What types of legal technology will see the most growth in 2016? Why?
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 4:43 am
Ken : Contract software in all its forms has become a hot topic lately and I believe it will see the most growth in 2016. This software includes both contract lifecycle management products and contract drafting products.
Legal Tech Trends 2016
While lawsuits and deals come and go, contracts never go away. Legal departments always have contracts. Contracts also provide some of the most significant opportunities for work reduction in legal departments. The core work of writing or reviewing a contract takes time, as do all the non-essential aspects of contracts. Researching information, getting comments on contract clauses, passing paper from person to person, and then finally getting a contract signed by all parties and a completed version in the right bin all take time.
The average legal department spends a significant portion of its available time seeking contracts. For some departments, the percentage increases if the business model relies heavily on licensing or other contract-intensive ideas.
Contract software can help reduce the impact of many job seekers database wasteful activities (though I would argue that this is only true if it is implemented after careful process improvement). Legal departments looking for areas where they can get a high return on investment have found that contracts present a tempting opportunity.
Nicole : In 2016, the use of cloud computing by lawyers will increase as the technology and legal cloud providers become more commonplace. Lawyers may not use cloud computing for all of their software needs, but more lawyers than ever will begin to use cloud computing for some aspect of their law firm operations. Some will use it for billing, others for timekeeping or document storage, and others will use it for all of these functions, using a full web-based legal practice management system.
Rick : Mobile and web-based legal tech solutions will likely become mainstream from 2016 onwards. Early adopters are giving lip service to the performance and compliance benefits, and this will likely prompt mainstream companies to begin exploring cloud migration.
Which legal technologies will most radically change the work of lawyers in 2016? Why? And how?
Ken : Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any legal tech that will radically change the way lawyers work in 2016. The lack of such legal tech isn’t a bad thing, it just reflects the state of the industry in terms of technology development and implementation. Maybe there’s someone in a garage somewhere working on a Black Swan legal tech that will surprise us. But if we focus on what’s known, we’ll see incremental, not radical, change in 2016.
The focus on legal technology can be divided into two broad camps. The first camp creates technology that adds value to lawyers. This is software that automates a task that lawyers currently perform. Automation is useful because it allows lawyers to use their time to do things that computers can’t do and that add value. But the change in work brought about by this technology is not radical.
1-4-2016 3-21-45 PM
The second camp creates technology that extends the capabilities of software but has less impact – at least in the near future. Much of this software is referred to as “artificial intelligence” software. Whether it fits into this category or not, it is software that does more than simply automate what lawyers already do; it tries to find new ways to do things. This software will have limited use in the near future, but it is a natural step in the evolution to software that can do much more.
Nicole : No technology can radically change the way lawyers work in one year. These changes happen over the course of several years. That said, wearable technology, particularly the Apple Watch and Android smartwatches, will become increasingly common on lawyers’ wrists. The biggest benefit of this type of technology is that it will help lawyers untether themselves from their smartphones and filter out all but the most important information they need to know.
1-4-2016 3-22-06 PM
Rick : “Next-generation” solutions that significantly improve the day-to-day work of a lawyer. For example, in the legal practice management space, the first generation of cloud-based legal technology solutions only performed one function (such as billing or practice management). Now, “2nd generation” solutions offer multiple integrated functions (such as billing, accounting, and document management) as well as mature, reliable, and secure mobile access that is much better suited to the real work of lawyers.
Legal Tech Trends 2016
While lawsuits and deals come and go, contracts never go away. Legal departments always have contracts. Contracts also provide some of the most significant opportunities for work reduction in legal departments. The core work of writing or reviewing a contract takes time, as do all the non-essential aspects of contracts. Researching information, getting comments on contract clauses, passing paper from person to person, and then finally getting a contract signed by all parties and a completed version in the right bin all take time.
The average legal department spends a significant portion of its available time seeking contracts. For some departments, the percentage increases if the business model relies heavily on licensing or other contract-intensive ideas.
Contract software can help reduce the impact of many job seekers database wasteful activities (though I would argue that this is only true if it is implemented after careful process improvement). Legal departments looking for areas where they can get a high return on investment have found that contracts present a tempting opportunity.
Nicole : In 2016, the use of cloud computing by lawyers will increase as the technology and legal cloud providers become more commonplace. Lawyers may not use cloud computing for all of their software needs, but more lawyers than ever will begin to use cloud computing for some aspect of their law firm operations. Some will use it for billing, others for timekeeping or document storage, and others will use it for all of these functions, using a full web-based legal practice management system.
Rick : Mobile and web-based legal tech solutions will likely become mainstream from 2016 onwards. Early adopters are giving lip service to the performance and compliance benefits, and this will likely prompt mainstream companies to begin exploring cloud migration.
Which legal technologies will most radically change the work of lawyers in 2016? Why? And how?
Ken : Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any legal tech that will radically change the way lawyers work in 2016. The lack of such legal tech isn’t a bad thing, it just reflects the state of the industry in terms of technology development and implementation. Maybe there’s someone in a garage somewhere working on a Black Swan legal tech that will surprise us. But if we focus on what’s known, we’ll see incremental, not radical, change in 2016.
The focus on legal technology can be divided into two broad camps. The first camp creates technology that adds value to lawyers. This is software that automates a task that lawyers currently perform. Automation is useful because it allows lawyers to use their time to do things that computers can’t do and that add value. But the change in work brought about by this technology is not radical.
1-4-2016 3-21-45 PM
The second camp creates technology that extends the capabilities of software but has less impact – at least in the near future. Much of this software is referred to as “artificial intelligence” software. Whether it fits into this category or not, it is software that does more than simply automate what lawyers already do; it tries to find new ways to do things. This software will have limited use in the near future, but it is a natural step in the evolution to software that can do much more.
Nicole : No technology can radically change the way lawyers work in one year. These changes happen over the course of several years. That said, wearable technology, particularly the Apple Watch and Android smartwatches, will become increasingly common on lawyers’ wrists. The biggest benefit of this type of technology is that it will help lawyers untether themselves from their smartphones and filter out all but the most important information they need to know.
1-4-2016 3-22-06 PM
Rick : “Next-generation” solutions that significantly improve the day-to-day work of a lawyer. For example, in the legal practice management space, the first generation of cloud-based legal technology solutions only performed one function (such as billing or practice management). Now, “2nd generation” solutions offer multiple integrated functions (such as billing, accounting, and document management) as well as mature, reliable, and secure mobile access that is much better suited to the real work of lawyers.