In-House Counsel Report Lawyers Keep Getting WORSE When It Comes To Technology

General counsel have no faith at all.

The constant back-and-forth in the legal tech niche is whether lawyers are truly Luddites or not. Some commentators dismiss the claim as a misconception, or a holdover from past generations with little relevance to today’s market. I’ve generally taken the stance that lawyers are, by and large, always about 10 seconds away from jamming a fork in a light socket if you gave them the opportunity. It’s why the best work being done in the legal tech space is in design and user experience — taking the complex marvels of modern legal tools and crafting shells that make them run like Google or some other interface that anyone with a pulse can understand.

But the legal field is constantly refreshing and the newest lawyers grew up online. Surely they’re better at technology, right?

Apparently not!

At least that’s the conclusion of general counsel. As Relativity Fest enters its final day, the morning brought us the third annual FTI-Relativity General Counsel Survey panel discussion. The report, put together by Ari Kaplan Advisors, covers a lot of territory, but the eye-popping takeaway is just how little faith in-house counsel have in lawyer technical competence:

Two-thirds of attorneys lack adequate technical competence. That’s astounding. I guess in 2020 lawyers managed to pull one over on legal departments during the lockdown, but the imperial clothes are off again. It’s also amazing that the 10 percent responding “Don’t Know” in 2019 more or less universally gravitated to “actually, I checked, and they’re f-ing clueless” by 2021.

At least litigation support personnel get high marks, with 84 percent earning a passing grade.

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But it doesn’t bode well for a profession becoming increasingly dependent on technology. Whether lawyers really are this bad or firms have just done a terrible job communicating their competence to clients, this should spur some serious self-reflection for Biglaw.

In another interesting, if unsurprising, development, general counsel said the pandemic ramped up their tech modernization plans. Obviously the remote working infrastructure had to be fast-tracked, but this suggests even more was at play. That’s 83 percent of respondents saying COVID either significantly or somewhat sped up their plans.

Too bad they don’t trust any of the attorneys to use all this new tech.


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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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