Julian Bryan’s presentation at Legalex 2019
The LSSA held a presentation and questions and answer session at Legalex 2019. Here are the introductory slides from LSSA Chair Julian Bryan. The talk covered how to choose legal software and tackling data conversions.
Setting legal industry software standards
Our Purpose
- To set legal industry software standards
- Communication channel
- Interface to statutory organisations – LAA, MoJ, HMRC, land Registry, SRA, Law Society
- Promote software, apps, and service uptake in profession
- Uphold professional and ethical standards – eg data
- Source of statistical data for industry
Target membership
Our target members are those whose organisation or business unit’s primary purpose is the provision of software of software-based online services for legal service providers, as principal or sole distributor.
Membership requirements
- Primarily software of service supplier to legal sector
- Adhere to our Code of Conduct
- Provide protection for firms – e.g. PI insturance, ESCROW
- Recognise need for data mobility
- Not bring LSSA in to disrepute
- Pay membership fees!
The membership
- 23 members
- Software or service used by over 80% of law firms
- £120m – £150m annual spend with members
- Law sector demographics facilitate ‘compete and cooperate’ between members’
- Some members have been trading for over 40 years
Choosing software – what to consider
- Socio economic and lifestyle factors
- Selection criteria – functional requirements, beauty parade, recommendations
- Implementation – project management and training
- Data location and accessibility – on premise, cloud, geography
- Costs – setup costs, running costs, exit costs
- Support process and mechanics
- The LSSA kitemark
Data conversions – what to consider
- Preparation
- Cooperation and trials
- Data item terminology
- Data conversion depth (and therefore complexity)
- Data extraction, deletion and ownership
- Data transformation
- Document transfers
- Data integrity – CCC