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Thompson Hine Developed SmartPaTH, a service delivery model that incorporates project management, value billing, flexible sta�ing and process e�iciency.

9 9 7 25Paul HastingsTaking data analytics to a new level by using statisticians to reduce the scale of document review exercises

Littler MendelsonCombined data analytics, lawyers’ skills and experience, and the firm's proprietary methodology to better manage plainti� employment litigation.

Highly

commended

Standout

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8 9 6 23Orrick, Herrington & Sutcli�eA partnership with Stanford Legal Design Initiative that combines engineering, design and the law for a novel way of delivering legal services.

Reed SmithDeveloped Periscope, an e-discovery tool that provides real-time project insights for clients, saving time and money.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & FlomThe patent analytics team combines historical data with human insight to advise clients more e�iciently.

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8 8 7 23

The legal profession needs toinnovate. Technology is havingdrastic effects on all knowledgeworkers; globalisation isincreasing. The pace of busi -

ness and the demands of clients are rising.The FT Innovative Lawyers reports

show the impact of these changes on thelegal profession. The first US report in2010 had few examples of innovationsthat increased efficiencies for clients. But this year we see firms such asThompson Hine make smart models ofdelivering legal services central to theirbusiness. Others have combined withsoftware companies — for example LittlerMendelson with Neota Logic — to alterradically not only the delivery of advicebut also the content of that advice throughbetter collection and analysis of data.These initiatives are a sign of the times.

But they are not reflective of the NorthAmerican profession as a whole, whichstill remains behind that of the UK interms of its “business of law” innovationor the impetus of its leading law firms tochange the status quo. For example, it isstill largely wedded to the hourly ratewhereas in Europe alternative feearrangements are the mainstay of mostlegal mandates.For many top law firms, business is back

to normal after the financial crisis. Theycan charge premium rates. Their clients,with which many have relationshipsdating back decades, are happy to pay: theproduct delivered is often worth it.But, importantly, while the North

American market might lack innovationat an institutional level, North Americanlawyers are more entrepreneurial.For all the FT reports in Europe, North

America and the Asia-Pacific region, thebenchmark by which we assess individuallegal innovation is based on finding

lawyers who perform beyond the marketnorm, who are unusual and deliver anexceptional contribution to clients.In these terms, the benchmark for

individual legal innovation in NorthAmerica could be considered moreadvanced than it is in Europe.To use the analogy of a car, in most

regions, lawyers sit in the back behindtheir clients and other advisers, who aredoing the driving. Innovative lawyers inEurope are those who have leapt into thefront to drive a deal or dispute. In the US,however, most partners at top firms arecomfortably behind the wheel.Therefore, in North America, lawyers

have to show they have gone a stepfurther. In real terms, it means perhapstaking a lead role in designing atransaction — something relativelyunusual but happening more frequently.Or a legal solution and leadership that hasmade business happen and where clientsidentify them as the critical factors intheir success and a source of competitiveadvantage.

The North America report for 2015shows lawyers working to enable, expandand protect their clients’ business.Standout examples include White & Case,which enabled the complicated financingof Freeport LNG’s natural gas facility inTexas, Sullivan & Cromwell’s work forStandard Chartered bank that indirectlyprotected New York’s status as a globalbanking centre, and Cravath Swaine &Moore’s work for Mylan, thepharmaceutical company that helped toexpand (and protect) the business in thefirst six months of 2015.In terms of legal expertise, North

American lawyers have a rich diet of workto feed their creative legal muscles.However, there is also movement on the

business of law. The 2015 FT report does

show willingness to seize the future.A better use of proprietary data and

technology runs through the business oflaw submissions from the firms this year,as they prepare for the disruption of newtechnologies.One outstanding example comes from

Dentons. The law firm has set up anautonomous venture developmentcompany, NextLaw Labs, which seeks tofoster innovation in legal technologiesthrough what it calls “seeding theecosystem”. NextLaw Labs is entirelyowned by Dentons and invests inpromising start-ups.Its first investment is in Ross

Intelligence, the University of Torontoteam that is developing IBM Watson’sartificial intelligence software for the legalprofession. The overall goal of Next- LawLabs is to transform the delivery of legalservices.The index of best-performing firms in

the FT report this year shows a few newentrants. West coast firm Cooley jumpsinto the list with a series of both legalexpertise and business of law innovations,from winning cases for Kinder Morgan tosetting up networks for North Americandefence contractors.Other new entrants to the top 10 include

Pillsbury Winthrop, which is developingnew practice areas as industries convergeand new ones emerge. It has a cybersecurity offering for client FireEye, whosecorporate legal team also wins plaudits inthe FT’s in-house lawyers ranking. Thisteam has set up a system that tracks ideas,encouraging innovation from a broadrange of people within the business.The best performing firm in the FT

North America Innovative Lawyers 2015report is Skadden, Arps, Slate Meager andFlom, which takes the top position for thethird time in six years.What makes this firm a perennial in the

FT rankings? We would say a culture thatmixes restlessness, individual ambitionand collaboration. That combinationenables its partners not just to drive thecar, but also to see around the next corner.

Legal advice has to demonstrate it candrive ahead

While the corp or ate worldhas been quick to harnesstech nologies such as dataanalytics and cloud-basedcomputing, the legal sector

has been slower off the mark. However,with their eyes on increasing efficiencyand delivering services to their clients innew ways, law firms are strengtheningtheir digital capabilities.“Use of more advanced technologies to

understand and analyse data hasexploded,” says Tom Barnett, specialcounsel at Paul Hastings. “But the legalprofession has lagged behind that, eventhough most of the decisions lawyersmake on behalf of their clients are data-dependent.”One reason for the late arrival of law

firms to the digital arena is that beingentrepreneurial and experimental doesnot always come naturally to a sectorwhose approach tends to be governed bycaution.“As lawyers we’re trained to be

somewhat risk-averse and to help clientsavoid risk, so that mindset might not leadto the most cutting-edge develop ments,”says Mr Barnett, a litigator and dataanalytics, information governance andeDiscovery expert brought in by PaulHastings to develop its data analyticscapabilities.However, as the legal business becomes

increasingly competi tive and companiestake more of the routine legal work in-house, law firms are recognising they needto adopt technology to cut costs, both for

themselves and for their clients, and toattract and retain business.At Thompson Hine, for example, a

budget and work plan tool – componentsof Thompson Hine’s SmartPaTH —increases the efficiency of legal projectmanagement by providing a platform thatintegrates everything from billing costs tostaffing.In addition, it helps clients improve

decision-making, says Bill Garcia, directorof legal project management at the firm.“Any work plan that a lawyer proposesreflects a series of tactical choices. Thetool makes it easy to highlight thosethings.”The tool can reduce the burden of the

reporting process, too, by using datavisualisation, which removes the need towade through dozens of printouts ofspreadsheet tables. “It reaches into thedata and creates charts and pictures thatare relatively easy for humans to interactwith,” says Mr Garcia.Compliance is another area that is

proving ripe for legal technologyinnovation. Since the financial crisis of2008, which prompted an avalanche ofnew and changing regula tions, companieshave been struggling to remain compliant,particularly when they have globaloperations and are dealing with differentregula tions in every jurisdiction.Law firms are responding by coming up

with new technology tools to help theirclients win the compliance battle.At Baker & McKenzie, for example, a

cloud-based legal compliance servicecalled iG360 guides the firm’s multi -national clients through informationgovernance laws in more than 120countries, with 24-hour access to tailoredlegal advice.Theo Ling, partner and head of the

Canadian information technology andcommuni ca tions practice at Baker &McKenzie, says the service allows clientsto move from an intermittent approachbased on binders and spreadsheets tocontinuous compliance, as subscribershave access to a regularly updated libraryhosted on the cloud.

“Organisations cannot change courseimmediately,” he says. “So the sooner youhave knowl edge of something changing,the better.”Labour compliance is another area

becoming more complex for companies tomanage, as they need to make hiringdecisions quickly to remain competitivebut without breaching federal, state orlocal employment laws.To help its clients in this

field, Littler Mendelson has worked withtechnology company Neota Logic todevelop a web-based platform calledComplianceHR.The platform helps clients make

decisions on matters such as hiringindependent con tractors or determiningtheir overtime-exempt status. It alsogenerates employment docu ments, suchas inde pendent contractor agree mentsand non-disclosure agreements.Meanwhile, data analytics is helping

lawyers use predictive analysis to plantheir legal strategies, based on previousdata such as types of allegations broughtagainst companies and previous decisionsin different courts.“You can use all that data and start to

predict how a case may or may not comeout,” says Tom Bender, co-president andmanaging director at Littler Mendelson.“You start to model the history to planyour litigation strategy.”However, he does not see technology

replacing the human aspect of law. Byenhancing efficiency and offering newways of delivering services, it giveslawyers more time to do what they dobest, he says. “The human is the one thatreally develops the strategy,” he says.‘You’re never going to lose that personalcontact, the person who has therelationship with the client and knowstheir business needs and how those fitwith whatever the legal strategy is for acertain case.”

Firms throw off caution and enter thedigital arena

RESEARCH & AWARDSUPPORTED BY

Deborah ReadManaging partner,Thompson Hine

As a lawyer who has advisedmany foundations and tax-exemptand non-profit organisations,Deborah Read appreciates thechallenges faced by clients tryingto do more with less.

On her appointment asmanaging partner three years ago,she took the opportunity toexamine how the firm respondedto clients’ needs for value andefficiency.

Thompson Hine is now rankedas one of the top five firms in theUS for client service. This canlargely be attributed to Ms Read’sSmartPaTH initiative, a systemthat combines projectmanagement, value-based pricing,flexible staffing and processefficiency.

Deborah Read is one of top ten Legal In-novators for 2015

The system forces afundamental shift in theway lawyers think aboutthe practice of law. It notonly maximizes the valuethe firm provides, but alsofosters innovation within.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

FT Innovative Lawyers 2015 is arankings report and series ofawards for Europe-based lawyers.Shortlists for the awards comprisethe top-ranked submissions ineach section of the report.

The FT and its research partnerRSG Consulting have devised aunique methodology to ranklawyers on innovation. Law firms,inhouse legal teams and other legalservice organisations are invited to

submit their innovations. These arethen fully researched through tele-phone interviews and online feed-back.

No entry appears in this reportwithout a robust client or inde-pendent reference. Market expertsare also called in to assess the sub-missions and the research.

Each entry is scored out of 10points for originality, rationale andimpact, for a maximum score of 30.Entries are then benchmarkedagainst each other to arrive at thefinal rankings. Lawyers are ranked

for delivering exceptional value tobusiness.

The in-house lawyer rankings aredrawn from nominations as well assubmissions, but all entries requirethirdparty validation and commen-dation.

FT 10: LAW FIRM INNOVATORS 2015

The FT 10 ranking is a pure aggre-gate of each law firm’s perform-ance across the private practicecategories of the report. This year

we have truncated the ranking (inprevious years it was the FT 50) toaccommodate a ranking of thegamechanging European law firmsof the past 10 years, commemorat-ing the 10th edition of the Europereport. This ranking is based on lawfirms’ answers to five questions,considering growth, change, opera-tional innovation, legal innovationand contribution to the profession.

For the full methodology, go toft.com/innovative-lawyers

© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED 2015