The emergence of law department operations professionals, not surprisingly, has had a positive impact on their departments’ ability to use new tools. In fact, according to the respondents to the 2019 Law Department Operations Survey, the technology that LDO professionals rely on has become more effective across the board.
Respondents were asked to rank different kinds of technologies on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being considered “not effective” and 10 being “extremely effective.” Of the 10 different types of technologies asked about in both 2018 and 2019, virtually all were considered more effective in 2019.
The million-dollar question for 2020 — worth much more than a million, actually — is whether tools that were considered effective previously still are, now that law departments are under even more financial pressure and legal teams are so often working remotely.
For example, electronic billing was tied for our best performing technology last year, rating 8.0 out of 10. These systems, however, are under a lot more stress today. When everyone was in the office, electronic approval of invoices may have occasionally broken down with little impact. But not with approvers working from home. It will be interesting to see the extent to which LDOs still consider electronic billing to be effective.
In 2019, 70% of law department operations professionals said they have the right technology to do their job. But with the job changing so much, will they be able to say the same in 2020? This question and many more will be answered in the 13th Annual Law Department Operations Survey. If you’re an in-house legal ops professional, all you have to do is take the survey, and we will deliver the answers, along with 300+ additional data points, back to you at no charge.