Keywords

1 Introduction

Digital transformation refers to the adoption of innovative digital technologies, including mobile, artificial intelligence, cloud, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT), to significantly enhance business operations, elevate customer experience, and facilitate the creation of novel business models [1]. According to Gobble [2], digitalization typically involves the reconceptualization of entire business processes with the help of digital technology, which culminates in the core integration of digital structures in a new digital business model. Beyond digitalization, the requirements for sustainability commitment and practices have also brought about an increased dynamism to most firms, which further creates novel opportunities for competitive innovation and resiliency [3].

A digital transformation propelled by digital technologies and dynamic capabilities is typically to gain a competitive advantage and directly create positive business impacts and resiliency [4]. Such transformation can change an entire business model, including, for instance, business communications and intricate internal and external processes, given its unique value-creation process and methods of modification of organizational tasks while fulfilling firms’ sustainability goals [4]. For knowledge-intensive business services like those preferred by law firms, for instance, it has been found that digitalization could generally enhance their overall performance [5]. Indeed, research has demonstrated that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the results of firms that were quick to adopt digital transformations were generally positive. For instance, Guo et al. [6] found that digitalization contributed to the improvement of the performance of SMEs during the global pandemic.

Digital sustainable transformation and dynamic capabilities are critical strategic decisions and processes adopted by firms, beginning from the reconceptualization of existing business models and culminating in the remodeling and development of new digital business models to keep businesses afloat and contribute to competitive advantage. The body of literature on the discourse agrees that firms’ digitalization of business processes and the integration of dynamic capabilities during a global crisis (for example, Covid-19) largely demonstrated positive impacts on their businesses [6,7,8]. Our study approaches the research through the theoretical lens of dynamic capabilities, which asserts that a firm’s capacity to continuously sense environmental changes, mobilize resources to address them, and transform its operations confers an ability to adapt to emerging crises. Following the framework, we relied on Teece [9, 10] and Yeow et al. [11], who contend that sensing opportunities, seizing them, and flexibly reconfiguring operations through leadership and resource allocation that engage all functions are key to achieving digital transformation during global crises as well as the idea of Zimmer et al., [4] that digital transformation should adopt a digital-sustainable co-transformation perspective focusing on innovations that align with sustainability goals by treating digital transformation and sustainability inseparable components of business strategy and operations for maximum strategic benefit.

Following the existing literature, we identified an essential research gap in that there is no evidence concerning the association of DC, sustainable DT, and law firms’ resilience, especially in emerging economies such as Nigeria. Additionally, the study attempts to identify how existing resources, internal processes, and external stakeholders influence sustainable digital transformation among law firms during the global crisis. This study aims to fill the gaps by bringing insight into how Nigerian law firms built on their dynamic capabilities and digital transformation readiness to navigate the global crisis and achieve their sustainability goals successfully. As such, we asked the following research questions to help us investigate the phenomenon:

  • RQ1: What are the challenges faced by law firms in emerging economies during the Covid-19 pandemic?

  • RQ2: How did Nigerian law firms utilize dynamic capabilities for sustainable digital transformation during a global crisis?

  • RQ3: What are the impacts of digital transformation on the sustainable resilience of Nigerian law firms during a global crisis?

To address these research questions, we have collected data in two phases. Phase 1 is an open-ended survey, while Phase 2 involves in-depth interviews. We conducted a qualitative analysis of the data we collected. Our findings highlight the drivers and challenges of adopting digital transformation among Law firms in emerging economies and how the transition impacted their business operations and overall sustainability resilience and goals.

The remaining of this study is organized as follows. Section 2 presents related works on sustainable digital transformation (DT), dynamic capability (DC), Nigerian law firms, and their sustainability goals. It is followed by the description of the empirical data collection and the research process in Sect. 3. Section 4 presents the results and discussions, and Sect. 5 concludes the study.

2 Related Studies

Digital transformation is at the core of redefining a firm’s value propositions, leading to a new firm identity, with technology as a central catalyst [12]. It also contributes to firms’ sustainability goals [4]. Researchers have emphasized that dynamic capabilities offer unique opportunities for firms to remain competitive over time in an era of environmental dynamism by reconfiguring their resources and capabilities to match and create positive market change [13, 14].

2.1 Sustainable Digital Transformation Amidst Crisis

The advancement in digital technologies has significantly transformed how we live, conduct business activities, and address climate change through digital transformation [15]. At the core of digital transformation initiatives lies a firm’s capabilities. Following the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, which constitutes a global crisis affecting several businesses and services across the globe, researchers have highlighted how firms responded through digital transformations [6, 16, 17]. Accordingly, firms that were quick to adopt digital transformations during the crisis period significantly improved the quality of their service delivery, improved business operations, and drastically reduced their negative environmental impact [6]. Similarly, business efficiency was enhanced by adopting virtual meetings, virtual offices, and social communications [16, 18] to strengthen brand awareness and engage customers. Another research emphasized the flexibility produced and the development of new, critical technical skills through digitalization processes during the pandemic [19].

Ragazou et al. [16] investigated the evolution of digital transformation in enterprises during the pandemic and discovered that emerging technologies such as blockchain, IoT, artificial intelligence, and machine learning have begun integrating enterprises into their business models. Essentially, organizations were transforming their business models into digital models to accommodate the new circumstances and the overwhelming need for integrating digital technology into their business processes. However, according to Reuschl et al. [17], because of the speed of implementation of digital technology by firms during the pandemic, some organizations were left with limited time to remodel their structures, processes, and cultures in alignment with the new digital environment.

In a similar light, many researchers argue that digital transformation and its efforts are not always successful, including when they are launched during a crisis [20, 21]. In fact, Kochetkov et al. [21] specifically demonstrated that a key challenge associated with the implementation of digital transformation in businesses is that it is not always effective. According to them, this emphasizes the need for firms to conduct prior research into the mode and method of digitalization to assess the possibility or otherwise of the quality and success of their digitalization endeavors [21]. Other challenges may emerge in terms of cost implications and strategic, organizational, cultural, or managerial forms [22]. The changes in organizational structures, strategy, and processes occasioned by technical platforms and big data, given their frequently complex systems and frameworks, can pose serious threats to digitalization efforts, wherein the introduction of members of staff and customers to unfamiliar methods may become hectic and resisted by those who have yet to acclimatize to new technology [19]. These notwithstanding, several researchers have stated that the dynamic capabilities of firms can support their digitalization processes despite extraneous, inhibiting factors such as those presented by the global pandemic crisis [6, 7], including in developing countries [8].

2.2 Dynamic Capabilities of Firms During the Crisis

The dynamic capability theory, rooted in the resource-based theory of a firm, underscores the idea that certain capabilities and resources are difficult to replicate as they constitute unique attributes that serve as the foundation for a firm’s competitive advantage. Dynamic capabilities (DC) refer to the comprehensive abilities of firms to develop, integrate, and reconfigure internal and external resources to accelerate adaptation to a rapidly evolving environment to gain competitive advantage and sustainability [9, 10] by creating good opportunities for firms to unleash the potential of their digital DCs.

In the context of crises, DC has three dimensions – sensing capabilities, seizing capabilities, and reconfiguring resources to adapt to the crisis [9, 23]. Sensing capabilities, as used here, underscore the dynamic capability of a firm to recognize threats and/ or opportunities from its external business environment [9]. Firms with dynamic capabilities can sense, assess, and understand crises timeously [9, 23]. Although no organization could predict the onset of a global crisis, early assessments could have provided awareness and insights, empowering firms with the data to re-strategize their business processes [6]. Sensing opportunities and threats is fundamental to organizational strategy, especially in a crisis. When firms are aware of potential business threats, they are more likely to identify new opportunities in a given crisis [9].

When firms are equipped with dynamic capabilities, they are more likely to elicit from their external environment information capable of changing their conditions in a crisis [23]. Guo et al. [6] noted an example of the new digital business models launched to solve the challenges associated with contactless delivery during the pandemic. The crisis itself was an opportunity to discover and develop new business models. After successfully seizing capabilities, organizations can recalibrate to judiciously select technologies to re-design their business models [9] and continuously renew organizational routines to ensure alignment. This is referred to as ‘reconfiguring resources’ in the DC dimensions, and it ensures that firms maintain their survival and competitiveness during crises [9]. The global pandemic outbreak triggered survival instincts among firms, given the high levels of market uncertainty that propel firms to identify threats and opportunities, understand their positions in the market, and reconfigure their business models accordingly [7]. Overall, dynamic capabilities are critical for the survival of firms in times of crisis and have improved the chances of firms’ sustainable resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic [6,7,8].

2.3 The Nigeria Legal Firms, Digital Technology, and Sustainability Goals

The legal industry in Nigeria boasts over 140,000 lawyers distributed across the federation and actively engaged in the practice of law and who possess expertise cutting across diverse areas of human endeavor [24]. Globally, the legal services industry is a robust interdisciplinary domain, traditionally conservative and often slow to identify innovative technology’s capabilities to enhance service delivery [25]. However, it has been discovered that many lawyers now use technology to digitalize and automate monotonous processes, leading to improved productivity and efficiency, eliminating duplication, and enhancing transparency and accountability [25], thereby reducing excessive paperwork and outdated working practices of senior legal professionals. In Nigeria, there has also been a rise in technology adoption in legal practice [26]. Software and digital technologies now aid and support lawyers and judges in executing their daily tasks [26].

Through digital transformation, sustainability is vital for contemporary businesses to gain a competitive advantage, attract customers, and strengthen partnerships incorporating sustainable practices to drive innovation [27]. Additionally, digital technology has proven to be at the forefront of promoting inclusion, resilience, and sustainable development goals in Nigeria by offering a formidable platform that helps to mitigate disruptions that are associated with global crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, drive inclusive economic growth, and sustainable development goals [28]. Lawyers use digital apps, electronic mail, and office productivity software daily. Some law firms have subscribed to software that tracks internal and external processes, e-discovery, e-filing processes, smart contracts, alternative dispute resolution, virtual offices, virtual meetings, and virtual court hearings [26, 29]. Digital tools have also helped to significantly lower their carbon footprints, especially from travel and the amount of paper generated yearly.

Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic facilitated advancement in the Nigerian legislative system, wherein the adoption of digital technology in legal practice and the courts was put to law as the Court of Appeal Rules were amended to permit the electronic filing of notices of appeal, electronic service via email, and virtual hearings of appeals through audio-visual platforms [30]. In all, software and digital technologies were significantly visible in processes like legal analytics, process automation, scheduling, document management, case management, time management, billing, dispute resolutions, and digital archiving, etc., which improved overall service delivery, eliminated errors, improved turnaround times, customer satisfaction, legal research, reduction in physical commuting, paper wastage, energy consumption, and overall recalibration of resources previously associated with service delivery [26, 29, 30].

3 Methodology

The design selected for this research was the case study design [31]. This design, peculiar to qualitative studies, provides a framework within which a particular case, such as a person, group, event, organization, or industry, is studied (within specific contexts/over specific issues). It generates an in-depth understanding and exploration of real-world complex issues within their natural contexts [31]. We aimed to understand how Nigerian law firms utilize their dynamic capabilities in the sustainable digital transformation of their business processes and the overall impact of such endeavors, especially during a global crisis. We adopted open-ended surveys and semi-structured interviews to collect data from legal professionals to answer the research questions in-depth and within the given case study environment - Nigerian law firms.

3.1 Data Collection Method

We have collected data in two phases. At first, we collected data through an open-ended questionnaire and following the guidelines of Schulter et al. [32], who defined an open-ended survey questionnaire as an efficient method of gathering data from specific groups of respondents. Secondly, we interviewed selected Legal professionals to align and validate findings. Interviews are usually used to collect detailed insights and perspectives concerning social phenomena as they provide an excellent platform for collecting rich, contextual data to formulate theories in inductive reasoning. They are indispensable for many qualitative studies, including case studies [31, 33]. Using the purposive sampling techniques, we identify and select appropriate participants for the study. Purposive sampling is a kind of qualitative sampling adopted to specifically select participants who fall within the requisite category for research [33].

The survey (N = 14) and the interviews (N = 18) were conducted specifically for legal professionals (senior associates, senior managers, practice managers, and managing partners) and chief technology officers (CTOs) in law firms with head offices in Lagos, Nigeria. Each participant has up to 10 years and above experience in the industry, except for the senior associate, who has less than 10 years of experience. The size of the firm they represented was between 50 to over 100 employees. The rationale behind the emphasis on this sample population was informed by their involvement in driving their firms’ sustainability goals and business process transformation. A participant invitation/consent letter was initially sent to 45 targeted participants via email and other digital means, such as WhatsApp, but only 22 honored our request.

Additionally, we asked the 22 engaged participants for referrals to deepen our data collection, which resulted in 10 extra willing participants. The data collection took place for two months (October and November 2022). The interview sessions were conducted via Zoom and Microsoft Teams and were recorded with the participant’s consent. The survey was designed using Google Forms. Altogether, 32 participants distributed across 12 law firms were involved in the survey and the interview. Table 1 gives a summary of their demographic distributions.

Table 1. Participant demographics distribution.
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3.2 Data Analysis Method

We adopted thematic analysis as the preferred data analysis technique for this study due to its appropriateness in identifying, evaluating, and reporting themes, categorizations, patterns, areas of convergence, and divergence within the data [34]. After recording the interviews using the audio recorders, the researcher transcribed them using Otter.Ai, a voice-and-video-to-text transcription and analysis software. Next, we selected an appropriate coding strategy to enable us to identify relevant information called empirical indicators and code them [35]. Coding was done manually using the Microsoft Visio application to encourage a deeper involvement with the data and accurate interpretation and construction. Three researchers were involved in coding and categorizing the data from the surveys and interviews process, as shown in Table 2. The results from the two phases were merged, including data relating to the same firm or question after a repeated and careful analysis to arrive at the final thematic schemes reflecting the research questions.

Table 2. Excerpt of analytical memo table displaying our coding process and strategies.
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4 Result

This section covers the data analysis findings concerning the research questions.

4.1 Findings and Discussion

The study reveals three core themes. Firstly, the challenges of law firms during the pandemic and their barriers in DT transition efforts. Secondly, how DC factors and DT readiness helped them to overcome the barriers and challenges, and Thirdly, the impact of their DC and DT efforts on the sustainability goals and sustainable resilience of their business. The resulting themes from the triangulation of findings from open-ended surveys and interviews are presented in thematic coding (see Fig. 1). We discussed the findings in relation to the research questions for the emerging descriptive, second-order, third-order, and core themes. The resulting impacts were represented as positive (+) and negative (-) signs, respectively.

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Thematic coding of digital transformation in Nigeria law firms

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Utilization of Dynamic Capabilities for Digital Transformation During a Global Crisis.

The insights from our research reveal similar results to [36] that sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring elements of dynamic capability are key to achieving digital transformation during global crises like the Covid-19 pandemic in developing countries. Our findings indicate that Nigerian law firms effectively utilized digital dynamic capabilities during the crisis by sensing and seizing the opportunities in the digital space and reconfiguring their digital resources to continuously adapt internal structures and processes to remain competitive as the digital landscape evolves. Thus, the firms were able to leverage digital technologies to enhance sensing, seizing, and transformation to improve their sustainable resilience and overall service delivery and management.

Sensing and Seizing Opportunities in the Digital Space.

Our study revealed that while the crises disrupt the law firms’ businesses, it create simultaneous opportunities for those with existing resources who have demonstrated prior commitment to sustainable practice and technology. Most of our respondents envisaged the opportunities of digital business transformation and being seen as a promoter of sustainability practices and have been gradually investing and improving their digital infrastructure and lowering their environmental impacts. Others claimed that external factors and the DT trends within the judicial and other sectors in developed countries influenced their DC. Quoting a CTO on how his firm sense and seize the opportunities in the digital space, “We were using digital means before then; we just had to explore it further and see what we could achieve by proceeding with the transformation because we were clear about the impact, of that transformation. And again, it wasn’t when we were mindful that there could be glitches along the way. But I guess with much determination, knowing the outcome we desired, we were positive through the proof.”

Furthermore, other participants indicated that they conducted research and consulted with technology experts concerning whether digital assets would help seize the new market opportunity and overcome the threats posed by the pandemic. For example, a Managing partner stated, “The first point of call was our IT personnel…what is accessible to our clients? We conducted an internal staff survey, which revealed that we could sustain. And by relying on technology, we can transform our processes and still reduce carbon footprints simultaneously.”

Reconfiguring Digital Resources.

Many participants confirmed they had developed new internal policies and processes, supported activities, and organized training to facilitate digitalization efforts and strengthen their sustainability goals. Most firms introduce new digital policies, adopt hybrid internal operations, restructure their strategies, and invest in communicating them. In addition, a ‘pro-environmental culture awareness campaign’ forms a significant part of their strategy. Enforcement of duplex printing, reduced paper waste, digital archiving, and email signatures for all outgoing emails were introduced to remind staff and clients to consider the environment before printing emails. A Practice manager said, “Our entire business model changed from normal brick and mortar. Yeah, it has changed. Now, we’re investing much more in digitalized resources and services. As expected, there were kickbacks and dissenting views… And there were trainings … We looked for key stakeholders who we believe can drive a vision to other team members. And that’s how we particularly spread the goodwill.” Furthermore, another CTO said, “Well, yes, we had to align our processes and modify our technology policy… things like analytics and cybersecurity became very key, we had to take training on basic cybersecurity… two-factors authentication, screen lock, how to keep your document, how to keep your computers, you know, because we all work in virtually and later hybrid and we are concerned with our information, as well as client information… many things became digital… we now have a lot of virtual meetings, even our training.” Insights from our findings indicate that DC is a critical success factor for sustainable DT in law firms as firms with strong DC were able to reconfigure their resources judiciously to re-design their business processes and continually align their organizational routines. A changing business model and developing new routines, processes, policies, trainings, etc., drives Nigerian law firms to adapt to the changing business climate while reducing their environmental impact.

Challenges and Barriers.

In delivering the digital transformation processes, most of the law firms highlight human resistance to change, late technology adoption, staff skillsets, broken relationships, finances, epileptic power supply, weak infrastructure, network and bandwidth, organizational strategies, and overall costs of digital transformation as major challenges faced during the digital transformation initiatives. Importantly, while the younger staff members demonstrated early commitment, the older staff expressed many reservations at the beginning of the process. For example, another Practice manager stated, “There was an increase in the budget allocated for digital information technology. It is more than double the previous budget.” Similarly, a Senior associate confirmed, “We do experience poor network connection while connecting to the office server due to weak internet network where we lived, wherein some staff had to resort to using multiple data sources to access office resources.”

Sustainability Impacts of Digital Transformation on Nigerian Law Firms During Crisis.

The findings reveal that the adoption of digital dynamic capabilities had the following effects on Nigerian law firms: Recombining multiple digital assets to support new and existing business processes was achieved through adopting and integrating digital assets, accessibility, leadership, effective stakeholder management, and long-term planning. An improved performance was achieved through enhanced efficiency, improved firm output, and business resilience, but with noticeable differences among the firms’ reconfiguration of internal and external resources. The above confirmed that law firms’ investment in digital technology and sustainability practices significantly impacts their transformation and sustainable resiliency.

Enhanced Adoption and Integration of Digital Assets.

We deduced that firms with huge financials and investment in digital technology footprints could seamlessly enhance and transform into digitally enabled law firms than those with less financial capability. This leads to the maximization of their resources to improve efficiency and productivity and streamline communication processes with their clients. For example, a Senior manager revealed, “During the pandemic, a lot didn’t change for us, besides moving from a physical location to working remotely and later hybrid, it was seamless for our teams. Digitalization enhanced our international and local operations. Because we were prepared, we have invested in legal software and technologies to support our operations, we have always been pro-environmental in service delivery and dealt with international clients.”

Accessibility and Effective Stakeholder Management.

Our findings revealed that accessibility and effective stakeholder management became more feasible with digital technology, resulting in enhanced business processes and communication with both clients and partners. The accessibility was facilitated by various software solutions deployed across the firms, which allow their client to access digital records, update documents, and track the progress of their legal assets or cases without leaving their home or offices. An excerpt from a Senior associate: Accessibility was crucial during the crisis. Everybody was on their laptop and cell phones, working remotely, accessing centralized resources, and assuring our clients of our robust service delivery.”

Long-Term Planning and Enhanced Efficiency.

Most of our respondents agreed that the tendency for digitalization to support future initiatives and service delivery is enormous. The technology-facilitated achievements during the crisis have all become a normal operation procedure for most law firms after the crisis. This was evident in improved performance, service delivery, cost reduction, valuable analytics, efficient tracking, and pro-environmental consciousness facilitated by the available digital technologies. Another Managing partner responded - “As far back as 2016 and 2017, we were already moving digital. We could see that, oh, foreign firms have been using legal software and having different meetings remotely with partners in Nigeria (via Skype and conference calls), and this is how they’re doing it. So, it’s more like we could spy into the future and then draw us into the future.” This finding confirms that digital transformation has the propensity to enhance firm performance and can aid in planning business processes.

Improved Firm Output and Sustainable Resilience.

Another discovery in this study was the improved firm output due to digitalization, emphasized by many respondents. The law firms navigated through the crisis successfully and achieved a new level that seemed unreachable before the crisis. They were able to reduce their environmental impact through the deployed technology infrastructure, as most activities that were previously done manually and on paper have now been digitized. Digital archiving and other pro-environmental activities become the norm. Overall, the technology kept the firms afloat throughout the crisis and beyond. These firms are today competing favorably with their foreign counterpart in driving Nigeria’s legal practices. An excerpt from one of the Senior managers - “The firm maintained its usual excellence, performance, and service delivery to clients. Our client grew, our data expanded sporadically, our technology budget increased. But we have the results: we saved time to commute, shortened response time, gave more access to customers, and increased productivity because we now have digital solutions and tools.”

Our findings indicate that digital resources are essential for business survival and competitive advantage, which aligns with results from [37]. Furthermore, digitalization can improve firm output, productivity, and performance, especially for firms in knowledge-intensive business services, like law firms. Despite these positive impacts, there is evidence of a few unintended negative impacts on the firms. First, DT disrupted the business model of the law firms. They had to change their long-standing business traditions and learn to use new technologies and software. It caused much resistance, especially among staff who were not tech-savvy (often among senior employees).

Consequently, this led to a digital divide where those with prior knowledge of technology quickly adapted while others were left behind. In addition, digitalization could expose law firms to cybersecurity attacks and ransomware, thus requiring additional infrastructure procurement. Before digitalization, client files were kept in hard copies under locks and keys that were not easily accessible by unauthorized people. However, digitalization could expose people’s privacy, especially if the firm does not have a strong cyber security team and software.

4.2 Threat to Validity

Our research is subject to threats to validity, including internal, external, and conclusion validity. The threats to the study’s validity and mitigation [38] are discussed for completeness. Internal validity relates to a causal relationship. The participants were recruited based on their experience, knowledge, and positions from different law firms without being coarse. Their responses and experiences differ from each other. However, the credibility of their responses was enhanced by triangulation comparing the survey and interview responses to form thematic codes validated by all the authors while maintaining an independent standpoint, keeping an open mind, and acting in good faith throughout the study. External validity relates to generalizing our findings across multiple industries and settings. All our participants are from Law firms in Nigeria. Thus, the findings of this study are not generalizable.

Given that the findings of qualitative studies are not generalizable due to their highly contextualized nature. Thus, the findings of this study are not generalizable. However, the research methods may be adopted to study the same or a similar phenomenon in other case settings and contexts [33]. Conclusion validity relates to the degree to which conclusions drawn from the relationships in data are reasonable. The participants were grouped into two sets to compare and validate responses from multiple participants with different experience levels and involvement in the digitalization processes. These produced a database for making the right judgments concerning the transferability of the findings.

4.3 Research Limitations

The findings of this study are only relevant to law firms in emerging economies like Nigeria. Another research limitation may have been the inability to get a wider sample size as initially planned. The fear of releasing firms’ strategies prevented others from honoring our request. We also observed that some participants could have been biased in their responses. However, we believed their responses as professional practitioners.

A future study may aim for a broader sample size within ethical limits. A further limitation may have been the virtual conduction of the interviews. Given the nature of qualitative studies, it is ideal to conduct research in natural environments and observe body movements and gesticulations to support the interpretation of data, etc. [33]. However, the researcher’s engagement with the respondents and the manual coding enhanced the validity and reliability of the study.

5 Conclusion

In conclusion, Nigerian law firms, like many other businesses across the globe, were not immune to crises. The Covid-19 pandemic impacted the business processes of Nigerian law firms adversely through revenue decline, occasioned by restrictions on business activities, shortage of business opportunities and force majeure, breakdown in physical interaction, and overwhelming uncertainty and fear. In their quest to digitally transform their business operations, they faced barriers and challenges such as employee resistance to change, lack of digital infrastructure, and unreliable power supply. However, building on their dynamic capabilities, they were able to reconfigure their business operations and discover new business opportunities for survival, competitiveness, and the overall sustainability of their business.

Adopting dynamic capabilities resulted in investments in digital transformation and strengthened by visionary leadership, resulting in sustainable resilience of their business and positive economic and environmental impacts. Findings from the study indicate that Nigerian Law firms’ efficiency, performance, revenue, and business resilience improved tremendously. Furthermore, they were able to save costs on energy, transportation, and printing, as well as improve the working conditions of employees. However, DT also resulted in unintended consequences such as privacy, security, and business disruption. Although business disruption has eventually become the new normal, privacy and security issues are something Nigerian Law firms will continue to invest in, just as many companies around the world would have to deal with in the digital economy era.