The survey explored attitudes, perceptions and priorities towards legal technology and a respondent’s organisation’s challenges and priorities for the upcoming year.

As already reported by Lawyers Weekly, private practice lawyers are prepared to leave their firms for employers that are more innovative, and many law departments are not increasing investment in tech and lack confidence in reporting.

Investment in tech increasing

Since the onset of the age of COVID-19, Thomson Reuters wrote, most respondents from private practice have seen increases in the level of investment in various technologies by their firms and practices.

“The need for collaboration and remote work are clear indicators for this increase during this time,” the authors proclaimed.

Almost three in five (59 per cent) of respondents said that their businesses have increased technology investments during the global pandemic, with more than one in five (21 per cent) saying that their businesses “significantly” upped the ante with tech investment.

Approximately one-third of respondents said that their firms and practices hadn’t changed their level of investment in tech during the pandemic, and less than 5 per cent said that they saw investments in technology decrease.

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Adoption of various solutions

Adoption rates of all legal technology solutions have risen since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, with legal operations management solutions (23 per cent increase from 2020 levels), legal research services (21 per cent increase), know-how and precedent solutions (20 per cent increase) and business and finance management solutions (17 per cent increase) the biggest drivers of change.

Other drivers of change since 2020 included a rise in document automation solutions (14 per cent increase), reporting and dashboard solutions (up 9 per cent), risk and compliance solutions (up 8 per cent) and document drafting solutions (up 2 per cent).

What helps firms succeed?

Private practice respondents were asked which technologies have had the greatest positive impact on their ability to succeed in their roles.

Over one-third (35 per cent) of respondents identified know-how and precedent solutions as being “fundamental” in order to better undertake legal service delivery.

Legal research tools (28 per cent) and document automation solutions (26 per cent) were the next most-identified technologies that are making a positive difference for those in private practice.

Elsewhere, business and finance management solutions have been integral to success for 23 per cent of those in private practice, followed by legal operations management solutions for 22 per cent, document drafting solutions for 16 per cent, reporting and dashboard solutions for 15 per cent, and risk and compliance solutions for 4 per cent.

Common tech challenges

Technology is “evolving rapidly”, Thomson Reuters mused, and professionals in private practice expect that their applications will be “intuitive, simple to use and fast”.

Despite this, respondents noted experiencing various challenges with the legal technology solutions onboarded by their firms and practices.

With flexible working arrangements much more mainstream than they were pre-pandemic, lawyers “expect to be able to use tech remotely”, the company wrote. However, nearly half (44 per cent) of respondents said that they had experienced access issues while working remotely.

Almost two in five (39 per cent) pointed to lack of integration between technology platforms as being a challenge, while just over one-third (36 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively) said that training and upskilling colleagues with new tech and slow, cumbersome and hard to use platforms were causing grief.

Elsewhere, 28 per cent pointed to cyber security or compliance risks related to technology as being a hurdle, 15 per cent identified change management issues, and 6 per cent flagged untrustworthy legal research information.

Interestingly, 15 per cent of respondents said that none of the aforementioned issues had been challenging for them.