What role will technology play? What role will the lawyer play?
Zegal have recently released their ‘Thought Leadership Review 2021’ which assembled a panel of experts including lawyers, investors and founders from Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The study aims to provide insight, expertise and foresight into the evolving Legal-tech landscape.
The report explores what adaptations need to happen on the legal playing field and what is currently changing within it. Additionally, contributors were asked to consider what a modern law firm of 2030 will look like.
Here are some of the findings:
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Document automation drove significant change in the Hong Kong and Singaporean legal market.
Automation has been around for a long time. However, lawyers tend to shy away from it because their value proposition is to charge by the hour. Some believe that at least 30 to 40% of legal work can be automated.
The 24/7 nature of work means that clients have high demands and expect holistic solutions to problems. There are arguments that lawyers should not be limited to just their knowledge and expertise in the law. Having knowledge and using technology to save time, means that you can cater to your clients’ needs much more readily, which in turn will enhance your reputation and grow your firm.
Rajesh Sreenivasan, Head of Technology, Media and Telecommunications Practice at Rajah & Tann believes, “The rise of Legaltech companies opened up lawyers' eyes to the fact that they just can't continue on the status quo anymore. There are inefficiencies and it would be a disservice to clients by just continuing to practice in these inefficiencies.”
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Legal practise is evolving
Terri Mottershead, Executive Director for the Centre for Legal Innovation, believes that the legal industry is evolving from “being lawyer-centric, paper-based and inefficient to client-centric, digital and more efficient. The use of tech tools and how they have been incorporated into the delivery of legal services/products is the big day to day change.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided global proof of how lawyers can take advantage of technology to deliver their services virtually and ensure that they can maintain business as usual while they may not be able to meet clients face to face.
From electronic signatures to remote verification of identity, clients are now used to being able to save themselves time and money by not having to complete tasks manually. Convenience has become a huge factor in the way lawyers’ complete matters, because their clients are demanding it. Moving forward, opinions on whether lawyers will return to pre-COVID practises or stay the same are split.
What clients need from a future law firm is a rounded, holistic solution. Being able to provide the solutions on a digital platform that is fast, productive, and cost-efficient.
Terri explains that legal tech has made law and lawyers more human. “It’s removed the repetitive, task-based work….and allowed more time to be spent with clients.”
InfoTrack’s end to end e-conveyancing solutions allow lawyers and conveyancers to reduce the time they spend on administration tasks by reducing data entry and finding ways to move matters forward when remote practises are required. Each solution is tailored to you to suit the unique needs of each of your matters.
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New law firms are early adopters of tech
In the long run, resistance to legal tech is futile. Zegal’s report finds that new law firms are more willing to innovate and trial new technologies. If they take off, especially due to client demand, then traditional firms will pick these technologies up. Law is becoming client-driven. The pace at which clients want results from firms is increasing. Risk however is also increasing as matters become increasingly complex to keep up with the demands of the modern world.
Technology enables legal services to be delivered more quickly and also more transparently. While this is an expectation of clients nowadays, it is positive that firms can use technology solutions to deliver on these expectations.
Chris Sykes, Lead Designer at BPP Law School in the UK suggests that in the future, some areas of law will change very little. For example, criminal and family law cases will still fundamentally be the same, however a main change would be the introduction of online hearings.
Chris also believes that technologies used to mitigate the impact of COVID, may have led to lawyers being more efficient and thus happier. There is also increased need for lawyers to work with other industry professionals like data analysts and software engineers. These working relationships will allow lawyers to develop a broader range of skills that will have significant future influences on the profession.
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Risk aversion will always be a challenge for the legal profession
All contributors to the Zegal report highlighted that lawyers’ aversion to risk would pose a challenge for the future. Implementing new technologies and changing the way things have always been done is confronting and many lawyers, like many of us generally, prefer to steer clear of change.
In other industries, such as accounting, technology has changed the way those professionals think. For example, Xero is hugely successful because it changed the way businesses thought about their finances and how they worked with accountants.
InfoTrack’s legal tech solutions are able to do the same. Our solutions reduce admin, increase efficiency and change the relationship lawyers have with their clients, in a more positive way. Additionally, cloud technology that can be accessed anywhere at any time means that lawyers can embrace more flexibility and meet demand.
Law tends to be looked at as a stiff and unchanging profession, but firms of all sizes are embracing these new technological opportunities. Some firms are designing new roles or adjusting internal structures to make way for more technologies. While many lawyers in the past have feared the introduction of AI as it may ‘take over their jobs’, lawyers are learning to work with technologies and use them to their advantage to do more with less resources or simply grow their firm in different directions now that certain tasks have been dissolved by a technology solution.
InfoTrack’s suite of cloud-based products have been built for lawyers and conveyancers to use anywhere, at any time, ensuring their firms remain productive and efficient. As a trusted technology provider, InfoTrack is proud to support our clients during changing times by offering stability, expertise and innovative solutions to keep their firms moving forward. If you would like to take advantage of the solutions on offer with a stable, leading innovator get started with InfoTrack today.
