I love the legal design stuff that you are doing. But it would just not work in my law firm!
This is a digest from many conversations with law firm lawyers. Frequently, they want to leverage different possibilities and approaches, but not if it would hurt the bottom line.
And in many cases this is a very correct assumption. The key compass here are client needs and wants and your mandate that you are getting paid for. The fact that you want to put your creativity to a good use is awesome but irrelevant.
More often than not, lawyers are not given the creative licence to even think about alternative solutions.
Yes, there are many wonderful legal design agencies out there that are creating fantastic things. But what can you do if you want better future of law while you are not ready to quit your law firm gig? (Which is btw absolutely valid regardless of why).
What are the main obstacles to legal design in law firms?
- Clients don’t want that – they hire a lawyer to perform a task at a certain scope (don’t ask plumber to redesign your kitchen)
- Market standard – even if your client wanted something alternative, there are still banks, insurance companies, auditors, and other actors that may have issues with that
- More back and forth – anything that is not market standard adds extra time, which costs $$$
- Client access – clients can be notoriously busy and not really interested in sharing their feelings
- Cost – clients don’t really want to pay you to figure out what would be better
- Seniority – what happens is usually dictated top to bottom
- Sophistication – clients especially in larger deals are sophisticated users that don’t really feel like they need to have their contracts in better colours and layouts (and just from a pure design perspective, it probably wouldn’t make sense in these cases anyway)
What can you do?
While I am trying to keep it real, there is still room to bring legal design in a law firm to make your practice more creative and enjoyable.
- Challenge your (and my) assumptions – it is quite possible that none of the above apply to your client’s needs, so it may be worth it to ask
- Follow client needs that you do know – especially after doing a certain mandate for a while, you probably know what your clients are really looking for. So keep that in mind in everything you do
- Pose questions when you have the option – gather feedback on things that are straight out useful, such as asking how does the client prefer to communicate or get reports on what you do
- Design your design process with these constraints in mind – rethink the way you work in light of the timeframes and budgets, recognise and include them in your process (inspired by Design of Everyday Things)
- Write in plain language – here are three checklists you can print and keep at your desk to achieve that
- Write down best practices and what was painful – gives you better picture for next time
- Transform what you can – best place to start is the stuff you put in documents although you are not asked to do so in the first place (such as disclaimers and assumptions)
- Fix your internal processes – my favorite! There can be countless opportunities to (i) be creative, (ii) more effective, (iii) make your life easier.
- Seek out opportunities – maybe there is a pro bono project you can take on or an existing client with a creative mandate. Keep your eyes and your mind open.
Final Provisions
Legal Design in a law firm can be a challenge due to many factors. But there are definitely opportunities to start, if you are willing to be a bit creative about it.
Last word of caution: don’t get derailed by what you see on LinkedIn. Legal Design goes much further and broader than just pretty infographics and cartoon contracts.
It is a mindset and a mission to better deliver to your users. And there is space for that in any business.
Attorney-at-Code
