Category Archives for "Legal Information Trends"

The Modern Law Library’s Alignment with the Firm’s Strategic Plan

By Michael Feit | Best Practices , Feit Consulting , Legal Information Trends , Librarians , Modern Law Library , Resources , Survey Results , Surveys , White Papers

While a library can modernize without a strategic plan, having a strategic plan provides direction and concrete goals and objectives to reaching this vision. A surprising 61% of survey respondents indicated the library does not have its own strategic plan.

Surprisingly, only 37% of respondents indicated the library’s strategies are derived from the firm’s larger strategic plan as illustrated below.

As a business unit within the firm, the Modern Library should be cognizant of the firm’s strategic plan. Resources and initiatives should be evaluated to make sure that they are in support of where the firm is going in the future.

Consider the value of the resources and skills that you offer your firm. Does the library have the right tools in place to support the changing needs of the firm? Does firm leadership capitalize on the skills of your team to assess, implement and utilize new processes and technology to move the firm’s strategic vision forward?

Make the Library’s success your business!

Our latest report was developed with intel from over 250 interviews and in-depth surveys with legal information professionals. Included are check-lists and best practices to guide your firm in achieving maximum ROI –and ensure that the Modern Law Library is in alignment with the firm’s strategic plan.

To purchase a copy of the Library Modernization Survey Results, click here.

Purchase of the Survey Results can be applied to the purchase of Feit Consulting’s white paper: Beyond Virtualization: Transforming the Law Library.

ROI and the Modern Law Library

By Michael Feit | Benchmarking , Best Practices , Feit Consulting , Legal Information Trends , Modern Law Library , Resources , Surveys , White Papers

The Modern Library requires individuals to change their mindset from maintaining the status quo to adopting a new way of doing things. What is the ROI of your Law Library?  Do you feel the library’s resources are being optimized?

Our team of experts evaluate resources, personnel, technology, processes, and overall usage of the Library and its’ resources.

This allows Feit Consulting to custom tailor and deliver invaluable knowledge, guidance and processes for analyzing the ROI of your legal information portfolio.

A Modern Library Audit will include clear steps to increasing the Return On Investment of your Library by evaluating the utilization of personnel, internal processes, technology, legal information resources and the overall support for the business of law.  With this information we will develop a unique business plan with workable recommendations that are specific to your firm’s needs and culture.

Another excellent resource for ROI assessment is our Market Trends Legal Information Series.  This series is composed of white papers and survey results on pertinent topics such as:

• How to take a proactive approach to evaluating the sole-provider option allowing you to make informed decisions regarding vendor elimination.
• How to assess the value of your firm’s resources and learn key negotiation tools for optimizing results.
• The historical pricing and current strategies of Westlaw & Lexis featuring data on 98% of the large law market.
• Best practices on modernizing the law library to create efficiencies including survey results and checklists for evaluating technologies.

As thought leaders working to challenging existing paradigms, Feit Consulting is committed to providing your firm with tools, concrete steps and leading-edge solutions for making the best decision for your legal information strategy and bottom line.  CLICK HERE and Contact Feit Today for More Information.  

Upcoming With Feit Consulting – Stay Connected

By Michael Feit | Best Practices , Events , Feit Consulting , Legal Information Trends

Interested in staying abreast of Feit Consulting’s latest New & Insights or which upcoming events or conferences you can see us at, sign up to stay connected.

Coming this summer Feit Consulting will introduce our 360 Webinar Series, a special benefit of the FEIT360 Plus subscription. As thought leaders in legal information, Feit Consulting continues to evolve to meet our client’s needs. FEIT360 Plus was designed to provide law firm administrators and legal information managers an avenue to utilize expert consultants with planned costs. Firms and organizations that subscribe to FEIT360 Plus receive special access to the Market Trends Legal Information White Papers white papers, on-call consulting, project specific solutions, and more. Learn more about the benefits of FEIT360 plus. Contact a Feit Advisor today to set up a call to learn more about the benefits of FEIT360 Plus for your firm or organization.

30% of the Market is Still Paying Too Much

By Michael Feit | Feit Consulting , Legal Information Trends , Pricing , Sole Provider , Vendors

“As a person who has watched this industry for over 17 years; it is amazing and frustrating to see that 30% of the market is still paying way too much.” -Michael Feit

Prices for Westlaw and Lexis grew astronomically from the late 90’s up until the 2008 due to usage growing so fast.  After 2008, 30% of the market said it cannot afford to cover the costs of online research – not being able to pass off the full costs to clients.

Some firms were successful in getting concessions from both Westlaw/Lexis. However, in 2010 the Sole Provider trend emerged. Many firms started to move forward and eliminate either Westlaw or Lexis.

Right now; 55% of large law firms have one or the other.  Of the 45% of firms that continue to have both Lexis and Westlaw, 20% have threatened to eliminate a vendor….or have eliminated a vendor but then took them back at best of market pricing.

Currently,  25-30% of market are still overpaying by greater than 50-100% of mid-market pricing (per Feit’s Benchmarks).  Is your firm getting the best market pricing?  Click here to get more information from our experts.

What can we expect in 2018

By Michael Feit | Feit Consulting , Legal Information Trends , Modern Law Library , Vendors

In 2018, Lexis will continue to purchase existing products. They are taking the lead in visual analytics. By acquiring great products such as Intelligize, Lex Machina, and Ravel Law, this momentum is expected to continue.

We anticipate that Lexis will further enforce their rules. If you don’t have core Lexis you won’t have access to their peripheral products (right now this is only being enforced with AMLaw firms). Rolling out of this policy to the entire market will be dependent upon their success rate.

More firms will choose Lexis this year, unless Westlaw corrects its tone deaf pricing model.

As Lexis and Westlaw usage declines at the firm level, we anticipate Lexis/Westlaw will try to aggressively lock firms into longer term contracts.

What does legal information management mean for firms in 2018? Recovery rates firms used to pass through to clients will continue to dwindle. We are seeing more firms seeking solutions to modernize their library, in search of great efficiencies and cost-savings. This is an illustration of a growing investment of time and money to improve and enhance the library and its role. 

The Law Library: A Center of Excellence

By Michael Feit | Best Practices , Feit Consulting , Legal Information Trends , Modern Law Library , Resources

“A Center of Excellence (COE) is a team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, best practices, research, support and / or training for a focus area.”

– Mark O. George (2010), The Lean Six Sigma Guide To Doing More With Less, John Wiley & Sons.

It is no secret that the legal sector is in flux. As clients demand better value for the dollars they spend, firms are taking a hard look at how they do business; analyzing their organizational structure, and evaluating the way services are delivered with an eye towards process improvement.  Out of this structural evolution comes the Modern Law Library.

The top challenges facing law firms today has little to do with actually practicing law.  As costs and expenses rise and revenue drops, law firms are facing major hurdles supporting  their everyday business practices.  How exactly might the Modern Library help?

By moving towards a COE approach, the Modern Library can provide “sufficient and easily accessible legal and business research” so that decision makers have intelligence to make informed decisions for positive results.  Still providing research services, the Modern Law Library embodies evolution, innovation and collaboration.

Where to begin?

A Feit Modern Library Audit evaluates the utilization of personnel, internal processes, technology, legal information contracts and overall support to assess and identify new roles the library might consider within their Firm. Presented are clear recommendations specific to your firm/organization with the goal of saving money, improving efficiencies, and maximizing the utilization of resources.

What better way to start the New Year than with resolutions for improvement. Is it time to consider transitioning your library to a Modern Library and towards a Center of Excellence?

Contact a Feit Advisor for an initial conversation on what this means for your Firm.