See the Possibility in Action

One of our key differentiators as a firm is our approach to innovation, rooted in the ability to See the Possibility in everything. This year, we are shortlisted for Knowledge Management Innovation and Disruptive Technology from the Legal Innovation Awards 2023 and Best Law Firm for Legal Tech from Legal Cheek Awards 2023. There is a reason why our Product and Innovation team continually win year after year awards for our use of technology and innovations. The source of our innovation? We have always held the ability to See the Possibility at the heart of our business.

Our People: The Foundation of Our Innovation.

A word that you’ll often hear or read in the context of our unique approach to innovation is collaboration. To See the Possibility in our people is to recognise that we’re stronger as the sum of our individual parts in thinking differently and finding creative and innovative solutions for clients.  In fact, it is through our people and their interactions with our clients that ideas are tested, analysed and occasionally put to market.

One example of this in action is our creation of a decision-making tool for a large FTSE 100 client and its 10,000 HR managers. Ensuring consistency of decision making and application of the same process is challenging for large organisations -  inconsistent decisions or an unpredictable paper trail can lead to exposure when it comes to defending future claims; something that ultimately costs the client money in legal fees and compensation, as well as reputational damage. The innovation team worked in conjunction with our expert lawyers and end users to deliver the project, building a solution relating to disability discrimination claims; assisting clients with understanding the legal test for disability, enabling them to identify the relevant issues and reach an informed decision as to whether an employee is likely to be classed as disabled or not. Client support allowed us to truly see the possibility, collaborate with our client and our lawyers and ensure the tool met the users’ needs.

It isn’t only ideas and opportunities that our people bring to the table. Our people are what makes our firm different. So it is the job of our Product and Innovation team to streamline an agile process that enables our people to focus on those elements of work that require proper, formal, legal input. When we See the Possibility in our people and equip them with the tools they need to help them with their client work, we can deliver on our mandate to provide real, measurable benefits to our clients. Our Product and Innovation Partners sit at the intersection of the client, legal operations and innovation sectors and use their experience to help evolve and develop market-leading and technology-driven solutions for both clients and also our legal teams. By empowering our people through technology to serve, our clients often remark that we're truly an easy firm to do business with.

Our Clients: The Reason for Our Innovation.

The ability to See the Possibility in our clients is truly at the centre of our innovation process. Everything we do comes out of a desire to deliver better results, whether through access to enhanced data and intelligence or using data to deliver unrivalled sector insight. It’s this reason why our product innovations aren’t just trendy; they’re incredibly practical. Out of the many, many ideas that filter through our lawyers and clients, only those with a strong business case which offers a margin of improvement are taken forward. Our job as a Product and Innovation team is to create products that help to make clients' problems go away and, ideally, make them look good in the process.

That is why we say we are our clients’ collaborative law firm partner for innovation. Our clients signal to our people where they have a need or frustration. Our people share that need with our Product and Innovation team, and together, we create practical solutions which allow our people to achieve the best results for our clients. Whether it’s a tool which removes uncertainty and inconsistency whilst supporting users through their methodology, or a product which crunches data to enable clarity and true big picture thinking, we are constantly inspired by our clients and people to create new and exciting ways to deliver quick and commercial outcomes.

Our Business: The Future.

Our ability to innovate as a firm isn’t new, and it certainly didn’t come out of a vacuum. Our purpose, to See the Possibility, has always been there. So too, has our enterprising,  innovative spirit always been at the heart of our firm. Weightmans has invested in technology and innovation for decades, long before the term “legal tech” became fashionable, constantly seeking ways in which to provide new and different services to clients looking for quicker results or access to enhanced data and intelligence.

At Weightmans, we believe the only way to predict the future is to build it. As we look ahead, AI will continue to allow us to take all of our product innovation to the next level, grounded in collaboration with our people and clients. We are proud to work alongside revered academics such as colleagues at the University of Liverpool, using AI techniques to combine machine learning and legal expertise to create tools capable of legal reasoning. We also recently launched PREDiCT, a predictive analytics model which augments the experience and expertise of handlers to deliver a level of accuracy which can potentially save millions of pounds in claims reserving. It is our enterprise and innovation which has propelled us from a Top 50 law firm to a Top 40 law firm, and it will be our ability to See the Possibility in everything that we do, which will help us become a Top 30 law firm. We hope that you will join us in our exciting next chapter.