What do you get when you combine Avvo with a service like Judge Analytics? A window into the inner workings of your law firm for the world to see. For years, third-party lawyer rating service providers such as Avvo, Martindale Hubbell, Best Lawyers, and Law Dragon have delivered legal services consumers various methods for determining the best lawyers or law firms in a given practice area. Some rating systems are based on client reviews and peer ratings, while others are based on practice area expertise and contributions to the profession. But soon, lawyer rating systems won’t be the only way for consumers to find a lawyer. Enter “big data.”
You’ve been hearing about big data, but what does that term really mean? It is “a collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside your company that represents a source for ongoing discovery and analysis,” says Lisa Arthur, author of the book Big Data Marketing. Big data analytics, then, according to Search Business Analytics, “is the process of examining large data sets containing a variety of data types –i.e., --to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, market trends, customer preferences and other useful business information.” For the legal industry, big data analytics may soon deliver “approaches to win/loss rates, lawyer performance by jurisdiction, case type, cost, and just about any other measurable factor,” predicts Brian Kennel, CEO of PerformLaw.
Already, companies like ELM Solutions have innovative tools and services like Litigation Management for Claims Professionals that allow law firms to price, plan, and manage legal services. Clients also benefit by being able to compare the legal performance of various firms based on a number of benchmarks. Likewise, its parent company Wolters Kluwer has an app called RateDriver that allows consumers to estimate lawyer billing rates based on factors like geography, firm size, and years of experience. In short, consumers will soon have access to your entire legal résumé—wins, losses, billing rates, experience level, and types of cases you have handled—and not handled, opening up a new transparency in legal services shopping.
So what can you or your law firm do to prepare? Embrace the trend. “Big data presents both challenges and opportunities for lawyers,” comment Sharon D. Nelson and John W. Simek in their article BIG DATA: Big Pain or Big Gain for Lawyers? Data analytics can help firms run leaner, be more profitable, and even help with case strategies. While harnessing big data to help your firm may not be cheap at the outset, explains Carolyn Elefant in her article, Big Data, Small Law Firms, there are no-cost methods for accessing big data now that can help your practice, such as using big data to identify profitable practice areas and even to educate your client.