Balancing Technology and Human Connection in Legal Services with Joey Seeber

Where AI and automation dominate headlines, it's easy to lose sight of what drives the legal industry: human connections. Yet, as law firms race to adopt the latest tech, there's a growing recognition that the most successful firms will strike a delicate balance between technological innovation and human-centric service delivery.

At ILTACON 2024, I sat down with Joey Seeber, CEO of Level Legal, a 15-year-old managed service provider. Our conversation offered a refreshing perspective on how firms can navigate the complex landscape of legal tech while keeping the human element at the forefront.

The Startup Mindset: More Than Just a Buzzword

Despite being in business for a decade and a half, Level Legal maintains a startup mentality. As Joey puts it:

"We're still a small company. We've grown a lot in the last three years in particular, but we still have to have a startup mindset all the time. We have to always be hungry. I think it's okay to always be looking over your shoulder a bit while you're looking ahead over the horizon at the same time."

This approach isn't just about staying nimble; it's about fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability. This mindset is a breath of fresh air in an industry often criticized for resisting change.

For established law firms, adopting a startup mentality doesn't mean dismantling existing structures. Instead, it's about creating pockets of innovation within the organization. Many firms are already doing this through innovation labs or cross-functional teams exploring new technologies and service delivery models.

The key is to allow these teams to experiment without the pressure of immediate ROI. They should be empowered to take calculated risks, fail fast, and learn quickly. This approach can drive innovation without disrupting core operations, allowing firms to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving legal landscape.

The Human Element: More Crucial Than Ever

As we delved deeper into our conversation, Joey emphasized a point that often gets lost in discussions about legal tech:

"We're humans at our core, built for connection. This is the guiding principle: the human is more important. With technology and all the ways that we communicate and interact, human skills are actually more important because you are a human, and I'm a human interacting with each other."

This perspective challenges the notion that technology will replace humans. Instead, it suggests that technology should enhance human capabilities, allowing knowledge workers to focus on high-value tasks that require emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and complex problem-solving.

In practice, as routine tasks become automated, lawyers must double down on developing their "soft skills." Empathy, effective communication, and building and maintaining relationships become even more critical differentiators in a tech-enabled legal environment.

For law firm leaders, this translates into a need to invest in professional development programs that go beyond technical legal skills. Training in emotional intelligence, leadership, and even basic psychology can help lawyers better understand and serve their clients in an increasingly complex world.

A Framework for Continuous Improvement

One of the reasons I wanted to speak with Joey was to explore Level Legal's approach to project management and service delivery. Joey explained:

"The framework we have for our work is really borrowed, if not stolen, from a product development framework. Even as we provide services, we like to think of it in these steps: understand, define, solve, build & test, act, and get feedback."

This structured approach ensures a systematic method of client service, emphasizing understanding client needs, defining success criteria, and continuously improving based on feedback.

Many organizations still operate on a traditional model where each matter is treated as a unique project, with little systematic learning or improvement from one case to the next. By implementing a more structured approach, firms can:

1. Better understand and define client needs upfront, reducing scope creep and improving client satisfaction.
2. Develop standardized solutions for common legal issues, improving efficiency and consistency.
3. Implement regular feedback loops to improve service delivery continuously.

Agile methodologies and design thinking approaches, long used in the tech industry, are increasingly finding their way into progressive law firms. These frameworks can help streamline processes, improve client satisfaction, and drive innovation within the firm.

The Power of Retrospectives

A key component of Level Legal's continuous improvement strategy is conducting retrospectives after every project:

"We do retrospectives at the end of every project. Some call them ARs or postmortems. We discuss what went well and what didn't go well, so that we can learn from it. Just incrementally, a little bit every time, so that the next project has the fingerprints of this project."

This practice ensures that lessons learned are captured and applied to future projects, leading to incremental improvements in service delivery over time.

Implementing regular retrospectives or after-action reviews following major matters or projects can be a game-changer. These sessions can help identify inefficiencies, share best practices across the firm, and drive continuous improvement in service delivery.

However, for retrospectives to be effective, firms need to create a culture where honest feedback is encouraged and valued. This means moving away from a blame culture and towards one that sees mistakes as learning opportunities. It also requires a commitment from leadership to act on the insights gained from these sessions, implementing changes where necessary.

Navigating the AI Landscape

No conversation about legal tech would be complete without discussing AI. Joey offers a balanced perspective:

"I'm of two minds about the AI buzz. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to use those tools which are in development to provide better service to our clients. We've been using forms of artificial intelligence for a decade in our work. I like that we're getting to talk about it and people expect it more, but there's not a magic bullet."

This pragmatic approach to AI acknowledges its potential while tempering unrealistic expectations. It reminds us that AI should be viewed as a tool to enhance human capabilities rather than a replacement for human judgment.

Of course, developing a clear AI strategy is crucial. This doesn't mean jumping on every new AI tool that hits the market. Instead, it involves identifying specific use cases where AI can add value to your firm's services - something that was echoed at ILTACON.

However, it's important to remember that implementing AI is not just about the technology. It requires a shift in processes and, often, in mindset. Lawyers need to be trained not just in how to use AI tools but in how to interpret and apply their outputs. There's also the crucial aspect of ethical considerations and potential biases in AI systems that firms must be aware of and mitigate.

Building Trust Through Transparent Communication

One of the key elements in Level Legal's success has been its approach to building trust with clients through open and transparent communication:

"It's communication. I mean, it's setting the expectation. Giving them permission. This is the expectation that we're going to speak with each other candidly. And that we're gonna speak up. If there's an issue, we're all spending too much time and money and resources on this, we're gonna speak up and we expect you to do the same and we will address it quickly."

This approach not only helps in addressing issues promptly but also fosters a collaborative relationship with clients.

Implementing transparent communication protocols with clients can significantly improve relationships and outcomes. This could involve:

1. Regular check-ins and progress reports, even on long-term matters.
2. Clear project milestones and timelines, with explanations for any changes.
3. Open channels for feedback, encouraging clients to speak up if they have concerns.
4. Proactive communication about potential issues or delays, rather than waiting for the client to discover them.

By fostering this kind of open communication, firms can build stronger, more trusting relationships with their clients. This leads to higher client satisfaction and can result in more repeat business and referrals.

The Balance of Growth and Quality

While growth is important for any business, Level Legal strongly emphasizes maintaining quality and client satisfaction. Joey explains their approach to metrics:

"We have goals for revenue growth or for numbers of customers or clients that we are serving, but most of our goals are centered around qualitative levels. We're doing surveys of our clients. We're doing surveys of our employees. So that we know what the satisfaction level is, what the engagement levels are, and we're watching those things. When those things are solid, when those things are strong, the rest of the pieces will tend to fall into place."

This focus on qualitative metrics alongside traditional growth indicators ensures that the company's expansion doesn't compromise service quality or employee satisfaction.

This balanced approach to growth can be incredibly valuable. Too often, businesses focus solely on financial metrics like productivity or revenue per partner. While these are important, they don't tell the whole story of a firm's health or potential for long-term success.

Implementing a balanced scorecard approach that includes client satisfaction scores, employee engagement levels, and innovation indicators can provide a more holistic view of a firm's performance. This approach can help firms:

1. Identify areas of strength and weakness beyond just financial performance.
2. Improve employee retention by focusing on engagement and satisfaction.
3. Drive innovation by tracking and incentivizing new ideas and approaches.
4. Enhance client relationships by regularly measuring and acting on client feedback.

Conclusion: The Future of Legal Services

The future of legal services lies in the skillful integration of technology with human expertise and empathy.

By maintaining a startup mindset, focusing on continuous improvement, thoughtfully leveraging technology, and prioritizing human connections, legal professionals can enhance their service offerings and build stronger, more enduring client relationships.

By embracing technological innovation and human-centric service delivery, firms can successfully navigate this changing landscape, deliver greater value to their clients, and stay relevant in an increasingly competitive market.