Every law firm I talk to is asking about Claude Legal at the moment.

Claude, Copilot, Lexis+ AI, Harvey, Thomson Reuters, Clio. The list goes on.

How do you stay ahead without ending up with 5 different AI subscriptions per person that most people are not using?

Here are some of my recommendations from experience.

1. Dedicated research team

It’s a good idea to have a test group of ‘power users’ from different roles across the business to be trying out new AI tools and features and seeing which ones deliver the most value. There needs to be some guard rails and governance here though.

You don’t want to be rolling out new tools every week, or you’ll end up needing an expensive digital transformation project in a year to unpick and consolidate it all!

You also need to do your cyber security due diligence and make sure anything you are testing is set up properly, securely and the data it leverages is ready (accurate, access controlled correctly etc.)

2. Lead with the requirements

Many other law firms are using or experimenting with these tools. So it can be easy to jump to leading with the solution and trying to make it fit.

Take the time to understand how fee earners work, sales, marketing, HR, accounts. Understand their pain points and where AI could save them the most time. Then you can look at matching a solution to those requirements.

3. Measure ROI

The reality is that most law firms will benefit from a combination of these tools to suit different requirements and business functions. Lexis+ for example only uses data from trusted legal sources. Copilot and Claude can leverage Microsoft 365 data and meet you where you work.

But can you clearly demonstrate and measure the ROI from each of these tools? Do that per department and consider whether each one is actually needed by everyone in the business.

4. Governance

You need to define how each of these tools will be used, and consider the appropriate quality, ethical, legal and data privacy implications.

Document it, but make it clear, concise and don’t hide behind policies. Train your team. Regularly. They will forget, trust me.

Look at technical controls to enforce your AI policies.

Flexible contract? Check. Good location? Check. Decent coffee machine? Check.

These are all great benefits but did you ask the right questions about the serviced office IT systems and security that they will be providing for you?

Serviced offices continue to grow in popularity, providing a fixed price, flexible workspace to small and growing businesses. The rise of ‘hybrid working’ post pandemic has further fuelled this.

One benefit of using a serviced office is that they typically provide you with a managed network including internet and usually both wired and wireless networks. This keeps the capital expenses down. But how secure are serviced office IT networks and how suitable are they for your requirements?

Every business is different, as is the quality of the IT offering from different serviced office providers.

With the sharp rise in demand for serviced offices over the last decade, new locations are constantly popping up. All too often do we find serviced office providers cutting corners with IT or failing to get the right advice.

We have seen some truly shocking things like the absence of a dedicated hardware firewall, end of life network equipment, unmanaged WIFI networks, no segregation of network traffic between tenants (e.g. through VLANs), firmware upgrades not being applied to network equipment and insufficient internet bandwidth with extremely expensive options to upgrade.

Some of the important questions your IT team or consultant should be asking before you sign the contract

1. What IT systems will you be providing to me? Internet? Wired data points? Wireless internet?
2. Is it possible for me to install my own network, and are there are charges for rack space to do so? Can I install my own WIFI access points?
3. What are the options and pricing for the internet that you will provide? Is it possible to have our own dedicated public IP address should we need it?
4. How are the different tenant networks separated?
5. How often do you apply firmware upgrades to your firewalls, switches and WIFI access points?
6. Can you provide an overview/map of the building network?
7. Is the network perimeter protected by a boundary firewall? What is the make/model of the firewall? Does the firewall feature an intrusion prevention system?
8. Do you only use network equipment that is still supported by the manufacturer, with active security subscriptions in place to cover updates and use of any relevant security features?

You must have your IT team or consultant carry out proper due diligence before you sign the lease agreement. Contact us for a FREE copy of our Serviced Office Provider IT Risk Assessment Template.