Everything that legal management should know about digital transformation

Many have heard of digital transformation and it may be appropriate to understand this concept and explore the benefits of incorporating technology into a legal department.

Digital transformation is the use of technology to radically improve the performance or scope of an organization or area, and this includes its people. It allows to remain competitive in the modern and digital economy.

As a service area, the legal department, thanks to technology, could interact more effectively with its internal customers and provide more efficient service. Basically, they could make things faster and better.

Before further progress, it is key to point out that investing in technology is not digital transformation. The challenge is change, transformation, not investment in money or time. The processes of technology incorporation in general fail or fall behind by just changing the process and not investing in the change of mindset of people that will lead to the construction of a culture that will encourage transformation. Change management is key to ensuring the success of technology investment.

What to do with digital transformation and the legal area of an organization

The internal lawyers of the companies are often perceived as the top stones in the adoption of new technologies and the evolution to platforms e.g. Cloud. The role of legal management in companies in this area is therefore crucial and are facilitators of change.

Incorporating technology is not only key to legal departments of large companies, it is also a tool for areas made up of a few members, even more useful to the latter. The slogan is always how to do more with less, especially considering that legal work increases as a result of increased regulation, higher market speed and increased risk exposure by globalization.

This requires an analysis of what work to leave within legal management and what to eliminate or externalize. To understand that technology simplifies processes, eliminates intermediations that do not add value and makes information more accessible is to understand that in this way the legal area meets the new demands of its internal customers and accompanies business times.

Some digital transformation applications in legal department processes or services are:

• Standard document generation using document automation tools or softwars and contract management.
• Knowledge management through collaboration and co-creation platforms.
• Responses to public entities through automatic response softwars to trades.
• Evaluation of contracts via machine learning.
• Data entry through the outsourcing of tasks. Because the data input is so simple and the software works automatically it is easier to assign the task of completing the data and requires less supervision from a senior category lawyer.

Key Council: Investing in people and communication

The best advice for the successful use of technology in order to improve the performance of legal practice is to focus on people. This includes all those involved and hierarchical levels.

To change people's behavior, area leaders can focus on communicating these two messages:

• We're all human. and as human beings we make mistakes, this is so, even if we are very skilled and experienced in what we are trained to do. Human error is a very real risk.
• The digitization processes, such as automation, allows that the legal departments perform more strategic and high-value tasks. This means, for example, that lawyers are more motivated as they perform less repetitive tasks; they are less likely to be in a position to make mistakes; and they can use and develop their talent in "real legal work."

Takeaway: The incorporation of technology allows to do more with less, being a recipe that works in legal departments of all sizes. The key to any digital transformation project is in the process of transforming the people that make up the area, so it is essential to communicate the benefits and understand that the internal lawyer adds value not in repetitive tasks, but in those matters that allow business to go forward. It is necessary to rethink how things are done within the area and to develop the corresponding corrective actions.

Montserrat Mazó | Head of Consulting |Alster