Experts need innovative minds: How legal firms are innovating to respond to client demands

Innovation is the current buzzword in the legal industry. Scan the management team at any top 50 UK law firm and ‘innovation' will likely appear in at least one person's title. Go to a legal awards event and there will almost certainly be a category dedicated to innovation. Speak to any managing partner and they will undoubtedly tell you that innovation is a key pillar of their strategy, and of course that they are outperforming their peers when it comes to innovating.

But what is innovation in the context of the legal industry? Is it more about using the latest technology, allowing lawyers to work remotely, providing non-legal services or perhaps something completely different?

This report, produced by Travelers and The Lawyer, examines how UK law firms are innovating and what the challenges and obstacles to this are. The findings are based on a survey of over 150 UK law firms, ranging from the magic circle to sole practitioners. To complement this we interviewed six managing partners, executives and risk managers to get some deeper insight into how firms are innovating.