Who moved my cheese?

How firm libraries create new top-line

(and bottom-line) value

Ron Friedmann, Chief Knowledge & Information

Officer
Agenda

01 Introduction
03 Reduce cost

02 Enhance revenue
04 Conclusions
01 Introduction
A key question for the future of libraries

How can law firm libraries create new

top-line and bottom-line value?
Law firms face many business challenges

● Flat demand
● Performance dispersion
● Fierce competition
● Race to recruit rainmakers
● Difficult to differentiate
● Profit under pressure
Librarians must contribute to profitability
Session structure and interactive aspect
We will review 9 options to boost revenue + reduce cost

For each, we will poll audience

Ratings will show the best options
Rating library profit improvement strategies

Illustration only

Result of
polling/voting will
look like this
02A Revenue enhancement
Direct revenue
Improve cost recovery
● Explain value created
○ Value ≠ research request report
○ Value = a story about better outcomes, make lawyers’ lives easier, boosting profit

● Charge unless clients prohibit

● Embed librarians in practices for more visible value
● Outsource to improve cost recovery
Charge clients for direct work or subscriptions
● Direct bill clients for research services
● Offer subscription services
○ Curated newsletters or alerts, curated per company or industry

● Other examples of direct charges to clients? Quick discussion

02B Revenue enhancement
Indirect revenue
Support business development
● Win more pitches with better competitive intelligence
● Provide insight, not just “research dumps”
● Identify emerging opportunities based on trend analysis of research requests
● Collaborate cross-department to track impact of research / CI investment
● Ask partners for feedback on work post pitch
Identify new opportunities
● Identify industry trends where legal services will be needed
● Understand and align with firm strategy
● Assist practice group leaders with strategy
● Develop early warning system for competitive threats
● Meet with managing partner quarterly to share above
Add value to information / make it more actionable
● Deliver actionable formats, eg, infographics or 1-page summary
● Use text analytics to extract more meaning + value
● Use Tableau, Qliq, Power BI, or equivalent when results are numeric
● Create feedback loops to improve deliverables
Support digital services
● Firms increasingly offer digital services (subscription or free)
● Support /maintain these services with research
● Identify prospects and service expansion opportunities
● Recommend which practices should offer digital service
03 Cost reduction
Rationalize operations
● Centralize service in a single location
● Minimize physical footprint (you haven’t already?)
● Create standard intake form and output templates for high volume requests
● Identify users who
○ Need self-help training
○ Consume the wrong / expensive resources
○ Over-consume and need containment
○ Use appropriately, add value, and deserve more support
Centralize business research
● Identify business research users across the firm
● Assess gaps + overlaps, then remediate
● Gate distributed research. Better yet, centralize
● Outsource to manage peaks, specialized requests
● Capture and re-use prior requests + answers
● Connect lawyers + staff asking similar questions
● Monitor trends to adjust future staffing (skills + number)
Negotiate better contracts
● Review budgets, contracts, and spend before renewal date
● Benchmark own spending against peers
● Negotiate sole source or more favorable contracts
● Determine if “just in time” buying saves over “just in case”
● Track metrics such as cost per user, annual increases, bundling
● Work with practices + staff to centralize / coordinate resource decisions
● Drive usage to consolidate for future savings
04 Conclusion
Conclusions

● The data collected will speak for themselves

● But the answers may be less important than the process
● Maintaining library role in digital era means changing
 Thank you

Ron Friedmann, Chief Knowledge & Information Officer

ron.friedmann@lac-group.com