Session on 7th of March 2025

“People academically understand the reasons why change is needed, but the challenge is threefold,” explains Colin Levy, an experienced corporate lawyer now leading a legal department at Malbek, during a recent Platforum9 session. His insights reveal the fundamental barriers to effective change management in law firms and how to overcome them.

The Three Barriers to Change

Levy identifies three primary obstacles that prevent law firms from implementing necessary changes:

1. Time constraints: “Finding time to actually plan out change, to figure out how we’re going to get from A to B to C, when I’m already overwhelmed with work.”
2. Human resistance: “People in general don’t like change. I think it’s an inherent quality of humanity. Whatever is currently working for us and allows us to survive is what we want to stay with.”
3. Lack of urgency: “If there’s an immediate pressing need to change because of some outside force, change happens unwillingly, but it happens. But if we need to change but don’t have to do it right now, 90-plus percent of the time we’ll choose not to engage.”

This resistance is particularly evident in how firms are responding to AI. “You see some firms fully adapting to AI, starting to use it and move forward. Then you’ve got others saying, ‘We know it’s here, but let’s take a step back and see how it evolves,'” Levy notes, adding that this cautious approach is “inherently problematic given the pace at which technology is evolving.”

Building a Case for Change

For change initiatives to succeed, they must begin with the right champion. “It starts with the person who is most knowledgeable about why change needs to happen and can articulate that in terms of the business as a whole,” Levy explains.

This requires shifting the focus from personal preferences to business necessity: “A lot of people think, ‘something could be done better’ just because of their quirks or how they like to work. What you really want are people who see that change is needed because it’s important for the business.”

The key to gaining buy-in is making this business case clear: “If you can make that direct connection and illustrate it ideally through data, then you’re more likely to achieve buy-in, which is an important step to achieving change.”

The Legacy of Failed Technology Implementations

The resistance to change in law firms has been reinforced by previous disappointments with technology. As Scott, another participant in the discussion, noted: “When CRM first became quite big 20-odd years ago, it was presented to law firms as this all-singing, all-dancing piece of kit that was going to transform law firms—not just create huge databases but increase sales, improve marketing, make breakfast in the morning.”

These overpromised and underdelivered implementations created skepticism that continues to affect new initiatives: “It was sold at the strategic level at the top of the business, but then the actual implementation and execution was left to law firm owners who are not very often technically savvy.”

The Human Element in Technology Adoption

A critical insight from Levy is the importance of humanising technological change: “Because technology seems impersonal, people feel less connected to things they’re told to use if they’re technology-based. The more you can humanise it, the more you can put it in terms of building connections, relationships, community, the better off you’ll be.”

This human-centered approach is particularly relevant for AI adoption: “People need to view AI and associated tools as just tools and not as replacements of things or people,” Levy emphasises. “The more you can put humans in the driver’s seat, the better off you’ll be with achieving stronger, longer-term usage.”

A Framework for Successful Change

While acknowledging there’s no simple five-step plan, Levy outlines several crucial elements for successful change management:

1. Define clear goals: “Figure out what the specific goal is for the change.”
2. Identify stakeholders: “Figure out who this is going to impact.”
3. Listen actively: “Do a listening session to get a sense of how people feel and how they want to move forward.”
4. Develop a collaborative plan: “Put together a plan for how to go about doing it, but have it be a discussion-based meeting around that plan.”
5. Give everyone a voice: “The more you give people a voice in the process, the better the likelihood is that they’ll come on board. Even if you may not fully get some people to come on board, at least allowing them to have a voice and feel like they’re being heard is likely going to build strong support.”
6. Make a data-driven case: “Make the data-driven case for why this is necessary and how it can be helpful to teams.”
7. Start with a pilot: Testing changes on a small scale before rolling them out more broadly helps demonstrate value and build confidence.

The Lawyer Persona and Change Resistance

Levy identifies specific aspects of legal training and professional identity that make lawyers particularly resistant to change:

“Lawyers are trained to be very good at analysing documents and managing things in a systematic way, but running a business is not something they’re necessarily great at,” he observes. “Many lawyers tend to have this view that they need to be the single source of truth and know everything.”

Additionally, “Lawyers are inherently creatures of habit and routine, and so the minute you try to disrupt that, there’s immediate friction.”

Looking Forward

Despite these challenges, Levy remains optimistic about the profession’s ability to adapt: “I think they do see that change is essential. The problem is that how they view what is needed differs.”

The path forward isn’t about standardisation but finding common principles that can be tailored to specific contexts. As Levy concludes, “It’s messy. It’s very messy and oftentimes challenging for any variety of reasons. But the more focused you are, the more you stay true to some of the principles we’ve discussed, the more likely you’ll be successful.”

For law firms navigating the unprecedented changes brought by AI, remote work, and evolving client expectations, this framework offers a valuable roadmap for managing change effectively while acknowledging the unique challenges of the legal profession.