The 2023 Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory Future Ready Lawyer Survey Report includes insights from 700 legal professionals across the U.S. and nine European countries – namely Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Hungary. The survey shows noteworthy differences between the countries surveyed.

The report documents the broad awareness of Generative AI’s promise and an expectation of a speedy adoption of Gen AI solutions over the next twelve months. The responders don’t seem to recognize the “headwinds” which are likely to slow both adoption and impact. Top of mind is the ongoing economic uncertainty combined with firms’ need to address the ethical, IP, security and privacy issues associated with using GenAI in legal practice.

Although the key trends below include many issues which have been around for decades, I can’t help but wonder how many of these challenges will be improved or resolved was GenAI matures and becomes pervasive across the business and practice of law.

Key trends expected to have a significant impact on legal in the next three years:

  • Growing complexity of compliance areas
  • Increasing importance of legal technology
  • Ability to recruit and retain talent
  • Increased demand for specialization and a decline in generalist work
  • Law departments moving more work in-house (insourcing)
  • Greater price competition/new and alternative fee structures/cost-containment pressures
  • Growing impact of generative AI/ChatGPT
  • Coping with increased volume and complexity of information
  • Meeting changing client/company leadership expectations
  • Emphasis on improved efficiency/ productivity
  • Growth of alternative legal service providers (ALSPs), including expansion of Big Four into legal services

I thought the two most interesting sections of the report dealt with Generative AI and ESG.Continue Reading Wolters Kluwer Releases 2023 Future Ready Lawyer Report

 

The October issue of Thomson Reuters of Practice Innovations is out.This issue focuses on emerging issues and transformative trends in law firms. I am particularly happy to highlight an article by John Hokkanen on predictive analytics, I first met John at a Lawyers Technology Roundtable meeting in the early 1990s. After practicing law John

American Lawyer Legal Intelligence has released a new report “Law
Firm Support Staff How Many are Enough?””In response to the changing legal landscape, law firms have restructured
their staffing of both attorneys and non-attorneys alike.  Law firm
management has begun to realize that they can use support staff more
strategically within the organization. This survey

Just when it appeared that
Lexis was about to corner the legal news market (ALM, Law360, WSJ Law Blog),
Bloomberg BNA is announcing today the release of a new open access community
platform called “Big Law Business.”   Big Law Business  
delivers  articles, podcasts, videos, twitter feeds,  polls and white
papers focused on the unique

The October Issue of Practice Innovations has been released. Great mix of articles on distruptive forces and innovative approaches to the practice of law.

Susan Hackett, The CEO of Legal Executive Leadership
kicked off the  2014 Private Law Libraries Summit with a bang. This year’s theme was  “The Voice of the Client” and  Hackett delivered a powerful message which
focused on “Re-engineering the Role and Value of  Private Law Librarian:  Practical Strategies for Leadership in Serving
Corporate Clients.”

The July Issue of Thomson Reuters Practice Innovations has just been released. Great mix of articles on cutting edge law firm management issues.

  • By
    Janet Accardo, Director of Library Services at Skadden
    Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, New York, NY
  • Paying Attention to the Canaries in
  • The PLL Summit is still going strong. It  has grown from an experiment born of the financial crisis  and the “new normal” in law firms which was hammering law firms into  a “must attend” program for private firm librarians and information professionals who want to stay on the “cutting edge” of issues impacting their firms.

    Last
    week the Special Libraries Association and the Financial Times released a
    report “The Evolving Value of Information Management.”  First of all, I want
    to applaud SLA and the Financial Times for this innovative partnership which
    obviously addresses a mutual need to foster the value of  both premium
    content resources and sophisticated content advisers.

    I
    do