Legal Technology Journal

A fully centralised document management system has proved invaluable in helping Bird & Bird to achieve its strategic objectives.

Bird & Bird is a commercial law firm with 14 offices in nine countries. Its specialist practice areas include e-commerce and IT. As the firm’s clients include leading IT companies and telcos, one would naturally expect it to be at the forefront of legal technology. Certainly its website (www.twobirds.com) is a good indicator of this – it is highly informative and user-friendly, with links to all the firm’s practice areas and a useful and easily found news section.

According to Karen Jacks, the firm’s head of IT services, although advanced technology helps to keep Bird & Bird at the top of its game – it is recognised as a leading light in legal IT – it is equally important to make sure that the selection and deployment of cutting-edge applications supports rather than drives the firm’s overall strategy. ‘It’s easy for IT managers to get hooked on the latest technology,’ she says, ‘but if you asked most lawyers what they wanted out of IT, the answer would probably be: “BlackBerry, good remote access and a system that always works.”’ Therefore, Jacks and her team approach IT from two angles, making sure that the system supports both the firm’s strategy and the core day-to-day requirements of people across its international offices. ‘First, and foremost, we focus on the lightson stuff – keeping everything up and running. That has to be our top priority, so we concentrate on maintaining reliable and efficient document management,’ she explains.

Matter-centric document management

To this end the firm recently introduced a centralised document management system (DMS). The choice of system was driven by two major factors: Bird & Bird’s significant international presence, and the fact that it undertakes a considerable amount of cross-border work, which requires high volumes of documentation and information that needs to be accessed by lawyers working out of different offices. ‘We chose WorkSite from Interwoven – a fully centralised document management solution,’ Jacks explains. ‘It gives everyone, wherever they are, access to a single matter file. We often deal with matters that involve three or four offices in different countries. The system also supports cross-border work and the fact that people regularly move around our European offices. Basically, everyone, wherever they are, has access to exactly the same documentation.’

E-mails can also be saved to matter files, providing associates with an audit trail of all correspondence relating to a particular matter. ‘Wherever you are, if you’re picking up work from somebody else, the matter file includes all related e-mail correspondence,’ Jacks says. ‘This avoids the difficulties people experienced in the past, when they needed to access someone else’s mailbox or refer to a physical hard-copy file that might be located in an entirely different country.’

Matter-centricity underpins the way that Bird & Bird has structured its DMS, which includes centralised file storage (see diagram, ‘Bird & Bird’s DMS structure on p44). As Jacks explains, firm-wide implementation was a challenge as it involved moving from each office having its own separate file storage to a single centralised structure managed in a data centre that is relocating to Wapping this summer. ‘Everything is stored offsite,’ she says. ‘We don’t keep anything at our offices, for business continuity reasons as well as the demand for office space. More and more firms now opt for offsite DM and storage.’

Robust e-mail management

As the DMS does not automatically save e-mails, Jacks and herteam are currently piloting Email Assist, an add-on tool that enhances WorkSite’s e-mail management capabilities by allowing the user simultaneously to send and file e-mails into WorkSite. Replies to filed e-mails can either be automatically filed to WorkSite or intelligent one-click filing can be used. ‘We still have one or two issues to resolve before rolling out the product firm-wide,’ Jacks says. ‘Hopefully, however, Email Assist will give us even better e-mail management capabilities, as it’s much more intuitive. For example, you can set it up so that it automatically saves sent items and replies into your inbox.’

‘Everyone recognises the benefit of including e-mails in matter files, particularly when several different people and offices are involved, but lawyers find the process of doing heaps of filing somewhat cumbersome,’ Jacks observes, adding that an additional advantage of Email Assist is that, although it is an intuitive application, users still retain control over their inbox – an issue which is often a concern for lawyers.

Cutting-edge search technology

The team has always worked closely with the other support departments, an example being the fruitful relationship with the firm’s knowledge management (KM) team, headed by Catherine Flutsch. Recently, the IT and KM teams launched a new bespoke know-how and know-who (expertise locator) system incorporating the cutting-edge conceptSearching technology. Flutsch acknowledges the importance of working together on the project: ‘We could not have designed, built or launched the system without the commitment and expertise of the IT team. In fact, it was one of Karen’s team who first brought conceptSearching technology to my attention.’ Both teams worked together intensively for the duration of the project and together were able to deliver exactly what the lawyers wanted in a relatively short period of time. As far as Jacks is aware, the firm was the first in Europe to incorporate conceptSearching into a bespoke know-how system.

As the new system retrieves both internal and external knowhow with one search, it is already heavily used by the lawyers across the firm. The project team ensured that a change management strategy was incorporated from the outset. One aspect of this strategy included the KM team giving every lawyer in the London office a one-to-one training session at their desks and getting to every lawyer across the firm’s network either one-toone or via a presentation. Jacks firmly believes in this hands-on approach. ‘It’s important to put yourself in front of people and show them how they can use new technology, rather than just sending out an e-mail saying we’ve got a new tool,’ she says.

Consultation and communication

Developing a DMS that supported the firm’s strategy and delivered people’s day-to-day information and knowledge requirements quickly and efficiently was top of mind from the outset. ‘We put together a steering group that comprised representatives at partner level from each office. This group debated at length whether we needed centralised DM and what type of product would suit us best,’ says Jacks. ‘We then spent a significant amount of time looking at policies and procedures and developing a workable, intuitive system that would meet the different requirements of our various offices.’ The whole process from the start of the feasibility study to going into pilot took 12 months. As well as ensuring that Bird & Bird selected the product that best met its needs, it was also important to get firm-wide buy-in.

Consultation and communication were key to a successful roll-out. ‘Before implementing our centralised DMS, we spent the best part of six months conducting a firm-wide feasibility study,’ says Jacks. ‘The idea was to get people involved very early on so that they would have time to adjust. It’s important not to underestimate the impact on people of having to change the way they work. What helped to make this a success was that people felt confident using the system, so they made good use of it.’ Having resolved a few teething problems, Jacks and her team are currently developing further enhancements to the system, aimed at making people’s working lives easier. She emphasises that that means listening to feedback and acting on it: ‘For example, in direct response to feedback we’ve had about page views within folders on WorkSite, we’ve just developed an addon.’

She explains that, although it is possible to change views within WorkSite, it only retains them for individual users. The new tool enables users to right-click and change views at folder level. ‘People like to look at the folders in an e-mail view, so that they can switch almost seamlessly from their inbox to DM,’ she notes.

This new tool is particularly valuable to associates in different countries working together on matters that involve very large volumes of documentation. ‘Some of our matter folders contain tens of thousands of e-mails. When people are dealing with that level of volume, they want to look at the folder in the same view, so that they’re literally on the same page,’ Jacks says. Does the fact that Bird & Bird advises leading technology companies mean that its lawyers tend to be IT savvy too? According to Jacks, with a few exceptions, they generally have no issues with absorbing new technology. This makes it relatively easy for Jacks and her team to introduce new applications. Next year she plans to transform document production. ‘We are reviewing the latest products on the market, including digital dictation systems, and working out how they would fit into our existing support structure, but the project is still at a very early stage,’ she says. ‘A lot of firms have already introduced digital dictation. The reason we have waited so long is that our lawyers are extremely self-sufficient.’

Portal integration

Another current IT project focuses on integrating the firm’s applications into a single interface or portal. ‘Like other firms, we are now deploying Microsoft SharePoint,’ explains Jacks. ‘We are currently introducing Handshake, a software solution that provides real-time reporting via a portal. This would give users a single point of access to the firm’s information resources, including client data and financial systems. For example, if you were looking at a matter on Carpe Diem you could then potentially move straight into the matter file within the DMS and then move into the billing system. We are still working on deciding how we want to configure Handshake.’

The idea is to pull together Bird & Bird’s IT systems and knowledge resources into one integrated, firm-wide system. As Jacks explains, this strategy supports the firm’s focus on consolidation following a period of expansion. To this end, Jacks and her team are also looking at improving connectivity throughout the firm. Once the data centre move has been completed, the plan is to research further into unified communications and other related technologies.

Improving remote and mobile connectivity

Remote and mobile connectivity underpins the success of Bird & Bird’s international operations, and Jacks and her team are currently evaluating the firm’s use of mobile technology. ‘We use BlackBerry but I’m keeping a watching brief on Windows Mobile,’ she says. ‘At the moment, I am undecided. We’ve just started a small evaluation of Windows Mobile with a view to comparing it with BlackBerry, but I’m not sure whether we’ll be making any changes, as people here – myself included – are wedded to their BlackBerries.’ However, Jacks believes that it is always worth checking out new technology, so she is about to give up her own BlackBerry and move to Windows Mobile in order to evaluate it properly. ‘I always try to use new technology first before recommending it to other people, as I have to find out exactly what it can do,’ she explains.

As the firm’s lawyers are generally comfortable adapting to new technology, and its information and knowledge professionals are excellent communicators who travel around the firm’s offices getting everyone involved in testing new applications and giving feedback, is the almost continuous upgrading of its IT systems also driven by the fact that its hi-tech clients expect Bird & Bird to use the very latest technology? ‘Although there is a certain expectation, the perception is that we have the latest stuff because we operate efficiently and we are offering clients added value,’ Jacks observes. ‘Of course some of the services we offer make them feel confident that we are a technology-savvy firm.’