PwC's legal arm is rolling out a program that will allow its lawyers to build their own legal technology applications, as more firms look to bridge the gap between tech and traditional legal skills.

The Big Four accountancy firm's legal arm has teamed up with German-headquartered legal tech firm BRYTER for the product, known as a 'no code' automation tool.

The program will be rolled out initially in the firm's Swiss and Austrian offices, and will be extended to other European offices in due course, a spokesperson for PwC said.

BRYTER provides a toolbox which it says allows professionals to build, manage and sell applications without having programming skill. The platform will be used by PwC lawyers across a number of regional markets including Switzerland and Austria. At present, the U.K. is not part of the roll-out.

In a statement, Christian Oehner, managing partner of PwC Legal Austria and global legal tech leader of PwC, said: "No-code platforms close the gap between legal professionals and product development teams and – more importantly – to the clients."

PwC Legal has made several strides in the tech space recently. In October 2019 the U.K arm of the company entered into a strategic partnership with legal tech startup ThoughtRiver, which provides "pre-screening" technology for legal contracts.

Earlier in 2019, the firm became the first of the Big Four to launch its own legal incubator, Scale | LawTech. Eight firms were selected to join the 10-week programme, which aimed to support startup legal tech companies that provide business and consumer services.