Extract from Victoria Hudgins’ article “Is Technology or Attorney Stubbornness Holding Back Broader Legal Automation?”
More firms are leveraging automation platforms to transform once manual processes into efficient workflows. But daily tasks such as data analysis, document creation and e-discovery are still ripe for broader automation, industry observers said. So what’s holding firms back? While some experts noted software hasn’t reached a level of accuracy that lawyers trust yet, others point to lawyers’ “stubborn” view on technology as the main deterrent to automation adoption.
Association of Legal Administrators executive director April Campbell noted that while larger firms have typically invested in automation technology, recently more small and midsize firms have also integrated client-facing automation technology into their workflows.
“I think a lot of firms are trying to figure out how to automate and streamline their client intake when it comes to engagement letters,” she said. ”The data they collect at the outset, they can use that information throughout the engagement to automate some of their processes.”
