This week I came across an article from Gartner (Feb 21) covering future trends within in-house legal departments. I think the list still holds true, although it will be interesting to check when the 2022 version comes out soon.
Obviously most lawyers have long been resistant to and risk-averse about new technologies and automation, but the effects of the pandemic forced many to shift gears in 2020 and pursue — or at least actively consider — more extensive automation of certain legal activities, especially those around major corporate transactions. According to Gartner, the challenge now is deciding which technologies to embrace to drive real business outcomes.
“The new pressures brought about by the coronavirus pandemic certainly have acted as a catalyst for this shift,” says Zack Hutto, Director, Advisory, Gartner. “Legal and compliance teams have rarely been frontrunners to modernize, digitalize and automate. The pandemic has flattened staffing budgets and increased legal workloads; technology is the most obvious solution for many legal departments.”
Here are the Top 5 trends:
Trend No. 1: By 2025, legal departments will increase their spend on legal technology threefold
Trend No. 2: By 2024, legal departments will replace 20% of generalist lawyers with non-lawyer staff
Trend No. 3: By 2024, legal departments will have automated 50% of legal work related to major corporate transactions
Trend No. 4: By 2025, corporate legal departments will capture only 30% of the potential benefit of their contract life cycle management investments
Trend No. 5: By 2025, at least 25% of spending on corporate legal applications will go to nonspecialist technology providers
You can read the full article here
Andrew Essa 