Managed IT Solutions for Law Firms

Although legal technology's growing importance is the top trend for 76% of legal professionals, only 28% say they are very prepared for it. 82% expect more meaningful use of technology to improve productivity, with Big Data and predictive analytics are expected to have the most significant impact.

The disruption caused by the global pandemic in 2020 will have far-reaching repercussions across the legal industry, accelerating the ongoing digital transformation of this sector. Wolters Kluwer has conducted "The Future Ready Lawyer 2020: Performance Drivers" survey to assess the legal industry's future-readiness and resilience, from which it emerges that legal professionals see technology as the primary driver of performance improvement. The "Growing importance of legal technology" is the top trend for 76% of respondents in law firms and corporate counsel.

Despite the growing importance of legal technology, only 28% of respondents said they were very prepared for it. The difficulty of change management and resistance to change by managers is the most significant barrier to implementing change in corporate legal departments (65%) and law firms (53%).

Corporate law firms, faced with the need to improve productivity and efficiency, have turned to management IT solutions more aggressively and are pressuring law firms to do the same. Eighty-one percent of corporate counsel have said that in the next three years, they will require law firms to describe how they are using technology to be more productive and efficient, nearly double the rate of 41 percent who are asking the same today.

When asked to identify the most significant changes ahead, 82% said they expect more lavish use of managed IT solutions to improve productivity. When it comes to technology, the gap between knowledge and readiness is exacerbated when it comes to transformational technologies. Big Data management and predictive analytics are the transformational technologies that 67% of law firms are expected to have the most significant impact in the next three years, although only 25% acknowledge that they understand these technologies very well.

Given the growing importance attributed to legal management IT solutions, it is not surprising that firms state that they plan to increase investment in this area. However, only 29% say they feel very prepared to understand the technology solutions available; 27% feel very ready to use technology to be more productive; 26% feel very prepared to use technology to improve client services, and 24% say their team can leverage technology effectively. Regarding which technologies they believe will have the most significant impact in the next three years, 59% cited Artificial Intelligence, although only 22% acknowledged understanding it very well.

Among firms, 62% of technology leaders said their profitability has increased over the previous year, compared to 39% of so-called "transitioning" firms. Besides, concerning readiness, in all areas related to technology, staffing, organization, and client focus, technology leaders also outperformed organizations that used technology less.

Managed IT Solutions for Law Firms

Document management tools

These are software or online services that speed up the procedures and management of the lawyers themselves, reducing the time they have to invest in many of their tasks, and thus reducing the cost of their services,

One of the aspects that are changing the most with technology in the legal sector is document management. Document management is fundamental to a lawyer's work, but it is tedious and complicated to organize.

Document automation software tools transform the firm's knowledge database into intelligent texts, thereby facilitating the rapid production of customized documentation.

The goal is to relieve lawyers of mechanical tasks to focus on value-added tasks, avoid errors and save time.

Tools for obtaining digital evidence

In the legal professional field, it is essential to have tools that certify digital evidence at a specific date and time.

For example, we are talking about certifying a website's content at a specific time or sending an email to a particular person. For this, the evidence goes through a trusted third party that certifies its veracity.

In this way, the integrity of any evidence taken with electronic tools - smartphone, email, social media profile, etc. - is reliably accredited, which does not happen with other methods that do not involve a trusted entity.

Data Protection Officer

Although this is not exactly a new technology applied to the legal sector, we cannot fail to mention the relevance that the new European Data Protection Regulation will have for 2021, the fact that it will be compulsorily applicable from next quarter.

With its approval, a new figure is born, that of the data protection delegate, developed in articles 37, 38, and 39 of the regulation mentioned above.

This establishes that the data protection officer will be appointed based on their professional qualities and, in particular, his or her specialized knowledge of the law, data protection practice, and ability to perform his or her duties.

Although he/she does not have to have a specific qualification, legal knowledge of data protection is undoubtedly necessary, so this is a great career opportunity for law graduates.

For many years, law firms were oblivious to technological change. However, in the last decade, law firms have adapted and have intensified their investment to create disruptive tools that allow them to make up for a lost time, improve their effectiveness and performance, and adapt their systems to their clients' demands.

Several groundbreaking projects have emerged from these efforts, such as platforms that create smart contracts or documents that are impossible to forge, tools that make it possible to protect business secrets in a click, or systems that can predict the course of a case. A law firm's cryptocurrency has even been created.

Every one of these innovative and revolutionary steps has been enhanced by the technological advances that have been experienced in recent years, from the improvement of artificial intelligence to the emergence of blockchain. These are some of the most cutting-edge tools developed by law firms.