3 Ways Legal Technology is Transforming the Legal Profession
It’s no secret that the practice of law is bound by years of tradition, and for this exact reason, many lawyers are typically resistant to change. However, as technology advances, there is an increase in demand from consumers for lawyers to provide more efficient and cost-effective services. Regardless of this resistance to change, technology has disrupted the legal profession in many ways, and lawyers must learn to adapt if they hope to remain competitive in a saturated market. During my undergraduate career at Ryerson University, I had the opportunity to work at the Legal Innovation Zone (LIZ). LIZ is the world’s first legal technology incubator and focuses on building better legal solutions for consumers. During my time there, I was exposed to various legal technology startups that are working hard to change the legal landscape with technology and aim to disrupt the traditional legal market. Here are three ways that legal technology is transforming the legal landscape:
1.Increasing Productivity & Efficiency
Technology allows lawyers to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks so that they can focus on performing more value-added tasks for their clients. People often get nervous discussing how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has impacted the legal profession and the potential for AI to take over lawyers’ jobs. However, this is not necessarily the case.
Having worked for a legal technology company called Alexsei for the past year and a half, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) works to make time-consuming tasks, such as conducting legal research, more efficient. Alexsei is a legal memorandum generator software that uses AI to provide high-quality answers to complex legal questions in memo format. Lawyers choose to incorporate technology like ours in their practice to keep up with the demand at their firms and to make their legal research process more efficient. By incorporating technology that can aid with preliminary work, lawyers can provide more value for their clients by focusing their energy on more value-added tasks. This allows lawyers and law firms to focus on addressing legal issues in a timely manner, which can prevent unnecessary costs from adding up for their clients and thereby improving customer satisfaction and remaining at the forefront of legal innovation.
2. Improving Access to Justice
As law students and future lawyers, we have a duty to advocate for a more equitable legal system. One way to do this is by implementing more innovative processes in legal practice that can help increase accessibility. But first, it’s essential to identify the barriers that exist in our legal system today and how we can eliminate them. Currently, in Ontario, there is an access to justice crisis. 60% of Ontarians have little to no confidence that they can afford a lawyer (The Action Group on Access to Justice).
Technology has made it possible for individuals to access self-help tools online before contacting an attorney to identify a starting point to their legal problem. The Legal Innovation Zone’s Family Law Portal is an excellent example of an online tool that helps guide Ontario families in learning about their rights and responsibilities when involved in separation or divorce and helps them identify the necessary documents they need to consider for their case. Technology helps empower individuals by giving them access to information that is easily accessible so that they can make informed decisions about their legal rights and identify what needs to be addressed by a legal professional. By automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks, lawyers are also reducing the existing financial barriers for many consumers, thereby making them more affordable and accessible.
3. Promoting Greater Flexibility
The utilization of technology in the delivery of legal services allows for greater flexibility for lawyers, law firms, and consumers. With the practice of law not being so tech-forward, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges for the legal industry as lawyers and law firms had to adapt their services to support a more flexible working model. The global pandemic has made it more critical than ever for lawyers and law firms to see this as an opportunity for adopting technology into their practice.
The legal profession has often been criticized for lack of work-life balance due to demanding hours and a hectic workload. Technology provides lawyers with the opportunity to work remotely and gives them more flexibility with the hours they choose to work. Having access to cloud-computing is an example of how technology allows lawyers to access client information regardless of where they are and allows for an increase in collaboration between the members at the firm. Lawyers that choose to be sole practitioners have the ability to create their own virtual law firm and use a variety of tools to allow for greater flexibility and efficiency, remain competitive, and keep up with client demand.
