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May’s session for senior in-house counsel - hosted by ³ÉÈËÓ°Òô in collaboration with Radius Law and Flex Legal – explored legal technology for in-house teams.

Derek Southhall, the founder and CEO of the Hyperscale group, a technology, digital and innovation advisory business focused on professional services, took us on a whistlestop tour of the latest trends for legal teams in in-house tech. The Head of In-house Practical Guidance at ³ÉÈËÓ°Òô, Emma Dickin, also took the group through insights from ³ÉÈËÓ°Òô’ recent In-House Technology Report.

Legal tech for in-house teams

Derek discussed eight key themes that are being seen in legal tech today.

1. Microsoft 365

Derek commented that we are seeing high rates of adoption of Microsoft 365. He highlighted the wide range of features such as digital dictation, robotic process automation, built-in intranets, a built-in e-disclosure system, Yammer, mobile phone apps etc. As all these features and capabilities are made and offered in Microsoft, they are interoperable, making it more desirable for teams.

Derek noted that we are seeing trends in the increased use of Power BI for reporting, use of forms, use of process tools in Microsoft Power Automate to collect data. As a result, Microsoft 365 is almost becoming the default for in-house teams in using these tools. One benefit of this is that as the basic tools, such as Word and Excel are so widely used, teams are likely already paying for a lot of it and the costs are relatively low. You are also in charge of your data with Microsoft 365 and are positioning yourself well for using Copilot in the future.

2. Document and contract management

Contract management has been a big theme in recent years in in-house teams due to the commercial value of contracts. Many contract management systems however are expensive and don’t provide the features and tools that in-house teams want. As a result, in-house teams have begun developing their own SharePoint repositories at low cost with no ongoing licensing costs.

In relation to document and email management trends with in-house teams, there has been an increase in the use of ‘Intapp Documents’. Intapp turns a 365 environment into a document and email management system. The systems give teams meta data, dashboards in Power BI etc.

For more information on using technology  about contract management, see Practice Note: How to take control of the contract management process – Technology.

3. Playbooks and automation

There has been a shift in considering tech products as tech products. Instead, the focus is moving to thinking about which capabilities are needed and then looking at which tech products offer this. Derek used the example of which capabilities would be needed in relation to documents e.g. signing capabilities, extraction and analysis capabilities etc. Derek gave examples of which services and products offer such capabilities.

He noted that as in-house teams’ work is document intensive, we are seeing the biggest return on investment in document signing products. We are also seeing a lot of automation capabilities and playbook tools which enable contractual terms of contracts to be analysed and give automatic mark ups. Other document capabilities on the rise include drafting, extraction and analysis, document and email management tools and contract lifecycle management tools.

4. AI and generative AI

Derek highlighted the rise of AI and generative AI. It is the fastest growing consumer app to exist with 100m users in two months. There are numerous use cases including risk management, preparation of policies, first drafts, basic letters and emails etc. He noted that Microsoft are beginning to invest in private instances of ChatGPT to combat issues around unknown sources and copyright. Microsoft is also piloting its own version of generative AI.

There are risks to using generative AI such as unknown data sources, data bias,currency of content, indemnities etc. to be aware of. For more information on generative AI and how lawyers can utilise it, see Derek’s article: .

For more information on generative AI such as ChatGPT, see News Analyses:

• What is ChatGPT?
• ChatGPT—is it legal?
• ChatGPT—user beware
• Cyber attacks using ChatGPT could test data privacy compliance, researchers say
• How generative AI tools impact IP rights of users

5. Real estate

Derek highlighted two products in legal tech in relation to real estate which are affordable:

• Avail – good for producing searches and summaries
• Orbital Witness – offers 3D walk-arounds of properties, summaries etc.

6. Disputes

There is a large range of technology in the disputes area and a large uptake of tools. Derek highlighted three products:

• Safelink – has a built-in e-disclosure system and a portal system
• Solomonic – focuses on the data of litigation
• Elevate – used to supplement skills e.g. e-learning

7. Data

We are seeing that teams are trying to get data under control and ready for generative AI tools and Power BI. This can be used to drive businesses and understand a business.

8. People

In-house teams seem to be focusing on education. More tools are now being used to educate people on contractual risk and technology.

For more information on legal tech for in-house teams, see Practice Note: Technology Management and News Analysis: What is legal tech, why is it important to in-house lawyers and how to build the team of the future?.

³ÉÈËÓ°Òô 2023 In-House Tech Report

Emma Dickin of ³ÉÈËÓ°Òô then shared some findings from a recent report ‘Escaping the in-house legal labyrinth: using technology to demonstrate value’ carried out by ³ÉÈËÓ°Òô with over 200 in-house legal counsel taking part. The research aimed to understand current attitudes towards legal tech and how legal tech, its data and analytics are being used to help understand how such tools can help demonstrate value to an organisation.

Emma highlighted some key findings from the survey:

• Effective and efficient communication with the wider business was identified as a top challenge for in-house legal teams with nearly three quarters of General Counsel expressing such concerns. This can create risks to a legal team’s reputation, its budget and even a seat at the table of the board
• In-house teams need legal tech to operate and are becoming more reliant on legal tech to perform their day-to-day roles, particularly in relation to low value tasks. 82% of respondents in the survey thought technology skills would grow in importance for in-house lawyers and 50% claimed they would not join a company without legal tech
• Legal tech creates more time for strategic work and increases productivity. Emma noted that only 17% of respondents thought the ability to deliver unique insights and analytics from their tech was a current benefit and only 26% thought of it as an opportunity for the future. This suggests legal tech may not be being used to its full potential
• The biggest block for legal tech adoption is costs with 60% of respondents claiming lack of budget as a barrier to adoption. The survey also showed around 20% of legal teams believed this budget would grow

• There seems to be missed opportunities in demonstrating value through legal tech

The report is available in full here.

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