BIG DATA! Most people have heard of the trend towards “Big Data” but there seems to be little understanding of what it is. At it’s core is making sense of large and often disperate databases, to see completely new patterns that never existing before. Take for example the idea of preventing crime before it happens; many police authorities world wide have done exactly that, allowing them to deploy a police officer to a spot even before a crime has actually commenced. Similarly, the Wall Street Journal cite a fascinating example of being able to pre-empt impending bouts of depression, or even suicidal ideation just based on google location and social media data. BIG DATA FOR LAW FIRMS How does this apply to law firms? Legal companies are not known for their uptake of the latest technology and they could be forgiven for not seeing the potential application of big data to their businesses to gain competitive advantage. Forbes magazine suggests this may be about to change due to the arrival of a new breed of “data savvy” lawyers and law professionals. But how? E-DISCOVERY One example is e-discovery, whereby computers are setup to trawl thousands of structured and un-structured sources to find the most important documents relevant to a case. According to the LawGazzette.co.uk there has been an increase in this technology, “there is a lot of talk about using predictive coding to speed up the review process but the real advantage is strategic. Early identification of the most important documents helps lawyers build up the bigger picture about a case much earlier in the litigation process.’ PREDICTION Some technology companies are attempting to predict even before taking a case on, the probability that the case can be won. New startups are looking at such challenges. Target Intelligence (www.targetintelligence.co.uk) are developing solutions that will securely sequester a law firms data from various sources and mathematically calculate the chance of winning a case. By doing this, it is possible to avoid taking on cases which the data shows there is little chance of winning. HIGHLY TARGETED MARKETING Another application that Target Intelligence can provide is the use of large geographical datasets to better target clients. The larger the pool of data, the better the chance that a law firm can significantly increase the conversion rate of business to consumer marketing campaigns. If you have never considered that big data can do for you, the chances are that your competition have.