The Impact of Technology on the Future of the Legal Industry

Abstract

This dissertation explores the impact that technology has on the legal industry and its power to help law firms survive pandemics. The aim of this research is to assess the digital transformation implemented by legal firms as a result of the pandemic in the United States, Ireland and England. The focus of this research study would be looking at how the legal industry utilizes technology, how the industry perceive technology and how the usage in technology has altered due the pandemic. Based on this information, the goal would be to curate a framework for law firms to guide them on the effective way of implementing innovative technology.

The research study will be influenced by the interpretivist paradigm. The research strategy adopted in this dissertation is a collective case study using qualitative data, specifically interviews. The collective case study was on lawyers working in different firms namely McCann FitzGerald, DLA Piper, Thomson Reuters, Zelle LLP, Addleshaw Goddard and a leading New York law firm.

The findings have exposed various factors that influence the adoption of technology in the legal sector. As a result of the in vivo coding analysis, the findings were split into three categories namely culture, change and process. The findings on culture exposed that the billable hour is stifling the adoption of technology. In addition, the internal organization’s age, education and cosmopolitanism influences the adoption of technology. The major findings on change disclosed that law firms that have successfully adopted legal technology have started small and have made a gradual progression. Finally, the findings on process have exposed that successful deployment of technology in law firms occurs where the firm will collaborate with its IT team or experts in the field, prioritize their clients and utilize technology that is unique to their firm.

Overall, judging from the literature review and the qualitative research in this dissertation law firms by nature are conservative and risk averse which naturally makes the industry reluctant to adopt innovation. However, the pandemic has encouraged and in some cases forced law firms to utilize technology. As a result of this, technology has vastly been viewed as a necessity in the legal sector. Effectively, the pandemic has been a driving force for many law firms to bridge the gap between firms acknowledging technology is important and implementing such technology.