Businessman-Technology

The days of the traditional law firm model are numbered, and most firms agree technology will be an important component of future services. However, despite the awareness, a new report found law firms are still finding resistance to adopting technology and are struggling to understand the tech options available.

Last week, Wolters Kluwer released its annual "Future Ready Lawyer Survey: Performance Drivers" report, compiled from the answers of 700 lawyers in private practice, in-house legal departments and business services firms across the U.S. and Europe.

The survey found 83% of law firms expect to see a greater use of technology to improve productivity. It noted that the move toward technology is fueled by meeting client demands and increasing competition from non-law firms, including alternative legal service providers and evolving in-house legal departments.

Despite attorneys' ambitions, however, only 29% of law firm respondents said they are very prepared to understand technology solutions, and only 25% believe they are very prepared to understand the benefits of technology to the firm. Similarly, few law firms believe they are very prepared to improve client services or offer greater specialization (both are tied at only 26%).

The survey also found a difference in what legal departments see as transformational tech and what their outside counsel views as transformative. 

More than half of corporate legal department respondents (67%) said big data and predictive analytics are technologies that will have significant impact during the next three years, compared to 58% of law firms that shared the sentiment. Wolters Kluwer vice president and general manager of legal markets Ken Crutchfield noted the non-alignment was more so a reflection of different tech needs for in-house and outside counsel.

The need for predictive analytics and big data is clearer for legal departments, which are one of many departments in a corporate structure with various arrays of data available for business analytics, Crutchfield explained. Law firms may see less of need for big data and predictive analytic software, which may explain why most law firm respondents (59%) see AI as the top transformational tech. 

Crutchfield noted that law firms were focusing on supporting their workflows and operations, which can lead to better solutions rather than throwing technology at a process to appear innovative.

Before a firm can launch a new tech project or solution, lawyers say organizational issues (43%) are the largest barriers to tech adoption.

Respondents revealed organizational hurdles include working without an overall tech strategy; having a change-averse culture; operating with no change management processes; and difficulty modifying workflows. While those challenges are significant, overcoming leadership resistance is the most difficult challenge, Crutchfield said.

"If you send your IT department off to implement AI but you don't have management that ensures there's behavioral change," there won't be firmwide adoption, he said.

To be sure, management-level personnel weren't the only factors driving tech resistance. Wolters Kuwer noted 31% of law firm respondents said a lack of tech knowledge, understanding or skills also hindered them from adopting new technology.

Lastly, 26% of respondents said financial issues stopped the firm from using software, which included overall cost and an inability to show return on investment.

Not being able to showcase ROI is tied to not having a goal or purpose when buying technology, Crutchfield argued. If firm leadership sees a problem, decides how it will be solved and how to measure success when the problem is solved, ROI is easier to explain, he said.

"A technology project can become technology for tech's sake if there's not that focus from leadership," Crutchfield noted.