Emerging Legal Tech Trends of 2023

The use of new technology continues to spread rapidly in the legal industry. With every passing year we see more and more new innovations. Yet, many firms and departments are still struggling to implement effective technology in their practice, with many in the profession believing that their firm or department needs to do more to keep up with emerging legal tech trends.

The lack of effective technology is a potential problem: Law firms and legal departments that fall behind in the tech race are at a significant disadvantage when compared to their competitors. At Lupl, we want to empower leaders to take control of their organization’s tech needs. In this article, you will find an overview of some of the top emerging trends in legal technology for 2023.

Four Legal Tech Trends to Watch in 2023

1. Enhanced Cybersecurity Practices

Cybersecurity remains one of the top challenges for the firms operating in the legal industry. As reported by The Washington Post, global financial losses for cybersecurity breaches now exceed $1 trillion per year. Beyond that, a recent report from the United States government estimated that approximately 160 million sensitive records were exposed due to cybersecurity breaches in 2020 alone. For law firms and legal departments, confidentiality is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. Under American Bar Association (ABA) rules and state bar associations rules, lawyers and law firms have a duty to protect the confidentiality of the sensitive information of their clients.

A top legal tech trend in 2023 is making cybersecurity easier for attorneys, paralegals, and legal staff. Many law firms and corporate legal departments are invested more into their cybersecurity practices. Not only does this mean ensuring that legal professionals are well-trained on basic cybersecurity practices, it also means providing them with the tech-related resources that they need to navigate the fast-changing legal industry. It is imperative that communicative applications, document sharing tools, or collaborative platforms that lawyers and law firms use are fully secure.

2. Workflow Automation

Workflow automation is another rapidly-developing trend in legal technology and the business world more generally. Simply defined, workflow automation is the process of using logic-based rules to complete certain tasks without little or no direct human interaction. You may be wondering: How much can workflow be automated in the legal professional? The answer depends on a number of different factors, including the exact nature of the work. Currently, workflow automation technology for the legal industry is focused on making things more efficient by relieving the burden of certain business processes and administrative tasks. It is no secret in the industry that it is easy for attorneys and legal staff to get bogged down with administrative work. Workflow automation tools are great for some of these time-consuming administrative tasks, such as sending email reminders and scheduling meetings.

Beyond that, workflow automation technology is advancing to meet some of the specific needs of the legal industry. As an example, there is a strong trend towards the partial automation of legal research. While legal research cannot be fully automated, many of the most popular research tools—from Westlaw to LexisNexis—are already implementing improved natural language processing techniques. These types of technologies are designed to make it easier for legal professionals to find the specific information that they need for their case. There are also workflow automation tools for legal work, such as citation checking and citation management.

3. Remote Work Technology

The trend towards full or partial remote work has been gradually growing for more than two decades. The COVID-19 pandemic supercharged that trend. In early 2020, many law firms and legal organizations suddenly went fully remote. While many people slowly come back to office, there are still plenty of legal professionals who are still working remotely, either full-time or part-time. In many ways, the legal industry is well-suited for at least part-time remote work. However, there are some challenges. As highlighted by The National Law Review, law firms and legal departments with fully or partially remote staff face potential issues regarding:

• Management of remote-working attorneys, paralegal, and other legal staff;
• Changes to the relationship between a lawyer and their client;
• Change to billable hours and the law firm’s expensing expectations;
• Virtual meetings, including court hearings, mediations, and arbitrations; and
• Issues communicating and collaborating between team members.

Many of the technologies rolling out for the legal industry in 2023 are focused on making remote work easier. The reality is that remote work—and expectations for at least part-time remote work for attorneys and legal staff—is likely to stay in the legal industry. When done well, remote work can be efficient. Law firms, legal organizations, and legal departments must meet the challenges. The potential return-on-investment (ROI) that handles remote work properly is significant. The key to remote work tech in the legal industry is building a system and implementing tools that allow people to communicate and work together even when they are not in the same place.

4. Collaborative Technology

Collaborative technology is perhaps the single most important tech development in the legal industry for 2023. Currently, many law firms, corporate legal departments, and legal organizations are still working across multiple different platforms—and it is easier for things to get jumbled up, with key work being duplicated, delayed, or missed altogether. Collaborative tech offers a solution.

Collaboration tech for the legal industry is designed to make things better for all parties involved in a project, including attorneys, legal staff, and clients. Everyone who has an interest in a particular legal project should be able to easily communicate with each other. It is crucial that collaborative technology tools allow legal professionals to communicate both inside and outside of their organization—from checking on a particular assignment to sharing documents confidentially.

Lupl is Your Collaboration Platform for Legal™ in 2023

Lupl is a secure and collaborative work platform created for the needs of professionals in the legal industry. Combining communication tools, project management tools, and document sharing functionality, Lupl makes it easier to get projects done on your schedule—including when you are working both inside and outside of your own organization. Among other things, Lupl offers:

• A truly intuitive and easy-to-navigate platform through which you and your team can collaborate on projects.
• One single hub where you can see everything that is important—seamlessly switching between documents.
• Access to comprehensive dashboards and feeds where you can track all of the information that is relevant to your needs;
• Full compatibility with third party applications, so that you do not have to stop using the tech tools that you are most familiar with; and
• Comprehensive cybersecurity and privacy practices that you can truly trust to keep sensitive information confidential.

Many of the emerging legal tech trends for 2023 are fully integrated into our platform. With Lupl, your law firm or your legal department can comfortably keep pace with all of the latest developing technology. If you are ready to get started with Lupl, you can get started today at no cost or you can request a comprehensive demonstration from our team.

Connect With Our Collaborative Legal Tech Professionals Today

At Lupl, we have developed a comprehensive collaborative platform designed to meet the unique technology needs of the legal industry. If you have any questions about our platform or the emerging legal technologies for 2023, we are more than happy to help. Call us now or send us a direct message to find out more information about our legal technology for law firms and legal departments. We look forward to hearing from you.