Legal Tech Awareness Is Nascent in Legal Departments. But That Might Soon Change

While corporate legal departments are becoming more aware of the legal technology market, the depth of knowledge about what the industry has to offer is relatively shallow. Still, General Counsel and Advisors say that knowledge may increase as legal ops roles become more prevalent, and corporate attorneys reach out to their peers and even law firms to help them navigate the legal technology landscape.

The main culprit hindering corporate legal department’s understanding of legal technology is limited resources, said Claudia Cantarella, chief legal officer at fintech solutions developer Broadway Technology.

“I would like to believe that I will be kept up to date and aware of legal technology developments and I certainly watch publications and speak to my colleagues, but I think more could probably be done to target In target household items, ”she said. “We don’t have the time to analyze and find the optimal technologies that would benefit us.”

In-house attorneys rarely have the bandwidth to research legal technology, and neither do their professional duties require it, added Christine Kennedy, executive director of Major, Lindsey & Africa. She noted that this leads to an awareness of the market, but not a firm understanding of what it offers. “I think the legal departments understand that conceptually they know there is AI and software to manage contracts, but I don’t think they know the depth of the systems and the functionality that they can provide.”

Differentiating worthwhile platforms among the multitude of legal technology companies is also time consuming and limits the legal technical acumen of many legal departments, added Marc Allen, managing director of HBR Consulting. “There are many vendors who keep up with all of them and know how to fit into an end-to-end [workflow] is a challenge, ”said Allen. It is a challenge to “see the difference to the marketing emails and the features that are provided at a high level of success, and keep up with those things [when] Given the gaps in support, an attempt is being made to identify which technologies are best for the department, ”he added.

However, this knowledge gap is slowly narrowing as legal operations specialists play a prominent role in more and more corporate legal departments. “Not all law firms fully understand this technology, and it is not for everyone. Legal technology is growing every day,” said Kennedy. “But more likely once you have a legal stake, you better understand the types of options on the market.”

However, not all companies have legal positions, and most legal departments are small. However, the increasing participation in associations and technical discussions also gives all legal departments access to legal technical proposals and unfiltered opinions.

“If a General Counsel or [assistant general counsel] With a company similar to yours that has been in this area and has been researching its options, they have all of this peer-to-peer information sharing that I think can be extremely helpful, “noted Kennedy. “If you work in circles that invest or research legal technology, you are more likely to share information. … More and more legal departments are joining these groups to understand what is out there and what its value. “

Legal technology proposals from law firms, while unusual, are also a useful tool for accelerating technical awareness, said John Albright, chief legal and compliance officer of HUB International. “Law firms have done reasonably well in certain areas implementing technologies like e-discovery that other companies didn’t or couldn’t [match] and companies provide valuable information unrelated to trying to sell anything. “

While peer discussions and internal roles are key factors in further promoting legal technology awareness, Albright noted that the long-term remote workforce could also inspire many in-house lawyers to gain deeper insights into the legal technology market.

“I don’t think it will change that, but because we haven’t had to reintegrate and most companies are trying to figure out what their workforce looks like after the pandemic, this is an unknown that could accelerate technology adoption,” said he

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