I recently gave a speech at the annual FT Innovative Lawyers North America Awards in New York, where I presented my top-ten predictions for the future of innovation in the legal profession. Building on my remarks from the evening, I believe the following will be the key sources of legal innovation in the years ahead:

1) Innovation will come from law firms that are much more collaborative in how they share resources and knowledge with other firms and their clients.

Research has shown the value of collaboration within a firm, but clients will gain even more value from collaboration between firms, even if the firms would otherwise consider themselves competitors. The corporate world calls this "co-opetition." I believe the trend will happen faster in Europe, where the legal profession has historically been more progressive. And no, I do not think Brexit will be a hindrance.

2) We will see increased innovation as law firms become more diverse in their demographics, largely resulting from the increasing diversity of their hiring pools.

Studies have shown that more diverse organizations often out-innovate their less diverse peers and are generally more successful in expanding market share and entering new markets. This will become a crucial advantage for firms in our ever-globalizing economy.

3) Innovation will thrive as law firms continue to experiment with various ownership forms, in turn leading to new sources of funding, resources and approaches to their work.

The ownership role of “non-lawyers” will grow in acceptance around the world. Currently the UK and Australia, and to a limited extent some other jurisdictions, do allow non-lawyers to own and invest in alternative business structures for the delivery of legal services. I believe those firms who embrace a diversity of perspectives on the business side of law will become more innovative. Given the current view of ABSs in the US, this might seem to be an area of opportunity for non-US legal service providers to gain a competitive edge. But the US still has its innovators who do not give up so easily. There are a growing number of US firms now actively leveraging the advantages of legal outsourcing and other innovative practices. In the end, as long as firms keep value at the front and center, this will be what matters most to their clients.

4) Law firms will increasingly be run by professional managers who are not necessarily the rainmakers or subject matter experts.

Traditional managing partners can become frustrated at being taken out of client-facing roles. After all, the vast majority of them went to law school to become lawyers and practice the law. But this situation can also present a golden opportunity for those who are truly interested in the business side of law and who would like to make this area their chosen career path. Whether that is with a law firm or some non-traditional provider, I would encourage keeping an open mind to the changing career landscape for lawyers. For example, we see many lawyers now choosing to go to work for legal process outsourcing providers. While most LPOs do not engage in the practice of law, they do greatly appreciate the skill sets of trained and experienced lawyers. Such careers can be quite fulfilling.

5) Billable hours will always be a metric – but value for money will drive market rates, spurring firms to offer more for less.

For years, clients have been asking their firms for alternative fee structures and innovative pricing models, with the goal being to achieve the best value possible for legal services. But clients do want their firms to be profitable, so simply offering lower or capped rates is not necessarily going to be the right approach. I will keep beating this drum, but it is important to stress that clients care about value.

One recent study shows innovative firms in Australia are increasingly embracing relationships with LPOs as an effective means of controlling costs, managing and scaling resources, and improving their overall service delivery. Corporate clients ultimately benefit and a good example is what Microsoft did in setting up a managed service for procurement and contracting.

6) Innovative technologies, especially those that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning, will play a growing role in the business and practice of law.

The challenge to integrating these types of technologies into legal work practices will be to educate a whole new generation of lawyers to use them both effectively and ethically. This is where law school education must step up. These bastions of lawyerly tradition must recognize that there is a need for change. We are seeing some examples where this is happening already, such as at Suffolk University Law School, in Boston, where their Client Services Innovation Program offers students a paid opportunity to gain valuable work experience delivering innovative legal services to corporate clients. Technology is a key part of this service. I believe more law schools will come around to the idea that technology really ought to be a crucial part of every student’s curriculum in order to adequately prepare them for a career in the legal profession. As this happens, firms and our judicial systems should become more comfortable with these technologies and have less reticence about their use.

7) Data and network security will continue to be an issue, and many law firms will rise to this challenge by building up their own information security infrastructures.

It is often the case that great innovations will arise in response to great challenges. If you look at the recent example of the Panama Papers, we see a good example of how law firms are struggling with information security. But this is not necessarily an insurmountable problem. Adoption of innovative technologies may provide an effective answer. For instance, outsourcing data storage and its security to the cloud can be one very cost-effective approach. Some may argue that the cloud is not yet secure enough, but I would counter that it is probably far better than what many firms are currently doing. Either way, this is an area to watch closely because corporate clients will likely not tolerate their firms simply doing little or nothing to address their growing concerns about security.

8) The ecosystem of the legal profession will continue to include outsourcing, but this will encompass an increasingly diverse range of projects and partnerships.

As pressure continues for law firms to deliver more value for money, partnering with LPOs will give these firms a competitive advantage, chiefly through access to readily scalable and highly specialized staff without the need for these firms to invest in cumbersome recruiting, onboarding and management processes. But unlike traditional forms of outsourcing, I expect these legal outsourcing relationships will also be far more collaborative and innovation focused as both firms and LPOs join forces to deliver greater value to their common corporate clients.

9) We will see more innovative design in workspaces – particularly in how firms marry locations, layouts and technology with remote associates, and address even the seemingly enigmatic needs of millennials. This will have a profound impact on how legal and law firm teams collaborate and work more efficiently.

To borrow an example from what we have done at Integreon, I recommend a recent case study from Steelcase about the improvements we made to our office in Fargo, North Dakota, which happened about two years ago. What we did in Fargo, one of our onshore global delivery centers, is not all that unusual for corporations, but I think we will start to see more law firms thinking carefully about how workspaces and infrastructure can facilitate collaboration and innovation among their staff and with clients. Technology is a key element here because it enables work to be done almost anywhere and savvy law firm business leaders will come to appreciate this too.

10) We will see growing industry recognition of law firm innovation and, in turn, innovation will become a higher priority for firms.

While I believe we will continue to see recognition of innovation in corporate legal departments, I also believe there will be an increase in recognition of the value of innovation among law firms. FT and RSG already recognize law firm innovation and last year celebrated the ten year anniversary of their FT Innovative Lawyers Program. This program has grown considerably from its roots in Europe to become a global program that now includes North America and the Asia-Pacific region. I think more publications and ranking organizations will start to recognize law firm innovation as crucial for the future of the profession and we will in turn see law firms placing a higher business priority on initiatives that drive it.

Turning all of these opportunities into realities will admittedly require some considerable imagination and commitment, but I am quite confident that lawyers and firms, both in North America and elsewhere, will be up to the task of leading the future of innovation in the legal profession.