Adopting legal tech can often be met with pushback and one of the most overlooked aspects of building a strong business case is understanding your stakeholders’ motives. Building a case requires lawyers to think outside the box and consider who this legal tech solution will be impacting and what it will take to get the stakeholders on board. To help you understand this process a little better, we have put together a few tips on building an irresistible legal tech business case. 

Identify Your Stakeholders and Where They Fit In 

Oftentimes, in-house legal teams approach legal tech by focusing solely on the legal team itself. In a sense, this makes sense because it revolves around their department, but the benefits of legal tech go far beyond one team. Legal professionals must understand that the person signing off on the budget isn’t necessarily from the legal team. She or he may be a business user with responsibilities that extend to the entire organization, like the CFO, who needs to understand how the investment is going to benefit the business beyond the legal department.

When analyzing the quantitative and qualitative benefits of legal tech, you must focus on how it will benefit the broader business. For example, your business case should highlight the speed at which legal tech will deliver outcomes they need without any delays or hiccups which ultimately contributes to the bottom line. As soon as you can show the business-focused benefits, your business case will start to resonate with the stakeholders and become more irresistible. You will be able to present yourself as a partner in their success which is a win-win scenario that will get you the support of the business making your case stronger.

Focus on ROI and Justifying Your Investment 

Another important way to build a strong business case for legal tech is to understand the ROI. This means asking how many people are involved with this process? How often do we do this process? How long does this process take each time? By answering these questions, you’ll be able to calculate the total human hours for that particular task in a given week, month or year. This will also allow you to attach a dollar figure by multiplying the salary of the average lawyer which will calculate the cost of a certain activity. You will then be able to look at the equivalent before and after state and ask, “how does that compare?”. You should also be sure to factor in costs associated with the process which may include training, change management, switching costs and risk of execution and transition. 

Understand The Broader Corporate Strategy 

Moving your body is time well spent for anyone, especially those with a demanding schedule. Regular exercise helps keep your body healthy and helps combat stress by stimulating endorphins and reducing levels of stress hormones. 

Another important way to build a strong business case is to align your business case with the broader corporate strategy. In-house legal teams often make the mistake of building a legal focused business case and they may overlook the opportunity to think about how the adoption of this technology meets the strategic needs of the wider business. Once you align these two thoughts, you will be able to present your business case in a way that gives your company a competitive advantage. 

Legal software like LeasePilot helps legal teams streamline their processes so both attorneys and non attorneys can focus on accelerating business strategically. This means printing automated abstracts rather than spending countless hours summarizing deal terms. Never re-keying the same information into multiple systems. Generating transactional reports for lenders, investors, and buyers rather than have lawyers read and re-read the underlying leases ad nauseum. Ultimately, the impact is radically more efficient legal teams that free up a massive amount of wasted human potential so it can be re-directed toward pursuing more meaningful objectives.

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Lawyers are high achievers by nature and necessity. To succeed in the competitive, pressure-filled legal industry, successful attorneys have to have an exceptional work ethic and perseverance. But performing at a heightened capacity brings increasing levels of stress and mental health issues. 

Mental Health is a complex issue that still has some stigma surrounding it, especially in competitive industries like the legal industry. Since the pandemic, we have only seen these problems become more evident. There has been a significant rise in people feeling copious amounts of stress, depression and anxiety.  

As such, this blogpost will focus on ways to identify and cope with the mental health issues that can come with working in the legal industry.

How to Identify Stress 

Stress is the body’s response to pressure. When we experience pressure, our bodies produce stress hormones which trigger a fight or flight response. In its healthiest form, stress can be helpful and can aid in our motivation to get things done. Once that stressful event has passed, our body’s stress hormone level returns to normal. However, this is not always the case. Periods of prolonged stress might leave you feeling overwhelmed and unable to recover, giving rise to mental or physical health issues. 

How to Cope With Stress 

Talk to Someone

Talking to someone you trust or therapist you feel comfortable with can be a powerful step for lawyers to proactively improve their mental wellness. In addition to helping you develop good coping mechanisms so you can manage stressful situations better, therapists can act as a non-judgmental outlet to vent. 

Move Your Body

Moving your body is time well spent for anyone, especially those with a demanding schedule. Regular exercise helps keep your body healthy and helps combat stress by stimulating endorphins and reducing levels of stress hormones. 

Create Boundaries 

A lack of strict boundaries is a major source of stress for lawyers. To help manage stress, it’s important to set and express your workload limits and boundaries. For example, if you’re a solo lawyer, set a realistic limit for how many clients and how much work you can take on. Then, make sure you stick to it.  If you work at a law firm, if possible, tell your boss when too much is too much. While this may seem uncomfortable, knowing your limits can help keep the detrimental effects of lawyer burnout at bay.

Practice Mindfulness 

You can’t eliminate stress, but you can change how you respond to it. This is why mindfulness is so powerful. Mindfulness—or learning to pay attention and stay present in a moment—may seem simple, but it can be challenging to slow down and focus your stressed mind. 

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The role of a general counsel is rapidly changing in today’s world. A part of that change is a mutual desire for a GC to be considered a trusted advisor. Many GCs want to function as a strategic partner to the business rather than a legal function alone. For GC’s looking to make this transition, it is important to take initiative and focus on how you can become a dynamic resource to the broader business. 

Becoming a Strategic Partner

Establishing Relationships with Stakeholders 

It is important to close the gap between the legal department and other departments in the business. To do this, you need to establish relationships with the key stakeholders of these departments. These stakeholders can provide you with the information needed to thrive in your position. 

Understand Every Department 

Becoming strategic means you need to gather a deep understanding of how other departments operate. You should take the time to understand their leadership, what pressures they are facing, and the projects they are currently working on. Having a good read on upcoming initiatives is crucial. This allows you to think ahead and identify potential legal concerns on the horizon. 

Get Involved  

It is important to become as involved as possible from the get-go. This allows you to identify opportunities while protecting the growth of your company. You’re able to have foresight of timelines and manage expectations, reducing the likelihood of being seen as a blocker to accelerating business growth. 

Unlocking Value  

Little tasks get in the way of accomplishing big tasks and most in-house lawyers have quite the range to cover. 

At LeasePilot, we’re helping legal teams streamline their processes so both attorneys and non attorneys can focus on accelerating business strategically. This means printing automated abstracts rather than spending countless hours summarizing deal terms. Never re-keying the same information into multiple systems. Generating transactional reports for lenders, investors, and buyers rather than have lawyers read and re-read the underlying leases ad nauseum. 

Ultimately, the impact is radically more efficient legal teams that free up a massive amount of wasted human potential so it can be re-directed toward pursuing more meaningful objectives.

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The commercial real estate industry is changing direction. In previous decades we saw irregular progress of technological advancement but after the pandemic, we are now witnessing a disruptive shift in demand for buildings to use technology. Technology can enhance the tenant experience, strengthen management and optimize the space and resources within. Where smart technologies were once a nice-to-have feature for modern buildings, today they are critical for addressing prominent marketplace issues facing property managers and owners. 

Climate Change 

On average, 30% of the energy used in commercial buildings today is wasted. Before the pandemic, commercial buildings consumed 13.6 quadrillion BTUs of electricity and generated 826 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. While 2020 saw the most drastic declines in energy usage since 2012, the long-term outlook projects that commercial buildings will increasingly contribute to global carbon emissions for decades to come. Smart buildings are the only realistic solution to changing that trajectory for the better. 

PropTech conserves energy by automatically adjusting the lighting, temperature, and ventilation based on the requirements at a particular time. The research suggests the energy expenditure accounts for almost 19% of the total operational cost of a building. For most of the small-scale and medium-size companies, a 10% reduction in energy can positively impact their profitability by 1.5%.

Hybrid Workplaces 

Employees may finally return to the office this year, but likely not full time. Most workers say they want to collaborate with colleagues in the office sometimes and work remotely at other times—although not if the experience is going to be frustrating due to poor scheduling and disorganized workflow.    

Hybrid workplaces come with a host of complex issues around facilities management. Space management technology is essential for a successful hybrid workplace, allowing employers to process real-time data, automate tasks and provide a superior employee experience.  

This could include anything from contact tracing, cloud productivity tools, planning software or Space management technology.

Smart Buildings 

Energy-efficient properties or smart buildings are the structure that uses technology to automate a building’s operations including lighting, heating, and security. Smart buildings increase efficiency to minimize energy waste. 

Long after the current pandemic ceases to dominate our everyday lives, the advantages that smart building technologies provide to our work environments will continue to improve our day-to-day experiences. Buildings that invest in creating the best tenant experiences today will surely have a competitive advantage for years to come.

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The real estate cycle is a four-phase series that reports on the status of the commercial market. The four phases include recovery, expansion, hyper supply, and recession. Understanding the real estate cycle can help you forecast trends and make informed decisions about your investments.

Recovery 

While the recovery phase is often listed as the first phase, the real estate cycle is circular and ongoing. In the recovery phase, the real estate market begins at a low point from the recession. Occupancy and rental rates are low, and new construction starts slow but eventually rises in strength. Experts look at trends like gradual occupancy increases or growing demand to identify when the recovery stage has begun. The recovery phase is a popular time for real estate investment and speculation since prices of properties are low, so the potential eventual return on investment from operation or resale is high.

Expansion

The expansion phase is characterized by an improving economic outlook. This could mean that wage growth may begin to rise and new job growth is positive. People tend to follow jobs which means that strong job growth may lead to an influx of new residents, which creates a healthy cycle of demand. When new residents arrive, demand for housing increases. In response to new residents, new businesses including retail and offices pop up to accommodate them, which leads to an increased demand for commercial space.  With increasing demand for commercial property and limited supply, rents tend to rise and new construction begins to take shape, and so on. The expansion phase is considered to be an excellent entry point for real estate investors because increasing rent growth, occupancy rates, and rising property prices are all good indicators of a strong investment return.

Hyper Supply

In some cases the expansion phase can get carried away.  When it does, there is an influx of new construction and new projects looking to take advantage of the growth.  If these new projects move too quickly and there aren’t enough people and businesses to fill all of the new space, hyper supply can happen. 

In hyper-supply, space outweighs demand. In this case, the most logical response is to lower prices to stimulate demand. As an investor, this is a time to hold your ground. Property owners will often liquidate their inventory out of fear that their properties will go vacant or unsold. This is a great time to take an opportunistic approach; identify properties that you feel confident will perform well in the next real estate cycle.

Recession 

The recession phase is one we’re unfortunately all too familiar with. If there are enough defaults, and the losses pile up, real estate markets enter the recession phase, which is characterized by falling rental rates, declining property values, job losses, property foreclosures, and companies going out of business.  In this phase, the oversupply of properties is far more than demand and the general economic climate is poor.  In the Great Recession in the early 2000s, the recession was triggered by a frenzy in residential real estate and the financial products designed to support it.  An initial economic downturn triggered a wave of job losses, which triggered mortgage loan defaults, and significant losses in the financial products backed by the same mortgages. Those losses spread across the economy. 

A recession provides the opportunity to purchase distressed properties at a deep discount. There will be an increase in real-estate owned properties, which are properties that have been foreclosed upon and repossessed by lenders. This is your opportunity to buy great properties with great savings. You can hold these properties (or add value if you see fit) so that they are ready to hit the market just as the economy begins to recover.

Summary 

The real estate cycle is a concept that any real estate investor must understand if they strive for long-term success. Phases of the cycle are impacted by a variety of economic factors including: interest rates, demographic shifts, and governmental policy. All four phases of the cycle – recovery, expansion, hyper supply, and recession – cause the real estate market to shift significantly, so investors must stay knowledgeable to find opportunities. 

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Commercial real estate owners and operators all over the world are using proptech as the latest weapon in the real estate industry’s fight to be more sustainable. “PropTech,” is the term used to describe the broad application of technology to real estate markets. It refers to the myriad tech companies working to transform the real estate industry, based on a rapidly changing digital landscape and ever-shifting consumption trends and patterns.

PropTech aims to make owning, leasing, or working in a building easier and more efficient for everyone, whether it be through reducing paperwork for property management or streamlining transactions between tenants and landlords.

In this article, we will focus specifically on how property technology offers a unique opportunity to enhance operations while simultaneously reducing carbon and energy footprints at new and existing buildings.

Energy-Efficient Properties

Energy-efficient properties or smart buildings are the structure that uses technology to automate a building’s operations including lighting, heating, and security. Smart buildings increase efficiency to minimize energy waste. 

PropTech conserves energy by automatically adjusting the lighting, temperature, and ventilation based on the requirements at a particular time. The research suggests the energy expenditure accounts for almost 19% of the total operational cost of a building. For most of the small-scale and medium-size companies, a 10% reduction in energy can positively impact their profitability by 1.5%.

Reducing Waste 

Understanding and optimizing energy output of buildings is only one of the ways that properties can reduce their carbon emissions and achieve more sustainable operations. There is also a growing need to measure, understand, and eliminate the waste that ends up in our landfills and oceans. Waste management solutions present a great opportunity for properties to reduce their waste at a larger scale and make a substantial impact. 

Why Develop Proptech?

Technological innovation has revolutionized several other industries and now we can’t imagine living without Uber, Venmo, Doordash and so much more. The same benefits — streamlined efficiency, better customer experience, simpler processes and of course sustainability — can and should be apparent in the real estate industry. With PropTech, companies are trying to address these pain points and introduce an innovative edge at every step and revitalize existing systems.

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Lawyers and legal professionals are trained to be highly skeptik and are often hesitant to adopt technology. And in today’s post pandemic reality, legal teams are being forced to make the technology transition quicker than ever. 

Implementing a product while changing team habits and culture can be challenging, but after helping many successfully adopt LeasePilot’s technology, we have gathered a few key tactics that help companies quickly utilize new technology.

Set Expectations & Goals with Your Service Provider

With any new technology it takes time before you can start maximizing your return on investment. Most companies will have a plan to expedite your user experience but it is important to make your expectations are aligned beforehand. 

Ensure you communicate what your main goals are for the platform to your new service provider, that way the onboarding team can tailor the implementation process accordingly. It helps when everyone is on the same page about why you purchased the product in the first place.

Internal Communication 

It’s important to prepare your team when adopting a new piece of technology, especially those who will see a significant shift in their day-to-day tasks. 

Involving the team in the implementation process is often a good way to make them feel included in the new decision, and it empowers them to steer the project in a direction that ensures they are receiving the value they need from the project.

Be sure to clearly communicate the reasons you purchased the technology with the team, such as the problems you’re looking to overcome or the goals you would like to achieve.

Understanding the Implementation Process 

An implementation strategy should be in place to help you understand the benefits the technology has to offer. We encourage you to work closely with the product’s Customer Success team as they have been through the process of new adoption many times and are aware of the common blockers for new users. If a part of their strategy doesn’t make sense to you, or if you typically learn in a particular way, communicate that to them so they can adjust their strategies accordingly.

Allow your Team Time to Adjust 

While it is important to be considerate that adopting new technology often comes with an adjustment period, try to maintain structure throughout the process. 

Don’t hesitate to put deadlines on accomplishing certain milestones. Customer Success teams can usually help you determine what is realistic and achievable.

We find it can be useful for everyone to block time towards implementing technology on their own after training sessions. This allows users to become independent and move at a steady pace with the technology. When you go too long between training and putting the training into practice, it significantly decreases the efficiency of the learning process.

Check In 

We encourage you to ask your team to provide feedback and share that feedback with the provider. It is also important to attend each of the scheduled sessions as a part of the implementation process so that you don’t lose momentum. 

These check-ins are critical for early successes, trust us when we say that no support team is setting meetings just for the sake of hitting a quota. These are usually well-planned and impactful.

Stay Up to Date

It is important to stay in the loop when it comes to your technology provider for updates and important improvements. When updates happen, take a few minutes to browse and see if any new feature could work for you. After all, these updates are built around the user. 

If you have questions about how a feature can benefit you or your firm specifically, the Customer Success team should be able to point you in the right direction!

Like incorporating any new habit into your routine, adopting new technology for your team can be tough. It takes courage to try something new, resilience to keep going, and optimism to see the big picture. But the payout can be huge for those who can incorporate a new tool or process, usually seen with improvements in efficiency, communication, and collaboration.

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According to a survey conducted by LegalBillReview.com, almost every in-house legal team is desperate to reduce the amount spent on outside counsel. Managing outside counsel spend enhances your law department’s credibility within the company, making you more valuable and less likely for budget slashing. 

Seeking cost-saving solutions may seem like an easy task, but it can actually be quite challenging. For a more viable way to reduce outside counsel spend, take a look at our approach below.

Evaluate Resources  

It is important to ensure that only the right work is reaching the desks of outside counsel. This will mean something different to every company, but the factors to consider are specialization, complexity, risk, and scope.

Automate What you Can

Legal departments often spend too much time completing tasks that don’t necessarily require a law degree to complete. These requests are typically low-risk, low-complexity, and often repetitive that have no business taking up unnecessary time. 

There are hundreds of systems out there that are designed to complete these timely tasks for you quickly and error free. Typically, all it takes is a bit of organizing, standardization and implementation.

Set a Budget 

Budgets help you benchmark and control spending with ballpark figures. Once you are operating within a budget, you start to question how much certain vendors cost and whether or not they are earning their keep. Start by looking at expenses from previous years to set ballpark figures/estimates. Next, you should talk to people from other departments to spot issues that may affect spending. And lastly, ask your vendors what the costs for upcoming matters will look like.

Track Performance Through KPIs

Measuring KPIs enables businesses to understand the performance and health of their team so that critical adjustments can be made to achieve strategic goals. Knowing and measuring the right KPIs will help achieve results faster and more effectively. Legal teams create huge amounts of value for an organization, but that story is often lost through ineffective communication. Lawyers think in paragraphs, executives think in metrics. If lawyers can’t convert their ideas and activities into a framework their colleagues can understand, then their story goes untold.

Using software to manage legal spend is one of the best lines of defense against rising legal costs. For more legal software solutions, consider an automation tool like LeasePilot to improve efficiencies with lease drafting and time management. 

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There is a perception that smartphones, social media apps and technology in general can cause distractions at work, however, technology in the workplace isn’t all that bad after all. If used properly and productively, technology can drastically improve the rate in which you and your business achieve your goals. Here are some ways modern devices and applications increase efficiency and productivity in the workplace.

Technology Automates Workflow  

Many successful businesses utilize powerful tools and applications that enable them to streamline complex workflows and processes. These technologies are often built with productivity in mind and have the capability to facilitate repetitive and time-consuming tasks such as collecting and sorting information or paying bills.

Various industries and business functions utilize numerous business automation tools that are designed to make things run more efficiently and effectively. For example, Yardi is a property management software and services to optimize every aspect of their operations. Their software comes in different packages and allows real estate operators to manage accounting, operations and more with ease. Meanwhile, LeasePilot, the first and only software platform engineered exclusively for commercial leasing allows lawyers, paralegals, and leasing admins to generate an error-free lease first draft in about 30 minutes.

Turning over recurring and antiquated tasks to powerful computers increases productivity as well as reduces the chance for human error. What’s more, letting technology do the heavy lifting allows you and your employees to focus on core business tasks and revenue-generating activities.

Technology Allows for Seamless Communication

As remote work continues to be the new normal, cloud and mobile technologies remain essential for companies with distributed workforces to stay connected and productive no matter where they are. 

The most used method of communication among remote teams is text. Text messages can be easily indexed and searched in an instant. One of the most popular text-based collaborative tools is Slack. It replaces email, text messaging, and instant chat messages under a single unified offering. Slack is available in Web-based and mobile app versions, enabling teams to collaborate the way they want.

Another method is audio-video collaboration tools. Although face-to-face videoconferencing has some inherent disadvantages, this practice offers many benefits, as well. Videoconferencing is a great way to bridge the communication gap in a remote-work setting. Microsoft’s Skype is one of the most popular video conferencing tools. It offers powerful features for sharing messages, codes, and files among individuals and groups. Zoom is another powerful contender in this category.

Enables Strategic Time Management

Proper time management is one way to ensure that you and your employees get the most out of your workday. Calendar and scheduling applications such as Google Calendar integrate with almost every kind of productivity app and are instantly accessible on any device. Simply plot your tasks and do your best to complete these within their designated timelines. Setting reminders can help keep you on track and develop good habits.

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