Practical legal technology for junior lawyers

The legal technology sector remains fragmented and difficult to comprehend for many people embarking on a career in law. Various start-ups compete in diverse areas, such as e-billing, e-discovery, e-signing, legal analytics, workflow management and novel trial prediction technology. Elsewhere, law firms are investing in client customised document automation and due diligence, among other things.

For inexperienced lawyers this jargon canbe confusing, and achieving the required expertise on any useful legaltechnology product can be even more troublesome. Paralegal opportunities oftendesire candidates with experience on applications such as Relativity, Magnum and Nitro. These descriptions appear morelike Gillette marketing brainstormsthan tangible opportunities to boost workplace productivity.

Nonetheless, the diverse range of legaltechnology should not discourage anyone from enhancing their skill on thefrequently used platforms. Below are common contexts in which junior lawyerstypically encounter legal technology.

E-Discovery

Discovery or disclosure during litigationis the process of revealing information pertinent to the dispute to youropposition. Previously trainees sorted through millions of physical documentsto find relevant evidence. Nowadays emails, contracts, slideshows etc are alluploaded onto a single platform, for example Relativity, and a trainee is now able to find any document at aclick of a button.

Relativity prevents each file format opening up in separate locations –imagine Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Word tabs everywhere! The platform alsoallows machine learning to use human responses to several thousand documents toestablish patterns. From these patterns, Relativity’s algorithm estimates withconsiderable accuracy the relevance of the remaining documents. This savescountless billable hours of disclosure and helps to reduce the client’s costs.

Trainees can gain real insight intoE-discovery and Technology Assisted Review by watching the DiscoveryBriefYouTube channel. For more practical experience they should also explore theRelativity website. Relativity’s website offers hours of valuable free training,including video tutorials on how to use the product to perform complex analysistasks.

Case Management

When working on a litigation matter as ajunior lawyer, you might be part of an international team. Your colleagues maywant to annotate, edit and hyperlink useful witness statements, video testimonyand deposition evidence. Additionally, to avoid multiple lawyers scramblingthrough cumbersome paper bundles, usually the case management requires asimplified online workflow. Your team will want the evidence that assists theirobjections easily available and searchable. Furthermore, cases habitually needto be accessed by worldwide partners and external counsel.

To assist in these tasks many firms use Magnum. Magnum is a cloud-based document management and electronic bundlingtool. The platform is a centralised workspace that can also contain courtroomtranscripts and video. It allows teams to work digitally and respond to oneanother in real time throughout the trial.

For greater insight into the changes Magnumhas brought to trials, please listen to ‘The Evolution of theDigital Courtroom’ by Legal Talk Network. The podcast extensively discussesthe development of Magnum and the platform’s prominent role in litigation.

E-Signing

Signatures are required to make most dealsofficial. With contracts increasingly featuring signatories from multiple jurisdictions,physical signings have become more problematic. Likewise, the cumulative timethat lawyers spend printing, signing and scanning documents, is not brilliantfor their time = money equation. Consequently, many law firms now have apreferred e-signing partner. Nitro is one such partner. You can freely downloadand test Nitro out via itswebsite.

E-signing is not particularly exhilarating.Yet, a mastery of the software involved in legal administration, allows you toperform the basic tasks easily. This enhances your productivity, creating moretime for stimulating work.

Conclusion

These are just three ways in which those embarking on a career in law can get ahead of curve and learn about the legal technology being used by firms today. There may be other applications out there that serve a similar purpose but at the very least understanding why those applications are being used will serve you well. Having an understanding of the above applications, and learning about them using the resources listed, will give you an edge when it comes to recruitment at the junior end.

by Matthew Dow (@matthewdow99)