Contact: Mark Fefer, Marketing Communications, 206.757.8583 or markfefer@dwt.com
AUGUST 4, 2016 – In recognition of the firm’s successful deployment of technology to deliver increased transparency and improved service to clients, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has been awarded First Place in the inaugural Impact Awards at the 2016 Legal Marketing Technology Conference/Midwest.
Davis Wright was recognized for its proprietary client dashboard solution, DWTConnect. Developed by the firm internally, in partnership with our growing tech client, FareHarbor Holdings, Inc., DWTConnect offers clients near real-time access to matter status and financials.
“In-house counsel and emerging companies everywhere are looking for ways to better track, anticipate, and report on their legal spend,” said Jeremy Chase, Davis Wright’s New York-based relationship attorney for FareHarbor. “We were delighted to collaborate with our client to prototype a powerful tool that was tailored to their needs and could be scaled firmwide.”
Founded in Hawaii in 2013, FareHarbor has become a leading online booking and management platform used by more than 2,500 activity and tour companies.
“We’ve succeeded by delivering highly attentive customer service along with seamless, user-friendly technology that simplifies our customers’ lives and helps grow their businesses,” said Lawrence Hester, who co-founded FareHarbor with his brother, Zachary. “We wanted a law firm that offered those same value propositions. Jeremy and his team have delivered.”
To create the dashboard, Chase tapped the skills of DWT De Novo, the firm’s in-house legal solutions design group. De Novo has worked with lawyers across the firm to improve efficiencies, enhance transparency, and leverage data analytics on behalf of clients. The dashboard project was led on the De Novo side by client engagement strategist Kate White.
DWTConnect provides clients a direct lens into the firm’s accounting and timekeeping systems. Clients can sort and filter to identify the status of individual matters, look across an entire portfolio of matters, or see timekeeper summaries—without having to contact a DWT attorney or await the next bill. Clients can raise questions or concerns immediately, any time the firm’s investment isn’t aligning with their goals, so that services can be adjusted accordingly.
“The legal industry is overdue for these kinds of improvements,” said Lawton Penn, head of DWT De Novo. “In many cases, clients still have to guess the status of active matters, wonder how work in progress is adding to their bill, and play phone or email tag with attorneys to get answers to these questions. DWT Connect puts this information at our clients’ fingertips, allowing them to report out—on demand—to their business stakeholders.”
In addition to accounting and time-keeping data, DWTConnect provides FareHarbor with one-click access to curated video tutorials, fully executed documents and templates, and a shared calendar of meetings, milestones, and deadlines.
The easy-to-navigate, mobile-friendly design “makes it easy to stay informed anywhere,” said Hester.
“We’re committed to making the jobs of in-house counsel and business stakeholders easier and adding more value as outside counsel,” said Penn. “Together with our clients, we continue to iterate to improve this tool. We anticipate that within a few years, all of our top clients will leverage DWTConnect.”
Launched this year, the Impact Awards recognize law firms and others “whose innovative use of technology has had a measurable impact on performance, client revenue growth, and retention.” The awards were established in three categories: “Client Service and Delivery” (for which Davis Wright was honored), “Marketing and Business Development,” and “Strategy and Innovation.”
The recent award adds to wide recognition Davis Wright and the DWT De Novo team have received for their innovation success. The firm has been named a top three finalist in four different categories of the International Legal Technology Association’s 2016 Distinguished Peer Awards: Innovative Law Firm of the Year, Innovative Project of the Year, IT Professional of the Year, and Litigation Support Professional of the Year.