Legal technology apps are projected to rapidly elevate the legal profession in the not-so-distant future. Over the next seven years, these apps will transform the way law firms deal with “practice management, documentation storage, billing, accounting and electronic discovery.” Even today many firms already utilise legal software to maximise efficiency, namely in the form of electronic discovery, client filing and administration.
Amongst the latest research, Australia’s Premonition, one of the largest virtual databases for courthouses, demonstrated the need to digitise the way legal practice is undertaken. Especially in light of COVID-19, market research has proven that legal tech apps will be instrumental for the future development of the legal profession. To many mature practitioners, this shift may be drastic but in actuality, utilising new forms of technology will streamline workloads and foster innovation. For example, traditional client hunting has already been surpassed by social media networking, where many businesses and clients engage law firms through platforms such as LinkedIn.
However, despite the benefits to productivity and efficiency, this will no longer be an opt-in choice. Legal technology apps and similar advances will be a must to compete with other firms for clients as well as maintain a firm’s position. It will become increasingly important to pursue these initiatives to not fall behind and adjust a firm with the shifts in technology. It will be interesting to see whether firms take the initiative to proactively adjust to these changes or wait until there is no choice left. More importantly, how willing will firms be to take on legal artificial intelligence?