Eight out of ten law firms use a software program to handle client billing and payments.

A little over sixty percent of them also use a software program to keep track of their time.

That’s according to the 2022 Bloomberg Law Legal Operations and Technology Survey of 190 law firm and in-house attorneys on law office tech usage.

“The largest share of survey respondents (79%) reported using billing tools,” according to this report in Bloomberg Law. “Legal research tools came in second place (70%), followed closely by e-signatures (69%). Timekeeping (63%), cloud storage (62%), records management (59%), and matter management (53%) tools are used by the majority of respondents as well.”

The survey found many law office leaders lacked tech savvy and familiarity at their firms. If left unaddressed, this skill gap will only worsen as legal tech advances.

Below are some highlights from the Bloomberg Law Report.

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Top Tech Tools and Blind Spots

The following is from Bloomberg Law:

• Eighty-six (86) percent of firms say legal tech is used to improve their productivity. In second place; 71 percent specifically cited improvements to workflow, and two-thirds said meeting client or organizational demands improved.
• “The top barriers to using legal technologies were lack of tech savvy, lack of familiarity, and not enough time to learn the technology. (These three barriers topped the list in survey results from 2021 and 2020 as well.)”
• When asked if they’ve been adequately trained on the legal technologies they’re using, 53 percent said yes and 47 percent said no. Only 23 percent have seen an increase in the hours of legal tech training offered by their firms over the past 12 months.
• Nearly 50 percent reported an overall increase in their organization’s technology spend over the past year.

Source: ANALYSIS: Lawyers’ Top Legal Tech Tools—And Biggest Blind Spots (bloomberglaw.com)

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