Amid a sea of firms that call themselves NewLaw, it’s difficult to distinguish true change from hype. It’s important to look beyond the moniker and understand what a firm does to actually provide value to clients. For a firm to truly be considered “NewLaw,” it should work differently, have an incentive for efficiency and embrace technology.
The law new is all about using technology to manage mundane legal work, deliver an exceptional client experience and drive efficiencies. For a NewLaw provider to be successful, it needs to have scale – access to capital, human resources and technology.
Many NewLaw providers have been financed through large capital investments. This can be a good thing, but the challenge is that these firms need to generate high revenue and margins in order to justify their investments. This can lead to a short term focus and lack of long term thinking.
In order to be effective, a NewLaw firm needs to be able to win work from traditional firms based on the quality of its service and the ability to deliver client outcomes. To do this, a NewLaw provider should have a strong business development strategy and a unique selling point that differentiates it from its competitors.
For example, NewLaw firms should be able to demonstrate that they are able to reduce the cost of legal work by leveraging technologies such as document automation and AI. Alternatively, they should be able to increase productivity by using alternative fee arrangements such as value-based or output-based billing. These types of fees create a more transparent relationship between the firm and the client, and they shift the focus to the quality of the legal work and not just hourly rates.
Finally, a NewLaw firm should be able to provide its services to a wider range of businesses by offering more flexible pricing models. A good way to do this is by using a platform that allows clients to tailor the services they receive to their individual requirements. This provides greater flexibility and reduces the need for firms to employ expensive associates on a full time basis.
This bill would amend the City’s data breach notification laws to make them more consistent with requirements under New York State law. The bill requires public bodies, including city agencies, boards of education, town and village councils, and commissions, as well as their committees and subcommittees to disclose data breaches involving persons’ private identifying information. It also requires City agencies to notify affected individuals, the Chief Privacy Officer and the Office of Cyber Command. The bill is a response to the recent massive data breaches at Equifax and the Office of Personnel Management.
