For Hilary Goodier, technology and innovation have become the backbone of her career. As a former practising lawyer, general counsel, and technology company executive, her professional life spans commercial, operations, the law, and technology, allowing her to witness first-hand how rapidly the legal industry is changing.

Innovation having a ‘profound impact’ on the profession 
Hilary is the Director of Herbert Smith Freehills’ Alternative Legal Services (ALT) team in Australia as well as Director of ALT’s Global Technology practice. Her drive and initiatives have seen her recognised as Lawyers Weekly’s 2019 Innovator of the Year.

“There is no doubt that innovation and technological disruption in the legal sector is having a profound impact on the profession, as is true for all industries,” said Hilary. “This is evident in the nature of the work we do as lawyers, and how we do it. Never before has technology been so vital in how and what we can deliver for our clients.”

“At Herbert Smith Freehills we are committed to leading the charge in this space. Our market-leading Alternative Legal Services practice, which I lead in Australia, offers innovative and creative solutions for complex and data-intensive regulatory investigations and disputes, and transactional services such as commercial contracting and due diligence.” 

“We are also leading the industry in the use of automation, AI and analytics, giving our clients greater insight into their data and driving significant efficiencies and cost savings in legal service delivery.”

“In response to client demand in the legal operations space, HSF has also recently established its Legal Operations function,” said Hilary.

Legal Operations unites cross-disciplinary expertise including legal project management, legal process improvement, pricing, automation, data analytics, innovation and technology, and strategic insight, to provide a platform for the firm to connect with clients on strategic, structural and technology issues, and better respond to disruption.

“The firm has also partnered with IBM, CSIRO’s Data61 and KWM to establish the Australian National Blockchain (ANB) – Australia’s first large-scale, legally-binding smart legal contract platform available to Australian businesses of all kinds,” said Hilary. “Built using blockchain technology, the ANB will become a significant piece of infrastructure for Australia’s digital economy. It will give businesses a commercially efficient, technically secure and legally safe platform for shared automation. A project of this size and scope has never before been attempted in the Australian legal industry.” 

Staying ahead of the pack crucial
Innovation can deliver a competitive edge to firms in an increasingly competitive market. 
“The challenge will be staying ahead of the pack,” said Hilary. “Innovation offers many opportunities for lawyers and for their clients. The main challenge will be getting it right. For law firms, we see many potential opportunities in boosting productivity and increasing the skill sets of our people, allowing them to deliver even more for our clients and to a much greater standard.”

Herbert Smith Freehills seized the opportunity to review its traditional legal service offering, bringing together multi-disciplinary teams to deliver solutions to complex legal problems.
“It’s an inspiring time in the industry when we can start to reimagine how we do what we do,” said Hilary. “I don’t think that legal innovation, often incorrectly interpreted as technology adoption, is a threat to the profession in or of itself. I do think lawyers or firms who seek out innovative practices and technology solutions and combine them with their leading legal services and knowledge will pose a threat to the lawyers or firms that don’t.”

Forecasting disruption: AI, automation, and predictive analytics
“We are only at the start of the curve in terms of how technology can and will disrupt the business and practice of law,” said Hilary.
 
According to Hilary, the impact of automation and workflow tools is already driving significant efficiencies and ensuring quality control. 

“eDiscovery has been the real driver of technology adoption in law to this point and platforms such as Relativity have incredibly powerful AI and analytics capabilities,” observed Hilary. “While we currently use these platforms to manage and sort large volumes of data for relevance, increasingly, I think these will be used to drive insights and identify patterns that will allow clients to more proactively identify and manage risks – in the true ‘big data’ sense.”

Risk and compliance is another area Hilary sees as ripe for change.

“The global regulatory landscape is becoming so complex that tools which can simplify and manage internal regulatory compliance and reporting will become mainstream. I think we will see investment from organisations who will want to use technology to ensure compliance across many facets and jurisdictions of their company. More interestingly I think we will see an insistence from regulators that systems and safeguards are implemented through technology, with a movement towards automated reporting and live data feeds being provided to regulators and assessors. Such developments would suggest a whole new set of legal advisory needs in these areas.”

Artificial intelligence, she thinks, has almost limitless scope to transform the practice of law.

“We are already seeing AI play an increasingly important role in legal research, contract analysis for due diligence, contract review and evidence mining and analysis of documents for risk profiling. The application and power of these tools can only increase as the technology develops. Imagine leading experts in construction law also having, as part of their service, pre-trained algorithmic models that can mine client data sets for specific legal issues, not based on one case but over many cases. We are then starting to harness the experience of the lawyer and the experience of their exposure to data over many cases to provide cutting-edge legal advisory services.”

“I also think that predictive analytics will start to play a larger part in the delivery of strategic advice to clients. Tools that mine previous judgments - and the circumstances leading to them - already exist. These can help firms to assess  likely trial outcomes and even which lawyer to use or jurisdiction to file in for the greatest chances of success! I think predictive analytics will enjoy widespread growth and adoption as these tools become smarter and more applicable to broader scenarios, similar to how predictive models are commonplace in the financial services sector.”

The rise of AI and predictive analytics will lead to a new reliance on data as part of our relationships with clients.

“Previously we shared information with our clients based on content and meaning. We provided clients with insights which tended to be based on tacit, individual knowledge through long-relationships and dedication of time. I think client relationships will be enhanced in the future with new services of data mining and analysis giving lawyers the ability to provide valuable patterns and trends in client data using AI and more scientific metrics to offer insight. The delivery of relationship-led, empathetic advisory skills in combination with greater insight into the data will change the value proposition of a lawyers’ offering to a client to help make key decisions and strategies.”

Supporting the legal profession through disruption 
To keep pace with technological change, it is vital legal professionals stay up to date with all that technology can offer the law.

“At Herbert Smith Freehills, we’ve already entered into agreements with universities to support and fund subjects that teach digital law and app development,” said Hilary.

“We have also established our Innovation 10 program, which gives staff up to ten days per year to work on innovation projects that address challenges faced by the firm and clients. The initiative empowers our people to boost the momentum behind innovation projects, creates additional opportunities for us to connect with clients and further strengthens and differentiates our offering. Projects include building legal apps, working on document automation and artificial intelligence tools, or working on the ANB.”

Herbert Smith Freehills has also introduced a reverse mentoring program.

“In our reverse mentoring program, our Partners and senior business leaders are paired with and mentored by younger lawyers on a variety of topics, such as technology, social media, current trends and even more abstract concepts like values and perspectives of the younger generation. Our aim is for both mentors and mentees to develop skills in a changing industry, learn new perspectives and to enrich communication across the firm.

“It is only through this kind of support and commitment to upskilling our people that we will be able to navigate disruption and retain the best talent.”

New lawyers must take the lead 
For new lawyers navigating this transformative period, Hilary thinks leadership is key.

“Be ready to lead the disruption and change rather than waiting to be shown,” said Hilary. “Traditional legal training is based on reflecting and repeating what your senior leaders and team members are doing. I think the new breed of lawyer will challenge and provide alternative approaches to legal service. Influences may be derived from outside the law from non-traditional sources such as social media innovation and new forms of communicating reliant on technology.”

“It may be prudent to observe how other industries have been disrupted, and how their experiences may apply to the law.” 

“However, it should not be forgotten that a depth of knowledge of the law and, most importantly, an understanding of your clients’ business and needs will still be the most important skill set. Innovation is only powerful if it innovates an actual need and provides real solutions to buyers of legal services.”

Hilary believes it’s an exciting time to be a lawyer.

“Not only does the delivery of legal services have great scope to be reformed but the law itself presents a multitude of opportunities,” said Hilary. “From designing and drafting smart contracts, to providing breakthrough advice on new means of technology and the legal effects of new mediums, such as driverless vehicles, to navigating the ethical implications of what this new technology will mean. New lawyers really do have a variety of options to explore beyond what has been done previously in an industry that is challenging itself. It really means that new lawyers can drive what ‘new law’ will be.”

Centre for Legal Innovation a centralised and impartial platform 
Hilary praised the Centre for Legal Innovation (CLI) as essential to supporting legal professionals manage innovation.

“Organisations like the CLI are hugely important to help support and lead these changes,” said Hilary. “They provide a centralised and impartial platform to bring together lawyers from all spectrums, technology providers, legal technology specialists, thought-leaders and academics. This level of cross-discipline collaboration is a new influence for legal providers and creates forums for education and experimentation.”

For many law firms and lawyers, it can be hard to know where to start with a concept as broad as ‘innovation’.

“To have a centre that will help you navigate your existing practices and technology and support the exploration of new services is a proactive way to generate change,” said Hilary. “It is a safe place to explore new ideas. The collaborative environment acknowledges that we are all at the beginning of the curve and working through the issues. Knowledge-sharing is a truly powerful way to create innovation. It is good to know that if you are interested in educating yourself or your firm or are keen to solve a particular problem you are not alone and you do not have to start with a blank slate – but there is in fact a large community of like-minded people to connect to through CLI.”