The Social Law Firm

Over the last few years American businesses have embraced a new way of thinking, remaking themselves as less hierarchical and more social enterprises. This organizational change has been facilitated by new technology and a new communications paradigm. It seeks to harness the opportunity for productive social and business interaction that has been made possible by the stream of information flowing in continuous abundance through the digital universe.
Most people are familiar with social media through public networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. These may be the largest and certainly most visible companies in the realm of social media. But in a sense the much more meaningful change is happening inside business organizations around the world – in companies like Procter & Gamble and TD Bank — where the same tools and communication strategies are being deployed as part of daily business operations. These companies are building internal networks among employees and external networks with clients in order to redesign the way products are made and services provided. These tools and techniques are delivering enormous benefits by streamlining operations, fostering collaboration and enabling increased responsiveness to customer/client feedback.

The move to adopt social business technology has been broad based among American companies, from Fortune 100 companies to small start-ups. And if anything the pace of adoption seems to be quickening as the bottom line benefits have become more apparent. However, so far, the social business paradigm has gained very little traction among law firms or other professional service organizations.

For a variety of reasons, law firms are often slow to adopt new technology. But whether leading or lagging in adoption, social business technology ultimately seems destined to have a tremendous impact on the legal business, perhaps fundamentally improving the way lawyers work with each other and their clients.

In a sense every law firm is already a social business no matter what sort of technology it happens to be using. In that respect, the tools and techniques of social business do not so much require a reinvention of the legal business – they simply enable lawyers to do a better job at what they are already doing. Consider for a moment IBM’s definition of a social business —

“A social business is a business that embraces networks of people to create business value.”

Isn’t that the whole idea of a law firm? – A network of partners, associates and other specialists with the requisite knowledge and skills to solve a client’s legal problems.

Even if the technology and concepts are new, there is something very familiar in the concept of a social firm for most lawyers. The basic idea is to foster collaboration, streamline workflow and bring lawyers and clients closer together. So don’t be put off by the new acronyms and jargon that go along with this technology – social business is something important for lawyers to pay attention to. These are useful and powerful concepts that just about any management committee should heartily endorse.