How to use the "length" of the digital law firm
Journalists investigate the digital transformation of law firms
● Regardless of the user level, more and more companies are integrating "digitalization" into their development strategies, or at the judicial level. The emergence of Internet courts and cloud courts, as well as the introduction of related policies, and the development and improvement of technology, are all boosting law firms Digital transformation
● Whether to promote digitalization through independent research and development of related technologies or through cooperation with third-party legal technology companies is a question that many law firms have been thinking about in the process of exploration
● Many law firms have deeper considerations in the process of digital transformation: how to achieve the goal of making the people affordable and making the people feel fair and just in every case
Investigating motivation
In recent years, a number of law firms have actively explored the road to digitization, and digital law firms and cloud law firms have become industry buzzwords.
While the sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic has affected people's production and life, the demand for online collaborative office by law firms has also accelerated the digital transformation of law firms to a certain extent.
What does a digital law firm look like?
How do lawyers work and serve the masses through digital law firms?
What difficulties need to be solved in advancing the law of digitalization?
With these questions in mind, reporters from the Rule of Law Daily conducted an in-depth investigation and interview.
□ The reporter's trainee reporter Zhang Shoukun
□ Our reporter Chen Lei
"You just picked up the case in the case source square." Accompanying the message reminder, Lawyer Wu proficiently opened the system, communicated with the client Mr. Zhang via video, and quickly generated a big data report that the client needed through the system's own retrieval tool , Mr. Zhang expressed satisfaction with this.
After clarifying the entrusted matters, Lawyer Wu found the appropriate contract text from the system contract template library, edited it online and sent it to Mr. Zhang for review.
After informing the risks, charging standards and other matters, Lawyer Wu uploaded the contract, and the risk control department immediately reviewed the contract.
After confirming that there is no conflict of interest, Lawyer Wu and Mr. Zhang completed the electronic contract in the system, and the electronic signature and other tools are all available in the system.
As soon as the contract was completed, the real-time contract status was pushed to the mobile phone of Director Liu of the law firm.
Director Liu clicked on Lawyer Wu's profile picture, and the number of cases handled by Lawyer Wu recently, the progress, and the opening of courts can be seen at a glance.
A few days later, Mr. Zhang found that his case had not been moving through the law firm's case inquiry system, so he clicked on the appointment function and entered the law firm's online office after facial recognition.
At this time, Lawyer Wu has opened the electronic display screen in the office for explanation. The above is all the information and progress of the case so far.
"Ding Dong!" The voice of the food delivery robot sounded outside the door...
This is the scene of the future digital law firm described by some law firm leaders to reporters when a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily interviewed the law firm’s digital transformation.
Why transform
Adapt to the development needs of the situation
In March of this year, Beijing Inter Law Firm was established, which integrates the concepts of digital intelligence, remote shared office, full business partners, and borderless.
At that time, some media reported that this was the first Internet concept law firm in my country.
Luan Shan, the managing partner of Intel Law Firm, told reporters that in the past 20 years, scale has become a powerful engine for the rapid development of law firms in my country.
However, the large-scale development of law firms inevitably leads to high operating costs of law firms. The high rents of office buildings have become a heavy burden to the law firm, which will eventually be allocated to clients. Some parties are limited by their own economic conditions and cannot appoint a lawyer. Safeguard one's own legitimate rights and interests.
In order to overcome this shortcoming and reduce operating costs, more and more law firms are brewing on the road to digital transformation.
Recently, among the member firms and cooperative firms of Yinghe Law Firm, there are more than 100 digital law firms.
Sun Zaichen, founding partner and head of the headquarters of Yinghe Law Firm, told reporters the reasons behind Yinghe's eagerness to develop digitalization.
"At the user level, more and more domestic and foreign companies have clearly integrated'digitalization' into their development strategies. In the future, the digitalization of customers will force the digitalization of legal services; at the judicial level, the emergence of Internet courts and cloud courts has opened up a new trial cloud Mode'; at the technical level, innovative technologies such as blockchain, cloud computing, and big data have gradually evolved into commercial “infrastructures”, and the underlying logic of business has been iterated; at the level of law firms, the digital economy promotes the expansion of law firms. The development of digital law firms, the birth of a new model of lawyer organization with large platforms and small teams; at the policy level, this year’s 14th Five-Year Plan proposes to accelerate digital development and build a digital China.” In Sun Zaichen’s view, for the lawyer industry , Embracing digitalization is imperative.
At the 18th anniversary celebration of the establishment of Yingke Law Firm in 2019, the "White Paper on the Construction of Yingke Specialization" was released, marking that Yingke Law Firm has entered the stage of digital intelligence from the road of digitalization.
According to the staff of Yingke Law Firm, the greatest significance of digital transformation is to make the previously unforeseeable and mutually opaque content visible and transparent, so as to realize the basis of management, the standard of service, and the early warning of risks; the use of digital resources to improve legal search and research Efficiency, to help lawyers handle various legal affairs more conveniently, quickly and efficiently; to a certain extent, the digital law firm upholds the essence of scientific management, and can satisfy The legal service needs of clients in various legal fields and on a global scale.
How to transform
Interconnection and integration empower business
What should a digital law firm look like?
Is the decoration style full of science and technology, or is there a variety of legal technology products?
With various guesses, the reporter recently came to the Beijing headquarters of Yinghe Law Firm.
Walking into the headquarters law firm, the reporter found that this place is no different from ordinary law firms. When asked whether the legal products of the digital law firm can be displayed and reflected, Wang Mingzhu, the head of the digital project of Yinghe Law Firm, pointed to the desk One of his laptops and mobile phone said: "This is it."
She turned on the computer and clicked on a digital legal service system, which contains a number of functions such as big data retrieval, operation management system, and approval system. Whether it is a lawyer, a law firm director or a risk control department, you can find all the information you need on it.
The reporter enters the name of a certain company in the system and adds multiple sets of keywords for advanced search. A visualized big data report will be freshly released after ten seconds after the "click to generate a big data report" button.
Wang Mingzhu said with a smile: "Some corporate customers see this report and feel that we know them better than companies."
Compared with Yinghe, the first impression of PCG Beijing headquarters is that it has a more “sense of science and technology”.
Upon entering the 24th floor of the Zhengda Center of the Beijing Headquarters of Yingke Law Firm, the first thing that comes into view is a large data visualization screen, which is updated in real time with a number of data such as case volume, case category, customer type, and contract dynamics.
The staff of Yingke's Beijing headquarters told reporters that this large screen can be regarded as a window for the intelligentization of Yingke's law firm. In addition to Beijing, there are such large screens at the front desk of Yingke's branches across the country. The institute not only understands its own situation, but also understands the overall situation of the country.
In addition to the large screen, in the customer service center like a bank counter, there are "Yingke Shuxiang" legal technology products and apps containing tens of thousands of books, which not only demonstrate digital intelligence, but also bring real convenience to customers; On a table, there was a QR code of "Earning Appointment". The reporter tried to scan the code to place an order. A few minutes later, the intelligent robot delivered the coffee to the door.
Xiao Yuncheng, director of the Intel Law Firm, believes that the real digital law firm refers to the powerful digital and intelligent Internet tool platform within the law firm, which supports lawyers to achieve free office, including work at home, work on the road, and work on vacation, which can be anywhere, anytime, 24 hours a day. Solve customer needs without restriction.
Li Lei, the founder of Fahe Technology, told reporters that the two concepts of digitalization and informatization must first be distinguished.
"Informatization is built in the period when the Internet has not yet developed rapidly, such as enterprise OA (office automation) and ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems. It solves the problems of management coordination and efficiency. The essence of digitalization is dataization, that is, in big data, cloud Based on technologies such as computing and blockchain, the entire business process and the “departmental wall” are opened up, allowing data to “flow” within the enterprise, between the enterprise and its partners, and through data analysis, interconnection and integration, it is finally realized as a business endowment. can."
"So, I think the definition of a digital law firm is a law firm based on digital products that establishes data flow and data analysis capabilities, and then realizes organizational innovation, talent innovation, product innovation, and business innovation." Li Lei said.
Transformation progress
Do business without leaving home
The development of digital law firms is inseparable from the support of technological means or digital tools.
The reporter noticed that a number of online legal service platforms with their own characteristics have emerged in recent years, helping law firms follow up with clients, handle cases, and sign online contracts through cloud office, and conduct business without leaving their homes.
In May of this year, Yingke Digital Law Firm launched an online platform for lawyers. Through different ports such as mobile light applications, integrated media video accounts, and smart law firm Internet of Things, it can realize one-to-one face-to-face video consultation, telephone consultation, and picture consultation between clients and lawyers. Literature consulting, etc.; clients request real-time polling by region and subdivision of professional fields through AI intelligence; at the same time, the introduction of artificial intelligence "cloud law" to solve repetitive questions, in order to create a "global one-hour legal service circle".
Luan Shan said that the intranet office platform of a true digital law firm must be able to provide lawyers with numerous digital and intelligent tools.
To this end, Intel has in-depth cooperation with technology companies to customize the "Intel Lawyer" version of the Lvzhihui intranet office system, and strive to realize the entire work flow of law firm management and lawyer business through one network.
"On this platform, it is possible to realize online cases such as case filing application, profit review, agreement signing, document stamping, case handling, fee settlement, closing and filing, and communication between colleagues, business cooperation, case discussions, expert argumentation, etc. Transformation, remoteness, digitization, and intelligence." Luan Shan said.
How to judge whether a law firm has completed its digital transformation?
In Sun Zaichen’s view, success or failure can be judged from the degree of online law firm and law firm members, online customers, and online marketing. “It can be said that digital law firms emphasize the online upgrade process. It also represents the final online system integration result".
Future expectations
Solve difficult problems to achieve a win-win situation
The development of emerging things can never be smooth sailing, and the law firm has also encountered many confusions or problems in the process of digital transformation.
In Li Lei’s view, the main problem facing the digital transformation of law firms is the “lack of knowledge”: the lack of knowledge of law firm managers, law firm managers are generally lawyers, the overall age is too old, and law firms generally adopt a partner system. It is difficult to achieve a unified understanding, and it is difficult to accept this innovative management model; lawyers do not have enough knowledge, and lawyers mainly work as their business, and they do not have a close employment relationship with the law firm. Many people only need the law firm in the course of its business development. Providing convenience does not matter whether the law firm implements digital management.
Whether to jointly promote digitalization through independent research and development of related technologies or through cooperation with third-party legal technology companies is a question that many law firms have been thinking about in the process of exploration.
Xiao Yuncheng believes that for a law firm, its main mission is to provide clients with efficient and high-quality legal services, and how to use information technology to empower the law firm and escort the law firm’s digital transformation still requires the power of a professional legal technology company. .
Traveling fast by itself and far-reaching by the crowd, Intel will continue to deepen strategic cooperation with various legal technology companies with the concept of openness, sharing, and win-win cooperation, and persevere in exploring the road to digital transformation of law firms.
In fact, each law firm has a different operating model and cannot be applied to each other. Digital transformation requires the law firm to tailor it according to its own situation and development direction.
According to the staff of Yingke Law Firm, in the process of digital transformation of law firms, it is first necessary to realize data processing through information technology, and dig out the effective data from the millions of electronic data generated by Yingke Law Firm in the past ten years; It is necessary to ensure the transparency and digitization of all links and processes, and form a situation of cross-functional, cross-field, and cross-team communication and collaboration.
This requires the provision of more visualization and controllable tools to ensure that the source and business of the case are given to lawyers in a timely manner, so that lawyers are willing to use the system, the convenience and market driving force brought by digitalization and even intelligence.
It is understood that the management and operation of the American cloud law firm Fisher Broyles rely on a cloud platform software called Directlaw.
When a client "places an order", the law firm deploys lawyers through the Directlaw system.
Since there is no physical office space, Fisher Broyles has low operating costs and can often provide clients with cost-effective legal services.
In addition to Fisher Broyles, there are also many digital law firms based on digital systems in foreign countries.
Li Lei believes that the above model can be partly used for reference.
“In the digital transformation of our country’s law firms, it is necessary to adjust and upgrade operations and management, organizational changes, technical support, and vocational training. Online and offline, law plus technology, platforms and technologies are the infrastructure and business of digital law firms. After digitization, small and medium-sized law firms can be integrated into the infrastructure to reshape the organizational form."
The reporter noticed in the interview that many law firms have deeper considerations in the digital transformation process: how to achieve the goal of making all ordinary people afford to fight lawsuits and letting the people feel fairness and justice in every case.
Luan Shan said that the country is now vigorously promoting public legal services, and all localities are actively building a public legal service system. The Intel Office and all lawyers will use the advantages of digitalization to provide the public with more high-quality and efficient legal services.
Yingke is preparing to establish a rural revitalization legal service center. Starting from Qinghai, it will expand to the whole country. Through the establishment of a digital law firm, legal services can be directly introduced into the village, so that the digital law can fully assist the development of the village.
Wang Mingzhu said that more than 80% of the digital law firms deployed by Yinghe are county law firms, and there will be thousands of law firms in the future, which will achieve extensive coverage of legal services in counties, towns and villages through a huge network of digital law firms.