Page 46 - CCCA 259155 Magazine_Winter 2016

{ INSIDE EDGE }

DOING MORE WITH LESS (AND FOR LESS)

By Dominic Jaar

After a couple of years in private practice, when my client Bell in turn leading those frms to outsource.
asked me to join its legal department as a litigator, I was excited From email servers to e-discovery appli-
cations, the legal industry has started to
at the prospect of working for a leading Canadian technology embrace third party hosting, and a variety
company. However, I was surprised to learn the legal department of software vendors and service providers
was as technologically advanced as a court of justice: I was given a are releasing new hosted solutions to sup-
port this growing demand.
computer with a matter management system (MMS) that resembled However, many in-house legal depart-
Excel (ok, maybe Access) and used Windows Explorer as the ments are still resisting, citing confden-
tiality and security reasons. Yet, most
document management system (DMS). Things could only get better! organizations send unencrypted emails
and attachments, and entrust their data to
ithin the frst couple months, we sure on them to reduce spending, reduce many different providers (subcontractors,
embarked on a large-scale tech- head count and add value. To achieve these law frms, accounting frms, etc.), thereby
Wnology overhaul to source and objectives, most GCs passed the burden to duplicating content and losing any and
implement more robust MMS and DMS. their outside providers. However, as the all control over it. Isn’t it more secure to
I had been involved in a similar project demands for more effciency and value in- centralize all confdential material in one
at my previous frm, which was created creased, they were forced to look for solu- environment? Rather than sending infor-
through the merger of fve law frms, and tions within their departments, and tech- mation out to people, I much prefer di-
brought my lessons learned to the table. nological improvements were, still are and, recting people to the original and simply
From functional and technical require- I suggest, will remain the best way. managing access rights to ensure security.
ments identifcation with the different Centralization of information is inevita-
stakeholders (lawyers, administrative as- Ease of implementation and security ble. The newest legal technologies rely heav-
sistants, paralegal, litigation support, IT, Tech implementations used to be com- ily on advanced data analytics, artifcial in-
IS and clients) to RFPs, implementation, plex and risky, requiring signifcant capi- telligence and machine learning—which all
acceptance tests and production, it was tal investments, expensive infrastructure require a centralized system to draw from.
an interesting but demanding journey and sophisticated IT resources. However, If today’s solutions had existed when I
(on top of my day job!)—reminding me new solutions and business models have was with Bell, we could have streamlined
that technology is simple and humans are democratized legal technologies, making the process even further and blown away
complex. Change management is the true them available to both the smallest and our effciency and value-add goals. You
challenge of any legal technology imple- the largest departments. One important will get that chance with the next wave of
mentation. While the technological roll- advancement in this regard has been host- legal technologies. Are you ready? ❚
out was completed in a matter of months, ed and cloud solutions, which offer fxed
when I left about three years later, adop- monthly fees that include the infrastruc-
tion was still ongoing. ture, application, maintenance, support, Dominic Jaar is Partner and
National Leader of Foren-
updates and, yes, even security! sic Technology Services at
Forced adoption Even banks have recognized that they KPMG LLP. He and his team
Given this challenge, it is not surprising can’t secure data as well as companies that advise lawyers on records and
that up until recently many legal depart- specialize in data hosting and have started information management, legal
technology, e-discovery, evidence
ments still frowned upon automating and to outsource their environment to third recovery, cyber security and data analytics. He
digitizing their processes. However, the last parties. Many of them also require their
is also Chair of the Board of CanLII. In his spare
fnancial crisis, global competition, low service providers, such as law frms, to time, he advises and invests in numerous legal
oil prices and more put immense pres- demonstrate they meet certain standards, technology start-ups.

46 CCCA MAGAZINE | WINTER 2016 HIVER