Ogletree Deakins

A project of this size and scope requires substantial strategic planning and commitment to fostering a collaborative partnership. Knowing this, Rightpoint worked with Ogletree Deakins’s 60+ member cross-functional team and 20 dedicated team members to develop a client portal that can scale as client needs and demands grow and serve as a new revenue stream for the firm.

The multi-year collaboration began with a discovery phase to better understand the needs of the firm and its clients. Through extensive conversations, and workshops, the teams identified key issues that would guide the development of a solution that simultaneously served Ogletree clients and monetized valuable legal content.

Organizational alignment was crucial before the project could move toward development. Rightpoint created a prototype to demonstrate both the potential functionality of a client portal and the value Ogletree Deakins’s team and clients could gain from such a solution. The prototype provided a clear vision of what was possible and generated excitement as the project progressed.

Rightpoint next created a minimum viable product for Ogletree Deakins to use and gather feedback from select clients while continuing to add features, make meaningful changes, and scale the solution en route to creating a comprehensive client portal.

Since launching the Client Portal in May 2023, Ogletree Deakins has experienced significant outcomes that enable the firm to better serve current clients, reach new prospects, and set the stage for future growth opportunities.

The Client Portal enhances Ogletree Deakins’s consistency and responsiveness in service delivery by enabling clients to self-serve high-quality, multi-state, curated content that is up-to-date with the latest regulations. Easy access provides more immediate value to clients and improves client satisfaction. Streamlining content creation and curation also ensures that the firm is making effective use of SMEs’ time.

In the same spirit of optimizing time, the firm is beginning conversations around value-based billing vs. traditional billing since project launch, especially as more Ogletree Deakins attorneys actively engage with the portal. Attorneys can serve clients with greater efficiency and devote more time and resources to in-depth or complex legal matters.

The platform is scalable to the number of users and in the types of content and capabilities Ogletree Deakins provides via the portal. In the future, this could mean offering an outlet to middle market clients or other clients that might not be current Ogletree clients. Access to essential content and DIY tools lays the foundation for being the first call when a non-Ogletree Deakins client has complex needs requiring more substantial legal expertise.

Establishing a scalable platform with an annual subscription allows Ogletree Deakins to add additional clients at essentially no cost (i.e., not adding to head count) and recapture the firm’s investment in the platform. The productization of a traditional law firm service allows clients to maximize their budget with their attorney and elevates client-attorney conversations to a higher value, ideally leading to more significant and valuable partnerships with the firm.

Other significant outcomes include:

Client retention: Clients value technology that simplifies employment compliance and complex legal processes. A streamlined, user-friendly portal can be a differentiator in retaining clients and attracting new ones, particularly in the competitive legal compliance market. The enhanced client experience leads to stronger relationships, as well as new and repeat business that could include client-portal-only clients in the future.

Risk management: By centralizing highly curated compliance materials coupled with client communications on substantive updates made to law summaries and notifications on changes scheduled to take effect, the portal reduces the risk of missed deadlines or overlooked compliance requirements, safeguarding both clients and the firm from potential legal exposure.

Conclusion

The Client Portal stands as Ogletree Deakins’ premier platform for clients and attorneys. Clients benefit from access to multiple types of authoritative content and tools that make their time with their attorneys more efficient and high value. Ultimately, the secure and personalized Client Portal puts more power in the hands of Ogletree clients while simultaneously boosting efficiency, providing data for insights, fostering collaboration, and powering innovation for clients and attorneys.

By partnering with Rightpoint, Ogletree Deakins brought to life their vision to establish a robust digital relationship with their clients and introduce a new revenue stream through innovation that will power future growth opportunities.

Since launching in May 2023:

• Content library includes 90 topics, 4,500 law summaries, and 900 templates

• 4,300 clients with portal access

• 1,200 collaboration sites

• 1,000 (and growing) Ogletree attorneys accessing the portal

• Client Satisfaction score of 8.4/10 among paid subscribers (scores recorded 14 months post-launch)

• Team of dedicated experts including seven attorneys focused solely on creating and updating compliance content

• Release of new features every 90 days provides opportunities to increase awareness and adoption

• On track for a positive ROI by the end of 2025

• Strategic Planning

• Concept Prototyping

• Information Architecture

• Visual Design

• Analytics & Insights

• Two-Sided Marketplace Portal

• DXP Implementation and Integration

• Scalable Cloud Infrastructure

• Productization of Services