HIKE2 Expands Legal Industry Support with New Director, Mike Anastasiades

HIKE2 is thrilled to announce that Mike Anastasiades has joined us as Legal Industry Director.

Based in Boston, MA, Mike brings a wealth of law firm, project management, and Salesforce experience to his position.

Mike’s first job out of college was in accounting and billing at a law firm. He moved into IT project management next, leading several software implementations. Once those projects were completed, he stayed on in IT as a DBA.

After several years, Mike moved to Oracle as a solutions engineer. During his 13-year tenure there, he served first as an individual contributor and then as a manager, Director, and Senior Director.

Mike then joined Salesforce. During the next 10 years, he held various solution engineering leadership roles, helping to build Salesforce’s legal sub-vertical from the ground up.

Salesforce Prioritizes the Legal Industry

Salesforce had very little structure in place for the legal industry when Mike first arrived.

He and his team started by holding monthly meetings with Salesforce account executives and solution engineers who worked with law firms and legal departments. Next, they launched a successful webinar series featuring CMOs, Marketing Directors, and Business Development Directors from law firms who talked about how their firms used Salesforce and the benefits.

At the time, Mike says, he met three or four times a week with different firms, discussing their challenges and exploring ways Salesforce could make a difference. They ended up helping many law firms become successful using Salesforce solutions.

At one point, Mike led a team of about 150 solution engineers, helping customers solve their business challenges. “I’m certainly proud of my Salesforce experience, as well as being able to leverage that experience to land a role at HIKE2,” Mike says.

HIKE2 provides advisory services and solutions and has a strong point of view when it comes to the legal industry. They’re committed to using a collaborative and agile approach to helping law firms, public sector agencies, and legal organizations digitally transform to make the most of their legal technology investments.

In his new position as Legal Industry Director, Mike will help create thought leadership content and work directly with industry clients to help them achieve their goals.

Digital Transformation Challenges in the Legal Industry

The biggest challenge Mike sees in the industry is keeping up with the technology, especially when it comes to process automation, data integration, machine learning, and artificial intelligence — with the last two topics bubbling up more often in the last 6 to 12 months.

According to Mike, “I compare today’s legal industry to the financial services industry from 7 to 10 years ago. Fin serve companies weren’t necessarily looking to technology or digital transformation. They weren’t looking to move to Salesforce. Now fin serve companies are a major vertical for Salesforce. I think the same wave is coming in legal. I’m really excited to be part of that wave and help our law firms and legal clients succeed.”

The potential upsides are huge. Mike explains that if law firms are able to conquer these tech challenges, “You’re going to become more efficient. You’re going to improve your client service. You’re going to save money, you’re going to make more money, you’re going to retain your clients, you’re going to take on additional clients, and you’re going to mitigate risk,” all worthy goals for any business or organization.

But when it comes to law firms in particular, the question is how can they improve their client service and get more clients. “Sometimes firms struggle with business development or sales initiatives. That’s one place we can definitely help,” says Mike.

Digital Transformation Trends in the Legal Industry

The biggest trend Mike has seen over the last six months in legal is embracing generative AI, which can have a huge impact on the day-to-day workings of any organization.

Generative AI can help attorneys and paralegals speed up research and streamline creating legal summaries and briefings. It can also help save significant amounts of time drafting documents and memos.

AI can also greatly simplify contract analysis. Firms can use generative AI to look for key contract terms and potential risks, for example — saving both time and manual effort.

Case outcome prediction is another area where Mike is seeing a great deal of both opportunity and interest. “Firms want to know — if we take on this case is there a good chance we’re going to win? If not, they may want to decline,” Mike explains.

The Potential Impact of New Use Cases

The beauty of digital transformation is that it’s not limited only to what’s been done before. New use cases, customized to each client, can have a significant impact.

As an example, while Mike was at Salesforce, one client wanted to make sure that they stayed connected to attorneys and other employees who left the firm for other opportunities.

Often, when an attorney leaves a law firm, he or she will go to a company the firm was representing. That company will likely continue to do business with that law firm because of the prior relationship — and it’s in the firm’s interest to ensure that happens. Mike’s team helped this firm create what they called an alumni portal to make sure that their previous attorneys and employees were constantly staying in touch with the firm. It was a game changer for driving business, helping the firm not only to retain clients but also to attract new ones.

How HIKE2 Helps Law Firms

If you’re in the legal industry, there are many ways partnering with HIKE2 can benefit you.

“We can come in and assess current processes within the firm, identify pain points, help firms develop a comprehensive AI strategy, and of course, make sure it all aligns back to the firm’s goals. We can suggest, create, and implement different AI projects that will help you become more efficient, attract new clients and retain your current clients longer,” Mike says.

He notes that there’s an increased emphasis on cleaning up firm data before embarking on any digital transformation initiative. It’s always good practice to have clean data, of course. But when it comes to AI, it’s even more important to make sure the model is using the right data so you can make the right decisions for your firm.

HIKE2 has already taken the lead when it comes to assisting firms, legal departments, and public agencies to make the most of generative AI, and Mike sees it as just the beginning.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing where this next year goes, where the company goes. There are so many law firms and companies with legal departments that we can help. I feel like we’re just starting our journey. And I’m just really looking forward to being a part of a company that’s growing and that’s very much on the upswing. I’m thrilled to be here and thrilled again to be early on in this legal journey,” Mike says.