Plateforme d’échange sur la gestion juridiquehttps://stikeman.com/fr-ca/rss/legal-operations-exchangePlateforme d’échange sur la gestion juridiquefr-CA{60A157AF-9C49-409A-AAD2-4833600C4E3D}https://stikeman.com/fr-ca/savoir/plateforme-echange-gestion-juridique/sept-moyens-de-tirer-parti-de-la-technologie-juridique-de-la-collaboration-et-de-l-automatisation-en-mode-de-travail-hybridePlateforme d’échange sur la gestion juridiqueSept moyens de tirer parti de la technologie juridique, de la collaboration et de l’automatisation en mode de travail hybride<p><strong>Vous êtes un partisan du travail hybride ou vous pensez au contraire qu’il érode la culture et la performance organisationnelles? En réalité, la plupart des entreprises devront composer avec certains aspects du travail hybride au cours des mois à venir.  Dans ce billet, nous exposons sept répercussions possibles de la technologie juridique, de la collaboration et de l’automatisation dans un environnement de travail hybride. </strong></p> <p><strong><em>Ce billet est disponible en anglais seulement.</em></strong></p> <p><strong>Whether you are a fan of hybrid work or think it will erode organizational culture and performance, the reality is that most businesses will be grappling with some aspect of hybrid work over the coming months. In this post, we look at seven possible implications for legal technology, collaboration and automation in the hybrid work environment.</strong></p> <h2>The Reality of Hybrid Work</h2> <p>Legal departments and law firms should assume they will be impacted in some way by hybrid work. This could be as a result of ongoing pandemic restrictions, as an organizational strategy to manage space, as means of attracting and retaining top talent, or out of necessity to work effectively with clients and customers. Faced with this new reality, now is the time to turn our minds to the ways in which a hybrid workforce could change the delivery of legal services and change the way we interact with our clients and colleagues.</p> <p>It is a great opportunity for law firms and legal departments to put legal technology tools to work to bridge the gap between those who are in the office and those who are remote. Throughout this post we have listed some of the technology tools we work with and other products we are familiar with, but these are just by way of example and there are many more options out there.</p> <h2>1. Take Matter and Project Collaboration to the Next Level</h2> <p>Much has been written about how to effectively manage hybrid teams, including team communications, project management and information sharing. In the legal environment, we should be looking to technology that supports:</p> <ul> <li>Video and audio communication;</li> <li>A mix of synchronous and asynchronous written communication such as email, discussion threads and chat;</li> <li>Managing tasks, responsibilities, and timelines; and</li> <li>Creating and managing documents with the ability to collaborate on those documents.</li> </ul> <p>Most of us have heard of platforms that do some or all of the above such as Microsoft Teams, HighQ or Clio. And there are many more specific tools such as Zoom and Webex (video communication); Slack and Jive (chat and discussion); Smartsheet, Trello, BaseCamp and Assana (project management); and GoogleDocs and iManage (document collaboration).</p> <p>If nothing in this list is new, what makes the hybrid workforce different? Remote work has exposed user needs around online collaboration and has raised user expectations with respect to collaboration platforms. Heightened demands around collaboration include:</p> <ul> <li>Seamless integration with key systems such as document management systems, email and other communication tools.</li> <li>Access to specialized applications such as transaction management tools (e.g. Closing Folders and Transact) and litigation case management tools (e.g. Everchron).</li> <li>Access to other functionality and information that is useful to the team in the context of the project or matter such as financial information or similar representative work.</li> <li>Document collaboration that includes real-time co-authoring enabled by tools such as GoogleDocs or Microsoft O365, and that will, in time, integrate with document management systems such as iManage.</li> <li>Applications that replicate whiteboards and post-it notes in powerful online brainstorming, design thinking and team collaboration tools (e.g. Miro and Mural).</li> </ul> <p>A number of our clients are using Microsoft Teams so we are interested in its potential as a new way to collaborate internally and externally which will be facilitated by integrations with some of our vendors such as iManage and InTapp. If you don’t have a matter, project or team collaboration platform, it might be time to look at one. If you do have one, it might be time to make sure your platform is up to the task in the hybrid work ecosystem. </p> <h2>2. Make Hybrid Meetings Work</h2> <p>We recently spoke to several clients about returning to the office and a top priority for them is facilitating hybrid meetings. They are looking at both technology and meeting etiquette changes that will be required to have engaging and productive hybrid meeting experiences<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>.</p> <p>Participants are going to want sophisticated video and audio technology to facilitate meetings between those who are remote and those who are on premises. They are also going to expect a means of collaborating in these meetings on documents, shared applications, and a modern whiteboard experience. Our first step of this journey is to deploy the interoperability application Pexip to bridge functionality between the Cisco technology in our boardrooms (both telepresence and traditional) and Microsoft Teams. Essentially, this will enable people in our boardrooms to participate in Teams meetings with those who are in a different office or are working remotely – whether they are internal colleagues or clients.</p> <p>Getting this right is important given that board of director meetings, shareholder meetings, deal negotiations and discussions with regulators could all take place this way. This will be a tough challenge but investing in the right meeting technology could be a key to success in the new hybrid work environment.</p> <h2>3. Embrace Electronic and Virtual Litigation Proceedings</h2> <p>Last year, there was a swift move to electronic and virtual litigation and court proceedings across Canada and around the globe<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2"><sup>[2]</sup></a>. For the most part, Judges, lawyers, and litigants have adapted to the virtual environment as well as new online platforms such as CaseLines to support the process. As pandemic restrictions lift and we can return to physical courtrooms, what comes next?</p> <p>The pandemic has been the catalyst for modernizing court proceedings in many jurisdictions and, as articulated by Justice Myers: </p> <blockquote>“It’s 2020”… We now have the technological ability to communicate remotely effectively. Using it is more efficient and far less costly than personal attendance. We should not be going back.<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3"><sup>[3]</sup></a></blockquote> <p>There are certainly nuances to be addressed going forward<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> but legal teams should be anticipating a permanent shift to a mix of in-person and virtual in the long run. Training on these new court technology platforms is key for our litigators who are required to use them. Also, similar to addressing needs for hybrid meetings, we are considering whether dedicated physical space with appropriate technology is needed in our offices to facilitate participation in these virtual proceedings.</p> <h2>4. Explore Targeted Legal Technology Tools</h2> <p>The pandemic has brought to the surface ideas for better ways of working and delivering legal services and there are many tools in the marketplace that have been designed to target specific aspects of legal service or embed specific legal knowledge.</p> <p>By way of example, we have been looking at tools that support:</p> <ul> <li>The drafting, validation and printing process for corporate finance transactions (ScribeStar)</li> <li>The citation validation process (CiteRite)</li> <li>Diagramming of corporate structures and transactions (StructureFlow and Jigsaw)</li> </ul> <p>If you are looking for information (and inspiration), the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.legaltechnologyhub.com/">Legal Technology Hub</a> is a great source for information on legal technology tools around the world, as is <a rel="noopener noreferrer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://techindex.law.stanford.edu/">The Stanford CodeX TechIndex</a></p> <h2>5. Automate What You Can</h2> <p>Working remotely has also highlighted pain points with certain legal tasks as well as organizational processes and procedures. Automation is one way to tackle these challenges which will not disappear with a hybrid workforce. </p> <p><strong>Legal Work: </strong>Automating repeat and routine legal tasks with document automation, legal apps or decision trees frees up lawyers to focus on higher value and more rewarding work. Automation can also be used by legal departments to promote self-service within the business. One barrier to making progress on these initiatives can be finding the right people resources and talent to do so. Embracing remote work for these roles means you can recruit from where the talent exists rather than where you are located.</p> <p><strong>Business Improvement:</strong> We are experiencing a renewed appetite to tackle processes that don't work or could be done better. Additionally, like many law firms and other organizations, we now have access to tools in the Microsoft Power Platform. These tools are making it easy for us to experiment with solutions and make small changes in response to immediate use cases that will hopefully add up to bigger improvements overall. By way of example, we used Power Apps to automate tracking of internal CPD attendance for lawyers.</p> <h2>6. Digitize Everything, Everywhere</h2> <p>Many law firms and law departments have been on a path towards digitization, digitalization, or digital transformation with varying measures of success. The remote work environment has tipped the scales towards these goals and it is unlikely we are going back.</p> <p>Examples we have seen accelerate over the past year are:</p> <ul> <li>The use of digital signature tools such as DocuSign, HelloSign and others.</li> <li>The move towards next generation corporate entity management platforms such as Minute Box and Athenian that keep all data, filings and documents organized online in a central location. These scalable platforms are appropriate for a wide range of organizations and critically, can be accessed from anywhere at any time.</li> <li>The shift to a digital law library. The past year has provided insight into the use of our physical print collection and resources, with most of our lawyers seamlessly shifting to the use of alternative online formats. The time is ripe to continue that journey to a digital law library.<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> </li> </ul> <h2>7. Drive Adoption of Legal Technology</h2> <p>Finally, adoption of legal technology has never been more important. Over the past year we saw increased usage of our legal technology tools that speed up tasks (such as electronic signature software) or bring efficiency to file administration and organization (such as transaction management software). However, increased usage was not seen across all legal technology tools, nor was it seen consistently across our users. </p> <p>Is this good enough when faced with the realities of hybrid work? Adopting consistent ways of working across in-office and remote employees is important for quality control and meeting service delivery expectations. If legal technology tools are part of delivering the service, then adoption needs to be consistent across all users. Even if we are largely in the office, consistent use of these tools is also important for interacting with hybrid client teams.</p> <p>As a result, we are piloting a new approach that focuses on changing behaviour, rather than just training, to drive adoption of some of our legal technology tools. In addition to a consistent approach to some aspects of our practice, we are also hoping the strategy gives our lawyers some time back in their day!</p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>The business challenge of hybrid work is not to be underestimated. But for those of us working in Legal Operations, KM or Innovation, it is an exciting time to support organizational goals by leveraging our experience and creativity as well as our legal technology and automation toolkits. I hope to hear about many of your initiatives, best practices and innovations over the coming months! </p> <hr /> <p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> <a rel="noopener noreferrer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://hbr.org/2021/06/what-it-takes-to-run-a-great-hybrid-meeting">https://hbr.org/2021/06/what-it-takes-to-run-a-great-hybrid-meeting</a>; <a rel="noopener noreferrer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://thedigitalworkplace.com/articles/hybrid-meetings/">https://thedigitalworkplace.com/articles/hybrid-meetings/</a></p> <p><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> <a rel="noopener noreferrer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://remotecourts.org/">https://remotecourts.org/</a></p> <p><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> Arconti v. Smith, 2020 ONSC 2782 (CanLII) [19]: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2020/2020onsc2782/2020onsc2782.html">https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2020/2020onsc2782/2020onsc2782.html</a></p> <p><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> <a rel="noopener noreferrer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.cba.org/CBAMediaLibrary/cba_na/PDFs/Publications%20And%20Resources/2021/CBATaskForce.pdf">https://www.cba.org/CBAMediaLibrary/cba_na/PDFs/Publications%20And%20Resources/2021/CBATaskForce.pdf</a></p> <p><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5">[5]</a> <a rel="noopener noreferrer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.deweybstrategic.com/2020/08/12-tips-for-building-your-digital-law-library-in-the-age-of-covid-19.html">https://www.deweybstrategic.com/2020/08/12-tips-for-building-your-digital-law-library-in-the-age-of-covid-19.html</a></p>30-Jun-2021 01:22:00{3D6694BB-DE01-4ED3-98D3-3D4E2F56596F}https://stikeman.com/fr-ca/savoir/plateforme-echange-gestion-juridique/bilan-de-2020Anne RisticPlateforme d’échange sur la gestion juridiqueRessources juridiques sur la COVID-19Bilan de 2020<p><strong>S’il existe une année qu’il vaudrait mieux oublier, c’est 2020. Toutefois, nous avons aussi des raisons de la célébrer et de faire le point sur les réalisations cruciales et les leçons apprises. Dans ce billet, nous examinons les raisons pour lesquelles les comptes rendus sont un outil d’affaires essentiel, les questions que nous pouvons examiner au sujet de 2020 et la manière de faire un compte rendu réussi dans un contexte de travail à distance.</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Ce billet est disponible en anglais seulement.</em></strong></p> <p><strong>If there was ever a year to keep in the rear-view mirror, it is 2020.  However, there are also reasons to embrace the year for what it was and debrief on critical achievements and lessons learned. In this post we look at why debriefs are a critical business tool, what you can debrief on from 2020 and how to conduct a successful debrief in a remote work environment.</strong></p> <h2>The Value of Debriefing for Individuals and Organizations</h2> <p>Many of us think of a debrief as the final step in a project or a file before moving on to the next; indeed it is part of the legal project management methodology and training that we use at Stikeman Elliott for our lawyers.  What we tend to forget is why a debrief is so valuable for our ongoing development and that it can be leveraged in circumstances beyond individual legal projects or files.</p> <p>In “Grit<sup><a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1">[i]</a></sup>”, social scientist Angela Duckworth examines what distinguishes top performing individuals and organizations from the rest of the pack of good performers.  One key finding is that top performers use ‘deliberate practice’ to continuously improve their performance, even though they are already at the top of their game.  Lesser performers keep using skills they’re already good at to continue to do things the way they have done them in the past.</p> <p>Many of us are familiar with the concept of the 10,000 hours of experience required for true expertise identified by Anders Ericsson<sup><a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2">[ii]</a></sup>. But as Duckworth points out, the crucial insight of Ericsson’s research is less about the number of hours, and more about how experts deploy those hours.  It is the expert's use of "deliberate practice" during their 10,000 hours that leads to outstanding performance.  A key element of deliberate practice is that experts seek immediate feedback on how they did.</p> <p>Conducting debriefs on a regular basis for projects and initiatives, particularly to understand what went wrong, is the organizational version of deliberate practice that provides us with the tools we need to keep improving and stay at the top of our game.</p> <h2>Looking Back Over 2020</h2> <p>If you have not already conducted debriefs or after-action reviews during 2020, it is not too late to start.  Some of the immediacy may have faded but that does not mean value cannot be gained from the process.  We often take a structured look back as a year is coming to a close to inform business planning for the upcoming year.  Debriefing an entire year is an overwhelming exercise so we focus on key initiatives or events that occurred.  There are five potential areas to focus on from 2020:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Business Continuity Plan</strong>. Even if you debriefed on your business continuity plan months ago, it would be useful to do so again with the added benefit of time.  Do you have an updated plan that provides a framework and is flexible enough to support the business through the next crisis?</li> <li><strong>Business Operations</strong>. Constantly changing rules and regulations required businesses to shift gears and direction several times during the year.  Debriefing on how your organization handled these changes could expose strengths and opportunities for improvement in your processes and operations.</li> <li><strong>Policies and Procedures.</strong> Similarly, how well did your policies and procedures accommodate the constant developments and changes through the year?  Did they support or hinder your business objectives?</li> <li>In addition to ensuring disaster recovery and business continuity, debriefing on your technology capabilities could provide insights into changes you may need to make in 2021 and beyond.</li> <li>Finally, how flexibly did your people processes and organizational structure respond to the upheaval caused by the pandemic?  What lessons learned can you take forward into the future?</li> </ul> <h2>Undertaking a Debrief</h2> <p>Conducting a debrief is not time consuming or difficult. We have developed a process that is easy to follow, easy to remember and is respectful of everyone's time. The key steps and considerations are as follows. </p> <h3>Schedule your debrief </h3> <ul> <li><strong><em>Timing and duration.</em></strong> As noted above, the best time to debrief is shortly after the end of the project, file or initiative.  We try to keep our debriefs on files to 30 minutes, although more time might be needed for other projects.</li> <li><strong><em>Who to invite.</em></strong> Typically, everyone involved in the file or project is invited; however, depending upon the size of the group and the feedback you want to elicit from the discussion, you may want to organize a couple of different sessions. When you send the invitation, make sure that you describe what the debrief will cover and what is expected of those attending.</li> <li><strong><em>Consider using a facilitator.</em></strong> It is not necessary but can be very valuable.  A facilitator is a neutral party who was not part of the project so they can often assist with difficult discussions.  Additionally, because the facilitator is focused on the debrief, they will keep it on track and will ensure that feedback is heard from everyone.  Finally, in the remote work environment, a facilitator can assist with the technology you use to conduct your debrief.</li> <li><strong><em>Determine what technology you will use.</em></strong> Holding a debrief over a virtual meeting platform requires extra effort to solicit feedback from everyone and ensure that participants are heard.  Many virtual meeting platforms support whiteboard functionality which you can use to capture notes.  You could also explore using a collaboration platform such as Miro or Mural to have participants contribute feedback themselves as part of the process.</li> </ul> <h3>Take 10 minutes to prepare</h3> <p>Ask the team to prepare ahead of time by considering these three questions:</p> <ul> <li>What worked well?</li> <li>What would we do differently next time?</li> <li>What could others learn from this?</li> </ul> <p>We have a simple checklist and worksheet that attendees can use to capture their thoughts ahead of the session. We also suggest that they review any applicable project documentation that will refresh their memories – but the goal is not to add a lot of prep time for attendees but rather to make it easy to participate and share feedback.</p> <h3>Hold your debrief</h3> <p>Your first job in the meeting is to create ‘psychological safety’ so that everyone participates.  No two debrief sessions are the same so you need to be adaptable to the situation.  For example, a new team might be hesitant to start the discussion while a team that works together all the time may have difficulty staying on topic.</p> <ul> <li>If the team is ready to start talking – let them go! If they are hesitant, speak first and share one thing that you thought went well (that others did) and one thing that was not so great that you would do differently next time (that you did).</li> <li>When the discussion turns to errors made - share responsibility. Emphasize the positive and point out the difficulties of working in tight timeframes or making tough decisions.</li> <li>Strive to allow others to offer solutions, rather than you offering them, but don’t feel you have to arrive at all the solutions in the meeting. Some may require more thought or consultation with others.</li> <li>Capture what is said. Someone can take notes – white board, flip chart or word document.  Alternatively, the team can use virtual post-it notes in a virtual collaboration tool.</li> </ul> <h3>Share with others</h3> <ul> <li>Delegate someone to summarize the take-aways of note and decide how to share them with others.</li> <li>Communicate the feedback, lessons learned, tools and resources or any other administrative or operational improvements to make.</li> </ul> <h2>Using an Agile Approach to Debriefing in 2021</h2> <p>Every stage of the pandemic has been an opportunity to identify successes and lessons learned and the ongoing nature of this crisis makes it feel like one long project.  Flexibility and uncertainty have been the order of the day, so we have been changing lanes frequently and debriefing ‘on the fly’ at unexpected junctures.  Rather than waiting until the end of next year or other arbitrary points in time to debrief on operational and business impacts, we are considering how we can increase our “agile” management of this changing project by using retrospectives on a regular basis. </p> <p>A retrospective is one of the components an agile project where an ongoing feedback and debrief loop is critical.  While the retrospective is like the debrief, it focuses on keeping what is working, stopping what is not working and taking action to improve as the project or initiative moves forward.   For those interested, a google search can provide additional information and numerous resources related to conducting agile retrospectives.  We will experiment with using these iterative debrief techniques and are interested in hearing from others who have had success with a more frequent debrief approach through the pandemic.    </p> <hr /> <p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">[i]</a> Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, (Scribner, 2016).</p> <p><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">[ii]</a> K. Anders Ericsson, Michael J. Prietula, and Edward T. Cokely, “The Making of an Expert” (July-August 2007), The Harvard Business Review: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://hbr.org/2007/07/the-making-of-an-expert" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://hbr.org/2007/07/the-making-of-an-expert</a>.</p>12-Jan-2021 04:31:00