Project Counsel Media is part of The Project Counsel Group. We cover the areas of cyber security, digital technology, legal technology, media, and mobile technology.

____________________________________________________________

The digitalisation of the UK legal sector will be the workplace legacy of the pandemic


Some 42 of the UK's top law firms say tech is the business-critical factor which would impact them most


BY:
Eric De Grasse
Chief Technology Officer
 
23 March 2021 (Brussels, Belgium) -- Along with the comedy of bad connections, wandering pets and awkward mute buttons, the digitalisation of the UK legal sector will be the workplace legacy of the pandemic. Whether it’s to facilitate an agile workforce or keep clients abreast of matters, some 42 of the UK's top law firms say that tech was the business-critical factor which would impact them most. However, the technical shift is moving at a greater pace in-house, with some 57 per cent of senior in-housers surveyed by The Lawyer and Paul Hastings now making tech and AI implementation a priority.

In-house, the digital switchover is being led by giants including BT, Barclays and GSK. BT, for instance, is currently scoping out how AI could reshape how the in-house team operates by examining how it could be deployed to scan for documentation errors. BT Global GC Jeff Langlands is a firm believer that tech is the key to freeing up lawyer time so they can focus on more complex tasks, something which is all the more important when you lead a team of more than 100 lawyers.

Will your organisation’s long-term approach to technology and AI have been affected by the pandemic?
Source: Paul Hastings/The Lawyer


Automation will inevitably drive up demand for senior skill sets within legal teams, Barclays managing director Philip Aiken believes, adding that lawyers will be better prepared for weathering an “unchartered, unknown and unprecedented” future.

It’s the same at GSK where assistant GC (corporate) Anthony Kenny says Covid-19 has proven the case for the digital switchover, “meaning there will be an increased desire for investment in automation in the long term”, he says. In fact, asked how the pandemic had impacted their approach to AI, almost two-thirds (61 per cent) of respondents to the survey said it had accelerated plans or made some impact.

While giants like Barclays, BT and GSK have the necessary budgets and know-how to drive forward the digital age, many general counsel will be pondering what AI means for their departments.

If you’d have predicted last year that in 2021 everyone would be merrily signing up to online debates and networking, most people would have been sceptical. Now, it’s the norm; in fact, to mark a year of living virtually, The Lawyer is hosting more than 500 in-house lawyers for the inaugural Smarter Working Week conference series, which will explore what the future of work will look like in-house.

While the great digital leap forward may be good news for keeping in-house budgets under control, there’s also a concern that it could result in the loss of creativity, reveal greater compliance and cybersecurity risks and eventually, said 30 per cent of respondents, end up replacing existing roles across the entire workforce.

Everything is up for discussion because the digital era is no longer crystal ball gazing – it’s arrived.

For the URL link to this article click here