Legal Tech is booming and in order to satisfy shareholder demands some companies are leveraging hostile tactics to grow and reduce churn. The following are tactics that we consider hostile. If you are engaging with a vendor that is leveraging these tactics, please report them to us.
​​Hostile Tactics used Against Law Firms
Hostile vendors may do any of the following actions.
​Not allowing firms to create their own backups for free
By charging or outright prohibiting law firms from making their own backups, hostile vendors ensure firms who are considering a switch will incur additional costs and delays.
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Not allowing firms access to their APIs for free
APIs are the single best way for law firms to backup their data. Without API access, a firm has limited methods to get reliable on-demand backups of their data.
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Providing incomplete Exports or CSVs
Believe it or not, there are vendors who will intentionally provide exports that are missing key pieces of data. Depending on the information that is missing, this can either result in massive data loss or completely prevent the data from being reliably restored to an alternate product.
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Providing Proprietary Exports or "backups"
If a backup cannot be restored, is it really a true backup? Some vendors will try to provide firms with "backups" that can only be restored back to the vendor's very own system and some will provide "backups" that can't even be restored to the vendor's own software!​​
​​Taking more than 24 hours to provide a backup
Some vendors will intentionally drag their feet when asked to provide a firm with a backup of its data. We have heard of many situations where a certain hostile vendor has told firms that it will take them over 90 days to provide a backup - and then the backup is missing tons of information.
Blocking​ or Disabling Users / IP Addresses that attempt to make backups
Some vendors will block the IP addresses or user accounts of law firms who try to take their own backups and then claim that allowing the firm to make its own backup is a "security risk".
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Forcing Full-Size Multi-Year Contract Renewals
Imagine being forced to purchase tons of software you don't like and don't plan to use. Some vendors will surprise law firms by only allowing their firm to retain access to their data if they sign multi-year contract renewal for their entire firm. We have heard of law firms who were trapped by hostile vendors and were required to renew their software for an additional 3-5 years!
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Throttling API / Download Speeds
Imagine if someone said you had to use dialup to take backups. Some hostile vendors put speed limits in place that effectively enforce that.​​
How can Hostile Vendors get away with this?!?
​The sad truth is that many law firms are not willing to fight for their own rights or for their own data. When they encounter resistance, they often complain but ultimately comply with the hostile vendor's demands: they essentially assent to becoming a hostage customer. Because of this, the tactics above tend to be very effective when the law firm does not actually push back through legal methods.
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What can I do if I'm stuck with a Hostile Vendor?
You're going to need to invest a little bit of effort to gain access to your information.
The first thing you should do is report them to us so we can help other firms avoid making the same mistake your firm did. Once that is done, you should send a demand letter to the hostile vendor informing them that they should either: (a) provide you with uninhibited API access to your data or (b) provide you with a backup of your data in an industry standard format. In your demand, you should reference the vendor's own policies about data access and ownership as well as local laws/rules that require you to maintain access to client's data.
Depending on the vendor, you may have to file a suit in court, however, in our experience, once a suite is filed, hostile vendors tend to comply very quickly as they do not want the bad PR associated with holding law firms hostage.
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If you need additional support, we are here to help. Universal Migrator provides free guidance and expert testimony to law firms who are dealing with hostile vendors.