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According to HBR’s 2020 Law Department Survey, a contract lifecycle management (CLM) solution is one of the top technology solutions that law departments plan to implement in the next one to two years. If your organization is looking to add a CLM solution, consider this number: 32,700,000. That is the number of hits for the search term “contract lifecycle management software” on Google. And, while it took the search engine 0.52 seconds to deliver its responses, it would take you years to sift through those results to find the CLM that is right for your business. You may never be as speedy as Google, but you need some way to narrow down your choices.

Did the recent Hafnium cyber attack scare you? It should have. It is the latest and broadest attack to hit law firms.

As we emerge—hopefully soon—from the coronavirus crisis, organizations are celebrating what they have accomplished and reflecting on what they have learned in a year marked by dramatic challenges. Responding to the ever-shifting circumstances of a global pandemic demanded adapting continuously, keeping a watchful eye on current and future needs, and recalibrating technological tools and capabilities.

Last year was a maelstrom of change—which of course also swept up Legal Lab, HBR Consulting’s annual gathering of leaders from some of the nation’s top law departments and law firms. Rather than the two-day, in-person event that HBR usually hosts, last year Legal Lab turned into as a series of five virtual sessions across multiple weeks.

It seems like everything was different in 2020—including Legal Lab, HBR Consulting’s sixth annual gathering of leaders from some of the nation’s top law departments and law firms. In place of the two-day, in-person event that HBR has hosted in the past, we reinvented Legal Lab as a series of five virtual sessions that unfolded across multiple weeks.

Everything was different in 2020, and Legal Lab, HBR Consulting’s sixth annual gathering of leaders from some of the nation’s top law departments and law firms, was no exception. Instead of the usual two-day, in-person event we have hosted in the past, last year HBR reinvented Legal Lab as a series of five virtual sessions that unfolded across multiple weeks.

Today’s fast-changing client expectations and legal practice demands are forcing law firms to adapt their internal operations for how they will conduct business in the future. These operational changes require agile transformation across the three areas of people, processes and technology. In short, there are now more specialized skills needed to support and operate the newly defined roles, more interconnections between various law firm capabilities, and more technology needed to support user activity across the organization. This evolution in law firm operations calls for a common reference point that can serve as a quick-look guide for the firm’s professionals and leaders. This sort of reference framework can help provide a clear understanding of the firm’s internal operations and processes, including key client touch points.

Recently, we have seen a remarkably fast uptake in law firms’ adoption of Microsoft Teams as their preferred collaboration platform. In fact, it is not a stretch to predict that it is no longer a matter of if law firms will implement Teams, but when they will do so. And while there has been a lot of messaging around implementing and using Teams in the legal industry, there has been nothing about the real work that is required for governance and compliance. Implementing, provisioning and managing Microsoft Teams is only part of what needs to be done. Teams is complex and, as a preliminary step, it is important for law firms to develop the appropriate policies, procedures and controls within Microsoft Office 365 to ensure they are ready for a secure and compliant Teams roll-out.

The summer is beginning to wind down and our Law Firm Librarian Summer Camp series is coming to a close. What better way to end the summer than with one of camp's great traditions? Grab your snacks and your sweater, because it’s time to gather around the virtual campfire for a ghost story. This one is called “The Ghost of Print.”

During these unprecedent times, in-house legal teams are facing increasing pressure to be agile, nimble and responsive to the changing market dynamics. Whether the company is experiencing a hard hit to the bottom line or a sudden boom in demand, it is inevitable that nearly all law departments will be challenged to defend budget and staffing plans or do more with less to keep up with the evolving new normal.