Industry Guide to Legal: How the legal industry is changing in the age of digital transformation

I was very excited to join OpenText™ as its global industry strategist for the legal sector due to the company’s focus and innovation on delivering…

Andy Teichholz profile picture

Andy Teichholz

June 5, 20194 minutes read

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I was very excited to join OpenText™ as its global industry strategist for the legal sector due to the company’s focus and innovation on delivering a wide range of purpose-built legal solutions to many of the top global law firms, Fortune 100, and government agencies. As a recent arrival, and for my first blog, I wanted to share some insight into top technology trends transforming the industry today.

Around the world, enterprises are looking for ways to use data as effectively as possible to drive growth, improve productivity, and gain a competitive edge in the market. Modern legal professionals are facing an increased pressure to efficiently manage legal content and internal processes, and to guide their businesses and clients on data-related issues like compliance, privacy, information management, litigation and security. To address this, these professionals are looking to technology for answers.

Greater Insights with Analytics and Artificial Intelligence

One area getting significant attention in the LegalTech market is analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).

These technologies help the legal industry – and business in general – by providing better and smarter insights from organizational data to detect compliance risks, predict case outcomes, analyze sentiment, identify useful documents and gather business intelligence to make better, informed decisions. Moreover, through automation and the use of predictive analytics, these technologies have significantly helped reduce the time and costs associated with eDiscovery.

Automation and machine learning are also making it possible to handle mundane and time-consuming tasks more quickly and accurately. This reduces human error, improves consistency, and frees up time so legal professionals can focus on more important, value-adding tasks—giving their clients more value for money.

Threat to Data Security

 Legal professionals are playing a pivotal and increased role in driving and/or influencing decisions to protect data privacy and bolster data security. New privacy regulations such as the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act, which takes effect in 2020, carry penalties exposing businesses to significant financial and reputational risk. Requirements like these are putting corporate legal teams front and center in the enterprise security discussions and technology evaluation process.

Law firms are also feeling the pressure from clients who want to be certain their information is being stored safely and securely and defended against malicious or unauthorized activities. Strong security protocols need to be in place to satisfy client security audits and to ensure attorney obligations to protect client confidentiality are safeguarded.

The move to the cloud

The legal industry is increasingly turning to the cloud – in large part because of its options for flexible deployment, improved infrastructure, greater support for mobility, and cost effectiveness. With the ability of cloud providers to demonstrate the highest standard of security and protocols, legal professionals are adopting cloud-based solutions more rapidly and with greater confidence.

Legal sessions

During Enterprise World, join me on Tuesday afternoon during my Legal Industry Forum, where we will be discussing key industry trends, digital transformation drivers, and technology solutions to support the legal community.

In addition, throughout the show, you and your industry peers will have a great opportunity to listen to customers and product specialists talk in the areas of Discovery, AI/Analytics, Security, and Information Governance.  Sit in on programs such as DIS-201: How to talk to your lawyers about data and DIS-204: Why lawyers are adopting to AI faster than you as well as learn about the latest developments and plans for the legal solution products you are currently using.  And so much more! Visit the OpenText Enterprise World website for information on all sessions for the Legal Industry!

About OpenText Enterprise World

Join us for Enterprise World in Toronto from July 9-11, where I will be discussing these topics and more.  Find out how our Enterprise Information Management (EIM) platform can help the modern legal professional tackle legal and compliance issues, manage information, optimize processes, and minimize cost and risk.

I look forward to meeting you there and speaking with you about how OpenText can support your needs and objectives. Register now to unlock the Information Advantage.

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Andy Teichholz

Andy Teichholz is the Sr. Industry Strategist for Compliance and Legal at OpenText. He has over 20 years of experience in the legal and compliance industry as a litigator, in-house counsel, consultant, and technology provider. Andy is focused on helping businesses succeed with digital transformation. In this capacity, he has served as a trusted advisor to customers by leveraging his business acumen, industry experience, and technical knowledge to advise on regulatory compliance, information governance, and data privacy issues as well as support complex litigation and regulatory investigations.

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