Infrastructural change: Smaller law firms find legaltech more challenging due to the changes required to a company’s infrastructure. Such changes require budgeting and structural reform often beyond their means. Furthermore, small and medium-sized law firms tend to secure funding through partnerships with senior lawyers. Adopting legaltech would therefore require permission from partners that may not be completely sold on the concept. Educational needs: Adopting legaltech is challenging. Employing an individual with the legal and technical knowledge to operate the legal software is a further requirement. Quality of education varies across geographies, resulting in firms having to carefully consider where to locate. Certainly, access to a sufficient supply of high-skilled workers is a must. Understanding: Confusion over the uses, opportunities and risks of legaltech is a further challenge. For instance, many are unaware of legaltech’s relationship with client confidentiality and data protection requirements. Other law firms avoid adopting legaltech as they trust the familiarity of traditional methods and view legaltech as potentially unreliable and prone to error. Certainly, this is the case with the low adoption rates of AI-assisted legaltech. Choosing the Right Location Despite the concerns, legaltech is expanding at pace into key markets such as North America and Asia. Indeed, in Asia, 73% of legal service providers are keen to step up their legaltech adoption rate. Yet the most beneficial location for Europe-centred law firms may be much closer to home: Ireland. Despite the concerns, legaltech is expanding at pace into key markets such as North America and Asia. SPECIAL FEATURE 33
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk3Mzkz