Advancements in legal technology over the past few decades have led to its widespread adoption—and the timing couldn’t have been better. Chief legal officers now face increased pressure to properly manage business risks, improve compliance, streamline workflows, and free up teams for high-value work. The types of technology that can help them achieve these goals are many, but those suited for contract work in particular are robust enough to make a real difference in any company’s workflows and revenue. So, why is legal technology important? Read on to find out.

The Evolution of Legal Tech

Legal technology has been steadily evolving since the 1940s, but it’s never advanced as rapidly as it has over the past two decades. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and automation have had the biggest impact. Below is a timeline that displays how far legal tech has come over the years:

Early government computers were able to consider past data points to predict the most likely outcome of a case. Legal teams could search for trends across different case types.

Legal research upgraded from reading manual files to finding the same information in online repositories. While much of the work was still done manually, the ability to organize it was new.

As courts began mandating more legal documents be filed electronically, teams grew accustomed to the idea of providing document access in real-time.  

Legal teams were able to start working remotely, using cloud software to access documents and collaborate from anywhere. Time tracking and billing software increased transparency into the process.

Businesses across multiple industries began shifting to data-driven approaches to store, organize, and retrieve information effectively and affordably. 

NLP enables computers to read and understand human language. Through experience and repetition, advanced algorithms find patterns in data. Blockchain automation allows actions to be taken based on identified patterns and human inputs. 

Why Is Legal Technology Important Today?

Over 700 technology startups have entered the market for various domains, from eDiscovery and online legal services to practice management and AI-assisted contract review. The AI legal tech market was valued at $3.2 billion and is forecasted to grow with a 36% CAGR through 2026.

As the industry grows, business leaders are becoming increasingly aware that technology provides a way to keep pace with rapidly developing business needs. According to the Association of Corporate Counsel’s 2022 Law Department Management Benchmarking Report, companies are allocating 2-3% of their budgets for legal technology. Over 90% of organizations have adopted legal technology to manage contracts, exercise due diligence, and ensure compliance in-house rather than outsourcing. 

In short, companies that lean on legal technology conserve resources, increase capacity, and make themselves more competitive. General Counsel expects workloads to increase by 25% and personnel to increase by just 3% over the next three years, according to Ernst & Young. Automating current tasks can help ease the burden stemming from the mismatch between workloads and resources.

LexCheck: The Must-Have Legal Technology for Modern Businesses

LexCheck features the very best capabilities of modern legal tech, combining the power of NLP, automation, and AI into a simple and intuitive contract review platform. 

Companies today must process hundreds, if not thousands, of contracts each year to keep themselves running. Exercising due diligence can slow down sales trajectories considerably even when it’s done correctly—or put the company at risk when it’s not. 

LexCheck allows technology to take the first pass at contract review, comparing a newly uploaded draft to an AI Digital Playbook to ensure standard compliance. The system also assesses proprietary best practice examples by contract type. Far from static, LexCheck is continuously updating its platform to keep in step with industry advances. 

Once a fully redlined contract returns within five minutes’ time, legal teams can easily see where to focus their attention. And lawyer-quality revisions provided by the AI can be approved at the click of a button. Contextual guidance is also provided to help parties negotiate agreements even faster.

And the results?

• 33% reduced time to execution
  
  
• >80% reduced time reviewing contracts
  
  
• 99% reduced time on playbook training

Legal technology saves time without compromising risk analysis. Wasting precious manual labor on the early stages of contract review will soon be a practice of the past as legal departments leverage solutions like LexCheck to overcome resource limitations.