If you work in a small Legal Department, you may feel out of the loop when it comes to legal technology. And that’s no surprise, given the vast amount of resources and attention aimed at larger Legal Departments.

But no matter the size of your team, the adoption of legal tech is no longer innovative – it’s expected. Indeed, in the Association of Corporate Counsel’s The State of Corporate Litigation Today, respondents ranked “the ability to adopt new technology” as the most critical non-legal skill for the next generation of legal professionals – more than three times higher than any other option.

It can be hard to even know where to begin. What tools are out there? What should be on the to-do list, and what should be on the wish list? And perhaps most helpful, what are other Legal Departments like us doing?

In the “LegalTech for Teams under Ten” report, we consider these questions and more.

First, let’s take a look at the technology in place in small in-house teams.

To gain a true understanding of legal tech in this space, Xakia surveyed 300 legal teams of fewer than 10 people. Respondents represented a variety of industries, roles and team sizes, from solos to teams of six to 10.

What is the “average” small legal team using?

We asked about ten specific types of technology, and four stood out as being used by half of respondents or more:

• Business tools, such as Microsoft Office or Google Suite: 87%;
• Digital signature: 74%;
• Document management: 57%
• Matter management: 50%.

When it comes to matter management, another 15% said they were interested and have started to search for tools, meaning in the short term, two-thirds of small legal departments could have such software in place.

The fourth tool that is close to the halfway point of adoption is contract management, in use by 46% of small teams, with another 18% actively searching.

As to the tools with moderate use by small legal teams, we see:

• Reporting and analytics: 34%
• Legal intake: 32%
• Spend management: 25%

All of this stands to reason.

Business tools are a critical component of getting any work done, and lawyers are sophisticated users of word-based tools like Outlook and Word (and their equivalents). Digital signatures and contract management expedite business agreements, the largest component of legal industry workload.

And matter management is foundational. Again, half the market is using it now, from a standing start of close to zero in 2015. This shift has been rapid, reflecting the pressing need for a management tool akin to those used in every other corporate, non-profit or government department – your peers in Marketing, Finance and IT.

For those who don’t yet have matter management or other foundational tools for smaller legal departments, we expect continued rapid uptake as technology continues to drive productivity improvements.

If you would like to read more about what teams are using, what they expect to adopt next, and what they have little interest in implementing in the future, continue reading here.