General Counsel has always had pressure to reduce costs. This means there is a reluctance to expand department headcount. Dealing with risk events that are either cyber, internal, or litigation, continues to need to adopt legal tech solutions. In addition to this, the legal technology marketplace is volatile due to vendor consolidation and new entrants (It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me). This makes it challenging for legal departments to choose solutions that best fit their needs. To help navigate the legal technology landscape, businesses should consider these key trends in shaping their legal technology roadmap effectively.
Strategic Partnerships
a) The cost of acquiring technology and key staff continues to rise. In fact, LinkedIn just revealed the 25 fastest growing jobs in Australia and, no surprises here, the top of the list is a Cybersecurity Analyst. Companies will continue to focus on their core business and focus on key strategic partnerships when required.
b) Despite market consolidation, organisations need to consider their relationships with key legal tech partners.
c) There is still no single software suite that provides all solutions to vibrant markets and various legal applications.
d) Entry of enterprise technology vendors into legal tech fails to address unique legal team requirements.
Rise of Human-in-the-Loop Solutions & Automation
a) Huge surge in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation tools for document review, contract analysis, and legal research, to enhance efficiency and reduce repetitive tasks.
b) New legal tech automation offerings will involve human-in-the-loop solutions, combining staffing and software.
c) Current legal tech applications fall short in delivering transformative improvements, due to lack of skilled humans for training, supervision, and handling.
d) Some vendors are integrating staffing, process design, and tech to bridge the gap and enhance the efficiency of AI-based solutions. See Siera Data's articles on “The Importance of Engaging and Expert" and "AI or IA? or Both?" where we discuss what, why, who, when, and how of this important requirement.
Oversight in Overall ESG Strategy and Disclosures
a) Legal compliance oversight of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategy and disclosures will drive an increase in investments and TPRM (Third-Party Risk Management) solutions.
b) Organisations are expanding third-party relationships, highlighting the need for closer scrutiny of ESG issues in due diligence.
c) There is a growing number of ESG related risks and increased vulnerabilities. This will drive demand for solutions capturing, managing, and reporting ESG threats during due diligence, to monitor relationships and minimising vulnerabilities.
Implementation of Proactive Cyber Resilience Schemes
a) The increased requirement to undertake a holistic risk assessment of the business. This will allow understanding of the overall enterprise risk factors and vulnerability considerations, providing a foundational understanding for cybersecurity measures.
b) The implementation of processes for continuous monitoring of the organisation's expanding attack surface. This facilitates quick identification and response to heightened risks posed by threat actors, ensuring proactive cybersecurity measures.
c) Develop imperative cybersecurity plans and information governance strategies, defining data specifics and eliminating Redundant, Outdated, and Trivial (ROT) information.
d) Utilising intelligent risk insight and leverage automated risk scoring, trending analysis, and industry benchmarks to prioritise security initiatives, enhancing overall cyber resilience.
Implementation of Regulatory Technology (RegTech)
a) An increasing focus on regulatory compliance.
b) The development and adoption of more RegTech solutions to streamline compliance processes and ensure adherence to evolving legal requirements.
Last Words
New technologies, threats, and security concerns has shifted the way we think about the legal technology landscape. It has been an explosive year so far and it's only just ticked over to February! We are keen to see how 2024 plays out, what it brings, and what it takes away.
We will revisit this list come December 2024, to see how accurate our predictions were, and to discuss any dark hose trends that also emerged. Exciting times ahead! Watch this space.
Reach out to Siera Data if you would like to chat about any of these predictions!
Some insights have been developed with the assistance of this Gartner article.
