Legal tech disruption: Doing it on purpose

Thomson Reuters looks at the role that a legal technology roadmap can play in improving the operations of in-house legal departments.

Disruption in the legal industry remains a powerful force – from the death of the billable hour to robot lawyers and generative AI. Leaders are facing weighty issues that demand long-term, visionary thinking and that will change the way legal professionals do their jobs. 

With half of in-house legal departments increasing their use of legal technology tools, many GCs are taking the initiative to address continued, growing expectations from the business for systems that can make operations better. How can you prepare for a tech or process change so that people come along with you, rather than living in constant fire-fighting mode?  

Follow an established roadmap

A legal technology roadmap is a plan that identifies the specifics of how technology can support the legal business strategy and priorities over time. It typically takes a three-year approach and ensures that technology upgrades are strategic and implemented thoughtfully. 

This roadmap helps leaders like you secure financial and technical support from the business, as you can demonstrate that new systems fit into a larger plan that aligns with business goals. Create the strategy up front and bring people back to it each time you implement another element of it. That way they’ll find it easier to understand what you’re asking for and how they can support it. 

Sell the problem before the solution

Contracts take three days to process rather than one. Marketing materials take six rounds of revisions when they could take two. RFP responses take two weeks rather than two days. The business feels this pain as much as your team does. When you talk to stakeholders and your team about changes, it’s important to remind them of the problem, or disruption, you’re solving. 

When you keep your requests and rollout plan grounded in the problem you’re trying to solve, rather than in the solution itself, you’ll get more flexible thinking and support from leaders, stakeholders, and end users before, during, and after the rollout. 

Get buy-in from senior leaders and stakeholders

Getting senior leaders and stakeholders on board was part of the roadmap process. You sold them on the problems, how your vision solves business problems, and why the tech investment is worthwhile. 

You’ll repeat this step each time you move ahead on the technology roadmap. Your colleagues and leaders are busy, and they will forget what you’re aiming at. They need context for new processes and expenditures. 

As you undertake a system or process change, you can help minimise disruption by grounding your requests and release plans in the problems you’re solving and your strategies for improving the inefficiencies. 

Run a pilot programme before making a full switch

Having a vision for your changes and buy-in for the problem and solution will help smooth the way. But the change itself needs to be managed to make sure the training is sufficient, and the system will be used effectively. Don’t rush through this. Identify a small group of people to test the new system or process. Involve all roles that touch the process. Aim to identify friction points or possible disruptions in the system and in training and onboarding. 

It’s important to acknowledge the amount of administrative work that will be required to make the technology work. Active management will be needed to make sure technology is an enabler of excellence, and people and processes will be critical in order to secure adoption and lasting change. 

Deliver the new system thoughtfully

Now you can bring the system to the whole department with confidence. You won’t be able to anticipate all the potential challenges with your new system. But with a thoughtful rollout plan that includes buy-in from stakeholders, early communication to the whole team, and a training plan that reflects the learnings from a small group of pilot users and early adopters, you can anticipate most hurdles. From there, you can create enough flexibility in your rollout and reinforcement plan to adjust as you go. 

Legal industry disruption often involves necessary change that makes things better in the long run, not worse.  Implementing disruptive legal tech in your legal department should not cause more problems than it solves. While there will inevitably be challenges with a rollout, good strategy, planning and communication can ensure it’s considered a win in the long run. 

Learn more about law department technology roadmaps in Thomson Reuters’ whitepaper.