The effect of new technology on the legal sector

According to a report from The Law Society - Legal services sector forecasts 2017-2025 - growth in overall legal sector employment is likely to decline, partly as a result of “increasing adoption of new technology and new working methods”. Predictions are that “modest growth in the UK economy and the increasing use of labour saving technology and new working methods in the sector, mean that total employment in the sector is unlikely to grow at the rates we have seen in the past. Furthermore, over a 20-year time horizon the number of jobs in the sector is likely to gradually decline.” However, “job losses from new technology and new working methods” could be mitigated by “increases in productivity from the adoption of new technology and resulting reductions in unit labour costs of providing services (lowering prices of services to consumers)”. Furthermore, legal service price growth is expected to remain low, partly “due to reductions in the cost of providing services from the adoption of new technology”.

In light of these predictions, it’s more important than ever for law firms to prepare for the challenges ahead by adopting relevant technology and implementing new working methods in order to maximise efficiency and productivity so they can stay competitive and continue to thrive. Below, we will take a look at some of the current technology available.

Working in the cloud

Agile working - where lawyers can work flexibly both in terms of location and time - is key to reducing much of the unnecessary expenditure associated with maintaining physical offices. However, in order to successfully implement agile working, reliable and secure cloud based practice management software is vital. Even if an office is retained, fee earners should be able to easily pick up where they left off, whether this is at client premises, while in transit or at home.

Digital dictation and automation

Any software (or hardware) which helps to automate routine legal work can drastically improve productivity rates. Effective dictation tools which transcribe as well as record - such as the cloud-based solutions provided by SpeechWrite - reduces secretarial costs and streamlines workflow, allowing lawyers to dictate a letter and immediately have access to a draft, which they can check before sending on to a secretary, client or third party. Other types of software can automate time-consuming processes such as end of month billing, freeing up the time of fee earners to concentrate on billable work.

Legal research and templates

This is one of the areas where so-called digital disruptors are providing services to both lawyers and bypassing the legal sector altogether, offering DIY legal solutions to the general public. This is particularly the case with legal document templates which are so cheap that law firms simply cannot compete, leading to major headaches for some high street firms which have traditionally relied upon routine process-driven work. Similarly, many websites provide excellent free legal information which enables individual to undertake their own preliminary legal research - so when they approach a law firm they will often be looking for specific advice rather than asking basic questions.