A new legal market research report “State of mobile apps in law firms 2017” by Fliplet shows higher adoption of mobile app technology by law firms. I’m delighted that they referenced my original 2012 research into the subject in their report.
| The top 10 law firms with the best app store presence | ||
| 1 | Baker McKenzie | 24 total and 16 unique apps |
| 2 | Eversheds Sutherland | 11 total and 6 unique apps |
| 3 | Latham & Watkins | 23 total and 12 unique apps |
| 4 | Paul Hastings | 6 total and 4 unique apps |
| 5 | Bird & Bird | 9 total and 5 unique apps |
| 6 | Mayer Brown | 11 total and 6 unique apps |
| 7 | Morrison & Foerster | 7 total and 5 unique apps |
| 8 | CMS | 7 total and 4 unique apps |
| 9 | Fish & Richardson | 6 total and 3 unique apps |
| 10 | DLA Piper | 5 total and 3 unique apps |
(The scoring system – 5 points for every unique app and 10 points per unique main category of business purpose and 20 points per unique app sub-category)
The research, which looked at the top 300 law firms by revenue with headquarters in the US and UK, also revealed that 80% of the mobile apps by law firms on the app stores have either been created or updated in 2016 and 2017 – confirming that the past few months have seen firms increasing their activity in the mobile channel.
Fliplet’s Marketing Director Angie Ferrara, who formerly headed digital marketing at a major law firm, said: “Working on the 80:20 principal, we’re now beyond the point where early adopters are testing the market. Law firm apps are now in the mainstream and those law firms that haven’t joined the mobile revolution need to seriously think about doing so.”
The report also found that the most popular kinds of apps with law firms are:
- Event apps (59% of law firms with apps have event apps),
- Reference/content marketing apps (27.4%)
- General firm apps (16.4%)
- Interactive tools (10.9%)
- Client support apps (9.6%)
Other at-a-glance findings:
- 24% of the top 300 law firms now have mobile apps on the public app stores
- US law firms are far more prolific than UK law firms – 73% of the law firms that have apps are US headquartered
- 80% of law firms have updated and created apps in 2016 and 2017
- 58% of apps made by law firms are client facing – the rest are internal
- Crisis response apps are the fastest growing kind of public mobile app, with many law firms launching Dawn Raid apps in recent months
For more details about the research and the complete mobile leadership rankings, download the full report at https://fliplet.com/law-firms-2017
My original 2012 research into app usage in professional service firms is summarised here: http://kimtasso.com/white-paper-apps-by-uk-law-accountancy-and-property-firms-are-we-missing-the-mobile-revolution/ and http://kimtasso.com/law-firms-still-missing-a-trick-with-apps/
