Having won Innovator of the Year in 2019 as well as 2021, Ms Sandler said she noticed a number of changes over those two years – and over the course of COVID-19.

“I think the pandemic has had two really interesting aspects to it. One being there is a real focus on digital transformation, there is no doubt. We basically thrust a whole bunch of lawyers from working in the office and now working from home. And we need to obviously ensure that there is the technology to support that,” she said.

“So, there has been enormous change, and I believe there will be continuous change over the next few years as we deal with the outcomes of the back of the pandemic. But one thing that is really interesting is that I think there is also a lot of fatigue within the industry at the moment. It’s been a long, hard two years, and trying to find that additional time beyond business as usual when they’re wrestling with a pandemic as well as just increased demand for their legal services can be quite challenging.”

As a result, the uptake of technology and innovation in the legal industry over the last two years has been particularly interesting to watch, added Ms Sandler.

“I think it’s been really interesting to see the evolution of technology use within the legal industry over the last few years. And where I think the technology has been best, and where I think organisations are using it to its fullest, is really in the rules-based technologies and transaction management software, as well,” she said.

“We’ve seen a lot of success over there. I think it’s probably fair to say that at the moment, AI has been relatively underwhelming for the industry. And I think there’s a lot of factors that contribute to that. One being our data typically is confidential, so it’s much harder to get the right datasets to enable you to actually train the AI. But I do think if we look forward, AI is going to be used far more heavily, and it’s going to evolve quite quickly over the next few years that that is going to be a significant shift in the legal industry, and I think it will have a lot of impact on the way in which we deliver services.”

Law firms should, moving forward, be focusing on “using technology to deliver the best outcomes”, Ms Sandler explained.

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“I think we are going to start seeing an evolution in that over the next few years. And that’s going to be really ... a really big shift in the way in which we might do legal work in that if you can feed a document into a system and it can tell you whether there are red flags in respect of particular clauses, you can imagine how that is going to shift the way in which we operate with technology and deliver legal services,” she added.

“So, my bet is on AI being far more mainstream. It’s going to still take a bit of time, but that’s where I think we’re going in the next five years. And then, obviously, there will be a focus continually on collaboration platforms. I think that has come out the back of the pandemic, and I expect that we will start to see that because a lot of our clients are using them as well.”

Gilbert + Tobin clients have also benefited from G+T Innovate, the firm’s client-facing transformation consulting capability that was launched in 2017 as a way to help their clients on their “transformation journeys”.

“G+T Innovate was born out of the reason that large law firms like Gilbert + Tobin have their own dedicated innovation capabilities. But when we reflect on in-house, they are facing very similar problems. Increased demand, not the increased headcount to meet that demand, obviously creates a very complex regulatory environment in which many of them operate as well,” Ms Sandler added.

“It was a great way for us as a law firm to add value to the client relationship to really truly partner with in-house teams and our clients to deliver on their objectives, beyond just the legal advice. Really thinking about what their transformation agendas look like, what their technology road maps look like as well. It’s quite a broad offering. And it’s been far more successful than what we ever thought it would be. And it’s been a really wonderful way for us to get to know our clients.”

Looking forward, however, innovation in “people development and retention” will be a key focus across a number of organisations in the coming year, concluded Ms Sandler.

“I think that is going to be a key focus for all the organisations this year, given this concern around the great resignation, just the fact that we’ve got skills shortages. I think, obviously, having quality people will ensure that we deliver quality legal services and ensure that profession goes from strength to strength,” she said.

“Obviously, there will still be a strong focus, in my view, on technology adoption. And I also think we might see some consolidation in the legal tech industry. And then another key one for me will be a real focus on data. I think legal firms are definitely focusing on this already, but it’s a bit of a slow burn in that there’s lots of stuff to get right, and other foundations to get right.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Caryn Sandler, click below:

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