Creativity in Law Firm

Creativity is the ability to think beyond established frameworks to develop new solutions and concepts. It drives the replacement of outdated technologies and processes, such as the evolution from pagers to smartphones or from paper-based time tracking for lawyers to automated billing.

When conventional methods fail, creative approaches are necessary to find solutions.

Creativity is highly valued in professions like marketing and tourism, where innovative ideas are essential. In contrast, professions that require strict adherence to protocols, such as medicine, finance, and law, might find creativity less applicable or even undesirable.

For example, in the legal field, creativity is required in problem-solving, strategic thinking, and technological solutions to legal challenges. However, much of a lawyer's daily work is routine and does not demand regular creativity or problem-solving. The television series Suits, where the lawyers handle extraordinary cases every day and reach the peak of their creativity every day, represents a condensed and dramatized version of events that might occur over decades, across numerous law firms and courtrooms.

For routine tasks like case management in mass claims or document review in due diligence, creativity is not always necessary and might even be undesirable as it could introduce unnecessary complications. However, when considering the automation of these processes, creativity becomes crucial. Law firms need individuals who can think beyond established standards to run legal review and case management exercises through innovative, time-saving solutions. Without such creative thinking, these processes will remain stagnant.

With the development of Legal Tech creativity has become more relevant for lawyers. New roles like Legal Tech Lawyers and Engineers are emerging, where professionals develop technical solutions for legal challenges while being lawyers and developers themselves. For these roles, creativity is integral, as challenging established standards is part of their goal.

Developing Creative Lawyers

Regularly assessing situations, generating multiple solutions, and selecting the best one does not necessarily indicate creative thinking. To be a true creative thinker, a legal expert must be regularly exposed to new environments and ideas. The routine work of a lawyer can significantly reduce creativity, making sustained creative thinking challenging in such a stagnated environment.

Lawyers who claim to be creative must demonstrate their creativity through successful projects and innovations. Creativity is not just about having a creative personality, making out-of-the-box suggestions, or challenging the existing standards; it is about delivering tangible results derived from creative thinking.

Creativity should aim to produce tangible results, such as financial success or practical improvements.

The end result of a lawyer's creativity could be the development of technological products or the implementation of innovative processes. The aim of a creative lawyer is to transform costly, time-consuming legal advice into an accessible, inexpensive, and fast legal tech solution. This approach is similar to creating tasty food that burns calories: it goes against established standards and introduces something people have not seen or imagined before.

Creativity can be nurtured through activities like drawing, improving existing ideas, and studying successful cases of creative problem-solving. While artists are usually creative, one can be creative without having artistic skills.

The best way for lawyers to develop creativity is to learn new skills. For legal experts, there are over 200 professional skills that can enhance their ability to think faster and outside the box. These skills could provide different perspectives on the same problems. Skills such as Six Sigma, dashboards, memory techniques, SQL, resource management, big data, marketing, touch typing, delegation, Kanban, checklists, and many others can contribute to the development of such creative thinking.

Large budgets and abundant resources alone do not increase creativity; it is primarily dependent on the right environment.

A large law firm with significant resources does not automatically produce more creativity.

If a law firm aims to enhance overall creativity, it's important to separate creative tasks from routine work to avoid chaos. IT support in a law firm, for example, is unlikely to innovate and be creative because their work primarily consists of repetitive problem-solving. A law firm needs a dedicated department of creative individuals who are given the freedom to think and work independently rather than being confined to rigid structures.

Creative Legal Tech

Practical and proven solutions are often valued more than creative but unproven ideas. Especially in legal field, predictability and reliability are preferred over creativity.

When creating legal tech, it’s not always about creativity alone. A good legal tech tool should be balanced, with about 70% practical components and 30% creative elements to deliver a useful product. It is about finding efficient solutions, not just adding complexity.

Despite aiming for efficiency, creative ideas usually require more time to develop and execute. Even if the goal of a specific creative idea is to simplify processes or reduce resource requirements, it may still consume a significant amount of time to implement.

This is a critical factor in a law firm where deadlines are tight and there is constant pressure for fast delivery. This pressure may force developers to implement standard solutions instead of investing time and energy in creative designs and features.

Creative changes in a law firm can often be uncomfortable or unpleasant, especially if they deviate significantly from norms, standards, and expectations. If lawyers are accustomed to specific processes, you need compelling arguments to convince them to change their approach, and even that might not be enough. People need time to get used to creative ways of doing things. It’s similar to when children make unexpected creative changes to their appearance - parents require some time to get used to it, and even longer if the change wasn’t made with their consent. In this context, the firm cannot get the consent of every lawyer when delivering innovation. It could be very hard to implement a creative solution in a law firm and also coordinate it with 1,000 lawyers so they are not surprised when the solution is implemented.

Not everyone in a law firm needs to be creative. In the legal profession, stability and reliability are also highly valued traits. When a law firm requires fresh ideas and innovative solutions, it can hire creative individuals rather than attempting to cultivate creativity in every lawyer.

Creativity should be viewed as a specialized skill that takes years to develop. When applied appropriately, creative thinking can lead to significant advancements in legal technology and guarantee a competitive advantage in the legal market.