These legal trends show how law firms and legal departments can optimize their legal technology strategy and prepare for the future of law.
It’s crucial to pay attention to legal trends in times of a digital revolution in the legal sector. Only firms that focus on improved business practices and improved technologies will see better results than firms that attempt to isolate themselves from a changing world.
- Read more: The Future of Law: How the digital revolution is leveling the playing field in the legal sector
The future of law demands dealing with complex issues like how to provide clients greater access to information, efficiency, transparency, data analysis, cost-effectiveness, and tailor-made customer-oriented experience that go far beyond the legal profession. To capture the best talent, maintain their client base and turn in a profit, law firms and legal departments are going to need to meet these challenges. The legal sector should therefore be open to embrace the transformative powers of business and technology to improve aspects such as workflows, team collaboration and client communication. Those firms that adapt will be rewarded by higher profits, a wider range of clients and greater work flexibility.
1. Adopt an Enterprise Resource Planning system for your law firm or legal department
Cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can help to increase information transparency, productivity and decrease administrative costs in your firm or department. An ERP centralizes all key strategic and operative elements in one system, including client and team communications, invoice and billing, time tracking, and budgeting. It is a central aspect of transitioning to the digitally-enhanced law practice required for the future. A key feature for lawyers must also be a robust “case management system”, designed to allow all case information to be accessed from one place. Depositions, pleadings, contracts, record collection, all in one digital space. This saves money, time and space by eliminating mountains of time consuming-paperwork and replacing them with digitized and automatized filing systems. These include platforms like Clio, MyCase and Legal Files.
2. Legal Trends that Transform your Legal Organizational Culture
A 2021 Gartner Report on Legal Technology trends and predictions forecasts that by 2025 legal firms and departments will increase their spending on legal technology threefold. But while technology enables change, it is human behavior and the willingness to adapt that determine whether change is embraced or rejected. As Mark Coen says: it is not technology that is holding back innovation, “it’s people”. And change resistance is not any different among lawyers and firms. Law firms and legal departments must encourage a more open culture in terms of accepting new technologies and investing in tools that improve productivity, even if it means a departure from traditional ways.
3. Choose a Legal-Digital Office Services Provider
Having a stand-alone legal officer service provider with a dedicated, results-oriented team of professionals and collaborating seamlessly with your in-house staff saves time, reduces cost, and improves the quality of your legal outcomes. Choosing a digital office services provider that has experience providing digital infrastructure including IT management and support services from paralegal, to virtual assistants, and others, can dramatically increase productivity by taking care of filling activities, email drafting, document review, research services and other tasks that typically consume lots of time and resources.
This also results in time and money saved when compared to the cost and burden of hiring in-house paralegals and IT personnel. Digital office services are generally more cost-effective than hiring internal staff. And by outsourcing all of the IT and paralegal tasks that come with running a business, law firms and legal departments are free to get actual legal work done.
To make the most while undertaking change, your law firm or legal department needs to be honest about in-house capabilities and seek external support when and where needed. Contact Rossa today to find out how we can help you meet and greet the future of legal services.