What is the most significant impact that legal organizations can expect from five legal trends?

Lawyers already work in a high-pressure environment, and the Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer 2022 Survey found that the demands are mounting as trends impacting the profession continue to accelerate. What are the most significant legal developments lawyers must confront?

Complying with the complex requirements, meeting higher performance demands, dealing with talent tensions, and addressing emerging areas such as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) are all challenges.

What the legal industry will look like in 2022?

The report identified the following five trends as having the greatest impact on legal organizations:

It has been a leading and growing trend over the past few years, with 79% of lawyers reporting it as such today, up from 77% in 2021. However, only 35% of respondents are highly prepared to deal with this issue.

From 2021 to 2022, the most significant increase in importance is expected in Legal Department In-sourcing, jumping seven percentage points to 76%. Despite this increase in significance, only 32% of lawyers believe that their organization is well prepared to address this trend.

Despite lawyers continuing to report incremental improvements in their preparedness to address each of the trends identified in the Survey – generally in the range of 2-3 points since 2021 – only 36% or fewer say their organization is very prepared to address any specific trend that is impacting them.

The talent of lawyers is being challenged.

In addition to facing increased pressure on the legal front, law firms and legal departments now face growing pressure when it comes to talent. New demands have arisen, and the great majority of professionals want to work for an organization that supports their preferred way of working: hybrid or full-time remote.

Despite the “great resignation” continuing, the Survey discovered that the majority of organizations are not executing well at meeting the demands of their employees. According to the results, 70% of corporate lawyers and 58% of law firm lawyers believe they will leave their present position in the next year.

Increasingly, there has been a rise in organizations rethinking who performs the work and how it is completed. In addition, legal departments and law firms are increasingly turning to varied types of arrangements, including contract employees and third-party resources, alternative legal service providers (ALSPs), and non-lawyer staff.

A lawyer who is future ready: Leading change.

Complexity in complying with numerous standards is one issue; meeting higher performance demands, handling talent issues, becoming more efficient through legal technology, and dealing with ESG issues are among the challenges.

Lawyers can certainly agree that the epidemic brought the future to the present. However, what are the difficulties they are facing and how can they succeed in the new status quo?

The report provides insights from 751 legal professionals across Europe and the U.S. on how to lead change in the legal profession.

The Raub Law Firm reveals that many legal companies in Europe and the U.S. are benefiting from new and improved technology in terms of resilience, client satisfaction, and performance.

The combination of enhanced digital and business capabilities is crucial… because the future is increasingly dynamic, complex, and uncertain.

The pressure on legal professionals has increased as a result of ongoing change that is pervasive.

Compliance requirements are becoming more difficult to satisfy, talent tensions are rising, legal technology is urgently needed for efficiency, and the need for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is growing.

Relations between clients and firms.

The demand for technology-enabled law firms hit a record high in 2022 and is expected to continue rising.

Only 52% and 41% of legal departments reported wanting the law firms they were considering to describe the technology they used in 2021 and 2020, respectively, to be more productive and efficient.

Today, that percentage has risen to 70%, and it is expected to reach 97% by 2025.

Who does the work during this growing trend?

The Survey reveals a significant and growing trend across legal organizations over the last three years in “who” does the work, as lawyers look for new ways to manage their growing caseloads.

Lawyers have increasingly been using a variety of types of arrangements—from contract workers and third-party resources to ALSPs and non-legal staff—to help legal departments and law firms.

It is a critical time for organizations as they prepare to confront the new talent challenges resulting from the epidemic.

Non-financial metrics that measure an organization’s environmental, social, and governance performance are known as ESG metrics (McGrath, 2018).

The growth in Environmental, Social and Governance issues has posed a challenge for legal professionals.

The creation and sharing of ESG policies and procedures has become a significant and specific demand on corporate legal departments, and that demand is growing.

Law firms are seeing significant ESG demand from clients, but they are not prepared to handle it. Demand is growing rapidly.

Compliance requirements are growing in complexity, performance expectations are rising, talent tensions are rising, and the demand for emerging areas such as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is rising.

The report on the Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer 2022 Survey gives information on how the legal profession has been affected by the crisis, based on the opinions of legal industry leaders from Europe and the U.S.

Technology provides crucial tools, but data provides the insight to guide those tools’ most effective utilization. Data is the key to unlocking smarter decision-making in everything from legal research to litigation strategy, from compliance to pricing.

[Source]

https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/know/future-ready-lawyer-2022

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What Is The Most Significant Impact That Legal Organizations Can Expect From Five Legal Trends?