As the Legal Industry is forging its way through the tech transformation, we see these six trends that will dominate Australian law firms in 2022.
The traditional workstyles are sunsetting as the world is shifting towards digital tech. In our previous blog on the hybrid work model, we saw that the legal industry is adapting to the work culture shift with technological advances taking place due to the pandemic.
With these tech advances, the tech trends mentioned below are likely to shape the tech arena of Australian law firms in 2022.
The Rise Of Intelligent Business Practices
With increased use of tech tools and platforms, there is an anticipated rise in intelligent business practices (IBP) this year. Furthermore, the pandemic has acted as a catalyst with several businesses now adopting IBP.
The legal industry is realizing the power of automation that is aiding the ease of work processes. Robotic process automation (RPA) is one such example denoting the huge shift in workstyle. With RPA, firms can achieve optimum work efficiency as it can process huge data, draft contracts, and produce invoices. However, systems like RPA need fundamental business practices to be laid out in order to implement the new-age tech tools.
IBP will therefore help firms strategise and streamline their processes, thereby increasing productivity by lowering operations costs. Thus, we can anticipate a potential rise of IBPs this year.
Application Integration Will Continue At Speed
To keep on track with the tech advancements, IT teams across law firms in Australia are undergoing infrastructure changes.
The automation changes range from integrating the internal applications to the RPA system for automating internal processes, to integrating CRMs for easy customer information flow.
To ensure a seamless implementation of these tech platforms, law firms will accelerate application integration across departments.
The Creation Of The Data Steward
Data plays a huge role in the ever-changing tech gamut. With data being collected from multiple sources and getting stored in various locations, its efficiency is reduced. Thus, a data steward would help in increasing the efficiency of data usage.
Data steward will help in regulating the data by sorting and storing it in an organised fashion. Therefore, avoiding data duplication and irrelevancy. Projects such as data lake migration are already seeing a huge wave across several industries. These projects are aimed at enabling efficient data usage by managing the data into a common data lake.
Adoption Of AI And ML Will Accelerate
AI and ML are already making changes to processes across various industries. With new digital innovations paving the way, the legal industry is not too far from actively adopting AI and ML.
2022 will see active discussions and developments around AI and ML implementation. Examples include deploying bots that can automatically examine business contracts, alert staff, match incoming invoices with purchase orders, and even streamlining the accounts payable process.
Security Will Remain Front And Centre
With the increasing vulnerability due to cyberattacks, security is becoming a prime concern for law firms across Australia.
December 2021 saw firms across the globe checking patches due to the vulnerability noted in the Log4J IT system. Law firms now are becoming more vigilant about possible risks and data integrity issues that might arise from rickety cyber security.
Security is a major part of the IT infra that needs to be approached holistically. Cyber security therefore needs to be strong enough to ensure highest level of protection to sensitive legal data.
Work From Home Moves To Work From Wherever You Are
As stated in our previous blog on hybrid work culture, the remote work model is likely to continue through 2022.
While the initial shift to telecommuting work posed a challenge to the law firms, the change seems to have settled in with lawyers able to manage their hearings and work more efficiently. With an increasing hybrid trend, organisations are planning on how the set-up will look in the months and years to come!
Access the article from Lawyers Weekly on technology trends here: https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/biglaw/33548-6-technology-trends-that-will-shape-australian-law-firms-in-2022.
Access our blog for more industry updates https://www.lawimage.com/blog-2/law-image-blog/.
About Law Image: Law Image is a leading document management company. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Melbourne, we have offices in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth. Law Image support law firms and government departments across Australia with end-to-end legal document management solutions.
Our services include printing, copying, scanning, Appeal and Court book production, eDiscovery, on-site print rooms, eArchiving, court filing, and hard copy processing.
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