This article briefly explores the developing use of technology in the practice of law and the legal profession.
Over the last few years, the legal industry has gone through massive technological changes, while the pandemic has its effects on both positive and negative. Remote working has taken digitalization; it’s all high in the legal industry. In covid times, countless law firms and legal professionals started working from remote locations, and this created challenges for effective collaboration and communication.
The legal industry has faced countless challenges in smooth working amid the highly dynamic business environment. Old school and manual ways started to become obsolete and time-consuming. That’s where legal tech steps in technology have played a crucial role in increasing the efficiency and productivity of law firms.
With the advantages of legal tech, there is greater transparency and better communication between law firms and their clients.
A report quoted earlier this year ‘legal tech investment is going to be increased 3 fold in upcoming years. Lawyers in the USA and UK alone accept legal tech investments 3 times more than in the current state. The legal tech market is slowly and gradually increasing, with law firms and organizations fully ready to adapt to smart technology by the year 2023.
Before we go any further and get a comprehensive look at what are its benefits, let’s understand what the term means.
What is legal tech?
Legal technology, or legal tech, refers to software and services used by legal professionals and lawyers to make their law practice more efficient, productive, and less time-consuming.
For example, a client portal would allow effective client communication, as clients could pay fees easily, stay in constant communication with law firms, and have access to details about their cases with just a few clicks.
Legal tech, no doubt when used correctly, is faster and more efficient than any human can manually do. Here are a few benefits of adapting legal tech in your practice.
1. Automated process
Traditionally all the administrative tasks are performed manually in a law firm, not just time consuming but it is also a waste of effort. Lawyers are always multitasking with meeting business professionals. Managing micro-tasks can mitigate frustration, with legal tech this process can be simplified such as by discovering the whole process can be done in half of the time. The process of automating tasks will not just provide a fast pace of operations but also increase efficiency and will also be in the loop.
2. Better Resource management
Earlier support staff like junior attorneys were hired to perform jobs like collecting, storing, and analyzing information; this was not just time-consuming but also increased overhead costs. Manual labor was not utilized at its full potential. With legal tech, this challenge can be overcome, such as junior attorneys were no longer maintaining calendar dates or maintaining paperwork, hence giving senior attorneys a chance to assign them more valuable work for better outcomes.
3. A decline in risk errors
Advantages of adapting legal tech are the risk of errors decreases, and with law firms involving piles of paperwork, it becomes difficult to maintain and keep a check on every single detail and information. With legal tech solutions law firms are provided with options to give role-based access to decrease the chances of misuse of information.
4. Higher convenience
With legal tech solutions such as legal practice management software and document management, lawyers and law firms can access information from anywhere and anytime. Legal practice management software gives lawyers the option to use ready-made custom document templates and custom client intake for the higher inconvenience.
5. Enhanced customer experience
Gone are the days when providing excellent legal services was it. In today’s competitive industry you need to provide excellent customer service equally with excellent legal service. With legal tech you can streamline communication with clients, solutions such as law practice management can automate the email process.
6. Ease in collaboration
With legal tech solutions, collaboration becomes easy; they no longer need to sit next to each other to effectively collaborate. Legal tech enables the law firm to have a smooth remote culture. Law practice management software provides features like role-based access for better collaboration.
7. Fast information processing
Legal professionals and Law firms have an insane number of tasks from processing multiple cases in parallel. Legal tech when used correctly and constantly
Conclusion
Adapting legal tech in the legal industry can go a long way and give immense advantages in improving their efficiency and helps in attracting a lot more clients. Legal tech not just simplifies the process in a law firm but also creates a hassle-free pathway for clients. Giving clients exceptional client service boosts your law firm’s growth and increases your monetization.
Adapt to legal tech services such as case management software to maintain a smooth going of operations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Simran Sinha
