Legal IT landscapes 2018

We’ve done Legal IT Landscapes since 2015 (2011 if you count our report of the same name for top 100 firms) and it’s progressively got more in-depth. But this year we’ve changed the format for LITL – moving away from thinking in terms of technologies and towards where in the business those technologies will impact.

So the 2018 report is divided up into areas of operations and business rather than areas of tech – and that’s what we will be doing for future LITL reports. We’ve also changed the format to make it more readable by sprinkling the contributions from our sponsors throughout the book. They’ve helped us to bring this report to you – we couldn’t have done it without them so please take a moment to read what they have to say.

Machine yearnings

SME firms are realising the advantages technology and innovation can offer – but big IT gaps still need to be closed. LPM Legal IT landscapes research aims to dive into what innovation actually means by surveying business leaders on their views of technology in terms of efficiency and competitive advantage. This has always been a highlight of our research and the results show some very interesting trends.

Innovation focus

There’s no denying that SME firms are embracing innovation in all its forms – evidenced by the steady flow of announcements we get in our inboxes here at LPM every day. The term might only be applied in its loosest sense to some of those changes but other examples do represent tangible activity – from legal business launching with seed funding and investment in collaborative technologies to the creation of subscription price plans and creation of client platforms to streamline services in the emergence of potentially destructive legislation.

Smarter working

Apart from automation, perhaps the digital gift that keeps on giving in efficiency gains is agile working. A regular combination of office and home working makes sound business sense for any sensible firm, but being able to work on the go is practically a productivity miracle for those in areas such as shipping, who have always had very mobile fee earners, but whose travel time was traditionally ‘dead time’.