CRM in Law Firms: The Jury's Still Out
The legal profession is all about relationships, so CRM systems would seem a natural fit in a law-firm setting, right? Sure, but many don't bother implementing CRM systems because they would require a significant change in the way firms are run.
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Law firms stand to gain as much as anyone from the advances being made when it comes to CRM systems, and CRM software providers are keen to fill this potentially lucrative market niche.
LexisNexis, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) are among the firms out there offering CRM systems specifically geared for professional services organizations, but are law firms getting the return and results they expect from their CRM investments? The answer is often no.The fundamental reason for this seems to have as much to do with the nature of the legal profession and the organizational management of law firms as anything else, as well as the willingness and ability of CRM developers to build close relationships and devote the time and resources necessary to delve deeply into and understand the ways lawyers and law firms work.
Not Much Different
"CRM for lawyers and law firms isn't -- or shouldn't be -- different than for other businesses. In fact, CRM for attorneys should be easier. I don't know of a lawyer who doesn't track their time by quarters or tenths of hours, relating that time to both the client served, the matter being worked on, and the type of work being done. They do this, obviously, to be able to bill," explained Andy Havens, creator of TinkerX and formerly chief marketing officer for a major corporate law firm."Many firms also track company and industry information very closely as part of their conflict-clearing procedures. They do this, again obviously, to mitigate the possibility of conflicts, malpractice and -- one hopes -- bad client relations. Many firms also, once a conflict has been established, end up referring conflicted work elsewhere, as they wish to assist clients, even if they can't do the work themselves."
A continuous stream of potentially valuable CRM information flows through the typical law firm on a daily basis, yet lawyers and their firms typically are not able to leverage it to the degree they would like to, Havens told CRM Buyer.
"All of these systems/processes can be mined for very, very valuable CRM data in and of themselves. If they were augmented by some administrative practices -- usually performed by staff -- they could provide truly rich data about what kinds of work is producing the most profit, the most referrals and the least amount of administrative waste, i.e. what the most efficient and effective areas for business development are."
Building, Mapping Relationships
LexisNexis provides software and information services to law firms and other professional organizations. The latest of its InterAction CRM solution, Version 5.6, is designed specifically for use in "fee-earner" environments. It was released in March."There are a couple of things [that stand out in relation to CRM] when you look at law firms and other professional services organizations," Tracey Blackburn, LexisNexis product marketing manager, told CRM Buyer. "First, they are really about building relationships; second, most [CRM software offerings] are really about sales force automation, lead management really, whereas CRM in a professional services organization is really about building relationships for business development."
Hence, LexisNexis has focused on building features and functionality into InterAction that support lawyers' needs to build and track relationships. "From a relationship building perspective what Interaction offers is relationship mapping -- who knows whom, areas of expertise, up-to-date case work and litigation -- and the ability to coordinate and understand activities -- tracking e-mail, documents, all communications and the companies involved so you have a good view of what's going on internally."
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