An industry in transition

The legal profession embraces IT in response to increased competition

Competition from outside the legal sector and the need for increased commercial awareness are driving the legal industry to embrace IT to offer clients better service and boost profitability. The following are the results of a new quantitative study into the legal profession released by LexisNexis Butterworths Tolley that clearly point to an industry in transition .

A total 70 per cent of private practice and corporate solicitors, interviewed by MORI in England and Wales for the Legal Index study, cited competition from outside the legal sector as a key issue facing the profession.

Bearing this in mind, 78 per cent said they judge being commercially astute to be very important to contributing to a solicitor’s success, similar in priority to keeping up to date with developments in the law, at 70 per cent . The use of IT is identified in the study as a key tool to help the legal world tackle these challenges. 81 per cent believe the use of IT will enable them to offer a better service to clients, which is a significant finding for an industry once strongly associated with a reliance on books, revealing it is now in transition.

85 per cent of private practice and corporate solicitors use the internet for work purposes, of which 62 per cent do so daily…

The study reveals a strong move by the legal profession to embrace new technology. The high and frequent usage levels of the internet by solicitors for work-related purposes, suggests that this technology is now an indispensable part of most solicitors’ working lives and a well established habit. A further three in ten, 29 per cent, access the internet weekly.

Public body or professional organisation websites most popular…

Over nine in ten solicitors (92 per cent) who use the internet for work purposes do so to access the websites of public bodies or professional organisations. The second most popular use, at 66 per cent, is researching points of law using a source other than an online subscription.

Growth in online subscription services…

Of those interviewed in the Legal Index, 60 per cent of those who use the internet for work purposes said they use the internet to access an online legal subscription. This figure increases further for lawyers using free on-line sites for legal research.

The young and women set the trend for online subscription growth…

The study reveals that those most likely to use online subscription services to research a point of law are under 40 (66 per cent) or women (65 per cent). There is also a marked divide in usage according to the size of the company. 71 per cent of large firm private practice solicitors use law reports, statute books or practice books accessed over the internet to research a point of law compared to just 26 per cent of those in small firms.

Traditional methods still preferred for keeping abreast of news…

Although the internet is an accepted part of most solicitors’ working lives, many still favour traditional, paper-based sources of information over electronic ones to keep up with developments in their fields of law and to research points of law. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is the legal magazines and journals (used by 97 per cent), which are used most heavily by solicitors to keep abreast of industry issues of relevance in their field of law. In fact, the survey showed seven out of ten (71 per cent) use paper-based subscription services to law reports, practice books or statute books to keep up to date, this is in sharp contrast to less than half (44 per cent) using online subscription services.

Up to date, quicker, user-friendly…

Three other indicators complement the overall findings suggested by the Legal Index of a more commercially pressured profession with a comprehensive demand for IT. Over three-quarters (77 per cent) agree that online subscription services are more up to date than paper-based subscriptions. Among those who use online subscriptions, the majority (55 per cent) agree that it is quicker to look something up this way. Most perceive on-line services to be user-friendly. Only a minority (28 per cent) of solicitors say that online subscriptions are difficult to use. Overall, a total of 55 per cent believe they would benefit from using more IT at work.

Time and lack of incentive are obstacles to growth…

Over half (58 per cent) of the solicitors polled want to learn more about IT but don’t have the time. Among private practice solicitors, this is especially true of partners (65 per cent) and those in small firms (68 per cent). The study also indicates that an incentive to adopt IT would increase usage, with almost half (48 per cent) saying they would be interested in learning more about using IT at work if they got CPD points for doing so. This is particularly marked among small (62 per cent) and medium firms (57 per cent), partners (57 per cent) and men (54 per cent).

The overall picture we see from the Legal Index, is of lawyers needing to be more up to date and more commercially aware. Most are positive about the benefits of IT in helping to deliver this and it is becoming an indispensable part of their lives. Not all lawyers are utilising new technology, due to lack of IT training or dependence on using traditional office methods. This digital divide among lawyers shows the legal world in transition, but most lawyers are positive about the future of IT as over two thirds view embracing IT as a vital ingredient to boost productivity of fee-earners and increase efficiency.

Paul Virik, chief executive of LexisNexis Butterworths Tolley stated that the trends revealed by the Legal Index re-enforce what our teams are finding in the marketplace. The legal profession is in transition and needs even better and faster information on the law and the legal community. The profession also finds itself with fresh competition, a blurring of the lines between the legal profession, consultancies and accountancy firms, plus growing globalisation and consolidation.

This means, information partners need to be committed to providing depth of legal content and breadth of business context to integrate with desktop solutions, and in many cases, to provide a global resource too.

For further information, please contact Sarah Street or Camilla Hutchinson at Bell Pottinger Public Relations at sstreet@bell-pottinger.co.uk and chutchinson@bell-pottinger.co.uk respectively.

Technical note

The research was carried out by MORI on behalf of LexisNexis Butterworths Tolley. A total of 209 interviews were conducted with private practice and corporate solicitors over the telephone between 23 August – 5 September 2001. One hundred and fifty-nine of these interviews were conducted with private practice solicitors and fifty with corporate solicitors. In order to ensure that the sample correctly reflects the proportion of private practice and corporate solicitors, percentages are based on 172 interviews (159 private practice solicitors and 13 corporate solicitors). Data is unweighted.