The wave of disrupting technology that the legal sector has experienced in the last few years, particularly during pandemics has shown countless changes in the working environment, implementation of certain things, and how to tackle remote working. Legal tech adoption by law firms has gained popularity and has been increasingly used by law firms.
Legal tech companies are no longer working on small targets instead they are making new solutions for every new challenge they are coming across. But what legal trends you should look out for this year to make your 2024 successful with wholesome productivity and streamlined work?
2024 is a clean slate for everyone keeping that in mind we have made a list of top legal tech trends that every law firm should look for.
- Industry-Wide Tech Adoption
Moving forward with almost 2 years of surviving the pandemic, a lot of changes took place along with legal tech adoptions, using technology for court hearings, depositions, conferences, and remote hearings. This started as a temporary response to the pandemic.
With this year ending it will start showing a positive impact of the rapid legal technology adoption and if implemented properly it can change the way the legal sector works. Many legal consumers who were unable to use legal services due to any standing reasons related to physical access will also be at ease.
- Document Automation
Automation of documents started long back, some years back research said that a considerable part of lawyers’ work is automatable. Document automation and management increased as it gained popularity with law firms when they realized that most of their administrative tasks could be automated.
This practice of taking legal documents digitally still continues to grow as It reduces the costs, ease in record keeping, and enormous data placed in a centralized place. With the trend of working remotely, document automation will hold its position in the legal sector as an emerging helpful feature with advanced improvements.
- Hybrid Work Model
This year when the pandemic subsides law firms will be able to sustain a hybrid work model as not all lawyers and employees would want to work from the office and not all legal things can be done remotely.
The hybrid work model attempts to achieve both the flexibility of working from home and being in the office in a time of need. Working from home will be achieved by using digital platforms like Google Meet and Zoom and continuing to streamline remote working.
- Increase the use of Digital Interfaces from Courts
For lawyers who work closely with the courts and have regular meetings for court hearings, the pandemic pushed them closer to adopting technology that can connect them to the court. The Pandemic also pushed many courts to go online.
This trend is something that is not going anywhere anytime soon, courts and legal associations will continue to adopt open technology for streamlining court procedures for both attorneys and legal help seekers.
- Client-Centered
Clients have been the most vital part of any law firm, or we should say the core of a law firm. The pandemic made it hard for lawyers to communicate properly and know their needs.
Consumers look for convenient ways to fulfill their needs, and any technology that is flexible for them will gain attention.
Being client-centered more than ever is needed now, and law firms would have to adapt to solutions that streamline the communication between the client and the attorney. With every growing client focus, the need to prioritize client communication is essential.
- Fast Adoption to all things Digital
Businesses worldwide climbing the digital walls, and the legal sector sits at no exception, the legal sector will continue to adopt digital solutions to streamline the quality and quality of work through digital solutions. For instance, no lawyers, or we should have very few lawyers use physical signatures on a regular basis.
Attorneys and law firms have completely adopted the practice of using e-signatures for their law firms. This adaption will not just take for technology-related legal specifics but also for productivity applications or solutions for better assistance
- SaaS Product Adoption
SaaS-based products have been in the picture for a long time and the pandemic has made them shine even brighter. Saas solutions make lawyers’ practice more streamlined and with pandemics subsiding, hopefully, this year the workload for lawyers will be immense with multiple trials and cases on hand.
Saas products like case management solutions for legal professionals will come in assistance more than ever, using it from now can make the brace, comfortable with technology, and the threat of working from home anytime comes into effect again will make SaaS-based products gain more popularity than ever.
- Improved Communication Methods
The increasing trend of working remotely will bring the need for effective collaborative tools, law firms will for tools and services that can help their distributed workforce effectively communicate with each other.
Having the right communication or collaboration tools is crucially important in the year 2024 for better productivity and increased profits with streamlined work.
- Focus on Data for Performance Tracking and Profitability
With the year ending and starting with the new year, 2024 will bring the need for tools that can gather data for analysis of how the firm is doing and generate reports.
Generating reports is not only the work but it should also be easy to understand and analyze where the law firm is lacking and implement new strategies according to the report.
- eDiscovery
Virtual documentation came to the forefront during the pandemic to tackle the heavy workload. Legal tech currently has been used to its full extent and is still unable to fully satisfy the demands of legal professionals.
In a recent study, it was revealed that lawyers need some solution that can assist them in the management of evidence online. It’s safe to say that Ediscovery solutions will see a hype demand by lawyers as it simplifies the process of collecting analyzing and streamlining the internal investigation of a law-firm
- Cybersecurity
With everything going digital the threat to privacy and safety also grows. In recent years cybercrime attacks have grown, in the UK itself cybercrime increased by 50% cybercrime was half of the criminal cases as law firms move towards the hybrid working model.
In 2024 it’s sure that adapting legal security solutions that safeguard the law firm’s data will increasingly gain popularity and will become a necessity.
Conclusion
As the new year has started a fresh slate in front of everyone, knowing about what can be followed this year is vital for a better kick start. As we have survived thousands of firms and as leading legal tech solution providers, we understand the need for law firms to work more effectively. Hope these legal tech trends which you can follow this year would help your law firm to become more client-centered, productive, automated, and profitable.