Legal Tech Adoption

Note: This issue is adopted from a forthcoming chapter in The Legal Tech Handbook, a book edited by me and intended to provide the reader with an overview of the legal tech world.

For a long time, the legal landscape appeared to be devoid of technology. Legal work was traditionally time-consuming and labor-intensive with lawyers and other legal professionals meticulously poring over documents, emails, and other work product before presenting them or relying on them. Today, legal professionals no longer burdened by having to manually check for errors or oversights. And now with the arrival of powerful AI-based tools and solutions, legal work is more and more data-driven and less and less reliant on history and tradition.

When legal teams devote substantial resources to acquire technological tools but fail to use them effectively, the consequences are threefold: financial, resource-based, and trust-related. From a financial perspective, when organizations squander valuable funds on tools that remain idle, exacerbating the issue by neglecting to track usage metrics properly. In terms of resources, the efforts expended on implementing and integrating these tools by various departments, including security, development, and support, are rendered fruitless when the technology goes unused. Finally, the spread of shelfware erodes trust within the legal community, as lawyers become increasingly skeptical of the benefits of new technology. Addressing the issue of shelfware is therefore crucial to ensure that the legal sector, including those who consume legal services, can fully embrace and benefit from using technology-driven solutions.

The challenge of investing in legal tech is further complicated by the inherent difficulty of change. Humans, by nature, crave comfort, certainty, and familiarity; we prefer to adhere to established practices rather than venture into uncharted territory. This reluctance often manifests as a litany of excuses to avoid change, such as professing a lack of technological aptitude or claiming to be too busy to learn new skills. These justifications help mask a fundamental discomfort with doing things differently, particularly when adopting new technology. To optimize the benefits of legal tech investments and overcome the hurdles of shelfware and resistance to change, legal professionals must be willing to embrace innovation and adapt to new methods. By fostering a culture of continuous learning and recognizing the transformative potential of technology, the legal sector can overcome these challenges and unlock unprecedented efficiencies and opportunities for growth.

True adoption of legal tech warrants engaging with stakeholders and users meaningfully, considering their comfort level with technology, their working habits, and their preferences in their day-to-day tasks. To achieve this, it is vital to listen attentively, allowing your users and stakeholders to define success on their terms. In essence, embracing legal tech is a dual-faceted endeavor, as much about the human element as it is about the technology itself. As we continue to forge ahead into an increasingly technology-driven future, the real challenge lies in striking the delicate balance between advocating for the use of new tools and acknowledging the human side of change. This balance requires empathy towards the concerns and reservations of your team and stakeholders, coupled with the understanding that the key to successful adoption lies in open communication, comprehension, and support.

There remains, though, the common question of how can we encourage change in those who are resistant to it? The answer begins with establishing trust. To cultivate genuine trust, it is crucial to ensure that users and stakeholders have faith in your judgment and the information you provide. One way to jeopardize trust-building, particularly with lawyers, is by insinuating that they are doing something wrong or suggesting that your approach is the sole viable option. To avoid being perceived as condescending or overly critical, strive to understand the current working methods of your users and stakeholders and the reasons behind them. The more insight you gain into their thought processes and motivations, the better equipped you will be to tailor your approach, helping them see that change is not only beneficial but also a natural step in their professional growth, rather than an imposition from an external source.

By fostering trust and showing a genuine interest in understanding your users' and stakeholders' perspectives, you create a foundation for change grounded in empathy and mutual respect. This approach paves the way for more successful adoption of legal tech, as it empowers individuals to see the value in embracing innovation and adapting to new methods. One key driver for change within the legal industry is understanding the relationship between technology and humanity. Getting someone to adopt legal tech doesn’t happen out of the blue. Often adoption demands taking a slower, pragmatic, and human-centered approach. Sure, sometimes you can show someone a basic legal tech tool, say a document automation solution and they immediately start to use it. The more common case is when you need to show a group how they can be more productive, happier, and perhaps more valued by others that they work with by using a tech-based tool.

Focusing on the human impact of technology can help overcome the challenges described earlier. When employees can see how legal tech can make their work lives easier and support their career goals, they are more likely to adopt new tools. Take document review, for example. It is a necessary but time-consuming task that requires a great deal of attention to detail. Assisted by AI-based technology, document review can be automated, making it faster and more accurate. By showing employees how a new AI tool can help them work more accurately, they can see how the technology will benefit them directly.

Creating a culture of innovation and continuous improvement is a long-term strategy but an effective one for supporting, encouraging, and enabling better adoption of new technologies. In practical terms, this means showing, especially from key leaders of the business, that teams can and should explore new technologies and share their experiences with each other. Give your team or users the freedom and autonomy to engage in experimentation and see what happens. I recall once where I was told by a manager to explore new tools to help manage a particularly sensitive yet time consuming and repetitive task. I had a chance to test out new tools. Most failed to do what I was needing to do, but then the final one I tried worked as I had desired. I told my manager and showed them the tool. They then gave the go ahead for me to purchase, implement, and use the tool. This approach continued with other matters that I was tasked with, and I felt encouraged to do what I needed to do to accomplish my work productively. By creating such a supportive environment where employees feel comfortable trying new things, you can foster a culture of innovation that drives the adoption of legal tech.

When individuals see their peers benefiting from legal tech, they are more likely to be open to using it themselves. I once tried out a new technology and saw the dramatic impact it had made upon my ability to automate the creation of a new document which was a document I needed to create again and again. I shared my experience with a colleague and we both started to use the tool more often and shared our experiences with others until the entire team and other business teams were using this tool. This example illustrates the power that user-led experimentation and storytelling can enable innovation and to drive change. And this approach fosters a supportive environment for change and innovation, promoting a culture that embraces legal tech adoption and ensures a more efficient and effective workplace. By enabling a culture that values learning and continuous improvement, you can help your team feel more at ease with the adoption of legal tech, ultimately leading to a more efficient and effective workplace.