Category Archives for "Resources"

What happened in 2017?

By Michael Feit | Contract Negotiations , Feit Consulting , Librarians , Resources , Sole Provider , Vendors

Westlaw and Lexis continued to see their market share erode due to firms eliminating one or the other vendors as the Sole Provider trend continues. Lexis is now starting to become victorious where previously Westlaw has dominated the market.  What is interesting is the rate at which firms choosing Lexis to Westlaw has increased.

Lexis really stepped it up in 2017.  By purchasing new companies and developing a suite of products. Lexis holds onto firms that might have canceled by allowing access to their exclusive suite of products, making it difficult for firms to exist without Lexis.  

Westlaw maintains legacy popularity but we find them priced too high in many places and firms cannot justify the astronomical price disparities. Firms are unhappy with Westlaw’s inexplicable pricing model and as a result, more firms are eliminating Westlaw more so than ever before.

BBNA had some success in 2017.  They have been breaking into firms that have phased out Westlaw or Lexis but for the most part they are more expensive than Westlaw/Lexis and firms are not interested spending that much money on an unproven product.  

Westlaw/Lexis were very aggressive in going after firms that they had historically lost by giving firms they lost?  10-15% of firms that had previously canceled a vendor contract are “flipping” in order to get best in market vendor pricing, sometimes at 1/10th the price, and taking vendors back to these lower price points.

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.  

The Role of Technology in the Modern Law Library

By Michael Feit | Best Practices , Librarians , Modern Law Library , Resources

Whether tackling big data, pushing curated content to client team dashboards, ensuring your Electronic Resource Management (ERM) or Integrated Library System (ILS) is meeting expectations or keeping abreast of legal apps, the Modern Library needs to be at the technological forefront of their organizations.

As information professionals, the Library needs to take a proactive approach of see a need fill a need and help organizations identify, and test possible technology solutions. It doesn’t have to be some grandiose approach, start small and present something simple that can solve a problem showing immediate ROI.

Learn more about the role of technology in the Modern Library in Beyond Virtualization: Transforming the Law Library. Release date is Friday, January 26th. Pre-release pricing now available. Click here to learn more.

Collaboration – What This Means for the Law Library Today

By Michael Feit | Associations , Legal Information Trends , Librarians , Modern Law Library

A key component of the Modern Law Library is moving outside the realm of Legal Research Support. Law firms have always depended on library and information professionals to support the research needs of their lawyers. While this is still true, great success now depends on the Library taking a more active role in their organization to help support the day to day business of law. See a need, fill a need.

Whether embedded in a practice group to assist attorney teams or partnering with client development to support business development and increase revenue streams, the Modern Library plays a vital role. No one size fits all when it comes to organizational structure.

Begin by assessing your organization and consider who you might target with your message of providing support. If you are going to propose new roles, talk to the involved departments. Understand what they do, their needs and their workflow. How might you assist them with library resources and staffing already in place?  

Beyond Virtualization: Transforming the Law Library elaborates in detail on the concept of collaboration and the many various components worth considering in modernizing your Law Library. Release date is Friday, January 26th. Pre-release pricing now available. Click here to learn more.

ROI of a Modern Library Audit

By Michael Feit | Feit Consulting , Librarians , Modern Law Library , Resources

The Modern Library requires individuals to change their mindset from maintaining the status quo and becoming open to new ways of doing things. What is the ROI of your Law Library? What tools are you utilizing to track metrics? Do you feel the library’s resources are being optimized?

Whether you are an Administrator or Librarian, the goal of becoming a modern law library can have many obstacles – money, time, firm culture.

In a Modern Library Audit, our team of experts evaluate resources, personnel, technology, processes, and overall usage of the Library and its’ resources. In analyzing all of these components, a unique business plan is developed with workable recommendations that are specific to your firm’s needs and culture. Recommendations will include clear steps to increasing the Return On Investment of your Library.

Let an objective team of experts develop a business plan for optimizing your Law Library to support the business of law. Contact Feit Consulting today to set up an initial call on how a Modern Law Library Audit can benefit your firm. 

When to benchmark your Legal Information Contracts

By Michael Feit | Benchmarking , Best Practices , Contract Negotiations , Feit Consulting , Legal Information Trends , White Papers

Contract negotiations not only set product/vendor pricing for the next contracted term, but can also determine the pricing path your firm will be on for years after. We all know the story–3-5% increases year over year. Once you lock in at a price and terms, this becomes your new baseline for future negotiations. Vendors will only want to increase over your current price.

However, price corrections can be made at your next contract negotiations. Feit Consulting sees about 15-20% of the large law firm market paying substantially higher than the market mid-point. Firms that fall into this category won’t be able to reach the market mid-point in one contract cycle; it could take several cycles to price-correct.

There are two secrets to securing optimal pricing in your next legal information contract negotiations: planning and market knowledge (benchmarking your contracts).

Allocating enough time to plan for negotiations is one element. Due to secret pricing, no one firm can truly know whether their contract is exceptional or fair without outside knowledge. Benchmarking your legal information contracts is a worthwhile exercise to understanding your starting place going into contract negotiations.

Feit Consulting has been a leader in optimizing legal information resources for firms since 2001.

Have your legal information contracts benchmarked by Feit Consulting, and receive a firm-specific benchmark. Alternatively, Feit Consulting’s white paper, Optimizing Legal Information Pricing shares Feit’s market benchmarks on Spend Per Attorney, Discounts and more.

Contact Feit Consulting today to get started.