4 Major Compliance Trends to Support with Legal Technology

The legal industry is constantly evolving, and the use of technology by paraprofessionals is no exception. The pandemic has brought about new challenges and changes in the way law firms operate, including an increased reliance on remote work and virtual connections. In this interview, Tiffany Pereira, an expert in legal technology, shares her insights on how technology is being used by paraprofessionals and how it is evolving in response to these changes. From the rise of the self-service delivery model to the importance of ease of delivery in technology products, this post explores the ways in which technology is being utilized by paraprofessionals to better serve their clients and improve their workflow.

What we’ll cover in this blog post:

1. The rise of the self-service delivery model
2. The values of ease of delivery in the product
3. The use of recordings and a knowledge base
4. The shift towards a self-service delivery model

The use of technology by paraprofessionals is evolving in response to the changes brought about by the pandemic. As Tiffany Pereira notes, “with some of the lockdowns it forced some law firms, of course, to temporarily close their offices and really rely on those virtual connections, whether through Zoom or through phone. And clients turn to their devices instead of stopping by the firm’s office to read or sign documents or have those connections.”

This shift to remote work has led to an increase in the use of the self-service delivery model. As Pereira explains, “What can we look at if we have a question? What are our options? Are there resources? Is there a knowledge base? Are there webinars like this? Are there articles that we can utilize? How can we learn without sitting in a boardroom together?”

Watch the full interview, Evolving Technology for Paraprofessionals

Additionally, ease of delivery in the product has become more important. Pereira states, “So what we also saw was a lot of cancellations for training sessions, and that wasa bit of a shift from what we were used to. But then relying on recordings, relying on how I can get the most information and having basically a knowledge base or one-stop shop to everything I need to know about this product.”

To adapt to these changes, firms are utilizing recordings and knowledge bases to provide training and resources for paraprofessionals. This allows them to learn and access information at their own pace and convenience, rather than relying on traditional in-person training sessions.

Overall, the pandemic has accelerated the shift towards a self-service delivery model for technology used by paraprofessionals. This allows them to access the resources they need to effectively use the technology and provide service to clients in a more flexible and efficient manner.

A career as a legal professional is one of the most sought after and hardest earned professions. As practicing attorneys, trained clerks/paralegals, or in-house corporate counsel representatives, the responsibilities assigned to legal experts are critical to the success of any business entity.

While their roles are of utmost importance, legal professionals also face some of the most recurring challenges in any professional setting. Between pressing deadlines, client expectations, precedent-setting mandates, and other taxing challenges, legal experts always have their work cut out for them.

The stress of managing client expectations

Deadlines, billing pressures, client demands, long hours, changing laws, and other pressures individually cause legal experts to feel stressed out. Collectively, they’re responsible for making the practice of law one of the most stressful professions for all practitioners.

For example, in the UK, a study of over 100 practicing attorneys found that 92 percent of lawyers experienced stress or burnout from their job. Most respondents also admitted to spending up to 10 additional hours of overtime per week, significantly detracting from a healthy work-life balance.

One interesting finding from the study was related to technology. According to the numbers, most lawyers believe entity management technology that automates administrative and clerical work is the most impactful way modern solutions can help reduce stress.

Clients want more value for billable hour rates

When the global economy is firing on all cylinders, companies are willing to spend more on professional legal services. When the economy contracts and approaches recession-level anemic growth, entities are less willing to pay high legal hourly rates.

In 2021, the average billable amount charged by lawyers was $300 per hour. Over the next two years, supply chain management issues and the ongoing political issues triggered economic calamity across the entire globe. Today, economists forecast a very difficult 2023, raising the question of just how many companies are willing to pay high hourly rates.

One option to help legal experts prove their value is through entity management technology. Using these intuitive platforms, the administrative and clerical work can be uploaded into the cloud, where it’s filed, sorted, tagged, and organized in a matter of minutes. With these solutions in place, legal counsel can spend more time consulting with clients and provide demonstrable proof that billed time is for consultation rather than documentation.

Benefits of entity management technology

Entity management technology takes the menial work out of the legal profession and helps experts rediscover the fun in providing their services. Its most valuable benefit is that legal counsel can digitize corporate documents and minute book records.

By uploading all client documentation into the cloud, counsel and their respective clients can view the corporate documents at their own convenience. Instead of arranging time for face-to-face meetings, an entire review can be done electronically, providing a growing number of business leaders the freedom to conduct their legal business from remote locations.

On top of the convenience and flexibility afforded by these platforms, entity management software also provides the following underlying benefits:

• Industry-leading security backed by biometric and hardware key authentication
• Options to quickly generate reports for client reviews and signatory approvals
• Advanced search parameters that make it easy to find and source minute books
• Built-in calendars to track important filing deadlines, transaction dates, shareholder meetings, etc.
• Unlimited seats for the entire legal counsel and chief entity decision makers

Use entity management software to simplify legal workload

Technology helps simplify personal and professional lives. Entity management technology saves legal counsel valuable hours of time, which can minimize the need for overtime.
Since the platforms are intuitive and designed to automate most clerical work, legal experts can allocate their own time towards profitable tasks throughout their days. As more clients demand value from billable hours, your legal team can focus on growing Legal Recurring Revenue with dedicated time and energy towards solving legal challenges that affect clients’ own businesses.

You’re in bed in a cold sweat. You’ve been tossing and turning for hours. It’s 4:15am and you reason that if you fall asleep right now, at least you’ll get a few hours of quality shut-eye. But you know it’s in vain. It hasn’t happened for months; why is tonight any different?

It’s not.

You’ve slogged for years with your team, navigating the waters of incorporation, team building, engineering and business development. You’re trying to build a company based-off an idea in the legal space.

You’ve spent years studying in law school and several more learning the profession as a lawyer. You had money in your account and a steady paycheck. You had respect from your peers, your family and other professionals. You had a beautiful office in a gorgeous tower overlooking the city. You had certainty and predictability. You had access to the good life.

You had what so many have sought after and you said “No thank you.”

And now here you are, looking up at the ceiling, questioning your choices, wondering if your decisions were ill-fated because they were based on hubris. Your bank account is near empty, you live on a shoestring budget. You’ve cashed out your savings and every day is one step closer to admitting defeat.

And every now and again you get a friendly “don’t worry” from your colleagues, reminding you that “you can always go back to being a lawyer.”

You are genuinely afraid of failure.

I am often asked what it’s like being an entrepreneur in the legal space. What is it like building a technology service company that offers services to law firms all over the world?

My response is the same. It’s lonely. Or at least it was, for a long time.

A few years ago, I was asked to speak at a panel at the Law Faculty of Queens University, presenting to the students of the Venture Capital and Private Equity law club. Seated next to me were two lawyers both practising in the startup and emerging company departments of their large (and very successful) national firms.

The lawyers eloquently described their roles in the legal side of fundraising, how they were instrumental in providing advice in helping secure VC investment for their startup clients, thereby helping those companies grow.

The role of my lawyer colleagues was instrumental in helping their clients succeed.

I wanted to impart a somewhat different perspective on the students. I wanted them to understand what investment money means to a startup, especially in the legal space. Investment means my team gets to eat, pay their mortgage and pay for their childrens’ dentist appointments. It means Christmas gifts under the tree and a few restaurant dinners a month. It doesn’t just mean business survival, but actual human survival.

Most of the legal tech startup life is unglamorous. You are in a sector that has resisted change for generations. Everything is working against you, from the billable hour model to the partnership structure of law firms to the lack of funding opportunities available to those in your industry.

You are trying to find your professional place in the world and you don’t always know where you fit. It’s daunting. It’s draining. Reaching the legal technology apex often seems insurmountable. The sides of the mountain are just too slippery.

Years later, you’re still in bed, still sweating and wide awake when you should have been long asleep. The sheets, half on, half off provide no comfort, as the birds chirp outside your window welcoming the coming dawn. You start counting on your fingers and toes and quickly realize you’ve spent more time building legal technology than actually practicing law. Even if you wanted to return as a lawyer, would you remember how to practice? Would anybody even want you?

And then, out of nowhere, you crack a wry smile. You look back on everything you have done up to this point. You’ve built amazing technology. You have clients who pay for your service. You have gained experience in tech, business and life. And you even begrudgingly admit to yourself that if someone would have told you that after several years you’d be in such a position, you would have gladly accepted the opportunity with open arms.

Fully awake, looking up at the beige plastered ceiling, you accept that you’re exactly where you belong.

You then get up and start your work day.