Although technology enables lawyers to increase productivity and improve office management, it can also eliminate the need for certain services traditionally provided by support staff. What changes might this mean for law practice?
Researchers addressed the question of how technology will affect various occupations in “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?” Authors Frey and Osborne note that computers are increasingly undertaking tasks once performed by paralegals and contract attorneys. For example, programs like Symantec’s Clearwell system can analyze and sort thousands of documents and produce a graphic report of the results in a short period of time (e.g., 570,000 documents in two days). As even more sophisticated programs emerge, one can envision a decrease in demand for staff. Indeed, we have seen this in the news headlines.
How, then, might you harness law practice technology without sacrificing human staff? In ABA’s Law Practice magazine, Cynthia Thomas argues that tech-savvy firms still need support staff—but staff members need to adapt to new roles. Cynthia points out that although traditional paralegal and legal secretary positions are diminishing, advanced software has created the need for legal technology specialists, i.e., people with both paralegal and IT skills to manage systems like Clearwell. Helping staff develop these skills is a double-win: staff can ensure their job security while your law practice benefits from time-saving technology.