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When it comes to technology and innovation, many law firms have grappled with the buy versus build decision. The pros and cons of each approach are well-known, including cost implications, potential client impact, how to realise the benefit, enable access to relevant expertise and ensure appropriate level of customisation.

A recent conversation with David Halliwell – Partner in the Vario Group at – demonstrates how third-party technology for routine tasks has delivered both operational efficiency and bottom-line improvements. We find out how document automation and the use of AI has enabled clients to manage their own processes, thus reducing the need for input and management from the firm. One emphasis for Pinsent Masons since before the pandemic has been leveraging technology to enable remote working. With working from home now becoming a norm, coupled with a dynamic legal and regulatory landscape, the need to leverage technology effectively to improve bottom-line performance is ever-increasing. And it’s not easy to get it right. “We're a law firm. We're not a software business”.

Build vs buy decisions have both immediate and long-term impact on company performance and profitability. Building software is expensive especially if associated with a higher degree of complexity. Law firms are not software developers. Halliwell argues that “being a law firm, there are things that we can do ourselves and we feel that we’re able to do them at the right scale and at the right quality to give the client support and continuous development that they will expect.” Scale and competitiveness can be achieved efficiently and effectively through outsourcing some technology development, as well as buying existing best-of-breed technology for enterprise capabilities.

Benefits to businesses

It’s not just about benefits to law firms: streamlining and automating documentation helps businesses to remain profitable as well. Automating routine contract drafting tasks including employee contracts, confidentiality agreements and purchase agreements to name a few, enables in house lawyers to focus time and effort on supporting more revenue generating activities for the business.

One of the main benefits to clients of technological advancements and integration is the ability to monitor their own functions in real-time. With software like focusing on targeting brand management, clients are able to compare possible brand infringements versus market trends. Receiving insightful real-time updates via these self-service mechanisms helps to make the discovery process easier and improves the efficacy of services whilst reducing the administrative burden. Consistent online reporting helps clients set up their own trigger parameters to manage legal risks effectively, and at a lower cost than using a law firm.

Halliwell also stresses the need for providing clients with the technological tools which they can use internally and also complement it with third-party technology – scaling up and down as and when required to be truly flexible: “we've also looked at the way in which we interact with clients and the relationship we have with them, both for major projects and also where we're looking at managing an overall relationship with clients. Again, that's been on a combination of self-built technology and third party technology”.

, a solution developed by Pinsent Masons is a good example of ready to use customised documentation. Available across select countries and particularly focused at the biotech industry, it aims at providing start-ups a sound legal footing and focus on improving profitability. The focus of automating processes and leveraging technology is not only to speed up processes within the legal sector but also to work smarter and faster. Reducing the time spent on repetitive tasks, especially with document automation, helps in focusing on improving productivity and improving the bottom line.

Reusing knowledge for efficiency

Law firms such as Pinsent Masons understand the benefits of using technology to enable lawyers to create standard documents efficiently, reusing clauses and working collaboratively where required. Solutions like Lexis Create enable firms to build documents quickly in the Microsoft environment, automating the process of checking calculations, citations and definitions. These solutions can help lawyers deliver client-ready documents in significantly less time, especially important when budgets and resources are limited. Once law firms understand the benefits of contract automation for clients, they can also enable clients to use them themselves for their own contracts, contract databases and contract review capabilities. As we have heard from the Ministry of Justice and LawTech’s recent report into : “contract management is key for all businesses and forms the foundation of relationship, risk and revenue management.”

Leveraging technology helps to improve knowledge management, especially in the case of reducing employee turnover and driving retention. Using a streamlined process, an active knowledge repository is maintained: essential when onboarding new employees, subsequently reducing time spent on retraining. Lawyers benefit from working more flexibly with the technological integration enabling focus on more high value work. As LexisLibrary and LexisPSL users, knowledge managers can better use technology to extract relevant information teams need – giving them real-time updates.

In a hot legal tech market, it is imperative for firms to be cautious and well-informed in their decision-making process. Clients today are looking for a blended solution. If a pure self-service solution is too complex, a range of managed and multi-disciplinary services enhances the client experience which not only drives efficiency but also saves cost and time for both the law firm and the client.