The report, ‘Escaping the legal labyrinth: using technology to demonstrate value’, published this week, is based on a survey of 223 UK-based in-house lawyers.
More than half (54%) listed ‘communication with the wider business could be more effective and efficient’ as the top challenge facing the legal department. This rose to 71% when looking at responses from general counsel alone.
However, in-house counsel may be missing a trick by not using tech-derived insight and data to help them communicate with colleagues in other departments.
While legal departments were interested in the benefits of technology—the top advantages cited were ‘makes the legal team more productive’ (74%), ‘automates simple, repetitive tasks’ and ‘more time to focus on priority issues’ (53%)—they were less interested in using data insights and analytics to demonstrate their value to the wider business.
In fact, a mere 17% of respondents listed ‘delivers unique insights’ as a current benefit of legal technology, and only a quarter listed it as a future opportunity. Likewise, only a quarter of respondents gave ‘demonstrates results to the business’ as a current benefit, and less than a third listed it as an opportunity for the future.
Emma Dickin, head of in-house practical guidance at LexisNexis, said: ‘In today's business world, data is the real silver bullet.
‘Yet the survey shows very few legal counsel are interested in using data insights from their legal technology to help demonstrate and drive the value they're adding to the wider business. It is time legal departments forge a new path by looking beyond the here and now, taking their investment in legal technology to the next level and using it to showcase their real worth.’
