New Survey Finds 66% of Law Firms Report Increasing Efficiency is the Top Thing They Are Doing to Be More Competitive

PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 14, 2017 -- Exterro^® Inc., the preferred provider of software specifically designed for in-house legal and IT teams at Global 2000 and AmLaw 200 organizations, today announced the results of their second annual Law Firm Benchmarking Report. The results show that while many law firms want to increase efficiency to stay competitive, there are only a small number of opportunistic firms that are making the big changes needed to increase revenue and market share.

The driving force behind this success stems from a focus on increasing internal efficiency by leveraging legal project management and technology, in addition to exploring new revenue streams such as e-discovery. In these key areas, survey respondents had the following to say about their success:

Legal Project Management –
“Many clients now require use of certain management techniques/software. We have defined workflows, roles, and responsibilities for a number of aspects of different types of client engagements.”
“Teams are led through each phase of projects, ensuring appropriate technology and methodologies are applied for efficiency, in order to meet budget and timelines.”

Technology –
“Technology means more services can be done more quickly and cheaply...some firms are better at staying up on technology trends than others.”
“There is an expectation that firms will use technology to expand services at the same or lower costs.”

E-Discovery –

“Some of the largest investments have already been made [in e-discovery] - we are fine-tuning our offerings, as well as doing marketing (internal and external) to increase awareness/adoption of our e-discovery services.”

Results from the survey also indicate that a small number of firms are experiencing success adopting new practices and technologies which normally seem to be troublesome for the majority of law firms:

Legal Project Management

• Only 15% of law firms rate themselves at a level 4/5 on the legal project management maturity model, meaning they have well-defined and dedicated resources to support the defined process, along with executive sponsorship. On the other end of the spectrum, 37% of firms rate themselves at level 1 – ad hoc.
• Partners are still considered the primary project manager for 65% of law firms – up 16% from 2016 – when best practice advice suggests having a Project Management Institute (PMI) trained professional leading such efforts.

Technology

• Only 37% of respondents expect their firms’ annual technology budget to increase next year.
• 66% of respondents have not adopted technology that enables the firm to better collaborate with clients/service providers.

E-Discovery

• There is an untapped market for law firms – 49% of law firms have less than 1% of their firm’s revenue coming from e-discovery managed services.

“The main take away from the 2017 Law Firm Benchmarking Report for me is that while the majority of law firms seem to recognize the need to innovate in the area of project management, many are still struggling to increase efficiency and transparency. Yet the firms that are optimizing their processes with project management principles are able to enjoy a strong competitive advantage and meet the increased demands of their clients,” said Bill Piwonka, Exterro CMO.

The 2017 Law Firm Benchmarking Report is based on a survey completed by Exterro in July 2017. The 126 participants answered questions about their current billing approach, how they are managing legal operations and e-discovery services, and the future of legal operations.

About Exterro
Exterro®, Inc. is the preferred provider of e-discovery software specifically designed for in-house legal and IT teams at Global 2000 and AmLaw 200 organizations. Built on a simple concept of process optimization, Exterro helps organizations improve and simplify e-discovery activities. With Exterro’s Orchestrated E-Discovery Suite, traditionally fractured and fragmented e-discovery efforts are mended by orchestrating and automating tasks in a coordinated workflow across the entire e-discovery process, reducing time, cost and risk associated with e-discovery. For more information, visit exterro.com.

Kristin Kolasinski
Marketing Communications & Events Manager 
Exterro, Inc.
[email protected]
(503) 501-5141