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Legal technology holds high hopes for those of us in the legal sector – it is synonymous with innovation, increased productivity, and perhaps for some, opportunity.

But what role will technology play in the future of law? Will lawyers be expected to become half legal practitioner / half tech expert? And how can individuals make the most of this new technology?

I spoke with Mari Sako, Professor of Management Studies at Saïd Business School University of Oxford, to hear her thoughts on legal technology and the future of law.

Tech adoption is on the rise

When it comes to explaining the influence technology is having on the legal sector, one would do well to find anyone more qualified than Professor Mari Sako. Sako just finished co-authoring a 150-page report in collaboration with the SRA titled , which surveyed 900 SRA regulated law firms throughout the UK.

The report found over a third (35%) of firms had introduced new technology in the last 12 months, while over half (55%) had improved or increased use of existing technology.

“With COVID-19, and particularly with remote working, there's been a change in the willingness of lawyers to use day-to-day technology, such as video conferencing and virtual meetings, or e-signatures for documentation. Those step changes are not going to be reversed; they're going to actually stay or accelerate.”

A minority of lawyers will need complex digital skills

In a post-COVID world, law firms will need access to more complex digital skills, such as data science or coding skills, says Sako – but will these skills come from inside or outside of the legal community?

Using data supplied by Burning Glass, the University of Oxford report to the SRA analysed the proportion of job postings requiring lawtech skills in the UK between 2014-2020. It found only 1-2% of jobs for lawyers (solicitors, barristers, judges) required lawtech skills, and only 5% to 15% of legal sector jobs for non-lawyer positions.

“Lawyers will be expected to understand basic digital skills, such as virtual meetings and other kinds of technology that facilitates day-to-day activities, but digital skills like artificial intelligence, the real kind of high-level technology, will only apply to a minority and they may come from areas outside the legal community.”

"In my view, only a minority of lawyers would be expected to have data science skills, and once they do, they may not actually be called lawyers anymore. These types of people already carry job titles like legal engineers, or legal product architects, and they're not practicing law in your traditional sense of the word.

However, some lawyers may move into these areas and acquire a lot more technology-based skills, then go on to work in other kinds of careers, she points out.

Communication skills will become even more important

The legal sector has always valued communication skills, says Sako, but this demand will only continue to accelerate in the years ahead.

“To be a great lawyer, you obviously need to have a deep knowledge of the law itself, but over and above that, the ability to work in a multidisciplinary work environment, and the willingness to work alongside all sorts of experts and professionals, will become more important,” she says.

“In the past, on a day-to-day basis your immediate colleagues were lawyers, but that's not going to happen anymore. You’ll be encountering people with all sorts of backgrounds and expertise within the firm, so the willingness to do that is crucial.”

The traditional career path is changing

The other major change brought on by the introduction of new technology will be to the traditional associate to partner route, says Sako.

“Instead of going to law school, becoming an associate at a law firm, then aspiring to become a partner, you can aspire to work for a major corporation going in-house really early on. I know that some in-house departments have training contracts now, for example. And the Big Four offers a segue into working in non-legal environments.”

Read our report on how the Big Four are disrupting legal services

You could also unlock the value of data using AI if you're that way inclined, says Sako. “That would be a great career path for many of the junior aspiring people who want to work in the legal services sector but not to practice law.”

Sako also said she suspects a rise in the number of non-practicing lawyers who have become legal engineers, founded legal tech startups, are doing consulting work or who are working for venture capital firms.

She could very well be right. According to the , the total number of solicitors on the roll at the end of August 2021 was 210,152 (an increase of approximately 50,000 since 2012), while the number of practising solicitors is 154,273 (an increase of approximately 30,000 since 2012) – leaving an estimated 20,000 non-practicing lawyers unaccounted for.

For more information about the SRA and University of Oxford’s Technology and Innovation in Legal Services report, .