Sean Flaherty, managing partner of Keches Law Group, spoke with Litify about the importance of evolving your law firm's portfolio and using technology and data to drive better decision making.

Watch the full conversation, or read the highlights below.

“Insurers Need to Do the Right Thing”

Flaherty says that, like other professions who are stepping up during the coronavirus pandemic, insurers need to do right by people — especially those on the front lines of the crisis.

“We need to have insurers step up and do the right thing at this point in time,” he says. “If you have a nurse who is working twelve-hour shifts at your local hospital dealing with COVID patients, and she comes down with COVID-19, that’s a scenario where that nurse should be taken care of and placed on workers’ comp benefits. I don’t care what state you’re in.”

Flaherty also wonders about the liability of stores and warehouses where there have been outbreaks of the virus. “One would wonder: Have they been negligent, have they been cleaning, have they been on top of things? We don’t know.”

Though the Senate and Supreme Court have been very friendly to big companies, Flaherty suggests that this is not the time to prioritize their wellbeing over citizens’. “I’m very hesitant about sweeping changes to the law right now in favor of insurers and large corporations.”

Let the Numbers Dictate Your Decisions

Without Dohrmann’s prodding (we swear), Flaherty praised Litify for keeping Keches Law Group “at the forefront with regard to letting the numbers dictate how we’re going to do things and where our growth is going to be.”

“That’s important,” he says. “Being able to have the transparency to see every day what’s really happening... If you had to take hours and hours to try and figure out and speak to everybody at separate times and go look at paper, you’d be behind the curve.”

According to Flaherty, technology didn’t used to play such a key role at the firm. “If you asked us ten years ago, ‘How many cases do you have? Where are they? How many intakes did you do? What’s your conversion rate?’ We just didn’t know, to be quite honest with you.”

Litify “helped us know the answers to those questions that any law practice manager really should have their fingers on at any moment.”

Flaherty says that some members of the law firm still like doing things the old-fashioned way, including the firm’s founder, George Keches. “George is a guy who likes his paper, and that huge accordion folder; there’s comfort there,” Flaherty says. “But what he likes more than that is being able to know what’s going on within his business. Litify allows us to do that, which is great.”

He emphasizes that without data, “It’s hard to grow, and it’s hard to get better.”

“It’s Time to Bring Business Into Law”

Asked about the seismic changes to the industry being floated by the Utah Supreme Court, Flaherty says he welcomes them. “I understand and see the other side, but I think it’s based in fear. It’s time for legal to understand that there is a whole outside world that’s going on. Staying stagnant like this just breeds mediocrity. It’s time to bring business into law.”

Flaherty points out that the legal world has always been slow to change, with perhaps more innovations occurring in just the past ten years than the previous thirty.

“Progress is needed,” he says. “Bring in venture capital, bring in people who have great ideas who are smart, and really provide [consumers] with superior experience and better access to great legal work.”

Flaherty notes that if you’re a great lawyer, you’ll still be a great lawyer — and you might have more funding behind you. “I’m a strong yes. I think it’s a good thing for the law to move forward. It makes everybody better.”

To move your law firm forward, get data-driven insights, and run your practice like a business, request a Litify demo.