What particular Problem should be solved by Legal Tech in 2018? 15+ Experts answer

We asked and we got very exciting answers from world-known experts which we want to present here. Let’s hope that the legal tech community will be able to address these challenges in 2018. It’s important to make the next step.

John Alber

I think the most pressing need has not to do with a particular technology, but rather is related to our need to redesign our service model. New Law companies, blockchain vendors and others are redefining how legal services are delivered. We need to acquire the skills to participate in that redefinition. And those skills are not taught in law schools and in associate-level apprenticeships at most firms.”

Sven von Alemann

The first step for lawyers should be to really understand their own processes, understand how they work, which steps they take for the different tasks they are performing. (Only) then they can analyze where in their processes they might need a technical solution or which tasks take too long compared to the revenue they generate. Introducing technology into a work that was mainly analog until now is a change process. We as Legal Tech vendors will need to support lawyers in managing this change.”

Andrew Arruda

“When considering where to direct legal technology I think step one is always asking lawyers where their biggest pain points are. At ROSS we continue to hear that client pushback has meant that costs associated with tasks such as legal research are no longer being paid for by clients so that means 2018 should have more legal technology pointed at the areas where clients are pushing back the most to enable lawyers to accomplish more, higher-end legal work. Nothing has changed when it comes to needs for lawyers since the beginning of time, lawyers need to ensure they have the best tools available in order to best serve their clients — in 2018 this means great innovative tools like ROSS and many other options — but at the core, lawyers need whatever helps them perform at the highest level possible.”

Daniel Biene

We don’t need another tech product or another academic discourse. What we need is skill development, and a mindset change based on those newly acquired skills. Digital businesses require razor sharp process thinking and knowledge of digital best practices, as well as the ability to actually implement such skills. If those essentials are skipped or taken lightly because of lawyers’ tendency to think of themselves as Jacks of all trades, then a lot of time, money, and opportunity will be wasted. There are already a few sad examples of this out there.”

Mark A. Cohen

Legal Tech should focus on ameliorating the access to justice crisis. At a time when the rule of law is under siege, democratic societies MUST do a better job of providing legal assistance–with or without formal legal representation.”

Tom Brägelmann

Secure and easy electronic communication among lawyers, clients and authorities: Will lawyers ever stop using email as a means of communication?

Ron Friedmann

Legal tech solves many problems. Almost all lawyers could, if motivated, find a way to use tech to improve their efficiency to deliver more value to clients. The most valuable use of tech depends on what a specific lawyer wants to accomplish. For some, it might be older tech such as a Word macro pack or document assembly. For others, it might be the most advanced AI. It depends on needs and what a lawyer currently uses. Focusing on a specific tech risks magical thinking: this new [fill in the blank] will fix all my problems. I’d rather encourage lawyers to consider their specific challenges and needs and search for the right solution to them.”

Kenneth Grady

I’m going to give you a bit of a different answer, but I’ll explain why first. I think legal tech’s big problem is that it is focused on all these small, not terribly important “fixes.” Instead of getting change, we are getting inconsequential tweaks. Instead, I’d like to see us focus on fundamentally analyzing and re-inventing how things are done. The Elon Musk view of “assume no constraints except those imposed by natural law (including ignoring regulatory constraints” and then ask how to do something. With that background, I would answer your question:

“Legal Tech in 2018 should focus on completely new ways of providing legal services. Incremental improvements of what we do today aren’t worth the time or money. Either we go for real re-invention or admit we are willing to cede governance and law to the masters of AI.”

Kai Jacob

A Common Legal Platform for better collaboration, open co-innovation to learn from peers, process assess and re-engineering and plain English contract language...”

Vicenzo Lalli

I’d like to see technology having a serious impact on streamlining procedural law and proceedings in courts. Also, widespread adoption of open source licenses: it’s about serving justice, tools need to be transparent and open to scrutiny.”

Chrissie Lightfoot

I’d be happy if Legaltech is used primarily to take a huge bite out of the 90% of the latent global legal buyer market where the vast majority of people and businesses in all nations desperately need/want quality legal services and products but such ‘luxuries’ currently remain out of reach.

To begin DOING and acting on his/her beliefs and innovative insights rather than simply toying with ideas, talking or prevaricating. An innovative lawyer must be persistent in driving legal tech into the heart of their business and not be disheartened by the inevitable barriers that will be placed in their way.”

Daniel W. Linna

Legal Tech is not a silver bullet. Let’s stop searching for problems to “solve” with Legal Tech. Let’s identify and specify important problems to be solved and then follow a people, process, data, technology approach to solving those problems. Tremendous progress can be made with leadership, process improvement, metrics, and project management alone, for example. Lean thinking and design thinking provide important principles and tools to guide these efforts. We get tremendous returns from this work and it positions us to better identify where and how technology can help provide additional value.

Sergii Shcherbak

“Let’s address first principles. More lawyers should know how to code, at least the basics. This, at the minimum, gives additional practical perspectives to view legal processes and issues from. This, in turn, feeds LegalTech innovation and increases adoption. Therefore, in my opinion, the most pressing need for an innovative lawyer this year is learning how to code. The more lawyers know how to program, the more addressable problems will be discovered, the more sustainable LegalTech companies will be founded, the more competition and innovation in this sphere we get, the more ‘already-invented-wheel’ tools legal innovators will have at their disposal, and the faster the market adoption of LegalTech solutions will be, benefiting the legal industry as a whole.”

Aron Solomon

2018 shouldn’t be about new legal technologies or piling on to verticals within legal where some companies have begun to gain traction. Ideally, 2018 should be about people (or machines – either way) making things to connect existing technologies and make them work together in intelligent ways.”

Magnus Stein

1. let new, “non-lawyerish” companies offer legal advice across Europe

2. Understand that how we do it today is not the answer for tomorrow

3. Lawyers need to learn tech and business models

4. But most important, make your customers happy

Richard Tromans

The most pressing issue is making sure the industrialization of the legal sector is global and not slowed down by national or regional isolation. Technology knows no borders, but legal markets can create barriers. We need to work on the global cooperation of legal tech initiatives to break down silos and work together across borders for the good of all users of legal services.”