UK Biometrics installs Britain's first law firm access system

With the private sector rushing into biometrics, it is no surprise that law firms would be among them. Consider the case of U.K.-based Winn Soliciters, a personal injury firm with a troop of lawyers and an even larger collection of call center operators. Fingerprint scanners supplied by UK Biometrics have allowed the firm to dispense with keys, PIN numbers, and swipe cards, and has routinized the firm’s payroll system. (Employers should keep in mind that some workers may resist such an approach, especially if they have good reasons not to want to be fingerprinted.) In addition, “A biometric system has health and safety benefits since management know exactly who is in the building should they need to evacuate,” said UK Biometrics’s Steve Bernard. Winn Solicitors is believed to be the first law firm in the U.K. to adopt such technology.

Cross-cultural investment notes: the system such as adopted by Winn Soliciters would have to be fundamentally tweaked for the American corporate law market. In such firms, while secretaries and mail clerks work on an hourly or pure salaried basis, the attorneys are expected to bill hourly (or in one-sixth or smaller increments.) This typically requires them to fill out a written time sheet throughout the day, though there is much fudging involved, as anyone who has ever used a white shoe firm knows (or should know). One interesting approach might be to ask lawyers to scan their fingers at the beginning of each billed phone call, meeting, or review of a document. This would create a strong, defensible record of every billed transaction, and would incentivize lawyers to more carefully consider the use of their time.

-read more in this Security Park report