In general, most clients expect their attorneys to have technical expertise to help them navigate the complexities of the digital world. With client attrition continuing to be one of the biggest issues for the legal industry heading into next year, leveraging technology is one way companies can improve customer service, promoting customer satisfaction and ensuring customer satisfaction Law tutors. fidelity.
Legal technology 2023
A significant majority of legal professionals (91%) say it is important to have technology that allows lawyers to quickly adapt to changes and have access to the latest tools to boost productivity and improve their work processes. Lawyers in law firms (85%) and legal departments (84%) expect to make greater use of technology to improve productivity.
Corporate legal departments see their law firms’ use of technology as a factor in evaluating them, and this is encouraging them to invest in technological solutions. In fact, the survey reveals that almost half of firms (46%) believe that using technology to improve productivity and efficiency is essential to meeting client demands and improving collaboration and work processes.
Despite a slightly downward trend – in 2023, 85% of lawyers surveyed say they are aware of the importance of making the most of technology, compared to 89% in 2022 – the survey reveals that legal professionals consider be well prepared to apply it and obtain the best results.
Slow decision making
Even though lawyers see the importance and advantages of technology, there are still some barriers to investing in it. The survey shows that the biggest barrier is organizational (44%), since some offices remain deeply attached to the internal processes that are most familiar to them and that result in slow decision-making.
Another barrier to technology adoption is lack of knowledge: around a third of lawyers (36%) say they do not have the necessary skills or knowledge of legal technology. However, this represents an improvement compared to 2022 , the year in which 48% recognized the lack of knowledge as one of the barriers to technological change.
Despite the most obvious barriers to technological adoption, the majority of legal firms and departments are investing in computerized processes and services. A significant number (75%) say they are prepared to make the necessary strategic investments in technology, while more than half (58%) of law firms and corporate legal departments expect to invest more in the coming years despite the decline with compared to 2022 (64%).
However, some experts express their skepticism . «We have not yet seen any significant technological transformation. A new technology can only be transformative if an organization’s business model fully supports the use of said technology,” says Richard Tromans, founder of Artificial Lawyer, a news website on legal innovation.