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Why Data Competency Is a Requisite for Tomorrow's Practitioners
Whether they like it or not, lawyers interact with data every day. While there is no need for them to seek advanced degrees in data science or statistics, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to provide adequate representation without being skilled in the uses of data. Having some awareness of the importance of data and occasionally using it to strategic advantage in a legal matter or in a legal business context — what I would call basic data literacy — will soon be insufficient. They will need to become data competent to stay competitive and relevant.
Why Is Data Competency Important?
In nearly every other industry and profession — finance and banking, insurance, retail and healthcare, to name just a few — the data-driven mindset has taken root and yielded abundant fruit. Law firms need only look at their own clients to confirm this. Many companies routinely analyze and manipulate data across multiple business functions to quantify variables like risk, the likelihood of certain outcomes, the predicted cost of complex projects, and the efficiency of specific practices and teams. Why not law firms?
In fact, that's a question law firm clients are asking with increasing frequency. When clients are facing a lawsuit or considering legal action, they know they need to manage risk in an objective and defensible way. More GCs are demanding data-based insights that can substantiate strategic direction on pending legal matters. They are even looking for data in pitch decks and RFPs, because they know data-driven lawyering will give them a clearer and more substantive understanding of their options as they pursue the details of specific matters. By and large, however, law firms are falling short. When you read the comments of exceptional lawyers who have been recognized for creative, data-driven work, a common theme is how corporate clients are frustrated with outside counsel's failure to adapt to today's data-centric business environment.
To be fair, some firms have also begun to recognize the importance of data, investing in technologies such as legal analytics, machine learning and natural language processing to deepen their insight into litigation data and guide legal strategy, and to help them understand and optimize internal processes and workflows. These are good steps. But data competency is not just about purchasing tools, and even firms that invest in advanced technology are not always successful in getting their lawyers to use it to its fullest potential, if at all. The degree to which firms and lawyers are comfortable and skilled with data still varies tremendously from one organization to another, and even within individual firms.
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