Innovation and Disruption: The Rise of Lawtech
Key Contact: Rachelle Sellek
Author: Rem Noormohamed
Legal work is transforming at a rapid pace as technological innovation expands exponentially, offering everything from automated document drafting to electronic dispute resolution. For businesses trying to stay on top of their legal requirements, it can be a bewildering time.
But for those ready to embrace the future, the combination of clever lawtech solutions with adaptable, forward-thinking lawyers will be a powerful force.
The lawtech revolution
An estimated £1 billion was invested globally in lawtech research and development in 2019, resulting in hundreds of start-ups vying to become an essential part of businesses’ legal function.
The overwhelming choice of systems has become a problem in itself as companies struggle to identify exactly what applications they need and how they can integrate different programmes with existing software and that used by clients and other related businesses.
Simply keeping up has become a challenge. By using external legal assistance, businesses have the chance to talk through the problems they have and how they would like them addressed. Partnering with expert lawyers who understand a business’s legal needs can help identify the areas in which lawtech solutions will make the most difference.
An efficient, streamlined legal team has the power to drive a business forward. More and more, a business’s legal function is at the forefront of a management structure, with many senior stakeholders looking to legal teams when making key business decisions.
What lawtech can do
A huge array of legal processes can be moved to digital platforms and identifying what will be of most help to a business is key. By starting with one area and testing out a suitable tech solution, a business can begin to automate time consuming manual processes, the result being a more time and cost efficient legal function.
Some of the main areas in which lawtech provides solutions are:
- Automated drafting of legal documents
- Automated contract review
- Case management systems
- Knowledge and research tools
- Data analytics
- Data management
- Electronic dispute resolution
- E-discovery tools for indexing, finding and copying documentation
- Budgeting tools
- Collaboration tools
The rise of AI will boost many of these areas, for example, by assessing existing documentation before reviewing or creating contracts.
The benefits of lawtech for an in-house legal team
There are many benefits to the implementation of the right lawtech tools, not least the ability to compete in a market where clients are asking for more services for less money. Automating processes where possible frees up legal team members to concentrate on more complex and rewarding work. It can also reduce the incidence of human error and increase productivity.
Every tool available has something of benefit to offer, and by asking what your business needs most you will find the best place to start testing the market. For example, data analytics offers the chance to really understand the way a business works and helps in decision-making for the future. Electronic dispute resolution can speed up the solving of business disagreements, allowing the parties involved to focus on moving forward, rather than becoming mired in litigation. And a simple automated document production programme will give lawyers one less job to do.
Acuity Counsel Service offers legal services in all areas of business and commercial law. We work as an extension of our clients’ legal and commercial teams, building close relationships that strengthen their businesses and offer flexible and innovative assistance.
We understand the advantages and importance of fitting together law and technology to give our clients the edge they need in a competitive market.
Speak to a member of our team today to join our flexible subscription-based service, Acuity Counsel Service. We are innovating legal outsourcing, offering commercial legal support designed around your needs with blended rates and roll-over credits to ensure you never have any surprise charges. Call us on 0333 016 3553 or email us at [email protected].
