INTEGRATE EXPECTATIONS

Frighteningly, we’re now a quarter of the way through 2019 – hopefully those resolutions of a few months ago remain on a reasonably focused track. But what will the rest of the year bring for legal technology? Here are my thoughts and predictions for the space this year and the impact I believe it will continue to have.

The year 2018 didn’t seem to have quite the legal tech ‘big bang’ of other years. Some may disagree, but it seemed that the market focus was on developing portfolios of products and consolidating solutions into more efficient and effective platforms. There was also a surge in legal tech startups, seeking funding from law firms themselves as well as other investors.

For me, it was also a year of growth and taking stock. After launching Addleshaw Goddard’s innovation and legal technology team in 2017 with just three people – we’ve now grown to 20 – supporting clients on the delivery of large-scale mandates, but also looking at how both the firm and our clients can continue to make internal efficiencies and deliver better outcomes through the use of legal technology.

A better integrated suite of solutions that further streamlines process, while still allowing us to provide astute advice to external and internal clients, is a must this year.

So, what can we expect from the year ahead?

I think the buzzword for 2019 will be integration. The market has already seen some legal tech businesses and firms start to provide more commercially focused systems, but this year it will be about how these platforms integrate together, as well as how they integrate with software and systems firms already have in place. A better integrated suite of solutions that further streamlines process, while still allowing us to provide astute advice to external and internal clients, is a must this year.

Technology-enabled services will also become more mainstream over the course of the rest of 2019. A lot of what has been successful so far has been bespoke developed solutions – which have been great. There will always be a place for that, but over the next year we will see more pre-defined solutions that are readily available for specific work types, which can easily be spun up when required.

I also think we will see more mainstream adoption across legal work types. Resistance to change is always mentioned when it comes to legal tech adoption – I think we will now finally see some of those barriers start to be stripped away as legal professionals start to truly understand the power it brings to their work.

This article can be found in Briefing‘s April magazine: Stick with it