For many respondents tech adoption includes using new functions in old systems
A survey of business law firms in 90 countries found that most intend to increase their investment in legal tech this year, with risk, compliance, and generative AI as top priorities.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents said risk and compliance were the number one priority for their new tech investment this year. Generative AI was the most critical issue for 57 percent. The survey also found that 77 percent of respondents had a formal technology strategy in place.
“We also found a wide variety of legal tech being used,” says Luca Citton, president of Boughton Law in Vancouver and chair of Meritas. “For us, that means that there's an opportunity to discover for our members which tech works best for them.”
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The last several years of survey results reflect that there has been “a significant advancement in sophistication, knowledge, appetite, and success with all types of technology,” says Corey Garver, Meritas’ legal tech advisor. “The proliferation and adoption of both automation, generally, and generative AI – it's amazing to see what some of our firms are able to produce and the services they're able to provide to their clients.”
Generative AI remains a primary consideration for law firms, and that is reflected in Meritas’ survey. Nearly 80 percent of law firms expect to implement some form of it in the next five years. Law firms are planning and commencing data hygiene projects to prepare for generative AI use. Meritas notes that while building generative AI tools is viewed as out of reach for mid-sized law firms, several survey respondents said they were making progress on that front, and others said they are licensing third-party tools.
“AI has been around for a while now,” says Garver. “It's nice to see that when our groups get together to discuss it, it's not just about the possibilities; it's about how they're currently using it.”
Meritas said that many survey respondents are building a tech stack of “core, foundational systems of infrastructure technology,” into which they are connecting cloud-based tools for practice management, document management, timekeeping, billing, and document drafting.
The survey showed that expanding tech adoption does not necessarily require purchasing and using new products. Firms reported that they are increasingly using options already available on their core systems, such as Microsoft Office 365 Teams and SharePoint.
Garver notes that the survey indicated that legal tech is a fragmented market. Only one or two categories are dominated by an industry leader, so it is an ideal time to upgrade or switch service providers.
Garver says he is seeing a lot of disruption and innovation, which their survey confirmed.
The survey was conducted in February and March. One hundred law firms from the Meritas network participated. Meritas developed the survey with Legaltech Hub, a global directory of legal technology products, and its CEO Nicola Shaver.