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Technology is reducing overhead for many industries. The only problem is, law firms are notoriously slow to adapt. A study found that 87 percent of law professionals still use pen and paper to complete their work, even though two-thirds of these same professionals have access to technology. Knowing they have the necessary resources, law firms must do a better job of leveraging those technological solutions.

With the right technology, a legal team can improve collaboration and can better track performance, manage budgets, and operate lean. The right technology can also improve teams' abilities to source job candidates by helping them quickly identify the right talent for the job—be it full-time, part-time, etc.—which can save both time and money.

This, of course, isn't to say that technology alone can reduce spending. Working to break down silos and become more agile as a team is also important for improving collaboration and reducing waste.

Waste Not, Want Not

Meeting evolving market demands requires fast, efficient adaptation. An agile legal department utilizes cross-functional teams to cut down on bureaucracy and get more accomplished. In this model, work looks like mission-based projects, which might be staffed by a lean core of full-time employees alongside a flexible bench of on-demand experts.

Improving cross-functionality in this way can also make a company more attractive to potential hires. Who wouldn't want to work for an employer with the resources to quickly respond and adapt to market demands? That adaptability brings security that attracts prospective employees.

Technology can be a critical tool for general counsel—or legal departments in general—to leverage for making better hires and limiting their spending. The following are often the best places to start:

1. Re-evaluate hiring protocols.

Besides driving up talent acquisition costs, recruiters' antiquated approaches can often slow the hiring process. While recruiting platforms like Indeed and CareerBuilder are trusted outreach resources, they're just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to innovative recruiting solutions.

Because legal roles can be so difficult to fill, companies have turned to nontraditional recruiting platforms for help finding qualified talent. One way to do this is to leverage technology that eliminates a portion of the recruiting process and allows companies to focus on bigger-picture tasks. Find a technological solution that hires and manages remote contract attorneys and paralegals and can access an algorithmically curated, on-demand workforce with one click. Use this solution to streamline the normal hiring process and get employees in place faster.

A traditional recruiting service requires a retainer fee or a payment to even access a candidate. Instead, look for a technology solution that can reduce those costs and allow a general counsel to invest that money into a culture-building event or something else that benefits the whole team.

2. Build an agile legal team.

When a business is changing rapidly, contracting project-specific flexible legal professionals doesn't just save legal departments money—it also improves team agility by allowing it to provide a wider array of services to its clientele. What's more, project-specific clients rarely find themselves constrained by silos, allowing for greater collaboration and fewer bottlenecks.

The Muse, a platform that each year helps more than 50 million people succeed in their careers, employs a tech-enabled, on-demand legal workforce to streamline operations for its sales team. As needs arise, the company brings in a specialized attorney to help negotiate, formalize, and execute agreements. While this frees up time for its general counsel to focus on more strategic initiatives, it also allows the company to better respond to the fluctuating needs of the business. More importantly, it helps save thousands of dollars when compared with hiring a law firm.

3. Outsource more than insource.

Cost is probably the biggest difference between outsourcing and insourcing, or delegating tasks in-house. Insourcing requires a company to develop new work processes, which can be a great expense to a legal department. By exclusively outsourcing certain tasks, companies can rely on an existing workflow and team equipped for the task at hand, making the launch of a project or initiative much more affordable and efficient.

Legal departments can also keep costs down by leaning on technology. Plenty of legal operations software solutions can help manage the day-to-day law needs and even help with contract negotiations. Sure, the general counsel will still handle complex matters, but legal and new tech like Carta or Zenefits can certainly manage more administrative tasks.

The manner in which legal teams are staffed continues to evolve. Technology is a large part of this and can help build, manage, and unite a team, allowing organizations to run leaner and spend less.

Raad Ahmed is the founder and CEO of LawTrades Apex, a hiring platform that empowers in-house teams to quickly hire flexible legal talent backed by tools and management support. Imagined as the “world's tech-enabled workforce,” Ahmed envisions LawTrades to replace traditional legal staffing with software that deploys an agile team of attorneys and paralegals that streamlines legal spend and boosts productivity.