The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it

Law firms are facing four key challenges in 2023. Legal technology providers must step up to help them tackle these challenges, says Adam Bullion, marketing general manager at PracticeEvolve.

I thought I’d start this month’s article talking about my grandmother. Aside from being a wonderfully strong lady, there was nothing particularly extraordinary about her. Having grown up in London during the second world war, she wasn’t from a background of privilege or education.

Indeed, living through a war possibly made her the strong woman she was. In addition to my fond memories of her, I always remember her catchphrase, “the greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it”. We used to marvel at these wise words until we eventually discovered she was actually quoting Molière, the French playwright. However, it will always be a phrase I associate with my Nan!

I mention this because I think, as a market, we have a number of challenges which, if addressed in the right way, we can be proud of solving. Just last year, our research outlined four key challenges law firms are facing throughout 2023. These are:

• Improving internal systems and workflows
• Integrating systems and software
• Improve client experience
• Retaining talent

But, for me, it’s not only the responsibility of law firms to address these but also legal technology providers as well. We must take responsibility to address the obstacles law firms face which is why PracticeEvolve have introduced the concept of Software With A Service, formed of three key pillars: cloud, competency and connectivity. Taking each of these one at a time, what does each mean?

Importantly, firms must ensure they have a satisfied team of users who are fully competent in their software. It’s one of the many reasons PracticeEvolve have introduced EvolveLearning. Designed to offer users a platform to interact and learn at a pace to suit their needs, EvolveLearning will improve user competence and in turn, allow firms to achieve enhanced productivity and efficiencies as users find new and innovative ways of working.

Equally, as firms look to reduce the costs and the risks associated with infrastructure, we see more of an onus on cloud solutions. Cloud solutions not only remove the maintenance of physical servers but also allow users better flexibility to work anywhere. This is fundamental to retaining talent and even attracting talent as more people nowadays want to work for businesses offering flexible working practices.

Finally, firms need software that is connected to other applications, ensuring operations are far easier for the user and the firm. Integrated software reduces errors relating to rekeying of data which could be costly for law firms. Our constantly evolving software integrations (including InfoTrack and DocuSign), automate many of the processes which benefits users and the firm.