In the lead-up to its scheduled January release of its annual Legal Technology Survey Report, the American Bar Association recently released a report examining the tech usage of solo lawyers and small firms with two to nine lawyers. 

In the report, 63 percent of all lawyer-respondents who use cloud technology said they are concerned about cloud-based services' confidentiality and security. Among those not using cloud-based services, confidentiality and security (56 percent) and lack of control over the data (40 percent) were cited as key barriers preventing them from using the technology.

Natalie Kelly, the writer of the solo and small firm report and director of the State Bar of Georgia's Law Practice Management Program, said she thought technology adoption among these firms would be more robust. Still, she noted there's been big adoptions of technology and the pace has been steady.

To be sure, cloud technology has been adopted by many solo lawyers and lawyers in small firms alike. The ABA reported 59 percent of solo practitioners and 58 percent of lawyers in small firms use cloud-based computing for their work. 

However, only 5 percent of solos and 15 percent of lawyers in small firms reported they would replace traditional software or services with a cloud-based alternative in the next 12 months. Those percentages increased by 1 and 3 percent, respectively, from last year, according to the report.

On the cybersecurity front, the report found that 14 percent of solos and 24 percent of small law firms said they experienced a breach. Of those, 66 percent of solos and 65 percent of small firms said no significant business disruption or loss occurred due to the breach. About half, 51 percent of lawyers in small law firms, said they had data retention policies, while only 33 percent of solo practitioners reported the same. 

The ABA also found that most, 70 percent, of solo practitioners and 63 percent of small firms don't use use password management tools.

Embracing password management and other security management tools, Kelly said, may convince solo and small law firms to invest in more technology. 

“Once we've laid a good foundation, that you'll start to see more and more people jumping into the pool,” she explained.

But most firms surveyed said they were required under ethical competency rules to stay abreast of the benefits and risks of technology, which may fuel faster technology retention by lawyers. Kelly noted that such rules “brings attention and focus” to technology's permanence in the industry and all legal practices.