How Legal Data APIs Can Drive Efficiency in Law Firm Business Development

By: Justin Brownstone and Greg Selbo 

Law firms must continually seek more innovative strategies and tactical ideas to attract and retain clients in order to thrive in today’s increasingly competitive legal industry. The main engines that make this possible are the professional business development teams that most firms have carefully built in recent decades. 

Law firm leaders and their business development professionals know first-hand that leveraging advanced technology tools can provide them with a significant advantage. And one powerful tool savvy firms are using to enhance their business development efforts is Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). 

Understanding Legal Data APIs 

An API is simply a connection between one computer system and another computer system that allows data to flow seamlessly between the two environments. By integrating APIs from external data sources — such as a legal research platform or a cloud-based workflow tool — law firms can streamline their processes and improve data accessibility. 

“Law firms’ use of APIs — or application programming interfaces — is proliferating, as they access data from external sources for a range of purposes, from building analytics, to gathering intelligence on their clients and competitors, to developing proprietary AI tools and more,” writes Bob Ambrogi, a lawyer and veteran legal technology journalist who has discussed the importance of hiring developer and data science resources for large law firms. 

The current use of APIs by law firms is just scratching the surface of what’s possible across law firm operations. A general rule is that any task a firm is accomplishing manually is a good candidate for API automation, allowing law firms to dramatically improve the scale and quality of outreach efforts. 

A prime use case is law firm business development, where APIs can drive significant efficiencies to help firms generate more leads and win more business. 

APIs and Business Development 

APIs enable seamless integration between a law firm’s internal knowledge and other data with access to legal news, litigation analytics, court docketing information and other critical legal research sources. 

There are several ways API integration can drive efficiency in law firm business development activities: 

• Prospecting 
  APIs can enrich prospect data (held within a CRM or matter management tool) with relevant external information, such as industry trends, recent legal developments, and key decision-makers. These insights can be used to tailor a firm’s outreach messages based on the specific needs and interests of potential clients, increasing the likelihood of engagement. 

• Lead Generation 
  APIs can be used to automate routine tasks, such as capturing leads from various sources and then sending out personalized emails to nurture those leads through the business development pipeline. This frees up time for more creative and strategic lead-gen activities. 

• Client Insights 
  APIs can be used to track developments that may be of interest to clients, including the alerts set for changes on court dockets and relevant case law/statutes, and in turn build workflows off of those alerts. This empowers your firm to message clients at scale while still demonstrating a deep understanding of the client’s specific needs and challenges. 

• Data Analytics 
  These litigation analytics can also predict future trends and help firm leadership make more informed decisions about resource allocation, marketing investments, etc. 

APIs enable law firms to integrate valuable content they rely on from external sources (e.g., court records, legal research databases, etc.) with their internal data sources. By leveraging Legal Data APIs to connect their internal firm knowledge with trusted external data sources, law firms can significantly enhance the efficiency of their business development activities. 

From targeted prospecting and efficient lead generation to improved client insights and data analytics, API integration offers firms a powerful technology-enabled competitive advantage. 

Experience LexisNexis APIs 

To maximize the benefits of API integration, law firms should take a moment to identify key pain points in their business development workflows and determine which areas could be improved through automation or data integration. Then make sure to research and select API providers that offer the functionality and compatibility to meet your specific requirements. 

LexisNexis API Solutions provide law firms with the ability to access LexisNexis data from within their existing workflow, allowing lawyers and staff members to tailor their research tasks to their needs. This means less time searching, aggregating, and wrangling data — and more time researching, analyzing, and extracting actionable insights from the data that’s delivered directly to their own working environment. 

Learn more about the family of LexisNexis API offerings for law firms, which are entirely platform-agnostic and can work with any IT configuration.