Set our below are some of the projects which Litig and its members have advanced:

 

BENCHMARKING

Member firms of various sizes have participated in an annual benchmarking exercise. Participating members receive a copy of the report giving insight into KPIs including IT spend as % turnover; IT spend per fee earner and IT department make-up.

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BYOD / MOBILE DEVICE MANAGEMENT

With the continued rise in the consumerisation of IT and mobile working, Litig worked on a project to improve members' awareness of the MDM marketplace and the options and offerings available.

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CASE AND MATTER MANAGEMENT REVIEW

The objective of this report was to document the views of Litig member firms and client members, on the usability and effectiveness of Case and Matter Management systems.  The report is based on information provided by 18 law firms using a combined questionnaire and follow up telephone interview method.

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CYBER CRIME

With information security high on the agenda for many organisations Litig members have been given some high-level insight into current cyber risks following a presentation from the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI).

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DAWN RAIDS

Litig members have been educated on the risks and practical steps which can be taken in relation to dawn raids including a list of proactive steps that can be taken from an IT perspective to properly manage the response.

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DOCUMENT AUTOMATION

Given the general challenges of doing things better, cheaper and faster Litig recently reviewed document automation and its use within member firms.  There continue to be mixed views about making it work within some organisations and an example business case document for document automation was put forward to help members initiate any new initiatives in this area.

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E-BILLING

Whilst a large number of companies are processing legal invoices electronically using the process of “e-Billing”process , one of the early barriers in the UK was the lack of a known international electronic standard in this area covering areas such as VAT. Litig members recognised the benefit of e-Billing and worked together to recommend an international LEDESstandard which could be adopted by software vendors, law firms and clients. Since Litig’s involvement with the standard further versions have been released. Litig’s project team comprised law firms and clients and was supported by proactive collaboration from the United Nations.

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ELECTRONIC FILE MANAGEMENT

A Litig project team was formed and worked with the Law Society in the area of management of electronic documents and the issues of archiving versus backups versus forensics. The paper was published in October 2006. It covers topics such as the filing of e-mails together with relevant compliance issues, standards and guidelines that affect law firms and their clients.

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EMAIL BEST PRACTICE

With email being a business critical method of communication with clients and third parties, Litig created some practical guidance for firms and their users in relation to the use of email at work.

Also, a template email acceptable use policy was created from the best parts of each of Litig members' e-mail acceptable use policies.

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EMAIL DISCLAIMER

A project team within Litig investigated whether we could reduce storage and the length of emails by eliminating edisclaimers and replacing them with a simple hyperlink. The project team sought an opinion from leading counsel and this opinion is available to its members.

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FILE SHARING IN THE CLOUD

Litig has commissioned research projects to look at potential practical and commercial issues arising from the use of both personal and enterprise secure file sharing services. The reports, available to Litig members only, highlight a number of challenges including balancing client demands and the regulatory requirements of law firms to manage client information.

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IT M&A GUIDES

A project team consisting of Litig members worked together to produce a series of guides and templates to help identify and manage the multiple IT components involved in merger, acquisition and divestiture activities at law firms. Given the continued consolidation in the legal market these resources, including member experiences, provide valuable insight and practical guidance.

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INNOVATION IN LAW FIRMS

This session looked at the legal market and other sectors and considered the drivers and approaches to innovation being taken by organisations in these areas.

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IT MANAGER MASTER CLASSES - LEGAL

As legislation and regulations change, a series of Master Classes have been run for Litig members covering topics such as Competion Law, the Bribery Act 2010 and Data Protection Act with a focus on what these mean for IT in legal business. Additional areas have also been covered such as:

·       Law firm marketing and avoiding pitfalls around IP rights;

·       Unbundling legal process;

·       pricing, costing and managing fees;

·       The Information Commissioner's Office; and

·       IT procurement.

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IT MANAGER MASTER CLASSES - IMPLEMENTATION

Master Classes have been held covering topics such as BPM and emerging social elements of processes to help capture knowledge and share learning; and why IT projects fail (and how to reduce the likelihood of failure). They were delivered by relevant experts with a focus on what these opportunities and challenges can mean for IT in legal business.

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LATERAL HIRES

Litig members have defined best practice in relation to bringing new lateral hires into an organisation, putting them onto systems and working smoothly in their new environment.  The focus is on clear communications, the secure transfer of suitable information and managing the expectations of the new joiner.

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LITIG MEMBER SURVEYS

Litig members conduct brief surveys from time to time on various topics.  Examples include;

  • Who is doing what with MS Lync?

  • Who is running which version of MS Office, MS Exchange and Windows OS?

  • What members are doing with digital dictation and voice recognition?

  • Time recording systems

  • ISO27001 for law firms security

  • AV systems

  • Web site hosting

  • Email footers

  • Intranet and content management systems

  • Multi-factor Authentication

  • Bench-marking

  • Cognos and SPSS

  • DKIM, SPF, DMARK

  • Infrastructure/Networking

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SUPPLIER CHARTER

Litig has released a supplier charter to set out what  Litig members feel best practice looks like in the dealings between supplier and customer in the Legal IT industry. The charter is not a dictat defining how suppliers should act but a list of behaviours that Litig members recounted as those they felt should be practiced by excellent suppliers and those that they felt impacted positively on their relationships. Any supplier following these behaviours is likely to be advantaged in dealing with consumers of legal IT systems and services.

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TACKLING PROCESS

Member firms have provided insight into the steps they were taking to introduce business change. Some had adopted approaches such as Lean Six Sigma whereas others have identified and developed methods and tools aligned to their particular business.

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TAXONOMIES

Litig has produced a taxonomy aimed at simplifying the lives of clients by providing quick and easy classification of training courses, seminars and newsletters provided by law firms to clients. 

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TRANSACTION DEAL BIBLES STANDARD

It is standard practice at the end of larger transactions for in-house legal departments to be provided with copies of key documents signed in any deal. A number of methods are used to prepare and store these "deal bibles" but each raises issues. Research found that whilst many firms invest a lot of time and effort into producing branded DVDs on the basis these will be used by lawyers at their clients, increasingly the DVDs are delivered to IT departments who copy the files to shared network drives or document management systems. In conjunction with the Knowledge Management and IT in-house Group (KMIT), Litig members have agreed a common standard for the exchange of electronic transaction deal bibles between law firms and clients.

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