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Attracting quality attorneys is a time- and cost-intensive process for firms. Top talent looks for a firm that is not necessarily cutting edge, but certainly not lagging behind the legal technology adoption curve. This new talent pool is expecting their future firm to equip them with tools that make communication and collaboration easier, and provide flexibility. Once you have hired a good candidate, you want to do everything possible to ensure their success. While practice management tools are probably not the first solution that comes to mind for reducing law firm turnover, they can be very effective tools in convincing attorneys to join and stay with your firm.

In the years since the 2008 subprime mortgage collapse, law firms weathered an ongoing series of financial pressures. Law office payment processing became complicated to say the least — collection delays steadily increased as clients dealt with their own economic issues, and questioned individual time entries, further exacerbating delays. 

The commercial and residential real estate landscape has changed significantly in the wake of the pandemic and resulting economic closures and disruptions. Remote work is here to stay, bringing significant shifts in buyer preferences for home features and locations. Increasing real estate activity, combined with evolving regulations and processes, brings opportunities for real estate attorneys to serve clients in new ways.

Today, a hacker can access great volumes of data from anywhere in the world, limited only by the speed of the connection and the size of their hard drive. Also, specific documents themselves are searchable and easier to locate.

Legal professionals use a wide variety of tools and methods for tracking time spent on billable matters. Some are sophisticated, while others are more problematic and error-prone; for example, lawyers who use giant spreadsheets that are updated at the end of each day or week or sticky notes to jot down each task by hand. These antiquated, and inefficient, methods result in reduced amount of captured billable hours with corresponding loss of revenue. They also make it harder for firm admins to identify any issues or areas for improvement.

Digital transformation and digital acceleration have become mantras for the business world, and the past few years have pushed the pace of digital transformation to new heights. What does this mean for law firms that have traditionally been more tentative about adopting new legal technologies? Below, we consider some of the common concerns preventing law firms from pursuing digital transformation. In addition, we discuss ways to convince your firm that investing in digital transformation is not just a good idea, it’s a necessity.