Briefing: Transformation wins – Jennie Strickland on successful change management at Clio Operate
Jennie Strickland, chief customer officer at Clio Operate, outlines the key elements of a successful change management strategy and shares how to avoid common pitfalls of transformation projects
What are the most important factors influencing the direction of travel for firmwide transformation projects? What are the biggest barriers or objections to launching them?
The single biggest factor driving firmwide transformation right now is AI. Factors such as competitive pressure, private equity expectations or an onslaught of vendor marketing, plus a challenging political and economic context, make standing still, or even meandering along, not an option. Rather than perceiving this as a threat, I’d encourage firms to see it as an opportunity to rethink what a law firm looks like.
I’m also seeing that, with the quick proliferation of new tools, some firms are losing sight of the foundational elements that will determine the long-term success of their AI strategy, such as data quality, process governance and risk management. AI has the same potential to fragment as it does to transform if we’re not deliberate about it. As technology leaders in law, we need to resist letting it become the new spreadsheet, with multiple disconnected tools, no shared view of the business and no architecture holding it together. CTOs and CIOs must keep one eye firmly on the long game and the foundations, as without them, no AI tool will deliver what it promises with longevity.
From a barriers perspective, I’ve seen a marked shift over the last six months, with clients and lawyers alike feeling overwhelmed by the countless tech options available. I was recently a speaker at a legal technology conference where a senior lawyer told me: ‘I can’t even tell from the stands what half of these products do’. That reflects just how noisy the market has become.
We are going through a period of immense change. The firms that will come out on top are those with the leadership, curiosity, structure and experience to embrace the latest technologies while prioritising a clear firmwide vision that ensures a secure and cohesive technology landscape.
What are the key challenges law firms face when implementing new technologies from a change management perspective?
The biggest reason I see transformation projects fail is the persistence of an outdated view that treats business transformation programmes as IT implementations, where something is done to the business rather than with it.
To guarantee the success of these projects, the entire firm needs to work together in a carefully orchestrated, collaborative way. It should be a little like my Shetland sheepdogs on their walks: always moving together, in-step, and side by side. The business must be an equal partner from day one, with combined teams, shared goals and accountability from the boardroom to the users.
One aspect that is also consistently underestimated is how long adoption can take. There’s a tendency to think that once the system is live and training is complete, the job is done, but it isn’t. For most of the large law firms we work with at Clio, go-live is roughly the halfway point, not the finish line. The challenges that follow aren’t necessarily just behavioural — they can also be technical, and tweaks and adjustments may be needed.
What are the most overlooked aspects of change management and why should firms pay closer attention to them?
Firms need to focus on planning: having a clear, documented roadmap and then executing it. It sounds obvious, yet the number of transformation projects I see running on instinct and a few slide decks is remarkable. The discipline of proper change management planning makes the difference between a project that lands and one that quietly keels over six months after go-live.
Who is included in that plan is frequently overlooked. Almost every change programme focuses on two groups: senior sponsors and frontline users. The in-between layer is often missed: practice group heads, team leaders, senior associates and — critically — finance, risk and compliance. These are the teams setting the tone; if they’re not on board, adoption collapses.
Firms also tend to forget that their clients feel the impact of a transformation, too. Involving them early can make a significant difference to outcomes.
Above all, leadership is crucial. Leaders must genuinely commit and stay committed, holding the line when obstacles arise. The clearest example of this dedication I’ve encountered was a managing partner who did a skydive with the project name written on his back. Within days, everyone was talking about the project — not just the jump. In a large law firm, getting people to pay attention to a transformation is half the battle, and this managing partner didn’t just send an email: he made it impossible to ignore. That energy at the top changes everything below it.
Jennie Strickland, chief customer officer at Clio Operate
This article originally appeared in Briefing. Read the complete article here.
