Manage your workload with LegalTech

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The LegalTech market is growing exponentially, which shouldn’t be surprising given that innovation is considered crucial for the legal industry’s survival. According to Statista, in 2020 the market was worth $17.6 billion, and by 2027, it is expected to generate over £35 billion in revenue. It’s clear that law firms are beginning to see the benefits of adopting legal technology, and with good reason.

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LegalTech can be used to improve the workflow at every level of a firm vastly, yet there are even greater ways to utilise this growing market. The adoption of AI technology enables lawyers to not only draft their documents faster, but also to predict case outcomes, which allows them to identify any potential gaps in their arguments, negotiations, or contracts.

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Managing your workload is made infinitely easier, potentially greener, and less time-consuming with the correct LegalTech. In addition, this tech grants a higher consistent quality of work and provides a reduction in human error. In acknowledgement of this, we’ve compiled this brief guide to help you understand what legal tech is and how you can utilise it effectively. 

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What is LegalTech?

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LegalTech is a term used to describe different technologies and software that can aid or replace the traditional, often-archaic methods of conducting legal services. The general goal for adopting legal tech is to increase efficiency across a law firm, improve outcomes and create a more agile working environment through the use of automation. 

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LegalTech covers a wide range of processes and services, including but not limited to:

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• Automated legal tasks
• Document automation
• Virtual consultations 
• Enhanced legal research 
• Case predictions 

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With some firms expecting their associates to put in 2000+ billable hours, any LegalTech that can help to increase productivity becomes a welcome addition. In a similar vein, as a trainee, many firms will expect you to put in hours above and beyond the normal working day. Many trainees are rebelling against this expectation and have become keen advocates for tech integration at their firm, as a means to save needless hours spent applying “Ctrl+F” in the evenings and on weekends. LegalTech can be particularly useful here because it automates many of the non-billable and repetitive tasks that take time away from billable work. 

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We recommend that trainees master this technology now as it will put them a step ahead on their path to becoming associates. You can start your journey to mastery here by familiarising yourself with the examples of LegalTech that assist in simplifying workloads, such as those below. 

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AI-backed legal research tools

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AI is utilised by many different legal technologies, but it becomes especially advantageous when used to research and find patterns in any particular data. It does this with machine learning - the process of training an algorithm on a sufficiently large, diverse, and labelled dataset so that it can classify data or predict outcomes accurately outside of the data included in its training set. 

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Traditional ways of researching legal cases can be time-consuming and inefficient. Manually searching through legal databases and libraries can be tedious, and it is not always possible to find exactly what is needed. Additionally, this process is often slow and limited in scope, making it difficult to find relevant information in a timely manner. AI research tools, on the other hand, can quickly and accurately search large databases to find the information that is needed, saving time and effort.

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Using an AI research tool can free up the mental capacity to focus on the work that matters most.  

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Legal document drafting and editing 

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LegalTech specifically designed to accelerate the process of drafting, reviewing, and executing legal documents is incredibly beneficial to those wanting to spend less time on the technical side of drafting while placing more emphasis on the quality of the work they produce. 

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Lawyers, especially trainees, spend so much of their working day within a contract, whether that’s drafting or proofreading them. Being eagle-eyed throughout a 200-page contract can be difficult, inefficient and prone to error - also non-billable for the most part. 

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Definely Draft is an example of this type of legal tech that saves time in intuitive ways. It offers a one-click tool for drafting documents that allows you to search for definitions and cross-references, work across multiple documents with integrated track changes, and enables you to pinpoint information without navigating away from the provision you’re working on while keeping your context.

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Not only do legal drafting and proofing solutions improve accuracy and decrease the likelihood of human error within contracts, this tech also leads to the reduction of your carbon footprint, as the need for hard copies dissipates. 

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Legal case prediction

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AI technology’s application can be expanded beyond simply reviewing documents. For example, a team of researchers and legal scientists from several prestigious universities developed an AI with the ability to predict the outcomes of legal cases. After feeding it information from numerous European Court of Human Rights cases, the AI was trained to identify patterns in the text. As a result of this learning, the AI predicted the outcomes of these cases with a 79% accuracy rate. 

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Legal case prediction tech could be highly advantageous to the document and contract drafting process.  It has the potential to help you identify any provisions that could be disputed, which would enable you to future-proof your documents and ensure your arguments are watertight. By doing so, this coud help businesses and individuals avoid costly legal disputes and save time and money that would otherwise be spent in legal proceedings.

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Improve productivity and efficiency with LegalTech

LegalTech is becoming an essential service that law firms are rushing to adopt. These tools enable lawyers to spend less time focused on repetitive tasks and more time working billable hours. Those who can master it now will find themselves ahead of their peers and the competition. 

Finding LegalTech that manages your workload is easier than ever. Book a demo of our Definely Draft solution and discover first-hand how to improve your productivity with LegalTech.