Microsoft’s legal department has awarded two teams of law firms a slot in its innovation accelerator after a monthslong competition among outside providers that was geared toward investing in technology and solving the tech giant’s business challenges.
For three years, Microsoft’s legal department, led by the corporate, legal and external affairs team, and now the newly formed Modern Legal Team, have challenged several of its outside providers to think differently about the provision of legal services, efficiency, technology, and just generally work to help Microsoft do more with less. This year, the focus was on digital transformation and the use of technology, and 13 firms (nine teams) competed for a chance for their idea to move into the accelerator program through which Microsoft would help bring the concept to fruition.
Microsoft’s picks for the winning projects, along with the entire Legal Business Design Challenge, crystallize the ways in which clients are looking for outside providers to marshal varied skill sets, use technology, collaborate with other providers and do more than just pure legal work.
As Rebecca Benavides, director of legal business for CELA, said before announcing the winners June 17, Microsoft is now doing mission critical work in light of COVID-19, plus the run of business work. So it’s more important than ever for the legal department and its outside providers to be investing in and using technology in an effort to operate more efficiently.
Benavides also said Microsoft wants firms to steer those initiatives. “Sometimes we don’t know what we want,” she said, but law firms can leverage their experience across clients to provide the solution Microsoft couldn’t envision. The use of tech is also increasingly factored into Microsoft’s RFPs.
“These client-facing solutions/pitches have an added benefit of making the teams doing the work more effective, more efficient and more productive in the delivery of legal services,” Benavides added Friday via email. “As we all continue to work from home with our professional and personal lives blending together and competing for our attention, the ability to prioritize efforts, automate workflows and make room for more strategic efforts will be critical.”
