“2020 was a watershed moment for law firms with regard to digital disruption and the adoption of technology tools. Lawyers, like the rest of the world, have been participating in a global experiment which has driven an unprecedented scope and pace of change,” Ms Barr said.

“For innovators and those involved in change, longstanding barriers to adoption, usage of everyday technology and specialist legaltech tools dissipated with the wholesale move to working remotely. This significant cultural and behavioural change is paving the way for a more open conversation about technology as an enabler for outcome-driven work.

“Technology is crucial to the ongoing focus on where one works being less important than how one delivers what’s required of them. These changes have also enabled the reshaping or automation of repetitive tasks or low-level processes.”

Adopting such tools also bolsters the organisation’s scope across the board, according to Ms Barr.

“Doing so realises organisational capacity in terms of time and roles and can contribute to a greater focus on value-generating activities,” she explained.

“For example, scheduling meetings, managing calendars, booking rooms can very effectively be managed by individuals via technology systems, irrespective of level of seniority.

“This release of admin tasks impacts the entire organisation but in particular administrative roles, and means their know-how can be more effectively turned to billing, managing finances, contributing to practice group activities etc.”

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The productisation of repetitive tasks, such as the conversion of face-to-face training into online compliance training, as part of an overall risk and compliance approach, is providing new sales opportunities, engagement models and revenue sources, Ms Barr added.

“A growing focus on product development will help source and assess problem and opportunity areas. Expeditiously and expertly following a product development lifecycle – including new ways of working, an experimentation approach, and testing for fast feedback – will deliver outcomes that firms and clients want,” she said.

“This strategy relies on attracting highly skilled product people to a firm to lead product delivery, enable capability uplift of interested inhouse product managers, and ensure the proliferation of these skills and ways of working across the firm to embed innovation as part of the DNA.

“In doing so, lawyers will increasingly be able to transform problem areas into product opportunities to be assessed and further developed for value. This may be seen in structured and less formal engagement of external organisations to learn with, such as creating vehicles like startup accelerators, time-bound education platforms to support the growth of new legaltech product ideas and people.”

Ultimately, Ms Barr said in order for law firms to continue their success they’ll need to have teams taking new approaches to market.

“Lawyers today are increasingly required to work in new ways. In order to realise the benefits of legaltech and operational improvements generated by increasing technology usage, lawyers will need to continue their own journey of discovery,” she said.

“Contract negotiation platforms, database management and new approaches to trend analysis in risk management, for example, rely on the rethinking of how data is collected, stored, protected and assessed for insights. The previous siloed thinking of practice management is being challenged by the need to think and act in a more cross-functional, holistic way.

“Lawyers will increasingly find themselves working together with experts across product, innovation, technology and knowledge management. The front-of-house/back-of-house divide is disappearing as more and more, specialist experts are required to educate, coach or support lawyers in their journeys to using tech and spotting and framing legaltech opportunities.”