Workflow Automation is the use of process improvement and software to increase productivity and efficiency.

What is Workflow Automation in Legal?

Workflow automation in legal is the use of software to automate legal processes,

“Workflow Automation in legal is the automation and optimization of the legal team’s workflows to maximize efficiency, eliminate errors, and provide more value to the law firm or legal department.”

Jake Link, bryter

What are Examples of Workflow Automation in Legal?

  • Client Billing
  • Scheduling Appointments
  • Client Intake
  • NDA Generators
  • Employment Contract Generators

What Companies Provide Solutions for Workflow Automation in Legal?

  • ActionStep – cloud-based, legal practice management and billing and accounting software
  • Centerbase – cloud-based, legal accounting, billing, and practice management software
  • Clio – cloud-based, legal practice management and billing software
  • Rocket Matter – cloud-based, legal practice management and billing software
  • Zapier – used to connect different applications and integrate their workflow into a single application
  • BRYTER – development platform for legal, procurement, and compliance to automate workflows, build applications, and digitize contracting
  • Matter Suite – cloud-based legal practice management software
  • Mobile Helix – encrypted mobile app for document workflows for lawyers

Why is it Important for Legal Teams to Engage in Workflow Automation? 

Legal teams should engage in workflow automation because of the major impact it can bring to a firm, especially when it frees up the lawyers to bill more hours with clients. In addition, with workflow automation, lawyers and other employees can engage in higher level work which leads to greater job satisfaction and less stress.

Is Workflow Automation a Good or Bad Thing? 

It’s definitely a good thing as it enhances the efficiency of a firm to allow for increased profits.

Blake and Joaquin made a one minute video about the internship.

Authors: Blake and Joaquin

If you like this post, please let us know at contact at mobilehelix.com.

-Maureen

Resources

“Legal Workflow Automation Explained: Examples, Benefits, and Solutions”. Bryter. Jake Link. April 13, 2022. https://bryter.com/blog/legal-workflow-automation-transforms-legal-departments/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic   

  1. “Workflow Automation in legal is the automation and optimization of the legal team’s workflows to maximize efficiency, eliminate errors, and provide more value to the law firm or legal department.”
  2. Its benefits are increasing time and productivity for the workers that normally have to deal with manual paperwork/data processes. Examples of workflow automation tools are legal intake tools, automatic NDA generators, and data breach reporting, and client billing. 

“Everything You Need to Know About Legal Workflow Automation and Why You Should Have It”. Centerbase. Chelsea Huss. Apr 5, 2022. https://centerbase.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-legal-workflow-automation-and-why-you-should-have-it/   

  1. Basic overview of workflow automation along with a list of legal practice management software that includes workflow.
  2. “Workflow itself is defined as the sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.”

“Why Legal Workflow Automation is Important to Law Firm Success”. Mattersuite. July 27, 2021 https://www. mattersuite.com/blog/why-workflow-automation-important-to-law-firm-success

  1. Goes more into the ROI and the positive worth it brings to a firm, especially down the line in use of automation. Includes useful graphics that may be used for inspiration for future graphics or to source a quote from Mattersuite.
  2. “Legal automation is designed to streamline the law practice operations smoothly. Automating document management to gaining more clients, everything can be achieved with legal automation.”