Law firm technology trends that can help your practice

With steadily rising competition, changing client expectations and the need for back-office efficiency, staying on top of law firm technology trends is a must for any practice.

However, keeping up with such advances can be challenging. While some practices consistently integrate the latest innovations, others make select additions as time and budget allow. Wherever your practice falls on the tech-savvy spectrum, every year brings a new wave of potential solutions designed to enhance client relations, streamline operations and ease back-office demands.

It starts with the client

Your clients are your firm's lifeblood. Regardless of whether you support large multinational corporations or advise individuals, your success hinges not only on how you perform but also how you treat your clients.

A number of law firm technology trends have emerged as must-haves, including:

• Remote flexibility: Connecting with clients using videoconferencing has become essential. Virtual face-to-face meetings from wherever you—or your client—are in the world reinforce your personal touch.
• Personalized resources: Along with regular video updates, individualized client portals simplify the exchange of documents and forms while reinforcing security.
• Automated assistants: To keep your one-on-one sessions focused, a chatbot on your firm's website can handle many basic questions. Through machine learning and artificial intelligence, or AI, these applications continually expand their knowledge base—and the value they can deliver to users.

Day-to-day legal support

Resources to help research, process and develop your legal expertise have evolved to reduce time and effort. Recent developments include:

• eDiscovery: Sophisticated data analysis and AI-enhanced efforts help navigate the huge volume of electronic data generated worldwide and automatically classify it.
• Strengthened infrastructure: Even as some employees are returning to the office, remote work arrangements remain popular. Robust network connections, real-time content management systems and reinforced security protocols can help facilitate seamless workflows while your team is working from multiple locations.
• Selective outsourcing: Farming out specialized research assignments or tapping remote expertise becomes more viable as logistical barriers disappear.
• Mail processing and digitization: Process your documents quicker and improve accuracy and security. Using secure document scanning systems ensures your documents are correctly scanned and stored. Text recognition technology can help extract data from scanned documents and ensure documents are correctly indexed and stored.

Keeping the lights on

Your firm is a law practice, but it's also a business. You're responsible for seeking optimal profits from every billable hour. A range of new technologies can help boost efficiency—and the bottom line.

Recent tech developments that can help save law firms money include:

• The paper-free office: Invoices, payments, correspondence and client work can now be created, shared, deposited, delivered and stored while completely bypassing a printer. Law firms that accept online payments get paid 32% faster than those that don't.
• Smooth processes and procedures: Timekeeping, billing, payment and accounting programs reduce the friction between client engagements and healthy finances. A number of platforms encompass all of those features and more.
• Managing your client base: Client relationship management software and automated marketing programs enhance your oversight of business development and client retention.
• Cloud flexibility: Cloud-based systems allow you to access data from any location at any time—and they're more cost-effective than buying servers, maintaining IT and hiring more staff. Make sure your firm has a reliable backup and recovery system in place, as well as a plan for migrating data to the cloud.

Take security and data privacy seriously

By nature, law firms manage sensitive data and need to protect their clients' confidential information. It's crucial that lawyers stay up to date on security and data privacy regulations, including the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. Fines for violating these laws can be up to $7,500 per violation for CCPA and up to $1.5 million per violation for HIPAA.

Every law firm should create a comprehensive data security policy that outlines procedures for handling and protecting sensitive data. All employees should be trained on best data security practices. And security measures should be reviewed and updated regularly.

Finding worthwhile investments for your firm

Technological innovations will only grow in influence as new products improve efficiencies and conserve resources.

As you weigh your firm's current needs, thoughtful planning and budgeting for tech resources will help ensure that you capitalize on the developments that will support your firm well into the future.