Technology and Business Strategies Transforming Delivery of Legal Services
The practice of law is not only a profession; it’s a business. Broadly characterized as the legal service industry, it faces many of the same challenges and opportunities confronting other industries.
For example, the legal industry is now under ever-increasing pressure from its clients to enhance the value of what it provides, which essentially translates to reducing the cost of legal services.
Innovative legal professionals are now implementing many of the same cost-reducing strategies employed by other industries—from process improvement initiatives to technological innovations to outsourcing specific work to third-party specialists. These pioneering legal professionals, while they may be small in number, are a growing minority, and are succeeding in transforming the legal services industry.
Speaker Bio
Thomas is responsible for managing the firm’s global operations, including client service and satisfaction, staffing, performance management and training, workflow, and organizational planning. Thomas is an attorney and a results-oriented, process-driven executive who has been recognized for consistently improving quality, client service, and operational performance.
Prior to joining Hickey Smith, Thomas held a number of executive management roles in the commercial insurance claims industry, most recently as senior vice president of Liability Claims for Zurich North America. He has a keen understanding of how law firms can improve quality, reduce costs, and better align with their clients’ business expectations and needs, thereby enhancing their client value proposition and competitive position in the legal service marketplace.
Tom is an active member of the Defense Research Institute, acting as co-chair of the Insurance Law Committees’ Insurance Industry Advisory Board and the 2015 corporate chair of the Insurance Roundtable. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, ARIAS US, and the International Association of Defense Counsel.