Technology is taking over the legal sector, transforming how clients and professionals interact with and navigate the law. From automating time-consuming tasks to enhancing accuracy and efficiency, legal technology is rapidly reshaping, or in some cases, eliminating traditional practices.
What Is Legal Tech?
Legal tech refers to any and all devices or techniques that help users interact with and navigate the law. This includes anyone from clients to the CEOs of the world’s biggest law firms. Legal tech is particularly helpful for replacing time and labour consuming processes in the workplace with automated ones.
This offers greater speed, accuracy, and efficiency for these tasks and allows legal professionals to focus on more pressing duties.
Is It Popular?
The use of legal tech has skyrocketed since the pandemic, and hasn’t slowed down since. In fact, it’s estimated that 61% of firms have implemented legal technology in the last three years, and this number is only expected to grow.
Some of the most common legal tech solutions include:
- Document Automation: Tools that automate the creation, review, and management of legal documents
- E-discovery: Software that helps legal professionals collect, review, and analyse large volumes of electronic data for litigation and investigations
- Case Management: Platforms that assist in managing case workflows, deadlines, and communications
- Legal Research: Databases and AI-driven tools that streamline the process of legal research and analysis
- Contract Analysis: AI-powered tools that analyse and review contracts for risks, compliance, and key terms
- Online Dispute Resolution: Platforms that facilitate the resolution of disputes through digital means, often without the need for in-person meetings or court appearances
- Compliance and Risk Management: Software that helps organisations ensure they comply with legal regulations and manage potential risks
Who Are the Key Players in Legal Tech?
Last year, the global legal tech market was valued at 28 billion U.S. dollars, with the market set to increase further in the coming years. There’s a huge number of companies whose sole focus is creating and developing legal tech. Key companies in the legal tech space include:
WiseTime
WiseTime is the pioneering enterprise-grade autonomous timekeeping solution designed to help legal professionals stay focused on their work. Created by lawyers for lawyers, WiseTime allows legal professionals to track billing and accounting accurately and fairly for every minute, without spending time on manual entry.
QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online is an efficient accounting software tailored for lawyers. Its benefits are magnified when integrated with any legal practice management software. Together, these tools manage everything from tracking revenue and expenses to billing clients.
Dialpad
Dialpad stands out as the most innovative business phone system in the industry. Dialpad’s Voice Intelligence technology uses voice recognition and machine learning to convert phone conversations into actionable documents. This software provides your team with detailed insights and action items, capturing essential details during calls, messages, and meetings.
Fidu
Fidu is a client experience platform designed for delivering subscription-based legal services. Fidu’s software equips you with the tools to build a scalable subscription legal business, from workflow automation to reliable customer service. It helps you offer comprehensive legal services on a subscription model.
How Legal Tech Is Impacting Legal Education
Legal technology is revolutionising legal education, integrating advanced tools to prepare future professionals for a tech-driven industry. While speaking to Law.com, Stephen Burnett (JD, Law School Advisor, AllCampus) highlighted the shift towards flexible and accessible Hybrid JD programmes, facilitated by the ABA’s support for innovative teaching methods. This expansion encourages new educational formats and technologies.
Generative AI tools are becoming essential in legal training. Mastering AI will be a standard part of training new lawyers, and those proficient in AI will drive innovation and productivity. There is also likely to be a demand for roles like data engineers to manage the increasing data generated by AI, ensuring informed decision-making.
Additionally, there is also growing importance of LegalOps and LegalTech roles in in-house legal departments, contributing to education and performance. It might be useful to evolve the training model to incorporate GenAI, positioning legal functions for tech-enabled service. An increased use of data analytics and AI in recruiting and training is also foreseen, making technology a core competency.
Overall, legal tech is reshaping legal education by promoting flexibility, integrating AI and data analytics, and fostering a tech-savvy mindset among future legal professionals.
How Legal Tech Is Impacting Courts
Legal technology is significantly impacting courts, addressing challenges such as limited budgets, increasing caseloads, backlogs, and workforce constraints. Courts are leveraging technology to enhance productivity, access, and fairness. A 2023 Court Trends & Technology Survey by Thomson Reuters highlights that nearly two-fifths of courts have introduced new or improved processes and service innovations in the past year, with key advancements including e-filing, virtual hearings, and video conferencing.
These technologies streamline court operations, making them more efficient and accessible. The survey also revealed that virtual hearings, widely adopted during the pandemic, have become a regular practice, with many courts now holding more virtual hearings than traditional ones.
Despite these advancements, courts still face delays, particularly from failures to appear, evidentiary issues, clerical errors, and legal challenges. Reducing hearing delays is crucial, as they can create a domino effect, impacting other cases. Addressing these root causes is essential for modernising and improving court efficiency.
