Legal technology trends – insights from 751 legal professionals

Future Ready Lawyer Survey: new and improved legal technology capabilities are driving greater resilience, improved client relations and higher performance for many organisations in the industry across Europe and the U.S. 63% of technology leading law firms report their profitability increased over the past year – more than any other firms.

In the fourth year of the Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey, it’s clearly shown that year after year, technology continues to be a critical differentiator for higher performance in the legal sector, and demand continues to grow.

Legal technology report

The 2022 Survey identified industry trends across Europe and the U.S. that show:

• The increasing importance of technology is escalating across law firms and corporate legal departments;
• Technology is a critical factor to legal departments in firm selection and retention; and
• The greater use of technology is among the leading changes expected in both legal departments and law firms.

The need for technology as a key driver of improved performance, efficiency and productivity is undisputed. Yet organisations struggle to optimise their use of technology, signalling improvements are still needed in change management and training on new tools.

The increased use of and investment in technology solutions continued in 2022 and are projected to gain more ground ahead. Corporate legal departments – faced with higher workloads and budget constraints – have turned to technology to automate work and improve productivity. Law firms, confronted with changing client expectations, the demand for higher productivity and growing competition, are also turning to technology for help.

Technology Leaders thrive

The data is clear: Technology Leaders (organisations that most effectively leverage technology) thrive. Year after year, they outperform other organisations across several important metrics and demonstrate why investing in and applying the right technology matters. 63% of technology leading law firms report their profitability increased over the past year – more than any other firms.

In 2022, 54% of organisations identified themselves as Technology Leaders, 44% as Transitioning. The number of organisations identifying as Technology Leaders rose from previous years (40% in 2021 and 39% in 2020). Technology Leaders have shown their superior resiliency, agility and performance through a pandemic and across a quickly changing legal landscape.

Legal technology and talent

Lawyers want to work in tech-savvy legal organisations. 87% of corporate lawyers and 83% of law firm lawyers say it is extremely or very important for them to work for an organisation that fully leverages technology. Today’s talent has very high expectations for access to the latest tools, and technology that enables agility, change and the ability to work remotely.

The 2022 Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey: Leading Change Report provides insights from 751 legal professionals across Europe and the U.S. Download now and learn more about LegalTech >>