Dennis Kennedy

Law.com reports that the Preston Gates law firm has developed software to manage electronic discovery documents and transactional documents. This effort illustrates another effort by a law firm to respond to client concerns with technological innovation.

"Whenever a client expresses cost concerns, a law firm responds," says B. Gerald Johnson, Preston Gates' managing partner.

The article says, "Johnson set up a committee called 'Work Smarter,' headed by IP partner Martin Smith, to search for the good ideas. It has taken awhile, but Preston Gates lawyers have created two tools that have made their lawyers work faster and their clients envious. One is the document search tool Patterns. The other, called Structure, helps assemble documents in transactions."

While it probably helps to have Microsoft as a major firm client, this approach is one that law firms are going to have to consider and that large clients will want to request.