February 19, 2007
Law Firm Technology Trends for 2007
Perhaps no one is more respected in the blogging community than Dennis Kennedy, especially when it comes to legal technology trends. Dennis is a fellow member of Citytech’s Top 100 Global Tech Leaders.
Dennis has posted a five-part series on technology trends on DennisKennedy.com. For those in a hurry, he separately posted a short version. Here are the links to his full five-part series (the category titles are my own):
Part 1: Widening the Digital Divide in Law
Part 2: Microsoft and Electronic Discovery
Part 3: Making Sound Technology Decisions
Part 4: Mobility and the Internet
Part 5: Collaboration
Dennis concludes his series with the following comment:
“2007 will be a year of slow, but significant, changes that will begin to restructure the practice of law. Uncertainty and confusion over new Microsoft versions and electronic discovery will create a bit of a lull. Some firms will take advantage of that lull to re-evaluate and refocus making solid business decisions, but many firms will not. More than any other factor, this will lead to a growing digital divide between the technology-forward firms and the technology-backward firms, with fewer and fewer firms left in the middle, which probably will not be a great place to be over the long term. Security and portability will be important watchwords. However, the place to watch is the Internet and the tools to consider carefully are the collaboration tools. It might be a slow year, but it should not be a dull year. There will be a lot of opportunity for firms wanting to increase their competitive advantage.”
From morepartnerincome's view of things, early surveys indicate that law firms plan on increasing technology spending in 2007, but not on staff or hardware. Most of the anticipated increases involve software with emphasis on business intelligence and workflow improvements. And for a final word, I should add that we always overestimate the speed of things and underestimate their eventual impact. Falling behind the technology curve will inevitably have dire consequences.
Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
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Filed under Technology by Tom Collins
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