2020 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready
Lawyer:Performance Drivers and
Change in the Legal Sector Technology is at the Center of
Top Performance
June 4, 2020 – The disruption caused by the 2020 global pandemic
will have far-reaching impact across the legal industry,
accelerating the sector’s ongoing transformation. Before the
crisis, the legal sector was already undergoing transformation
driven by economic, demographic, regulatory, technology and
competitive demands. Those forces will continue to drive change in
the industry, with their impact now amplified by the COVID-19
crisis.
The crisis has shown that legal technology solutions, which
enable work at anytime from anywhere, are essential to business
continuity today. As the legal industry moves forward, however, the
focus will also be on the key capabilities that will ensure that
organizations not only survive through change, but also thrive in
the new legal landscape.
Wolters Kluwer conducted an independent survey – the 2020
Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey: Performance Drivers – to
assess future readiness and resilience in the legal sector. The
survey includes insights from 700 legal professionals across the
U.S. and nine European countries and examines ongoing trends in the
legal sector and how well-prepared organizations are to drive
higher performance.
“Given the pressures created by the crisis, there will be a
spotlight on legal professionals’ performance moving ahead, with
the need to increase productivity while delivering the highest
value and ROI to their customers,” said Martin O’Malley, Wolters
Kluwer Legal & Regulatory Executive Vice President and Managing
Director.
Findings of the 2020 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey:
Performance Drivers are available in this report, which also
includes insights from legal industry leaders on COVID-19 and legal
sector impact.
Key Survey FindingsWith a focus on the
attributes that drive performance in legal organizations, the
survey found that legal professionals see technology as the top
performance driver and critical to improved relationships,
performance and productivity. In fact, the Increasing Importance of
Legal Technology is the top trend for 76% of respondents across
Europe and the U.S., and across law firms, corporate legal
departments and business services firms. The survey also found
performance blockers, however, and revealed a number of gaps in
understanding, expectations, experience and capabilities – within,
as well as between, law firms and corporate legal departments –
that inhibit top performance.
Top Trends and ReadinessLawyers predicted
pressure from a series of trends expected to impact their
organizations over the next three years and technology topped the
list. The top trends expected to have the most impact
are:
- Increasing Importance of Legal Technology – 76%
- Meeting Changing Client / Leadership Expectations – 74%
- Emphasis on Improved Efficiency / Productivity – 73%
- Ability to Acquire and Retain Talent – 73%
- Coping with Increased Volume and Complexity of Information –
72%
Looking across all trends, however, there is a significant gap
between trends and readiness to address them. Fewer than one-third
of respondents reported they were very prepared to address any of
them. In fact, while the Increasing Importance of Legal Technology
was the top trend at 76%, only 28% of respondents said they were
very prepared for it. Why do legal organizations seem so
unprepared? Respondents said that the Difficulty of Change
Management & Leadership Resistance to Change is the biggest
barrier to implementing change for both corporate legal departments
(65%) and law firms (53%).
Client-Firm Relationships The Future Ready
Lawyer Survey surfaced significant gaps between corporate legal
departments’ expectations and law firms’ ability to deliver on
them. For example, 79% of corporate lawyers said it is important
that the law firms they work with Demonstrate Efficiency and
Productivity, while only 28% said it describes their current firm
very well. The disconnects that surfaced across several categories
may be impacting client satisfaction levels, with only 26% of
corporate lawyers very satisfied with their current law firm.
The findings make clear that increasingly, the use of technology
is critical to how well firms meet client expectations. Corporate
legal departments, faced with the need to improve productivity and
efficiency, have turned to technology more aggressively and they
are pressuring law firms to do the same. Within the next three
years, 81% of corporate legal departments said they will require
law firms to describe how they are using technology to be more
productive and efficient – nearly double the rate of 41% asking
this today.
The Changing Corporate Legal DepartmentLooking
at trends specific to corporate legal departments, respondents said
that their top priorities over the next three years will be to:
Reduce / Control Outside Legal Costs; Improve Legal Operations and
Legal Project Management; and Provide Strategic Value to Their
Company. When asked to identify the biggest changes ahead for them,
82% said they expect the Greater Use of Technology to Improve
Productivity. With a focus on technology, the gap in knowledge and
preparedness is most acute when it comes to transformational
technologies. Big Data and Predictive Analytics are the
transformational technologies that 67% of legal departments expect
will have impact over the next three years, yet just 25% understand
these technologies very well.
The Changing Law FirmTransformation is underway
across the law firm landscape, as firms increasingly face
competition from alternative legal service providers and even
clients themselves. To ensure they meet client expectations, 67% of
law firms said they are Investing in New Technology to Support Firm
Operations and Client Work.
Given the increasing importance of legal technology, it’s no
surprise that law firms plan to invest more: 60% plan to increase
their technology investment over the next three years. However,
only 29% believe they are very prepared when it comes to
Understanding Technology Solutions Available; 27% are very prepared
to Use Technology to Be More Productive; 26% are very prepared to
Use Technology to Improve Client Services; and 24% say their staff
is Capable of Leveraging Technology effectively. In terms of
technology with the biggest impact in the next three years, 59%
cite Artificial Intelligence, yet just 22% understand it very
well.
The Technology Leader Edge Continues for the Future
Ready LawyerThe crisis has pressured legal professionals
to fast-track their use of technology solutions. It is also true,
however, that many professionals were already on this path of
transformation, with different players moving at different paces.
The previous Future Ready Lawyer Survey conducted in 2019, found
that Technology Leaders – those that fully leveraged technology –
outperformed, across the board, those organizations that were not
fully leveraging technology. In 2020, those findings were
confirmed.
Among firms, 62% of Technology Leaders reported that their
profitability increased over the prior year, compared to 39% of
Transitioning firms. Additionally, across all areas of preparedness
related to technology, staffing, organizational and client focus,
Technology Leaders also outperformed organizations with lower
technology use.
Findings of the 2020 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey:
Performance Drivers are available in this report.
About the 2020 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer
Survey The 2020 Future Ready Lawyer Survey: Performance
Drivers from Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory included
quantitative interviews with 700 lawyers in law firms, legal
departments and business services firms across the U.S. and nine
European countries – the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands,
Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Belgium and Hungary – to examine how
client expectations, technology and other factors are affecting the
future of law across core areas and how legal organizations are
prepared to address these. The survey was conducted online for
Wolters Kluwer by a leading international research organization
from January 10 to 30, 2020.
About Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory
Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory is a division of Wolters
Kluwer, a global leading provider of legal and compliance solutions
that enable professionals to improve productivity and performance,
mitigate risk and achieve better outcomes. Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is
a global leader in professional information, software solutions,
and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance,
risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our
customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert
solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized
technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual
revenues of €4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180
countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs
approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered
in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. For more information about
our solutions and organization, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow
us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
MEDIA CONTACT:Leslie BonacumWolters Kluwer Legal &
Regulatory Communication+1 847 877
7641leslie.bonacum@wolterskluwer.com
- 2020.06.04 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey
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