How to Build a Culture of Innovation in a Traditional Legal Practice

5 min read

Here’s how you can help your law firm or in-house legal department become more innovative and tech-driven, even if you have a more traditional culture.

Many law firms and in-house legal departments claim to be innovative – but very few are living up to this supposed value. In the legal industry, innovation is more than just adopting emerging technology (though that’s certainly part of it). Legal innovation is a mindset of continuous improvement and curiosity.

But in the legal industry, which is risk-averse by nature, innovation is often seen as a four-letter word. Tradition is revered for its own sake, because “that’s the way we’ve always done it” has a certain appeal to more conservative legal professionals.

The only problem with being risk-averse? It doesn’t pay. Appara’s State of Canadian Legaltech Report found that law firms and in-house departments that innovate experience huge benefits. So how can your legal practice reap the benefits of innovation without breaking decades of tradition and destabilizing the entire company? Here’s what you need to know about building a culture of innovation in a traditional legal practice.

Legal Innovation Has a Branding Problem

Innovation in the legal industry is often perceived as making wholesale changes to the entire way your organization operates. It’s scary, it’s overwhelming, and it raises questions about the ROI of change.

The important thing for more traditional firms to understand is that innovation can be iterative. You can take it one step at a time. It’s not about changing your entire practice; it’s about aligning your practice’s operations with its core values.

Yes, change is intimidating. But the fear of change is often overblown. (We have a whole section about dealing with the fear of change in our e-book “The Busy Legal Professional’s No-Hassle, No-Fear Guide to Software Procurement”.)

To support legal innovation it’s important to first understand the WHY of innovation.

Why Innovation Matters More Than Ever

Modern legal clients expect efficiency, transparency, and digital convenience. If your legal practice isn’t set up to deliver these things, then you’re going to fall behind more tech-savvy and forward-thinking competitors. According to UK-based The Law Society, driving new business continues to be a challenge in 2025 as competition in the sector grows. It has become more difficult than ever for law firms to stand out from their competitors, meaning your firm needs every advantage it can get. 

You can’t always be the cheapest, but you can be the most tech-savvy. Innovation isn’t optional. It’s how law firms and in-house legal departments attract top talent, satisfy clients, and stay competitive.

Cultural Roadblocks to Innovation

If developing an innovative culture at your company sounds challenging, that’s because it is. There are several key barriers you’ll need to overcome in order to create a culture of innovation, especially if your company tends to be more traditional in its ways.

First and foremost, you’ll need to overcome hierarchical decision-making and risk aversion. If your firm’s senior partners or senior executives tend to be the ones calling all the shots, your organization runs the risk of missing opportunities. Senior leaders tend to be more risk averse, so they’re less likely to seize the opportunities in front of them because they’re afraid of taking chances. Senior partners who are close to retirement may also not have any interest in investing money in the firm, so you’ll need to persuade them that it’s important to set the firm up for future success.

At law firms, you’ll also need to deal with the obsession with the billable hour, which often leaves no time for experimentation. When your entire team is focused on maximizing billable hours, they’re not focused on the process improvements and technology innovations that could have an exponential effect on your revenue.

(Here at Appara, we’ve written about why the billable hour needs to die – twice. Hourly billing punishes efficiency, discourages innovation, and incentivizes overwork & burnout.)

Legacy systems and outdated processes can also contribute to an anti-innovation culture. If your legacy software and existing processes don’t allow for experimentation and innovation, you’re likely unable to invest in process improvements.

Finally, the “We’ve always done it this way” mindset is a major roadblock you’ll need to overcome in order to build a culture of innovation at your legal practice.

These aren’t personal problems with your staff – they’re systemic issues within your practice, set from the top down. And they can change at any time.

Building Blocks of an Innovative Legal Culture

There are several key fundamentals that you can implement in your law firm or in-house legal department that will help you create a more innovative culture.

First, you’ll want to ensure your leadership team models curiosity. Innovation starts at the top. Which means leaders need to encourage questions and reward creative thinking. Firms that hold “innovation hours” or open forums for process improvement ideas will see more creative ideas come forward from staff – ideas that could increase your profits, cut down on your admin work, and streamline your operations.

Second, you’ll want to ensure you build a culture of psychological safety and experimentation. Teams need to feel safe to test ideas that might fail – that’s the only way they’ll find innovations that work. Remember, it took Thomas Edison several tries to invent the world’s first commercially viable lightbulb. He didn’t fail several times, the lightbulb was an invention with several steps. Discuss with your team how they can perform small pilot projects that might increase productivity.

Your firm or department can also leverage technology as a cultural catalyst. Tools like document automation and workflow management systems aren’t just tech upgrades – they’re signals that the company values smarter work. Plus, these tools can reduce friction among your teams, cut down on their admin time, and help free them up to do higher-value work.

Finally, you’ll also want to ensure you create a cross-functional, collaborative culture where lawyers, paralegals, and administrative staff talk to each other. Encourage your staff to break down information silos and share their insights with each other. Take the time to publicly recognize and reward innovators at your company. When shifting a company culture, even small wins matter.

Tradition and innovation can coexist peacefully. Innovation doesn’t have to mean abandoning the things that make legal practice great. You can still perform your work with diligence, prioritize legal rigor, and keep your company’s strong focus on ethics. But the most successful legal practices today blend those traditions with modern agility. As more law firms and in-house legal departments adopt innovative mindsets and technology, the culture of law will gradually change to become more innovative itself. And when innovation is the name of the game, clients win.

Are you ready to discover how your law firm or legal department can benefit from innovative technology like workflow automation, document automation, and entity management? We can help. Book a demo to unlock your FREE trial of Appara and discover how much time you can save through modern technology.