Global Legal Post: Farewell To The Oil Age

30 March 2012 www.globallegalpost.com

THE VERY BEST OF THE WORLD'S LEGAL MEDIAInCOlporating The European Lawyer

THE VOICE: PAGE 13

Angels and demonsPutin's choice: join the international rule of law top table,

or allow mobster justice to hold sway

BOOKSHELF: PAGE 23 Drugged up in AmericaEUROZONE € I0.00. UK: £7.99. USA: US$13.00. UAE: AED49.00. SOUTH AFRICA: ZAR99.00. CANADA: C$15.00. BAHRAIN: BD5.00. AUSfRALlA: A$ I 5.00

~anagen1entspeak

Farewell to the oil ageLaw firms can no longer hope to survive on providing legal advice alone, warns

Chrissie Lightfoot. If they are to thrive in an increasingly technology-driven era, theymust add value in the data field - as well as being generally more human

Gerd Leonhard - described as one ofthe world's 'leading media futurists'by the WallStreetJournal - confidentlysuggests that 'data is now the new oil'.

He proclaims passionately thatthe legal profession is in the contentbusiness, the marketing business and,ultimately, the data business.

Why? Because the world is headedtowards systems of peer-to-peercollaboration, unbundling andfragmentation. Mr Leonhard says:'We're living in a digital society wherethere is a different world view oncontrol, ownership and authority'.

Hyper-collaborationThe abbreviation Rol once stoodfor 'return.on investment'; it is nowsuperseded by return on involvement.We are moving from hyper-competition to hyper-collaboration.We're living and working in thenetworked society and law firmsthemselves must be networked.

And to be successful in a networkedworld, the human factor of addingvalue is essential to how we useinformation and data. Other sectors- such as finance, insurance, bankingand music - are examples of the shift.

Mr Leonhard suggests adding valuemeans focusing on elements such as'time and attention, influence andreputation', in other words, intangiblessuch as high-end intellectual capitaland emotional intelligence.

Ultimately, he suggests, the key isbeing a human brand, where trustis the new currency, and where thefocus is on humanity and being social.Interestingly, he predicts lawyerswill be paid by virtual currencies inthe future - for example, Facebookcredits, as the public rating of lawyersbecomes increasingly important ina world where we value interactionbefore transaction.

UK-based fellow futurist Dr PatrickDixon agrees. He maintains that whilethere are current frustrations - forexample, the modern world is alreadydigital with digital clients, yet lawyersoperate with 'dinosaur interfaces'- the future of law will be driven

Chrissie Lightfootis the chiefexecutive of legalconsultancyThe EntrepreneurLawyer andauthor of thebook The NakedLawyer: RIP toXXX-How toMarket, Brandand Sell YOU!'

by emotion. He says, 'what clientswant in the future is advice based onemotion'. Evidence of rhhy:'canbe seenin the fact that lawyers themselveshave already 'become rated. If youpost a tweet about law, Google willtake it seriously'.

Barriers to entryNonetheless, concern remains in thelegal profession that big branding isstill prevalent and causing problems.The managing partner of a mid-tier UKlaw firm recentlyto!d me:'We must not forget that corporatebrands provide barriers to entry'. Forexample, the 'nobody got fired forbuying IBM' mantra is as applicableto the legal market as it is to anyother, and can be seen in operationdaily at every level of the legalservices market.

But personal - or human - andcorporate brands are not mutuallyexclusive. It is important to viewcorporate brands simply as theumbrella for multiple human brandsin a networked, collaborative world.

Data-focused companies arebuilding, exploiting and nurturingpersonal brands now in a smart way.This relates to how they use theirpersonal brands and the customerexperience within social networks(and social media streams) toleverage and build awareness of thefirm's brand .

It is a networked world and willcontinue to be. Trust and beinghuman are - and will remain - thereasons clients are attracted tolaw firm brands. And all firms aregoing to have to look at new waysof adding value on the periphery oftheir core propositions if they are toremain competitive.

Law firms may not realise it yet,but; to're-iterate Mr Leonhard's belief,they are in the content business. Inaddition, they are in the marketingbusiness and their value will be inbecoming data businesses.

We are shifting - and arguablyhave already shifted - from the oilage to the data age. The early 20th-century world, in which the Americanindustrialist John Rockefellerdominated, has been supersededby the 21st-century digital data agewhere the shots are called by the likesof Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Lawfirms and their lawyers need to shifttheir positions too.

Just as man cannot live on breadalone, no longer can law firms live onproviding legal advice.

If they attempt to do so, the oilwellriches of the past and present willsurely run dry. Could the end of oilbe the end of the traditional law firmas we know it? Conversely, couldthe rise of data value and focus bethe beginning of the true businessof law?

................................................................................................................... .

www.globallegalpost.com TheGlobalLegalPost 30March2012 17