How Bridging the Gap Between Legal Operations and Technology Entities is Benefiting the Legal Industry

"The past several years have seen a significant increase in technology based partnerships between legal service organizations like law firms/corporate law departments and technology/software companies. While we all understand, generally speaking, how dynamic the realm of technology is in today’s world, the confluence of these heretofore two separate classes of entities might be considered a somewhat striking structural development. It is interesting to ponder why these distinctive alignments between “buyer and vendor” are intensifying.

To begin, I think it is fair to note that the underlying rationale for this industry trend are numerous in nature. Operationally speaking, corporate goals such as receiving higher quality legal services at a competitive cost point highly motivates law firms and vendors to streamline processes, improve efficiency and provide bottom-line business value. From a societal viewpoint, as we increasingly electronically work on a wider variety of devices and platforms, there is a natural inclination for law firms to collaborate technologically with clients in an effort to “keep up with the Joneses” (no pun intended). And lastly, there are many strategic or visionary goals in play, many redefining how legal services are delivered via the use of innovations such as artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies which drive these partnerships.

So, stated as briefly as I possibly could, those are some underlying reasons for the trend encouraging legal operations and technology to work together in the field. That being said, perhaps the more interesting topic is exploring how entities in the legal industry are reacting to these needs?

As we explore these ideas, let us first identify a key demarcation point in the analysis. In my functional discipline, building software, it’s always best to factor out the identification of business requirements from an implementation strategy. This piece will take a look at the second component, specifically exploring some of the common implementation tactics employed by law firms and others to integrate technology offerings into their business model. Here are some of the more common approaches..."

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