Technology trends that will shape law firms in 2022
As we all know, the pandemic has disrupted the global workforce, including law firms.
Most law firms started to work remotely in these unpredictable times. This made legal firms experience challenges when communicating with clients. One of the most effective ways to help law organisations operate online efficiently is through the adoption of technology.
According to Statista Research Department, surveys have been conducted amongst legal professionals in 2022, revealing that technology has the highest impact on their work efficiency. However, 48% of law professionals wouldn’t be prepared to move to a new law company if their employer be short of innovation. The pandemic demonstrated that digital transformation and innovation are crucial to adapting to the new changes in society.
Thus, be sure to update your law firm with the latest legal and business tech advancements. Let’s take a look at the types of technology influencing the legal industry in 2022.
Automation
A law firm should consider how useful automation is for its practices. Automation includes using various control systems and equipment, like machinery, processes in factories, etc. So, which task should your law firm automate? Law firms do great at creating and performing processes at all stages of a client’s life. The administrative tasks of a lawyer can consume a big part of a lawyer’s day. Luckily, there are law firm automation systems that can reduce some of the time-consuming tasks.
According to some reports made in 2020 on the State of Small Firms, 74% of small businesses stated difficulties with consuming too much valuable time in administrating tasks rather than doing important work. Lawyers in these companies spend more than 40% of their time on a regular day on administrative tasks. It’s only natural that law firms’ interest in legal process automation increased.
The benefits of law firm automation: attorneys are able to decrease or get rid of the burden of repeating the same tasks all over again. At the same time, possible errors and mitigation compliance risks are reduced. This way, a lawyer makes efficiencies that allow them to be able to do more important work in a day, like solving cases.
It’s essential to understand how beneficial automation is:
- Organizing and bringing together information in one place, decreases the necessity to look in multiple locations.
- Simplifying existing processes.
- Delegate common tasks to others who specialize in the tasks.
Voice technology
A full of 82% of law firms intend to invest in speech recognition, according to researches, as they didn’t feel well-equipped for remote work. The lack of technology stopped many law firms from not functioning properly as they would in the office. But a decent percentage of legal professionals who used speech recognition technology during the pandemic managed to do their jobs properly. Due to this concern, many law organisations are looking now to invest in voice technology.
The pandemic has definitely accelerated the trend of many modern technologies, embracing the new ways of working remotely and making the most of digitalisation. During these times of uncertainty, law firms are under even more pressure than before. Voice technology is likely to become the number one tool for legal professionals’ new requirements. The past two years have put us under extreme pressure and challenges, especially in the legal sector.
Virtual legal assistants
The virtual assistant market is a fast-growing trend, especially for bigger companies. Virtual law assistants can help your organisation to handle the ever-increasing number of questions. A virtual legal assistant will help law companies get rid of the sheer amount of work. Also, law virtual assistants can help a law firm improve efficiencies, and offer clients much importance. They can complete routine tasks and improve customer service significantly by managing emails, calls, meetings, deadlines, accounting, live chat, managing contracts, legal research, etc.
Legal virtual assistants are a great option for your legal practice if you don’t find it necessary to hire an in-staff member. Eventually, virtual assistants will save your business money, since you won’t invest in office supplies.
Think of virtual assistants as an allowance of yourself for extra tasks. You will be able to focus on more billable work, which honestly, is most important. How to choose a virtual legal assistant? Regardless of the process, choose a virtual assistant who specializes in your law firm.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is known by most of us, but still in its early stages of life. However, it is expected to have a massive effect on the legal market. But there’s still a lack of understanding on how AI can be applied to the law sector. Thus, most law firms, like Personal Injury Claims UK, have already adopted AI in their daily operations to help manage administrative tasks and processes. This way, cases can be litigated electronically, without the need for human involvement. It greatly reduces costs and increases speed up client services.
Artificial Intelligence can also carry out the task of examining contracts, as an essential part of the legal process, but also takes up a considerable amount of time and effort. It can significantly support the legal industry and be used for machine learning to review and analyse documents accurately. It’s software that can detect trends and other documents with similar tasks.
Virtual law practice
In 2022, it’s essential to make sure your law staff members remain motivated and you have the right tech tools for working remotely. A virtual work environment is favourable to any business nowadays; however, this brings a lot of challenges. So, technology must, thus, be used to simplify the business activity.
The legal profession is full of modernization in 2022, with everything rapidly moving toward the digital revolution to increase productivity. Legal tech saves businesses time and money, as various technologies are genuinely improving customer service and efficiency. Tech advancements are great for law firms and their staff member, as well as offering better quality for their clients. By deciding to leave difficult and time-consuming tasks to technology, legal professionals can spend more time focusing on client-facing tasks.
