Legal IT and Innovation leaders from across the country met this week for the seventh annual British Legal Technology Forum – and the first face-to-face event in over 18 months for many.

As well as a consensus that there was a great atmosphere with the industry community all being together under one roof again – there was of course the usual high-caliber content from the speaking sessions. From the impact of covid and the future of legal tech, to AI and blockchain – it was a jam-packed show with plenty of interesting takeaways.

Professor Richard Susskind did a fantastic job of hosting the main stage and spoke about the importance of differentiating between automation and innovation, and that although they aren’t mutually exclusive, the two should be considered as different entities.

He argued that over the last 18 months, technology adoption has accelerated and increased automation, helping us to maintain the status quo. This is highly commendable but shouldn’t necessarily be heralded as innovation. The idea was echoed in other sessions too, not least in the ‘Has the Innovation Bubble Burst?’ panel, where it was argued that real innovation is the adaption or reinvention of a legal model that improves the legal output in a way that adds value for the client while reducing write-offs for the firm. It is not simply automating what we are already doing.

Most speakers agreed that now is not the time to simply wait for things to ‘go back to normal’ but to build on what we’ve seen in the acceleration of technology for real transformative change.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar spoke about the future of justice with increasing client demand for digital access to law, as well as efficiencies in back office protocols and no longer wanting to pay lawyers for junior administrative work. He pointed out that legal is one of the largest sectors worldwide, and to maintain that – technology is key. 

Lord Wolfson and his colleague Jennifer Swallow also spoke about Lawtech UK, a government-backed initiative and it’s recent report ‘Shaping the Future of Law’ which highlights the benefits of widespread use of technology and data in law and the vital role of lawtech in meeting user needs. The report also comments that ‘the legal sector is at an inflection point for digital transformation - the technical capability and growth in lawtech is now able to meet the growing market demand, combined with fast adoption of certain technologies in the legal sector during Covid-19, and increasing emphasis on the needs of users and society at large.’

Of course, technology acceleration cannot be mentioned without a look at firm culture, change management and collaboration which were also highly debated topics on the day. Emily Foges, Global Lead Partner for Legal Managed Services at Deloitte spoke about collaboration, and that generally speaking, if there is a delay in work being delivered in you firm – it will usually be down to a lack of interconnectivity of certain departments. 

She also spoke about the Legal Front Door – a term usually referred to for corporate legal departments – but can actually be applied to firms wherever there are incoming requests that need to be triaged in order to be dealt with appropriately. Gathering the right quality of data is key to continuous improvement, and so is your stakeholders all having a relevant understanding of that data.

Throughout the day there was a clear sense that the industry is on the cusp of real considered change in relation to technology, and while people, process and tech remain as constants to driving change – it’s data that will inform long-term decision making for success. And not just within law firm models themselves – but beyond that to being proactive with client data to help inform their decision making too.

All in all, it was evident that people have missed the human interaction from live in-person events, and the brilliant input from all the speakers certainly encouraged the networking buzz. While technology like Zoom and MS Teams have been invaluable in offering virtual communication, nothing beats being face-to-face at an event with free-flowing champagne and like-minded industry peers!