Examining the impact of technology on law firms

Technology is a driving force for change in all walks of life, and legal services is no different. Recent years have seen developments in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) that many firms have embraced and implemented effectively. However, just as many firms are facing huge challenges in identifying how AI and lawyers can work together in order to deliver maximum value to clients. The ARK Group Legal IT conference covered some of the most important developments in legal IT, and provides expert guidance on how firms can and are responding to them.

Some of the highlights and themes of this year's conference are outlined below, and experts from the event share their advice in the articles in this special Legal IT focus.

Pace of change

The conference took place in London on 26 January, and started with a fascinating Keynote speech from Mark Brill, senior lecturer in future media at Birmingham City University and director of strategy, innovation and training at Formation. Mark kicked off by quoting Moore's Law: the theory that computing power doubles approximately every 18 months. He explained that businesses are latecomers to technology compared to personal users. Mark reminded conference attendees that before integrating technology into their firms, they need to truly examine what the problem is that they are trying to solve. There are a lot of solutions being sold by providers, but until firms have a really good handle on their problem, any technological solution will not have real value.

Technology is a tool - its value is not in its existence, its use is what gives it meaning. Mark emphasised that technology itself is not good or bad, and like any new tool, provides us with opportunities we didn't have before - we just need to learn how to use it effectively to get the result we want. He finished his presentation by reminding people that they needed to find where technology adds value for them - otherwise they will fall behind. We cover more on this in Mark's article.

Embarking on the journey

James Duckenfield, chief innovation officer at Xerox Consulting and Analytics, drew on some compelling lessons learned from firms migrating their processes to new forms of technology, and looking to adopt a 'paper-light' approach. He spoke about this being the 'Second Machine Age', and the different types of cognitive computing (a phrase he described as 'less scary' than AI) available, and how each can be developed and used. When asked about the challenges surrounding firms attempting to go 'paperless' he advocated making decisions on a case-by-case basis - considering whether the use of paper in that instance was necessary, or holding the firm back. He acknowledged that sometimes paper is still the best medium for some information, and that we shouldn't move away from it for the sake of a 'paper-free' policy.

Where is your value?

The panel session on leveraging digital data growth with AI in legal services provoked some absorbing discussions on how firms find their value in an increasingly digital world. Although AI can be used to replicate human actions, like in the creation of smart contracts, its value lies not in simply replacing people, but in multiplying their effectiveness, and this session looked at situations where removing the more data-driven tasks better enables lawyers to spend more time building stronger client relationships.

The session also saw a variety of questions from the floor about the advantage that smaller, boutique firms can have over larger, full-service firms. Although a lot of the AI solutions on the market can be very expensive, and therefore more available to the bigger firms who can leverage the economy of scale, it is to be expected that within the next few years the price of these solutions will become much more accessible to smaller firms. This will mean that the same technology smaller firms consider out of their reach will become a great leveller - while large firms will always have greater human resource, the smaller firms will be able to use technology to meet the same demands - and the more specialised the firm, the greater the return on investment. If the business process that the firm is supporting with AI is central to the firm, the increased effectiveness will benefit the firm exponentially.

Software should be both 'left brain' and 'right brain'

It is clear that law and IT need to work together - an innovative, game-changing system cannot be built in isolation. The LexisNexis workshop underlined the collaborative nature of legal IT - technology built by 'left brainers' needs input from the 'right brainers' it is being built to support to be of significant value.

Mike Potter, partner and head of TST at Addleshaw Goddard LLP, Andrew Try, managing director of ComXo, David Halliwell, director of knowledge, risk and legal services at Pinsent Masons LLP and Scott Bozinis, CEO of InfoTrack explored this further in their panel session on how technology can be used to improve client relationships. The panelists agreed that in an increasingly competitive world, one way for young lawyers to stand out is to increase their technological skill.

Technology has the potential to increase a law firm's offering significantly. The technological landscape has changed beyond recognition in the past few years, and will continue to do so. There is no
way for law firms to ignore this and continue to compete in the market. Law firms will need to seriously consider the role technology will play in their services,
or risk falling behind.

By Emma Reitano, managing editor, Managing Partner