Legal tech adoption driven by confidence and opportunity rather than age, study finds

Disposition, confidence and opportunity are much more important than age when it comes to how someone uses legal technology, according to a recent study.

Pinsent Masons Vario worked with in-house legal community Crafty Counsel to survey 133 in-house legal professionals, at all stages in their careers.  

While 80% of respondents agree that technological aptitude differs across their teams, just 31% agree that junior team members are driving artificial intelligence (AI) adoption.

“The findings challenge the assumption that age has a direct correlation with willingness and ability to adopt new legal technologies,” said James Lewindon, flexible services expert at Pinsent Masons Vario.

He said: “Both the data and our own experience of working with clients tells us just how wrong the assumption that more senior lawyers aren’t prepared to explore legal technology is. In fact, the best way of developing new technology use cases is to base it on the deep understanding of workflows and pain points of battle-hardened lawyers who have been practicing for some time.” 

While a quarter of those surveyed admit that differing levels of technological expertise and willingness to adopt lead to conflicts within teams, for the majority of respondents, these differences are not an issue.

When friction does occur, communication style is the single most common source, according to 23% of respondents.

On what characterises a high-performing multigenerational in-house legal team, collaboration, shared goals and clear roles were the themes most commonly highlighted by respondents.

However, 28% underlined the importance of diversity and complementary strengths, while 34% believe that new ways to enter the legal profession will attract more people from different backgrounds and increase the diversity of thought necessary to truly utilise legal technology safely and effectively.

Lewindon added: “The successful in-house legal leader will increasingly be characterised by breadth of expertise and an understanding of how to effectively draw on the skillsets of all their team members. Understanding how to organise a diverse legal function will be key, as will knowing how to spot gaps in understanding and confidence around legal technology adoption and bridging those gaps to improve processes and make data-driven decisions.”

Download the full Pinsent Masons/Crafty Counsel report (12-page / 4.83MB PDF)