Legal Industry Business Reference Architecture

Align strategy and execution: Unite strategic initiatives across the firm, while replacing fragmented systems and disconnected transformation efforts
Clarify value and capabilities: Define a clear, firm-wide capability model that clarifies how value is generated and delivered, including a shared language for planning, communication and improvement.
Revisit the operating model: Identify the optimal and sustainable operating model approach that addresses the market challenges and aligns with your firm’s ambitions.
Investment efficiency: Link technology investment decisions to defined business capabilities, ensuring spending supports strategic priorities.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Structural inertia, silos, and legacy systems block adaptability; this blueprint aligns strategy, capabilities, and technology to enable practical, lasting change.
Cultural resistance and talent gaps slow transformation; this framework builds clarity, agility, and firm-wide capability.
Fragmented investments weaken competitiveness; a unified reference architecture empowers firms to adapt, lead, and sustain advantage in a fast-evolving market.

Impact and Result

This research provides:

A unified view of strategy, capabilities, and technology to guide firm-wide investment and transformation initiatives.
Data-driven prioritization of high-value capabilities that strengthen profitability, scalability, and client experience.
A repeatable framework to adapt, lead, and sustain competitive advantage in a quickly evolving market.

Legal Industry Business Reference Architecture Research & Tools

1. Legal Industry Business Reference Architecture Guide – This advisory deck helps law firm leaders clearly align their strategy, talent, and technology via a unified business reference architecture.

The business reference architecture for law firms provides a practical roadmap to connect firm strategic with the capabilities and technology required to deliver growth and differentiate their offering in the market.

2. Legal Industry Business Reference Architecture Definitions – This tool provides a structured set of business capability definitions to help law firms establish a shared language for the corresponding reference architecture activity.

The definition library contains standardized definitions for core, enabling, and shared capabilities within a law firm operating model. This library provides a helpful starting point and format to expedite the formulation of a common vocabulary to be used when working on transformation efforts.

3. Legal Industry Business Reference Architecture Template – This is an editable template that helps law firms build and customize their own business reference architecture using a sample structure and data.

This template helps law firms accelerate the development of their customized reference architecture.

Positioning your firm to compete effectively in tomorrow’s legal market.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 9 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Build the Law Firm Capability Map

Call 1: Introduce Info-Tech’s industry reference architecture methodology.

Guided Implementation 2: Leverage Business Capabilities to Define Strategic Focus

Call 1: Define and create value streams.
Call 2: Model Level 1 business capability maps.

Guided Implementation 3: Assess Key Capabilities for Planning Priorities

Call 1: Map value streams to business capabilities.
Call 2: Model Level 2 business capability maps.
Call 3: Create a strategy map.
Call 4: Introduce Info-Tech's capability assessment framework.

Guided Implementation 4: Adopt Capability-Based Strategy Planning

Call 1: Review capability assessment map(s).
Call 2: Discuss and review prioritization of key capability gaps and plan next steps.

Author

Kassim Dossa

Contributors

Bryan Berry, CIO, Norton Rose Fulbright - Canada
Chris Mackie, CTO, Mcguire Woods
Kim Wismer, CIO, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Alex Bazin, CTO/COO, Lewis Silkin LLP