Major consolidation within the legal tech market is unavoidable, according to the director of IT at international law firm Osborne Clarke.

Speaking at Legal Week's Strategic Technology Forum, Europe in Spain, Nathan Hayes said that the most successful legal tech ventures would not come out of one specific institution but instead via amalgamations and joint ventures between traditional law firms, accountants and legal tech firms.

“It's not going to be one of those, it's going to be a merging of them,” Hayes argued.

“We're already beginning to see law firms buying up legal tech companies; law firms partnering with academia and legal tech, having stakes in them, investing in them,” he said. “I think we're going to see different entities evolving rather than these siloed organisations.”

Recent forays into legal technology business include Withers' acquisition of JAG Shaw Baker, Slaughter & May's Collaborate platform launch earlier this year, and Digital Ventures, a newly-started tech development and investment division by Ashurst.

“We're in a situation where we've just seen a massive explosion in legal tech which is great,” said Hayes.

“The carnage that will ensue though, there's going to be a lot of consolidation, which is going to be incredibly helpful for people like me.”

Stephanie Hamon, the former managing director and head of external engagement at Barclays, also expected greater collaboration to follow.

“The market is highly fragmented, so when you're on the client side, you get solicitation all the time and it's really hard to see the wood from the tree,” she said.

“It's true for the law firms, and it's even worse for legal tech.”

Hamon, who left the bank in May this year, stated that the bank had reduced its own legal panel from over 1,000 firms in 2012 to around just 100 currently, as part of a major shake-up.

“We were rating them on collaboration and we expected them to collaborate,” she said.

“No one law firm can deliver it all by themselves any more. That time has passed.”