Extract from Gina Jurva’s article “Modernizing Federal Government Legal Tech”
critical moment has arrived for federal government legal departments. They’re grappling with ever-growing data, strained budgets, and cases where the stakes couldn’t be higher. This intense pressure is fast revealing the cracks in their old legal tech. It’s becoming undeniably clear: if agencies want to hit their deadlines and keep sensitive information secure, they absolutely must upgrade.
“The biggest bottleneck isn’t technology—it’s internal inertia,” asserts Alan Lawrence, Everlaw’s General Manager of Public Sector Sales. He points out that while agencies recognize the need to modernize, some cling to the hope that they can simply “ride this out.” But, he cautions, “The reality is, they don’t have that luxury anymore.” Similarly, Sam Seligman, a Principal Customer Success Manager at Everlaw who works directly with federal teams, highlights a common misconception: “There’s danger in viewing this as an all-or-nothing transformation. You don’t need to figure it out all at once—the key is breaking modernization into manageable steps and just getting started.”
The Breaking Point: Why Older Systems Can’t Keep Up
For years, many agencies relied on legacy tools and on-premises solutions for tasks like ediscovery and litigation support. However, these traditional approaches are increasingly out of sync with today’s legal demands. They often inflate costs, create frustrating inefficiencies, and simply can’t scale to handle today’s explosive data growth.
