Concluding thoughts on LegalTech

If law firms are doing reasonably well economically by making limited course corrections, why should they embark on a long-term innovation and change mission? Often law firms are myopic when thinking about changes in the way they do things. For firms to be successful in the future (not just survive), they must have an effective business model that looks beyond short-term financial returns to support and advance long-term sustainability, which often requires longer term planning time frames. Today, service delivery (efficiency) and cost/price (the client value proposition) are clearly what clients are focused on. (Clay and Seeger, 2018)

The legal industry has needed to reinvent the delivery of legal services and operations. This market evolution is driven by corporate clients, who over the past several years made changes in the allocation of their spending on legal services by increasing their internal law department size, spend on alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) and use of technology. Simultaneously, they have been decreasing law firm spend and reducing the number of firms they use. With these changes, law firms are under greater pressure to examine their service delivery models to remain competitive and best serve their clients. (HBR Consulting, 2019)

Lawyers are generally averse to the use of technology and implementation for business needs. The future of law is not likely to immediately disrupt legal jobs, but will surely affect the way we conduct some of our routine tasks Some will argues that this will put good people out of work, but this can also be viewed as an opportunity to reskill for the future. It is not a question of ‘IF’ the legal world as we know it will be disrupted, but ‘WHEN’ it will happen. Full automation is unlikely for the next few years, but technology to enable this is steadily improving. This raises several tough questions, especially in relation to growth in legal careers. With LegalTech taking care of majority of the grunt work, especially in terms of research, drafting and analysis, new lawyers will need to build relevant skills, which can enable them to become experienced and seasoned legal professionals. There will likely be many legal + technology career paths that will open, with more lawyers finding it imperative to learn to code.

The importance of lawyers staying abreast of technologies relevant to the practice of law has been recognized by professional conduct boards. For example, in Illinois, this requirement is contained in Comment 8 to Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1, and states: “To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education to comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject.” IRPC Rule 1.1, Comment 8 (2017). (Nessler, 2019)

Leaders continue to focus more on using advanced technologies to protect their positions rather than make bold investments to drive disruption. It can be difficult to justify significant upfront investments or implementation costs for a return on investment that may not appear immediately and therefore organizations are overly focused on short term results. Lack of understanding of Industry 4.0 technologies, lack of a business case, and lack of leadership vision. These issues are fundamental not only to make a convincing argument to invest in technologies but also to ensure that they are implemented and used successfully. Too many technology choices are also a hurdle and sifting through the multitude of options can prove humbling. (Success personified in the fourth industrial revolution, 2019)

Advice on implementing the right LegalTech solution

 Consider the biggest pain points in your department and ask if technology is the right solution. Are there process changes that can be just as impactful with a much lower cost to the department. Some teams are more open to technology than others. Start with one focused implementation. Going for the complete overhaul is hard, but small identifiable wins lay a great foundation.

Spend time mapping out the current state of people, processes, and systems that are already in place to identify inefficiencies and quick gains. Define the impact to all stakeholders and how you will need to communicate with them. Know who is most sensitive to the automation and whose roles will be most impacted. Have access to people with IT skills who can provide guidance and support, but include the attorneys who will be impacted.

Define your business and technical requirements for the solution, the success measure for the implementation and goals for the new solution, to keep everyone focused and prevent scope creep. Also, consider future integrations and expansion of the functionality of the system.

Plan for what can go wrong and for disappointments along the way.

A good way to consider getting on the LegalTech bandwagon is described below:

Source: NeotaLogic, 2018

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