Cooley LLP is a global law firm, with 1,500 lawyers across 17 offices in the United States, Asia and Europe. Much of its work serves disruptors in innovative spaces in life sciences, media and technology, from startups to established industry leaders. It helps in Cooley's relationship with these clients that the firm itself is in the vanguard when it comes to technological innovation.

Innovative clients demand a partner in legal services that is equally forward-thinking and has a mindset that embraces disruption and innovative tools, says Rob Kerr, chief information officer at Cooley. "Our clients expect us to find and leverage technology on their behalf, in a way that benefits them," he says. "Whether that's efficiency or collaboration or connectedness, they expect a level of technological sophistication from us as a firm and a partner."

Using technology effectively, though, is about more than picking the latest solution and deploying it across the organization, Kerr notes. "We have to start with the question: What is the business problem we're trying to solve? What do our lawyers need most today? What are their clients in need of most? And how can we do that in a way that perhaps we haven't thought about before?"

Rethinking Workplaces and Workspaces With Zoom

In 2018, Cooley began the process of redesigning the workspace in its New York office. It wanted to create something different than the traditional law firm, typically configured around an outside perimeter of big-windowed offices, opting instead for a more open floor plan that would encourage collaboration and accommodate hybrid work, including huddle rooms mixed in with boardrooms and privacy spaces, with moveable screens and electronic walls capable of rapid reconfiguration.

The next step was to enable the space by using technology to facilitate greater agility for Cooley's workforce and its clients.

"We partnered with Zoom because of their ease of use and deep feature set-and because we viewed them as a disruptor. And that's how we view ourselves," Kerr says. By making every space a fully integrated Zoom Room, Cooley made it possible to start meetings using a voice command and enabled the use of touch screens and whiteboard capabilities within Zoom Meetings for full ideation and participation from everyone attending the meeting, regardless if they are physically present or remote. Smart Gallery, a unique feature of Zoom Rooms, brings additional inclusivity to the meeting experience by allowing remote participants to see each person physically present in an individual frame. This raised engagement levels for everyone-and with it the efficacy and efficiency of collaborative time-by facilitating easier, more natural interaction.

"It's imperative to focus on business opportunities that are not necessarily situated where our offices are located." - Jen Ainsworth, Director of Marketing, Cooley

Using the full Zoom platform, including the portability of Zoom Phone, allows Cooley to create a unified experience across its global network for connection and collaboration between its lawyers, clients and other key stakeholders. "Connectedness is an imperative," Kerr says. "To do that on a global scale without worrying about service outages or multiple vendors has been very powerful for us."

It also reflects a shift in the concept of workspaces.

"Cooley recognizes the power of a seamless and frictionless communications platform, which is why they chose to leverage Zoom. When appropriate we have other clients visit the Cooley offices to see how a modern law firm stays connected internally and externally via the Zoom platform," says Harry Moseley, Global Chief Information Officer at Zoom.

"Listening to our customers and incorporating their comments is crucial to Zoom's success, and Cooley has been a great partner in sharing feedback and unveiling new use cases that our team has been able to support," Moseley adds.

Developing Relationships

The disruption caused by COVID-19 only intensified the need to build connections, while simultaneously cutting off avenues to traditional points of contact, like in-person events, conferences, offsites and partner meetings, where both formal and informal work gets done. Cooley had to fill that gap.

"It's imperative to focus on business opportunities that are not necessarily situated where our offices are located, as more markets open up and expand throughout the U.S. and around the world," says Jen Ainsworth, director of marketing at Cooley. "Brand reach is incredibly important for us from a competitive standpoint, to keep in front of this disruptive, innovative new economy."

In a world demanding new approaches to large-scale conferences and seminars, Cooley leverages the capabilities of Zoom Webinar and Zoom Events. These products have helped Cooley engage with a wider range of people than exclusively in-person events ever could. Ainsworth points to a November 2021 hybrid event, which in previous years required people to travel to the Bay Area to attend.

"Instead, along with those attending in San Francisco, we had people in Europe, Asia and the East Coast joining the virtual event who could select which panels they were interested in joining. This flexibility also extended to our panelists, as we were able to create panels with speakers located anywhere, including on the ground at the event venue," Ainsworth says. "Joining by live feed from the ballroom and remotely, both on-the-ground and virtual panelists were able to communicate with each other and with their audience. It provided an engaging forum for everyone. It hits home on our culture of inclusivity, because we're able to reach broader audiences and attract geographically dispersed speakers."

Originally published in Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2022

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