The world of legal technology is on the rise, as more and more lawyers turn to digital innovations to ease workloads, management practices and reduce expenditure. In fact, in 2018 the total spend on law tech climbed to a staggering $1 billion!
There are certain tech solutions that you simply can’t afford to ignore, offering the ability to automate your administrative duties, simplify your internal processes and importantly, lower the costs associated with running a legal department!
Here, we break down the best instruments out there for reducing in-house legal spend, from must-have apps to groundbreaking AI solutions.
#1 Apps
A recent Law Society report stated that technology is the principal driver of change within the legal sector, but a 2019 Future Ready Lawyer Survey by Wolters Kluwer showed that only one-third of lawyers believe their organization is prepared to keep up with these changes.
So what is holding lawyers back from helping themselves? Well, 70% of participants stated a lack of knowledge was preventing them from investing in legal technology – but what could be simpler to use than an app?
Modern apps are here to help reduce in-house legal costs, aiding with finance thanks to their time-saving, organization and smart tracking functions, as well as simplifying daily admin tasks so you and your colleagues can get back to the important work at hand.
These are the best apps on the market for reducing in-house legal spend:
- Apperio: lets you track and analyze legal spend in real-time, in one place;
- Trello: create a better work-life balance in your department with legal project management techniques;
- Lexacom: enables you to create professional documents by speaking into your mobile device;
- Evernote: allows you to capture notes and recordings in a multitude of formats, before editing and sharing them with ease.
#2 Automation Tools
Automation tools are fantastic for those seeking easier ways to process essential legal documents, including contracts and invoices. Lawyers spend far too much of their precious time on mundane duties like this – and much of that time is unbillable!
In the 2019 survey from Wolters Kluwer, participants stated that two of the top challenges for legal departments include automating routine tasks and leveraging technology in work processes. If departments can learn to use tools and software effectively, they will not only free up time but cash too!
These automation tools could help save time and lower in-house legal costs – plus, they easily integrate with other systems and they are extremely straightforward to use:
- Bigle Legal: enables you to create professional, error-free legal documents and contracts 20 times faster;
- DealRoom: secure files, ease communication and assign tasks, as well as simplifying complex due diligence processes with this smart tech;
- SimpleLegal: automatically manage and analyze workloads, teams, and finances in real-time, so you know exactly how much you have left in the pot, minute by minute.
Such intuitive analytics systems mean you can view and manage contracts, reduce errors, make changes quickly and share them with your team in mere moments. This way, lawyers can waste less time and energy on admin, and get back to casework! After all, you didn’t become a lawyer to deal with paperwork!
#3 AI and Machine Learning
There are some truly amazing Al and machine learning tech solutions for reducing in-house legal spend, and it’s worth investing in such modern technologies since they can help to alleviate stress and workloads for your entire department.
What’s even better, AI will eventually free lawyers from mundane tasks and help the industry perform essential human operations in a faster and more cost-effective manner, from research to client advising.
There fantastic AI systems are the future and will soon be taking the legal sector by storm:
- ROSS Intelligence: is a legal research service powered by artificial intelligence, enabling you to instantly find law cases to support your legal strategy;
- Nextlaw Labs: offers a suite of technologies aimed at improving client services and solutions;
- Legal Robot: uses machine learning to understand contracts for instant analysis, so you can waste less time examining paperwork for errors.
For more applications of AI and its influence on business processes, check out this fascinating article.
#4 Tools for Legal Research
A 2016 Looking Glass report from Eversheds and Winmark measured the views of over 200 in-house senior legal leaders and found that 87% said they wanted to use more technology on a daily basis.
Well, there are plenty of legal research tools out there to help lower in-house legal costs and save time! From data analytics to billing tools, these are the best legal research solutions currently available:
- LexisNexis: offers a range of products to aid with research and media analysis;
- Lex Machina: provides analytics to help craft successful strategies, win cases, and close business;
- Solomonic: litigation analytics, provides advice and tactics informed by litigators’ expertise and experience to enable better decision making.
#5 Legal Project Management Tech
So many ideas go into running a successful law firm or department, whether it be formed from a handful of people, or hundreds! This is where Legal Project Management comes in!
This is the process of applying project management strategies to legal projects and is a fantastic way to achieve better results in less time. The idea is that someone in-house will take responsibility for the planning, monitoring and managing projects as they unfold, taking the time to analyze their results afterward.
Richard Susskind, an author, and independent advisor commented on legal project management, stating: “In-house legal departments are under pressure from CEOs and CFOs to reduce their internal headcount, to spend less on law firms, and yet they have more legal and compliance work than ever before.”
Well, these fantastic and easy-to-use tools can aid with implementing and managing legal projects and cases far more successfully:
- Monday: perhaps one of the best known management tools, Monday allows you to monitor a project’s timeline, plan your strategy, collaborate with colleagues and analyze progress;
- Zoho: this fantastic online project management software allows you to plan, track, and collaborate all in one place;
- Teamwork: enables you to achieve high-performance results with dedicated and customized task lists, boards and portfolios, tailored to your business needs!
