When it comes to legal tech, law firms looking to keep clients happy, save money, and boost profits and reputation, might want to get their heads out of the clouds. And get their business into The Cloud (and other evolving technologies).
Has your firm been quick to adopt some of the new tech that’s become omnipresent in the legal sphere? Lack of time, fear of change and lack of information are just some of the major obstacles to tech adoption. But the benefits of upgrading to software and cloud solutions greatly outweigh the deterrents. And new developments around the planet now make it imperative.
Let’s briefly go through five critical motivating forces to upgrade your legal tech:
1. Remote Work
The world has changed. The global lockdown due to the coronavirus has led to a massive shift to remote work. People everywhere are isolating in their homes, needing to conduct business online. The legal profession is no different. With law firm offices closed, and even courts conducting business through videoconferencing, it’s an absolute must that your firm has the tools to work online in the new remote landscape.
2. Stay Relevant
Because of the multitude of tech available now, and the ability of tech-savvy companies to tap into it, your competition has just increased. It’s no longer coming just from the law firms with those big splashy billboards, or the firms already ‘teched out’… It’s now also coming from what were once legal sphere “outsiders”. Currently, the largest provider of legal services in the world is… Deloitte. Yes, the accounting giant. They’ve embraced legal tech to take a huge chunk out of your industry.
3. Security and Privacy
In a recent global law firm survey, cybersecurity ranked second only to pricing in a list of the top challenges firms face.
As lawyers take more and more of their work from paper files onto mobile platforms – smartphones, tablets and laptops – data protection becomes all the more challenging. Though it may seem counterintuitive, digital technologies are actually the key to better cybersecurity in this rapidly evolving area of law. Bringing in the right cloud-based approach to guard against cyber threats is crucial.
4. Document Management & Error Prevention
In that same global survey, document management ranked #1 for “Legal technology with the greatest impact”, at a rousing 90%. Turns out that producing documents is a pretty big part of a lawyer’s day. But you knew that already. You also know that mistakes can be disastrous. A fool-proof document automation system like Korbitec’s Automated Civil Litigation (ACL5) takes all the stress – and potential missteps – out of this all-important task.
5. Time & Billing Management
Second only to Document Management, law firms look to tech for high-impact help on time and billing management (88% in the survey). Tracking time and billing is vital for all lawyers. The right technology can make sure all hours worked on a given matter are captured correctly and efficiently. Clients are billed promptly and accurately, and payments are collected reliably. This is a win not only for the firm, but for the client as well.
Now, More Than Ever — The Future is Tech!
So, what do the years ahead hold for the legal profession? The fact is, just like the rest of the world, law firms will be embracing new technology. Even after the social distancing restrictions of COVID-19 are relaxed, some form of remote work may have taken enough of a foothold to stay the distance. No doubt, legal work in the future will undoubtedly look very different than it has in the past.
The time is now to start embracing automated systems, to keep up with the Jones, Jones & Joneses. Remember, every Cloud has a silver lining.
