{"id":34992,"date":"2020-11-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/tuesday-tip-set-up-your-holiday-answering-rules\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T08:28:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T15:28:00","slug":"legal-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/legal-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal technology: Beyond practice management systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

As new and more innovative technology weaves its way into every other industry, it comes as no surprise that law firm technology has become an increasingly popular topic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s not solely due to the rise of the <\/span>\u201cvirtual law office\u201d<\/span><\/a> either. In reality, law firms have always relied heavily upon technology and its widespread capabilities.1<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Surprised? If you work at a law firm, you shouldn\u2019t be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Legal software has always been a priority for law firms and the lawyers, paralegals, and secretaries within them. With each new wave of technological innovation comes another opportunity for firms to consider their tech stack and how it helps their operations, including internal and external communications, legal research, data storage, file scanning and sharing, time tracking and billing, and accounting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, the traditional and precedent-obsessed suit-and-tie law industry has actually been a beacon\u2014albeit, perhaps, not exactly a trailblazing one\u2014of technology and its diversity of applications and capabilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, believe it or not, law firms and technology have quite the history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This, however, doesn\u2019t mean partners and managing lawyers always invest in the <\/span>best<\/span><\/i> technology for their firms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most people simply don\u2019t have the time or tech knowledge required to perform a true analysis of their options. Without that upfront deep dive, law firms often select solutions that end up failing to meet their needs. <\/span><\/p>\n

Or, they fall victim to \u201cshiny object syndrome\u201d (which is definitely not unique to law), which occurs when one invests sizable amounts of time and money into a multitude of fancy tech platforms and apps, each of which is designed to serve a single, uber<\/em>–cool<\/em> purpose. Yet, when you look at these in the context of the firm’s entire tech ecosystem, you realize that they lack any crossover or consolidation opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This causes problems\u2014and often, these are expensive ones that could’ve been avoided.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, in the rest of this post, you\u2019re going to learn how to do exactly that: choose the best legal technology for your law firm, while avoiding common pitfalls and oversights. (We’ll save practice management systems for another post, since there’s a ton to talk about there and it merits its own space.) Here\u2019s what we\u2019ll cover:<\/span><\/p>\n