THE LOWDOWN ON... Legal Tech!

The buzzword in the legal industry is currently ‘legal tech’ and it continues to be used, to describe the technological advances in the legal market… it is used a lot in training contract applications with regard to the question “how can we stay competitive in the market?”… but is it all a fallacy? Is the hype a true representation of what is really going on?

A huge marketing point for law firms is their focus on legal tech, and not surprisingly, this entices students that have grown up in a world surrounded by technology. For the students, they want to know that the firm they are applying to is forward thinking and proactive when it comes to utilising tech. Whilst a law firm seeks to impress clients with the latest software and cost-cutting programmes, alongside knowing they will appeal more to the younger generation coming through their training contract applications.

While I won’t dispute the advances that have been made in the legal sector, I personally don’t see the industry as ‘ground-breaking’ when it comes to technology as I am hearing others demonstrate it to be. Having seen first-hand the software programmes that are used, the processes in place, I can assure many people that even the top firms are slightly behind when it comes to technology.

Law firms have notoriously had a slightly negative reputation when it comes to tech, and I don’t believe that this has changed as much as they lead people to believe. This isn’t to say this is a bad thing, merely that when a firm publishes a new programme or AI software they are using, it should come with a slight reality check that it may not be implemented to the degree one may think.

Investing in technology is a huge cost for a law firm to undergo, as well as the training and hours spent rolling out the system. This alone is enough to deter some firms from taking the leap. Where firms do take this risk, it is usually an incredibly slow process to be rolled out firm-wide and often can cause so much disruption it gets left behind all together. In many firms that I have worked at, the systems in place are relatively dated and there have been multiple firms that have one system in place in one department and a completely different, new, system in another department. This overlapping can cause complications for the administration however the firm needs to be certain the system works efficiently before rolling it out to the entire office. When a firm does decide to invest in a new programme, it is almost outdated by the time they have fully implemented it. This isn’t the firms’ fault, it is merely how fast the technological world advances.

This post isn’t shunning the legal industry on their claims of utilising tech in law. It is merely an insight into the reality of the situation. When you are applying to firms and talking about legal tech, I believe it is more beneficial to recognise that the technology that many of the younger generation are used to, is not used in the same way within an institution as large and complex as a law firm. There will continue to be advances in this area, especially since lockdown has shone a light on the importance of it, but it is important to remember this will take time and a law firm is traditionally not in the tech industry, it is in the legal industry.