“We had the foresight to say we needed information at our fingertips, readily available.” – Mark Smolik, chief legal officer, DHL Supply Chain Americas, in conversation with Michele D. DeStefano, “Leading Business people with Law Degrees,” The Practice (Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession), July/August 2026.
Smolik was talking about his own legal department, not a law firm. But the line is just as true – arguably more urgent – for the firms that serve departments like his. If in- house teams are getting their data in order, the pressure on outside counsel to do the same is only going to grow.
Turning Law Firm Data into Business Insight
Every law firm sits on a mountain of data. Very few know what is in it.
That is the real story, not the technology. Business analytics – data management, data mining, the analytical layer on top – is what turns a firm’s raw operational data into something a managing partner can act on. This isn’t a new idea in business generally. It is still a genuinely new idea in most law firms.
Data is the backbone, not the byproduct
Firms have treated data as a filing problem for so long that they have missed what it is: a strategic asset. A firm’s growth, its client relationships, its profitability all of it should be evidence-led, not run on partner instinct and institutional memory. That shift, from “we have always done it this way” to “what does the data say,” is the one most firms have not made yet.
Law firms generate several distinct categories of data, and treating them as one undifferentiated pile is part of the problem:
- Structured data – billing records, timekeeping, CRM entries
- Unstructured data – contracts, agreements, letters of engagement, email correspondence
- Firm management data – staffing, utilization, collections, procurement
- Client- facing data – pitch materials, client feedback
Most firms have all four. Few have anyone whose job it is to connect them.
The problem isn't data. It is discipline.
Firms don’t lack data. They lack process, ownership, and coordination to collect it consistently. Data governance done poorly is where things fall apart: deal reporting slips, partners lose confidence in the numbers, and analytics becomes a box-ticking exercise rather than a decision- making tool.
Good data mining isn’t a software purchase. It is a habit – one that must be built into how a firm operates, not bolted on afterward. That means partners and staff alike need to see collecting and organising information as part of the job, not an administrative afterthought. Firms that grew up on referrals and relationships alone are having to learn this from scratch. The ones that get there first will have a real head start.
And it is worth saying plainly: none of this is exotic. Tagging matters properly, keeping a proper deal bible for every transaction – this is the baseline, not the innovation. Firms that can’t tell you, without a scramble, which deals a particular clause appeared in, or who did what on a matter three years ago, don’t have an AI problem. They have a filing problem wearing a technology excuse. Get the basics right first.
Why process beats results
Two things separate firms that get value from their data from firms that just collect it:
- Timely, coordinated collection – data must move across teams as a matter of routine, not effort.
- Buy- in on process, not just outcomes – partners need to understand that the discipline of collecting data well matters as much as whatever headline number comes out the other end.
Firms can no longer afford to run on ad hoc habits and informal channels. The evidence is consistent: firms that build real data and analytics capability see it show up in operational efficiency, sharper decision- making, and – ultimately – in how well they serve and represent their clients.
That is the case for treating data as infrastructure, not an afterthought. The firms that internalise this now will be the ones setting the pace later.
Authored by Ivan Sarone