Digitizing Inhouse Counsel, Myth or Reality?
One of the greatest barriers to legal technology adoption (and ultimately digitisation) is the culture embedded within the legal industry and unfortunately inhouse legal teams though in the corporate world are not immune. Sometimes it is not their doing, other times this is because legal is not prioritized from an organizational perspective as one that could be able to leverage from technological tools. In the context of the legal industry, digitisation simply means finding ways to digitally complete tasks, processes which were paper based. But what does that look like in a legal department? Well as a General Counsel or Head of a Legal Department, here are a couple of things you should consider digitizing: Your legal intake process – how are you receiving legal requests from the business? Is it centralized? Is it easily trackable and is the information provided to you in a such a way that you will be empowered enough to immediately action that legal request? How you track matters – Are you able to immediately track where you matters are? Who they are with within your legal department, how far they are in finalizing them? Do you have immediate clear oversight over all your department’s matters? How you report your matters – When its time to provide those board or executive reports, do you spend unnecessarily lengthy periods having to collect, analyses and then present your reporting? I could go on about what else you need to start digitizing; I think what most miss about not digitizing, is how they fail to benefit on being able to collect valuable data which can be turned into actionable insights. Insights that you as a legal departmental head or GC could be using to demonstrate the value of your department. Unfortunately, you cannot change or improve what you do not know and not digitizing increases the risk of you being unable to confidently advocate for yourself and the legal department in a language that the rest of the business understands: numbers and data. Before you even commence your digitisation journey, you have to consider your organization’s maturity. Here are some questions to ask yourself when assessing your organization’s maturity: Are existing (and new) technologies integrated into your organisation, and are they helping you achieve desired business results? Do these technologies tie in with key performance indicators? Do you have a process for evaluating outcomes? How is your organisation prepared to keep up with changes in the market, and disruptions due to digital trends? Do you have a technology roadmap and are you aware of the impact of digital maturity initiatives on the roadmap? Do you know what tech features would help you achieve business outcomes? Do you have the resources (including budget, resources and support from leadership)? Do you make informed decisions based on data and analytics? And lastly, as a legal tech eternal optimist, I will probably always be swayed towards any legal department or law firm using a legal tech solution. The most important tip I can provide is the following: ‘Don’t follow the tech hype, rather assess your organisation first, by deeply thinking about the above questions and assessing your current legal operating model before you embark on a legal tech roadmap or implementing any legal tech solution.’ About the Author Leah Molatseli – Head of Business Development, Legal Interact Leah is a lawyer, published legal tech author, speaker and Legal Tech and Innovation Specialist and Head of Business Development at Legal Interact. She focuses on the intersection between law, innovation and technology, using her expertise to educate and empower the legal market. She is year’s ILTA Most Influential Women in Legal Tech Honouree and the American Bar Association’s Women of Legal Tech. A mother of boys only, she is a huge fan of chocolate Sundaes and painting.
6 Points To Consider When Evaluating Legal Tech
Everyone’s talking about legal tech. The usual narrative is about how lawyers should use it to remain competitive, streamline their processes, and save time and money. But the reality is that several legal tech options exist, each battling for your limited attention. This post is for lawyers grappling with deciding which legal tech is most suitable for their business. By the end, you’ll be able to evaluate which solution is right for you. 1. Start with “why” Starting with “why” may seem basic. But I’ve discovered that most lawyers don’t remember why they initially sought legal tech. Crucially, deciding your “why” gives you purpose and direction. It’s also a beacon to return to if you stray from your original goal. For example, a “why” statement may read as follows: I’m searching for software to help us comply with the POPI Act. 2. Develop a business case After establishing your “why”, you should develop a business case. A business case is a document that justifies the project by capturing various essential considerations. For example, it sets out: The scope of the legal tech solution. For instance, “I want legal tech to help me manage the consent requirements under the POPI Act”. The budget. Decide your budget for the project over the short, medium and long terms. Leave room for surprise expenses. The return on investment. Ideally, you can calculate your return using this handy tool. The total cost of ownership. Here you’d estimate the expenses associated with buying, implementing, using, and retiring a solution. Human resource skills. How many people from your team can support this project? Have you assessed their capacity against the time demands of implementing the solution? The required infrastructure. Does the legal tech require strong and unfailing broadband connectivity? Will loadshedding impact your ability to use the solution? Can employees use it while working from home? The intended benefit to the department. How will the solution benefit the department? For example, “The software reduces the risk of us getting fined by the Regulator for mistakenly capturing the consent of data subjects under the POPI Act”. Risk assessment. Assess the risks associated with projects and implement measures to reduce risks. 3. On-premises or in the cloud You need to decide whether the legal tech will be hosted on-premises (on your hardware) or in the cloud (on a distributed infrastructure) managed by the service provider. On-premises solutions are more expensive and more challenging to manage if you have no infrastructure. However, you have more control over the data and security. Alternatively, cloud-based solutions allow for greater scalability. If you’re worried about security, search for a solution with enterprise-grade security features and robust data protection measures. 4. Implementation Once you have access to the legal tech, who will implement it in your organisation? Are there extra costs for implementation? Will the service provider train your staff to scale implementation? 5. User experience How intuitive is the legal tech? Remember that over 90% of lawyers are not tech-savvy. So, can the user simply open it and work on it readily, or does it require significant technical training? What is the cost of training? 6. Scalability How agile is the legal tech for scaling across multiple departments? Is the solution offered in multiple languages so you can scale across the continent and globe? Last tip You don’t have to do this alone. There are independent organisations out there that can help you evaluate legal tech and ensure it meets your needs. About the Author Nathan-Ross Adams – Data and Tech Lawyer, Michalsons Nathan-Ross helps African businesses and governments design, develop and deploy trustworthy AI. He combines legal, commercial, and technical insights to partner with his clients to move toward holistic and sustainable solutions. He believes the best way to formulate these solutions is through collaboration, clear communication, and simple legal documents in immersive legal design.
Why Your Old-Fashioned Contract Process Is Destroying Your Business
Recently, a friend who is a General Counsel reached out for a demo of my company’s product. He asked me to sign an NDA before we discussed details, and I experienced what many of us go through on a daily basis: I opened the email’s attachment, only to discover it was the wrong contract. After a few messages back and forth, I finally got the correct NDA, but I still had to download it to my computer, print it, sign it, and send it back—Only for it to sit in someone’s email inbox. Forever. Businesses today have learned to live with the “necessary evils” of a terrible contracting process because they don’t realize a better solution exists. In fact, many departments haven’t even identified their contracting process as a problem because it’s how things have always been done. Your contracting process may not feel broken to you, but it’s possible the old fashioned contract approach is destroying your business Here’s why: 1. It’s not fast enough. Technological advances are increasing the speed of business every day. Your current manual solution isn’t sustainable or scalable, and throwing more headcount and budget at the problem isn’t going to help, either. The industry has lost sight of the original purpose of contracts—to enable businesses. But since other processes are only moving faster and a business can only move as fast as its slowest link, you’re holding back the rest of the organization, rather than enabling it. Contracting technology is changing so fast that if you haven’t taken a look at the landscape in the last year, you’re likely missing out. And even if you were forward-thinking enough to put a CLM over five years ago, it’s likely outdated and hasn’t kept up with modern technology. You owe it to yourself and your company to stay on top of the latest developments that can benefit your bottom line. 2. You’re damaging business relationships. It’s no secret that legal teams have a stereotypical reputation for being bottlenecks within a business. The reason this stereotype is widespread, covering all industries, is because it’s not about you or the people on your team, it’s about the one thing all departments need from legal—Contracts. If you don’t proactively improve your contracting process and modernize your practices, you perpetuate legal’s negative reputation and isolated team structure. Without facilitating cross-functional collaboration and self-service opportunities for contracting across the business, you are holding the business back from growth and success. 3. It’s irresponsible. As legal counsel for your organization, you have a responsibility to ensure compliance and maintain a high standard of excellence. By neglecting your business’ contracting process, you’re not only holding back the rest of the organization, but quite frankly, you’re not doing your job. Legal departments have historically operated as a reactive function to the rest of an organization, but it’s time to be proactive. If you’re not managing your department by thinking about how to better create, control, and understand your contracts, you’re not fully honoring your commitment to your team. 4. You’re not doing anything with your contracts after they’re signed. There’s so much that goes into the contracting process, from creation and negotiation to review and signing, it involves effort at every step of the way. But, then what? Once the process is complete, most contracts just sit in a “box”. If a question about a specific contract arises or you need to reference an agreement’s renewal date, panic ensues. Where did we put that? Whose inbox is it in? Do they even still work here? You need a place to store all of your organization’s contracts that allows you to search and locate agreements based on metadata. That way, you won’t lose any more sleep over where contracts are when you need them. 5. There is a better solution. The biggest reason your old-fashioned contract process is destroying your business is because a better solution really does exist. What’s happening now with next-generation CLM and digital contracting is filled with possibilities and a different approach than before. The idea is that you can break contracts into discrete digital elements, each of which can be connected to digital processes and workflows, speeding up your process without risking compliance. When it comes to cross-functional relationships and your responsibility to your team, the newfound data in your contracts will help unlock new business opportunities and will help demonstrate the value of the legal organization overall. It’s really not just legal who should be interested in the content of contracts, it’s sales, finance, HR, procurement, customer success, anyone who engages with contracts in any way. There are more business insights to be drawn from contracts than any other document, tool, or product within an organization. When you start affecting your company’s revenue and its ability to execute business operations, everyone starts to get interested. While, yes, your current contract process may be destroying your business, digital contracting and next-generation CLM have the potential not only to reverse the course but to pave a new path of unprecedented success. So, what are you waiting for? About the Author Mary Shen O’Carroll is Chief Community Officer at Ironclad, the #1 contract lifecycle management platform for innovative companies. Prior to Ironclad, she spent 13 years as Director of Legal Operations at Google where she built and managed the operations of the Legal Department allowing the organization to scale from 200 to 1400+ people. During her tenure at Google, Mary was recognized by Financial Times (2019) as a top Legal Intrapreneur, by American Bar Association as 2018 Women of Legal Tech, by the American Bar Association as Legal Rebel in 2016, and by LegalTech News as Legal Department Operations Director of the Year in 2016. In addition, she recently served as President of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), the largest and fastest-growing community focused on the business of law.
Legal Digital Transformation: Time to Think Like the Business
It has been a challenging 18 months. Pandemics, lockdowns, floods, fires, storming of the Capitol, Brexit, food shortages … an apocalyptic list, almost like an overly inclusive force majeure clause. I don’t wish to sound glib; the human cost of these events, Coronavirus in particular, has been significant, with many lives tragically impacted. As we emerge into a brighter future, it seems that we will need to learn to live with unpredictability, in both our personal and professional lives. The world of business has shifted irrevocably. A survey of chief executives, conducted by KPMG in March 2021, showed that a quarter of respondents think the pandemic has changed their business model forever. And what about the lawyers? Legal services has traditionally lagged behind other industries in embracing change and new ways of working. Despite many years of talk about ‘legal tech’, ‘reg tech’, ‘innovation’, ‘alternative legal services providers’ and ‘digital transformation’, the legal industry has remained, in the main, stubbornly wedded to the traditional ways of delivery. The pandemic forced a change, of sorts. Lawyers, like most knowledge workers, were sent home, and were compelled to use digital tools to get the job done. And although using Microsoft Teams does not exactly constitute full blown digital transformation, remote working has undoubtedly helped to move the dial and to soften the traditional lawyer resistance to more digital delivery. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, famously said in April 2020 that Microsoft had seen “2 years’ worth of digital transformation in 2 months”. Viewed in this light, the pandemic could be considered an opportunity for the legal services industry to rethink its delivery model for the next decade and beyond. Digital transformation has a critical role to play in this new model. Now more than ever, digital transformation is not an indulgence, but a necessity. This is about much more than remote working – to evolve to a digital operating model in a volatile and unpredictable world requires a shift in culture. Lawyers, in private practice and in-house, will need to cultivate the kind of culture that innovative and transformative businesses have already developed – a culture that is curious, adaptive, transparent, democratic, and comfortable with change. As businesses become more agile and speed-to-market becomes an even more urgent priority, corporate legal teams and external law firms serving the business need to keep pace – or risk becoming sidelined and irrelevant. Can a corporate legal team effectively support an agile business without adopting agile principles itself? Can an external law firm advise on the legal and regulatory implications of digital transformation without itself leveraging digital tools and approaches? In times of unprecedented volatility, can an analogue approach to client service ever be justified? During the repeated lockdown periods enforced by the pandemic, I thought a lot about these questions. I have been in legal services for over 25 years, as a lawyer, as a chief legal innovation officer, as a consultant, as a global head of knowledge, and, most recently, as the Executive Director of the Digital Legal Exchange. All these roles (with the exception of the fee-earning lawyer) involved pushing the boundaries and driving change, in an effort to improve service to clients. I have a lot of battle scars! I decided to synthesise my thoughts into a new book to help law firms and legal teams understand more about how to affect and sustain digital transformation. Have a look at Successful Digital Transformation in Law firms: A Question of Culture. My conclusion (not groundbreaking, no less true for that) is that any leader looking to future-proof a law firm or legal team must learn lessons from the operating model of successful digital businesses. What is it that unites successful digital companies, either those who are digital ‘natives’ or incumbents who have undergone a successful transformation? There are multiple factors, but they can be neatly distilled down to the following five elements. Successful digital companies: focus on customer/client needs and the customer experience above all else; take a strategic approach to digital transformation; commit to seeing the transformation through; hire the best people to make the change happen; and create a culture in which transformation can continue to flourish. Of these five elements, the most important is culture. There can be no successful or sustained digital transformation without the right culture to support it. Many of the cultural attributes required to be a digitally effective organisation are those we might associate with a ‘good’ or healthy corporate culture: attributes like organisational diversity (which fuels innovative thinking); transparency (which unites teams around a shared vision); and agility (which allows organisations to be responsive to change and serve customers better). The challenge, for law firms and for corporate legal teams alike, is how to build this kind of culture in an environment that is often resistant to change. During my keynote talk at the Legal Innovation and Tech Fest Online, I will be touching on these issues, and sharing some practical and actionable insights into how lawyers can build their digital muscles, embrace change and bring legal closer to the business. About the Author Isabel Parker, Executive Director for The Digital Legal Exchange (UK), has spent her career consistently pushing the boundaries and delivering change in the legal industry. She trained as a lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer then moved from fee earning to become Freshfields’ Chief Legal Innovation Officer, shaping the firm’s digital transformation strategy and leading the development of client-facing digital products. She moved in 2020 to become Executive Director of the Digital Legal Exchange, a not-for-profit with a mission to accelerate digital transformation within corporate legal functions. Isabel is passionate about customer experience, technology-focused legal education, and cognitive diversity.
JUTA Reinvents Itself and Inspires Possibilities in a Digital World
South Africa’s preeminent education, academic and legal information publishing house, Juta, is reinventing itself as the go-to provider of legal technology platforms, tools for lifelong learning and solutions to grow businesses under the banner of, “Inspiring Possibilities Together”. Under this impassioned theme, Juta looks to further perpetuate meaningful change in the lives of students; academics; the business and legal fraternity by highlighting its extensive digital presence that complements the publisher’s vast library of subject matters. “For more than 160 years Juta and Company have been associated with quality Law, Education and Academic publishing in Southern Africa. Drawing on our heritage of authority and excellence, Juta has remained relevant by embracing technological innovation and diversifying beyond publishing to offer e-learning and technology-driven information solutions,” says Kamal Patel, Chief Executive Officer. Founded in 1853, Juta has grown both as an institution in the academic spheres and as a source of intellectual wealth spanning multiple genres including academic, business and legal literature. At 167 years the publishing behemoth is rebranding to better reflect the modern-day digital era it now operates under. “The coronavirus pandemic upended the socio-economic lives of millions of people globally and students were not spared either. One of the lessons to come from the pandemic has been the importance of digitisation and being able to reach people anywhere they are. Our digital presence has made it easier for anyone to access any of our resources no matter where in the world they are, allowing them to keep evolving” says Patel. Juta’s digital offerings go beyond simply offering the digital equivalent of the books they publish but also includes EdTech solutions aimed at enhancing learning outcomes with technology, LegalTech tools that empower professionals to become more effective and efficient, and LawTech platforms that help build communities through making the law more accessible. Juta’s proud legacy of empowering generations of South Africa’s finest legal and professional minds continues through the wealth of knowledge found under the publisher’s vast catalogue. “As the Fourth Industrial Revolution takes its effect on the world, digitisation is fast becoming a need rather than something to aspire to. To grow the world’s economies and social wealth we need connectivity fueled by more people having access to knowledge at their fingertips so they can make informed decisions or better capitalise on the changing landscape. By further expanding our digital library, we are contributing to the knowledge banks of people everywhere, embodying the theme of ‘Inspiring Possibilities Together’,” concludes Patel.
How Tech Can Change the Legal Sector
In the lead up to the 2020 Legal Innovation & Tech Fest, Eventful People and Africa Legal have partnered to deliver a Legal Community Report offering insight into the current challenges in delivering legal services and the technology-backed innovations being deployed to combat these challenges. This report was compiled in a robust process, commencing with three months of in-depth research by Eventful People, and including in-person research groups in Cape Town and Johannesburg. This was followed by the digital surveying of lawyers across the continent. The findings of the report will now frame the backbone of the cutting-edge agenda planned for the Legal Innovation and Tech Fest which will be hosted at the Maslow Hotel, Sandton, Johannesburg on June 8 and 9 2020. Africa Legal is the event’s official ‘Intelligence Partner’. Lawyers and innovators from leading law firms and corporate legal departments such as Adams & Adams Attorneys, BDO South Africa, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, Bowmans, Standard Bank, Dentons, Stellenbosch University and Webber Wentzel contributed to the report through participation in the research groups which were designed to understand how technology and innovation in law can drive the profession. More than 100 organisations operating across 24 African jurisdictions engaged with the research process. Seven broad themes were identified as core issues for the legal community to reflect on and these are to form the basis for the upcoming event agenda in 2020: 1. Navigating the Maze of Legal Technology – Past, Present & Future Understanding what technology is currently available, discovering when you use what and cutting through the legal tech ‘noise’. 2. Change Management and User Adoption The vital importance of user experience in legal tech, developing a culture of trust and openness and embracing the power of ‘design thinking’. 3. Embracing Technical and Process Innovation Technical versus process innovation, innovating for social justice and how to identify your business’s innovation champions. 4. The Future of Law, Legal Talent & Rethinking Operating Models Building the skillset to ensure future resilience and relevance, attracting and retaining the talent vital during an era of digital disruption and new legal careers. 5. Legal Technology Regulations, Ethics & Cybersecurity AI and Cloud regulation and ethics, people versus system in the cybersecurity battleground and data protection. 6. Deriving Value from Data & Determining ROI How data can demonstrate ROI, looking beyond pure financial to the experiential and human benefits of tech and using data to understand client needs. 7. Legal Services Pricing Structures & Cost Saving Enhancing law firm and client collaboration, the commodification of the business of law and innovations in pricing. Wendy Bampton, Co-founder of the African Professional Services Group, of which Africa Legal is a subsidiary, highlighted the need for such in-depth research and discussion on innovation in law. “With so much coverage, discussion and ‘noise’ around the power of technology to transform and rapidly innovate the practice of law it’s never been a more important time to garner end-user generated insight. “Identifying the true realities and challenges across the continent will enable the legal profession to more effectively use technology in the delivery of more effective and accessible legal services.” Through the partnership between Africa Legal and Eventful People, it is hoped that this research, paired with the event itself, will provide an opportunity for robust discussion, analysis and genuine change. Tech adoption by the African legal sector is an absolute necessity but not as challenging as sometimes perceived. The opportunity for individual law firms and legal departments to start implementing technology to drive innovation is already here. Extremely low-cost (and often free) solutions to drive efficiencies, notably in the areas of data management and process mapping, are instantly available. To avoid unnecessary delay, lawyers should consider dropping ‘legal’ from ‘legal tech’ and instead look to long-established business tech which has just as much applicability to the delivery of legal services. Legal Innovation & Tech Fest provides an opportunity to unpack these issues, led by some of Africa’s top legal and tech minds, to network, share knowledge and have some fun! Download the 2020 Legal Innovation & Tech Fest Community Report About the Author Tom Pearson is the Chief Commercial Officer at Africa Legal. He has a keen interest and background in the LegalTech space as well as having held leadership roles at the world’s largest legal media organisations. This post originally appeared on the Africa Legal blog.
The Coffee Shop Office: Benefits and Challenges of Alternative Working Arrangements
Lawyers David Lancaster and Munya Gwanzura, both experts in business management, reflect on the pros and cons of employees working outside the office. Munya will be speaking at the Legal Innovation & Tech Fest in June this year. Increasingly, business people are trading their suits for their chinos (and even their tracksuits) as the formal office appears to give way to comfortable workspaces at home and, at times, in coffee shops. The introduction of new technology has enabled businesses to find better ways of achieving operational efficiency, including moving away from the traditional model, that requires employees to be physically present in the office, towards more alternative and flexible working arrangements. The technology era is continuously disrupting the traditional ways of doing things and, if businesses are to survive, they need to move with the times and ensure they remain commercially relevant and competitive. Critical to achieving operational efficiency is having in place a technology infrastructure designed to assist employees to increase the speed at which they execute tasks and deliver goods and services. Motivated, skilled employees, who utilise and leverage technology successfully to create tangible value by delivering high-quality work, are essential. In considering a change in traditional working arrangements, it must be appreciated that technology can generally be accessed from anywhere and is no longer limited to the office environment. With a reliable fibre connection at home, an employee can seamlessly connect into the employer’s network and execute tasks assigned to him or her remotely. These employees can still deliver tangible value without necessarily being physically present in the office. This is, of course, subject to confidentiality protocols being observed and the appropriate cyber security being in place to guard against unauthorised access to proprietary information. The concept of employees working remotely can be a rather daunting proposition for an employer as it means less control over remote employees during working hours. For an employer, there is something comforting about having employees visible in the office. However, should employers place greater value on having employees in the office even if they are not productive, or should the emphasis be on better productivity from employees even if they are working remotely? This must be seriously considered so that a decision can be made about what working arrangements work best for the business. It may well be that certain businesses are suited to having some or all their employees working remotely simply because of the nature of their work. Even if this approach is not currently suitable, alternative working arrangements ought to be considered as the business grows and in light of the increased costs associated with renting office space. The benefits of remote working are numerous and include that employers are likely to have a happier and more motivated workforce because they will feel valued and trusted, which inculcates a culture of responsibility and accountability. Further, a happier workforce generally translates into greater productivity and value creation which are the key ingredients to achieving both short and long term goals. In addition, office space can be substantially reduced and the money saved can be ploughed back into the business and used to reduce debt or to fund acquisitions in line with the business’s growth strategy. One should also not ignore the potential risks that may be involved in formalising a policy that permits employees to work remotely. Employees may abuse the arrangement which could result in less productivity and have a negative impact on the business. The remote working arrangement must, therefore, be clearly articulated and should be legally supported by a mechanism for dealing decisively with employees who are not productive when working from home. When employees work remotely it may also have a negative effect on teamwork and stifle innovation, which is often achieved through daily interaction among employees within the formal office environment. While working remotely may be attractive for some people, others may find it alienating and lonely and it may also have the effect of undermining a sense of commitment to the company. More importantly, research has shown the importance of the need for human interaction, and when employees work in silos they have been found to be demoralised and to not have a sense of job satisfaction. A delicate balance thus needs to be achieved. Employers can mitigate the risks successfully by carefully selecting the employees within a business whose tasks can be executed successfully in a remote working environment. Often such employees are the ones who provide professional services to the business, and these services are suitable for such an alternative working arrangement. Those employees whose tasks require them to be physically present (eg employees who are directly involved in production) would be required to work in the office or on-site. Various models should be considered to ensure that all employees are treated equitably in order to avoid any industrial relations issues. The world is changing at a rapid pace. Businesses are increasingly being forced to innovate to develop and establish better ways of working to achieve their objectives. Today’s technology-enhanced market presents great commercial benefits that can be harvested from leveraging technology, and businesses that think outside the box and continue to innovate will undoubtedly remain commercially relevant and competitive in the future. About the speaker Munya Gwanzura was a dispute resolution partner at Webber Wentzel and Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, and has 14 years’ experience as an attorney. He holds BA and LLB degrees from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and is a CEDR (UK) Accredited Commercial Mediator. Munya completed the Leadership Growth Programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science and is currently the Head of Dispute Resolution at Barloworld Equipment, a division of JSE listed Barloworld South Africa (Proprietary) Limited. This article originally appeared on Africa Legal Analysis & Opinion
The Topics Shaping The Future of The Law Industry
Technology is disrupting and enabling the practice of law, which is why we’re holding the Legal Innovation & Tech Fest. Six months of in-depth research leads to the creation of a unique agenda that really speaks to your business needs and addresses your concerns of integrating technology into the practice of law. This Year’s Research We recently ran roundtable discussions with legal and IT professionals from over 75 organisations, facilitated by local leaders in the legal space. The attendees were asked what challenges they are facing within the legal space and what topics they would like to see covered at this year’s conference. Key discussion points and insights gleaned from these groups resulted in the following themes emerging: Embracing technology Innovation: Drivers, barriers, & opportunities Future of law & rethinking business models Legal design thinking: Enhancing the user experience Deriving value from data Change management: People & processes Developing skills for new legal paradigms Cybersecurity Harnessing knowledge management Demystifying AI & ML The discussions around these topics were captured in a research report, which you can download below for more detailed insights into these topics. The Legal Innovation & Tech Fest 2019 The world is changing. Businesses are more demanding. Fee models are evolving, and new technologies are emerging. The pressure is on for law firms and legal businesses to operate more efficiently and effectively. The Legal Innovation & Tech Fest creates a space where people can learn and explore the technology, ideas and innovations that are literally transforming the way we live and work. Interested in our 2019 research report? Download our report to discover what professionals from 75+ law firms, in-house legal teams and alternate legal service providers say their challenges are in achieving success in legal innovation using technology as an enabler, both within their organisations & the wider community. Fill in the form below to download and access the full research report.