It seems like everything we interact with on daily basis is being digitized. This evolution is profoundly impacting all aspects of life, including the workplace; the legal industry is no longer an island to this influence.
As a majority of legal professionals begin to consider the importance of implementing essential transformational initiatives, they begin to realize how critical change is to keeping pace with competition while providing a better, more enhanced customer experience.
Falling behind is not an option.
In conversations with our customers and attendees at the recent ILTACON event, one key outcome stands out; legal firms and even corporate legal departments are prioritizing technology adoption. And there’s a rush to do so as well.
Why the urgency?
By adopting legal technology solutions into their everyday processes, legal professionals are quickly discovering the benefits:
- Improved productivity such as data management.
- The mitigation of privacy and security risks.
- Better collaboration enterprise-wide.
- Reduced costs (also enterprise-wide).
But even with clear technology-driven and organizational-wide benefits, uncertainty still persists. Legal departments, in particular, are slow to prioritize adoption.
Gartner: 5 Legal Technology Trends Changing In-House Legal Departments
gartner.com
Why should your legal department focus on adoption and innovation?
Conceivably one of the leading misunderstandings about legal tech is the idea that software and the big, bad idea of artificial intelligence (AI) will replace lawyers in whole or in part. The reality is that legal tech is expected to enhance and serve the needs of legal professionals. It’s making their working life easier.
The decision should be easier than one might think.
Yet, while the importance of adoption is critical for initiatives like information governance and data management, prioritizing is not top-of-mind.
Dwindling budgets and rising costs can slow transformation, but with the right mix of resources and solutions, legal tech can serve the growing needs of the department and the organization as a whole. Tech can be a cost-saving center.
Change is happening as we speak!
Legal professionals in legal departments do not want to be left behind, and nor should the entire organization. By integrating enhancements with tools to manage analytics, reporting, information governance, automation, electronic discovery, and project management, leveraging and deploying tech will improve an organization.
The next few years will see plenty of movement as legal departments are pressured by numerous and impactful influences. Whether it’s the additional demands of the organization or its customers who are eager to work with companies that are progressing digitally, technology will definitely play a key role for many.
Adoption challenges will always linger, but knowing change is a necessity should be a key influencer to transformation and achieving success.