Legal Technology in 2024: What Clients Want

When it comes to tech, what should law firms focus on in 2024? Security and ease of use, says Adrienne Lester of ShareFile.

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Tis the season for… talking about technology. The first quarter features major legal-tech conferences like LegalWeek and ABA TECHSHOW, which just happened. It’s also a good time for law firms to evaluate their tech stack to decide what is or isn’t working for them and to make appropriate changes.

What do firms want in technological solutions today? What questions should firms ask and what features should they look for as they evaluate the large and growing array of offerings out there? And what trends should we look out for in 2024?

I recently discussed these questions with Adrienne Lester, Senior Director of Business Services at ShareFile, which provides a secure, easy-to-use solution that streamlines document and client-facing workflows. In her role, she manages the go-to-market strategy for multiple industries, including legal.

Since joining ShareFile in 2010, Lester has worked extensively with its customers, from solo practitioners to top-five firms, and has developed a deep understanding of legal workflows, business needs, and the challenges legal professionals face today.

When it comes to adopting new technologies, clients are focused on security—and understandably so. According to the 2023 ABA TechReport, 29 percent of law firms have suffered a security breach—up from 27 percent in the prior year.

“As business has gone more digital, dark-web actors have become more active and prolific,” Lester told me. “Security is always top of mind for law firms, since clients need to know their data is safe.”

Which technologies should law firms consider from a security standpoint? Two-factor or multi-factor authentication is one. Encryption is another. As noted in the ABA TechReport, “There are few technologies better at preventing unauthorized access to data than encryption.” Lester agreed—and pointed out to me that ShareFile uses 256-bit encryption.

Lester highlighted for me another tool that was actually new to me: granular permission control. Instead of users having or not having access to an entire computer system, granular permissions allow law firms to control, at a “granular” level, which users have access to which collections of data. Granular permissions can also be set to expire, so a user loses access to the data after a certain point in time.

“Granular permissions help avoid a situation where you were trying to share specific documents with opposing counsel, and you accidentally shared your entire database with them—including confidential client data,” Lester explained—a nightmare situation for any litigator.

At the same time, this is 2024, and clients expect no trade-off between security and ease of use. Or as Lester put it, thanks to increased client expectations, companies must offer “business-grade security with a consumer-grade user experience.”

And if there’s a trade-off between security and ease of use, it can actually create a security problem.

“If a certain tech tool is too secure, to the point where it’s cumbersome to use, there’s a risk that your staff or clients will start going around the technology,” Lester said. “For example, instead of sharing a document through the designated, secure platform, they might just email it.”

This is why Lester and her ShareFile colleagues spend a great deal of time and effort trying to strike the right balance between security and convenience. For example, they added a secure messaging feature within the platform, to obviate the need to use an outside email system. In addition, ShareFile offers plugins for two of the most popular email systems, Microsoft Outlook and Gmail—making file sharing in email secure and easy.

Looking ahead, Lester identified two technological trends that she expects to accelerate in 2024.

“First, we’re seeing consolidation,” she said. “Five or eight years ago, it was all about finding the best-in-breed technologies for various tasks. Today, clients are moving in the other direction. They’re asking themselves: can I reduce the amount of duplication in the technology tools that I use? Am I paying for things that I don’t really use, or that I can get enough of in another technology?”

Lester recommended that law firms regularly evaluate and update their tech stacks: “It’s like cleaning out your closet. What things can I throw out to make room for new things?”

“Second, I’m super-pumped about automation,” Lester told me. “This is the next horizon.”

Research suggests that lawyers spend only two to three hours a day on billable work. This is where automation can help. According to McKinsey, 23 percent of a lawyer’s job can be automated.

“Where automation is most exciting is in the repeatable work that lawyers do,” Lester said. “Take a process like client onboarding—automation can handle much of this, freeing up lawyers to focus more on client service.”

And at the end of the day, that’s what technology in the legal space is all about: helping lawyers to serve their clients more efficiently and more effectively.

“The intersection of law and technology is such an exciting place to be in 2024,” Lester said. “As you are thinking through what technologies you can use to revolutionize your legal practice, consider this: How can embracing innovative solutions pave the way for achieving greater efficiency and productivity while empowering you to focus on navigating the complexities of law?”

Disclosure: Thanks to ShareFile for sponsoring this post. ShareFile helps you improve the security and operational efficiency of essential legal workflows to create better experiences for your clients. ShareFile’s secure digital solution simplifies processes and improves collaboration by working with your existing technologies. To learn more about ShareFile, check out their website.