Ballard Spahr Named Legal Technology Trailblazer by National Law Journal

Ballard Spahr’s Diversity Goals Dashboard technology has landed the firm a spot on the National Law Journal’s Legal Technology Trailblazers list, which recognizes innovations in legal technology that move the industry forward. The firm also was recognized by the National Law Journal as a leading technology firm in 2020.

Ballard Spahr’s Client Value and Innovation team, led by Chief Client Value and Innovation Officer Melissa Prince, built the Diversity Goals Dashboard to support the firm’s commitment to create diverse and inclusive teams and increase collaboration. The Dashboard measures lawyer and firm leadership census metrics against the firm’s five-year diversity and inclusion goals. The Dashboard updates changes to the census metrics in real time to provide a visual representation of progress toward goals.

Clients can access the Dashboard to see their own diversity and inclusion metrics through the firm’s Ballard360 platform, an award-winning custom suite of client technology applications developed in-house to promote collaboration, transparency, efficiency, and cost predictability. Other Ballard360 tools include COVID-19 Federal and State Legislation Trackers, a Stimulus Enforcement Tracker, and interactive client portals that contain financial information, business intelligence, and customized matter management tools.

“Before we had the Dashboard, this type of information was dispersed over multiple firm systems and was not easy to track,” Ms. Prince said. “Now, the Dashboard contains all of the information and displays it in easy-to-read charts and graphics. It contains customizable views that allow the user to filter by office, legal department, practice group, timeframe, and lawyer classification. This helps to keep us focused on exceeding our goals of inclusion and advancing the firm’s and clients’ commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Having data presented in a way that makes it actionable is critical to achieving those goals.”

This award is just the latest in a series of national honors for Ballard Spahr’s Client Value and Innovation team. The team also was recognized in the National Law Journal’s Legal Technology Trailblazers list in 2020. It won a 2020 Financial Times award for Rethinking the Workplace, recognizing its use of the Ballard360 technology to quickly transition to a work-from-home environment during the pandemic. In addition, the team has garnered national recognition from the BTI's Legal Innovation and Technology Outlook Report, which ranked Ballard Spahr among the country’s most innovative law firms based on the firm’s strategic use of technology, its focus on emerging areas of practice, and its innovative approach to client issues.