The legal profession, like all professions, has undergone significant transformation as a result of technology breakthroughs. Many practising attorneys recall a time when all legal research took place at their firm's law library. Because the law is always changing, the books had a lot of addendums that came in the mail.
Virtually all legal research is now done online, and most law libraries serve primarily as decorative items. Artificial intelligence-driven contract and document management software has mostly replaced file rooms stuffed to the gills with paperwork.
There's no denying that technology is altering the legal profession as a whole. There has been some resistance to new and innovative ways of practising law, as with any change. However, change is unavoidable, and most lawyers have learned to embrace how technology can assist them and their clients.
Some of the most recent and exciting changes include:
Automated e-Discovery—Where once attorneys and paralegals would spend hours sifting through papers in quest of a piece of evidence, the process is now entirely digital. Previously, discovery was time-consuming for attorneys and costly for clients. Automation software now uses analytics to speed up the process, saving time and money while also reducing the risk of missing critical information. Attorneys would occasionally try to conceal harmful finding by providing boxes upon boxes of discovery information during the pre-trial period. In the discovery process, technology now sorts and removes extraneous papers, levelling the playing field.
Lawyers and clients can connect with one other via instant messaging, email, and web conferencing tools from anywhere in the globe. Attorneys can also work remotely thanks to new technology, which allows them to attend meetings via teleconference or work from home while still having full access to files and research.
Contract management software with artificial intelligence (AI) — Contracts are by their very nature clumsy and long papers. Contract reviews used to take hours, and writing contracts with page after page of legal terminology was time-consuming and tiresome. Contracts are the foundation of commerce, hence they existed in almost every area of law.
Artificial intelligence-enabled contact management software helps lawyers and paraprofessionals to examine, track, manage, and write contracts in a fraction of the time it used to take. Contract management software has also made contracts stronger. The software can learn which provisions undermine the agreement using machine learning and analytics. Alternative clauses that indicate a more successful trend can then be suggested by AI.
Attorneys can devote more of their time to higher-value pursuits thanks to contract management software. When attorneys are able to focus on the more strategic aspects of their jobs, they report higher job satisfaction.
The importance of data analytics— Artificial intelligence-powered analytics in document management systems assist automate time-consuming and tedious legal processes. Contracts can be analysed by AI, and it can even learn to understand the contract's language. The same artificial intelligence can then use analytics to form conclusions about what is working and what isn't.
The information attorneys can communicate with clients on the most likely outcomes of various legal proceedings has also been transformed by analytics. Attorneys can now utilise analytics to track all trial results for specific situations and provide a statistical analysis of the probable result to their clients. The same analytics aid in making more timely and informed settlement decisions.
Electronic billing—Billing for time is the backbone of how law firms and attorneys generate money. With a slew of new technology-driven tools, keeping track of billable time is now simple and painless. Attorneys can track their time at the push of a button using mobile apps. The billing process is streamlined through automated statements, extensive analysis of how time is spent, and workflow management.
Electronic filing—Filing court documents used to entail presenting paper documents to the court to be stamped, filed, and recorded into the record. The filing of documents in state and federal courts is increasingly possible through web-based databases. This not only makes filing the filings easier, but it also enables accessing court documents easier for all participating attorneys.
