Technology Literacy in the Legal Industry

When we were at the American Bar Association’s (ABA) TECHSHOW, we networked with many law schools interested in teaching their students about legal tech. Or, they want to offer students a chance to get a bit more hands on with it, through a lab or library offering.

We anticipated this, admittedly. There has been a lot of talk in the industry about requiring attorneys to have tech training through their law schools. The legal industry has, in general, been uniquely slow in embracing technology, so this is a great way to address the opportunity.

We get it: most people don’t go to law school to learn how to navigate through legal tech platforms. And what is wrong with keeping documents and notes on your computer anyway?

Even so, the tide is finally turning. We met lots of schools looking to offer law students the option to receive tech training. While that is progress, we want to do everything we can to encourage a full embrace of tech training.

Here is why we think it’s so important.

Tech Training for Efficiency

Attorneys report spending 30% of their time practicing law. The rest of the time is devoted to taking care of current clients, attracting new potential clients, and managing their practice, paperwork, etc. So, what if an attorney can handle more cases, while still doing all of the items previously mentioned?

Technology is the answer, across industries.

Journalists are no longer just savvy researchers and succinct writers. Although researching and writing are still instrumental to their work, they’re also photographers, videographers, and graphic designers; they utilize multiple modalities to report the news.

Lawyers may not require technology, particularly. But we certainly don’t know any who still use a typewriter, either. To be efficient, whether it be writing a brief, crafting an opening statement, or completing court documents, legal tech delivers. And prior exposure to legal technology allows new attorneys to quickly adopt or adapt, starting out more efficient that past new attorneys.

Tech Training is Good for Business

When law schools offer tech training, they’re investing, albeit indirectly, in law firms’ business growth because they’re training lawyers who know how to “work smarter, not harder.”

Legal technology eliminates redundant processes like multiple case intake processes. Legal technology makes data retrieval nearly instantaneous. Legal technology automates document assembly. Legal technology encrypts all personal data that has been uploaded to a platform. For clients, legal technology gives them 24/7 access to their case, so they can often answer their own questions and have more peace of mind.

These features--which certainly aren’t exhaustive--increase attorney-client connectivity and data security, enhance file organization, save time on previously drawn-out tasks, and make new space for more cases, more people served, and more income.

In other words, the effects of legal technology are, in principle, ideal for businesses.

Their Clients Will Be Tech Literate

This is the quintessential reason tech training is so advantageous, the reason why tech training is marketable and good for business: technology has not only become ubiquitous, it’s become instrumental to how our economy functions.

Even though the legal industry is slowly but surely embracing technology, other industries have already greeted it at the door, invited it to stay for dinner, and made up the guest bedroom for it. When many industries have done that, it means that many people have done that on an individual and collective level. Not only that, new industries exist to produce the technology that other industries are buying and implementing!

As such, recent and forthcoming law school graduates will, in time, almost exclusively serve clients who do not know a world before the internet--and a little bit down that road, before the iPhone! Their clientele will expect that they can receive services as quickly as prevailing technology allows. If a law firm cannot follow this market trend and meet that growing expectation, it will flounder.

Offering access to legal tech, whether in the curriculum or as an optional exercise, is great for the entire legal industry. Sure, we love legal tech. Kind of obvious. But what we really love about it is how many people have access to the law because of it. And how more efficient it can make attorneys. And that means a more balanced life, too. Want to find out more about SimpleLaw and how we support Law Schools? Contact us anytime at hello@simplelaw.com or visit us online at https://www.simplelaw.com/.