Five signs it’s time to update your law firm’s technology

Millennials are taking on partnership status and Gen Z is taking on the new associate role. It’s quite likely that law firms are noticing a disconnect between the way their lawyers want to work and the tools available to support them. Here are five signs it’s time to update your legal technology toolkit:

1. The only way lawyers can get started on a new project is by asking the lawyer down the corridor

Lawyers have long relied on search engines and colleagues to help them tackle new challenges. But these days, the colleagues who were once down the corridor may now be working remotely and buried in their own work.

Some legal tech providers anticipated these challenges. They have developed tools like Practical Law that work as easily as asking a question of a colleague or search engine but deliver much more powerful answers.

Trainees and newly qualified solicitors will benefit from the tech that delivers highly curated wisdom from seasoned legal practitioners. More experienced lawyers can confidently take on new types of matters and deliver exceptional service.

2. You turn away new work because you don’t have the capacity or expertise

Sometimes it is difficult to predict spikes in demand, but when they happen, clients want a rapid response. A recent legal consumer survey showed that 56 percent of consumers with a legal need act on their issue within a week.

Having easy access to know-how and wisdom from seasoned legal professionals helps lawyers say yes to more matters, even when they are outside their specialties. With tools like Practical Law, firms have the resources to instill confidence in a client even when the matter presents some unknowns.

3. Retirements and lateral moves are looming, and you don’t have a succession plan for institutional knowledge

Law students learn how to think like a lawyer. New associates learn how to lawyer from their firm. They may even learn specific steps and tools needed to complete each matter efficiently and consistently.

But what if all that knowledge isn’t captured anywhere and people still learn new skills only by talking to a senior lawyer? That can be a problem for firms in transition.

Turnover is less disruptive when wisdom and processes are documented and mapped out. New legal tech tools such as interactive matter maps in Practical Law help attorneys walk through new tasks rather than making it up as they go along.

4. Your clients are still pushing back on paying to train your new associates

With fewer 2020-related crises to address in-house, corporate clients are looking at strategic legal matters again, matters that are more likely to include outside counsel. But they’re still closely scrutinising invoices for work they don’t think they should be responsible to pay.

In this environment, law firms will want tools that help them rise to new challenges quickly and deliver exceptional value with every billable minute.

Tech-driven tools can help trainees and newly qualified solicitors get off on the right foot and start delivering billable work more quickly.

5. Your lawyers need more flexibility, but your systems rely on too much manual effort

According to the State of the UK Legal Market 2021 report, 86 percent of the UK stand-out lawyers would like to change the way they work moving forward: two days a week working remotely; 10 percent reduction in working hours; and, more flexible working arrangements. And if a law firm can’t make this happen, almost one-third of senior lawyers indicated they would leave the firm within the next two years.

Firms that want to retain their talent and attract new hires should offer at least hybrid if not fully remote working options. Legal technology can help enable this ongoing remote work, with cloud-based solutions and AI-driven research and collaboration tools reducing manual effort.

Download our report, How Technology Drives Law Firm Modernisation, to see how new, user-friendly technology can benefit your firm