The world is a rapidly changing environment, with new inventions and ideas constantly requiring industries to switch up their mechanisms. The same philosophy can be applied to the legal field with its future lying in its intersection with technology. This convergence, known as legal technology,

Involves the use of newer and more efficient technologies like artificial intelligence to make the legal process more efficient, quick, and accessible. Technology has already hastened and simplified the otherwise tedious legal field with the rise of DocuSign that has replaced physical contracts or through databases like JSTOR and Google Scholar that have replaced law textbooks; and this switch should be witnessed within law firms as well for a plethora of reasons. Firstly, they increase the accessibility of legal services. Law is notorious for being extremely expensive and time-consuming, which results in individuals not investing in a lawyer when they have a legal issue.

However, with the use of artificial intelligence or similar interactive technologies, this potential client market can be tapped into as it would greatly reduce the cost without losing the quality of work required. Secondly, IT and data experts can help law firms greater strengthen their core operating model. Given that technology works faster and with fewer errors than humanly possible it would result in the optimization of a firm’s innovation strategies, their data analysis, their management of projects and the general work environment. Furthermore, legal technology also results in the added benefit of bolstering client relationships, which is beyond imperative in a client-centric field like law.

With artificial intelligence taking over and streamlining the extensive data, documents, and operational requirements of a law firm, it would leave lawyers to spend more time and effort on receiving newer clients and building trust with existing ones. According to the Stanford Legal Codex, a global legal technology agency, the Implementation of this technology by legal tech agencies can be done in several ways. Firstly, legal technology startups streamline documentation with the innovation of self-service or do-it-yourself platforms which help clients’ draft documents based on a general multi-purpose template. Additionally, these agencies also help with dispute resolution within a case through online replacements which have served to be much more efficient.

Agencies also help with legal research as using technology heightens the scope of what can be researched given that millions of data can be processed in mere seconds unlike human legal research which is labor-intensive and error prone. Furthermore, ensuring that compliance to the various governmental and regulatory bodies is maintained is also a goal of these agencies. Given the sheer amount of financial, legal, and administrative rules and regulations, compliance software helps law firms manage the data relevant for proving and validating their compliance as well as addressing any potentials compliance risks the firm may have. With legal analytics being a core but strenuous part of the legal process, e-Discovery greatly lessens that burden. This kind of software helps in the trading of information between the involved parties as instead of each party having to sort out the large volume of data, it automatically does so, allowing parties to search for their specific and relevant information and eliminating anything they do not require. Legal technology is revolutionizing law in a way that has never been done before, and to keep up with its great advancements, it is essential for all firms to begin investing in it and updating their administration.