I've spent years helping law firms understand how their choices signal competence to clients and peers. We dissect website messaging, refine positioning statements, and craft content strategies that communicate expertise. But there's one signal most firms completely overlook: what their technology choices communicate about their sophistication, efficiency, and forward-thinking approach.
Last month, a managing partner told me about losing a INR 2 crore mandate. The final presentation went perfectly, until the screen sharing failed during the Q&A session. While the partner fumbled with IT support, the competing firm seamlessly transitioned to their backup system and answered the client's questions. Did the technology glitch perhaps make them wonder about their ease of future communications during transaction complexity with their counsel?
These moments happen daily across Indian law firms. The document that takes five minutes to locate during a client call. The client portal that's harder to navigate than the client's banking app. The video conference that drops three times during a critical negotiation. The haphazard filing systems.
Each interaction either builds confidence or plants doubt.
Client expectations have evolved faster than most law firms' technology adoption. The same client who transfers INR 50 lakhs with three taps on their phone expects similar efficiency from their legal counsel.
When clients experience friction with your technology, they don't think "their IT department needs work." They think (and not very logically on a whiteboard, but at gut feelings): "if they can't manage basic systems efficiently, how will they handle my complex legal matter?"
This isn't about becoming a technology company. It's about recognising that technological competence has become a proxy for professional competence.
The firms winning competitive pitches increasingly share a common trait: they've recognised that technology infrastructure is client experience infrastructure.
They evaluate software not just for internal efficiency, but for client impact. They ask: "What does this client interaction communicate about our firm?" They design technology workflows that reinforce rather than undermine their professional positioning.
A Mumbai-based firm recently won a fintech client partly because their matter management system provided real-time project visibility that impressed the client's CEO. The technology didn't make them better lawyers, but it demonstrated the organisational sophistication that fast-growing companies expect from their counsel.
The same principles that govern effective marketing apply to technology choices:
Consistency: Does your technology experience align with your brand promise? If you position yourself as "efficient and organized," but your systems are clunky and unreliable, you're undermining your own messaging.
User Experience: Just as marketing content should be client-focused, technology should prioritise client ease-of-use as much as smooth internal operations.
Professional Presentation: Your video conferencing setup, document sharing process, and client communication tools are as visible as your website, and probably interact with clients more frequently.
Reliability: Marketing builds expectations; technology fulfills or betrays them. Inconsistent technology performance damages credibility faster than poor marketing builds it.
The firms that understand this connection are already gaining advantages. They're not just buying legal tech, they're investing in client confidence infrastructure.
Every technology decision becomes a brand decision. Every system interaction becomes a marketing moment. Every efficiency gain becomes a competence signal.
The question isn't whether your technology works. The question is: what is it saying about your firm while it works?
About the author: Prachi Shrivastava is a lawyer-turned-journalist-turned-founder who got tired of watching great lawyers stay invisible. She built Lawfinity Solutions as a full-stack ecosystem for brand architecture, positioning, and trust-building in the legal sector. She also created Vakil Vetted, India's first matchmaking platform for trusted lawyers. If you're a good lawyer with no visibility, she probably already has a system to fix that injustice.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s). The opinions presented do not necessarily reflect the views of Bar & Bench.