Extract from Cassandre Coyer’s article “Lawyers Turn to IT Staff, Google for Legal Tech Advice. That’s a Problem”
While Googling has proved extremely useful to quickly figure out how long to boil an egg or how to cook pasta al dente, when it comes to learning about legal technology, it doesn’t seem like the ideal choice.
Yet, a recent survey showed that most firms still rely heavily on both their IT departments—and Google—for legal technology guidance.
While attorneys’ reliance on Google and other online resources does point to legal tech’s growing ubiquitousness on the market, it also reveals shortcomings of IT departments that might not always be the best equipped to keep up with emerging practice-specific legal technologies.
Going forward, as attorneys continue to face growing pressures to be technologically competent, it seems firms, too, could be held responsible for providing the resources for their counsel to be able to do so.
This month, the American Bar Association Legal Technology Resource Center published its report based on a survey of over 35,000 law firm professionals from April through June 2022 on how they use technology. When asked where they turn to first to learn about legal technology, about 37% of respondents said they rely on their IT departments.
