Six Corporate Legal Trends to Monitor In 2023

By  //  July 30, 2023

Heading into 2023, the legal landscape is rapidly changing, impacted by various events such as an increase in high-profile data breaches, a possible recession, energy crises, and political instability. 

If you’re part of a corporate legal team, keeping an eye on the emerging trends in the legal tech sector is essential. In this piece, we’ll discuss the top six corporate legal trends you should watch in 2023.

  • Cyber Security

In the era of digital dependency, cyber security is a hot topic that won’t be cooling down anytime soon. We’ve seen large corporations grappling with reputation damage due to major data breaches, intensifying concerns within the business world. 

As per IBM Security’s “The Cost of a Data Breach Report,” the global average data breach cost rose 2.6% to a record USD 4.35 million in 2022.

How can legal tech assist? Tools are emerging to streamline the reporting of cyber incidents, manage response plans, and secure data sharing. These platforms can prove invaluable in case of a cyber-attack or if internal systems are compromised. 

As a part of a corporate legal team, you are responsible for ensuring the secure transfer and storage of information and promoting cyber-safe work practices.

For guidance on defending against online threats, you might find a reputable law firm as a useful resource. A corporate lawyer offers extensive educational material covering topics from cyber risk management to cyber insurance.

  • Regulatory Workflows

With an increasingly complex global regulatory landscape, managing frameworks and ensuring legal compliance is no small task. However, the legal tech industry is set to simplify these processes by developing tailored workflow solutions for specific clients or industries.

Integrating a law firm’s expertise with workflow automation technology can significantly aid clients in overcoming regulatory challenges. Many modern platforms offer two-sided functionality that ensures secure information transfer and facilitates collaboration between you and your clients.

  • External Spend Control

With legal tech solutions, you can revamp your external spend management practices. Instead of reviewing the bill after work completion, focus on the engagement process with a law firm. Detailed instructions, broken down into work phases, can help manage and monitor costs effectively.

Legal tech solutions can help you compare law firms based on predetermined criteria, document the estimated budget and agreed scope of work, and keep track of any deviations. This way, you can ensure accountability, promote transparency, and strengthen relationships with law firms.

  • Collaborative Workspaces

When you think of collaboration, you might picture a team of individuals working hand in hand toward a shared objective. In the world of legal operations, this shared objective is often the successful resolution of a matter, which typically involves both internal and external communication and workflows.  

It’s vital to your competitiveness in today’s increasingly digital legal landscape that you can foster smooth collaboration and communication between your legal department and the law firms you engage.

Now, the idea of client collaboration tools isn’t exactly new. However, the processes, capabilities, and functionality offered by these tools have taken quantum leaps forward. You may know these tools as ‘client portals,’ but the newest generation – collaboration workspaces – have advanced well beyond simple file sharing and unidirectional communication. 

Now, they offer real-time collaboration, project management, budget discussions, customized reporting, and more.

Collaboration workspaces are more than just handy tools. They offer greater transparency and streamline communication and collaboration processes. Among these is the ability to modernize and enhance the client experience. 

After all, in today’s fast-paced world, every edge counts, and a well-designed, secure collaboration workspace can give you just the advantage you need.

  • Visualized Dashboards

Consider reporting metrics as your vital toolkit for demonstrating value, gaining insights, understanding workload capacity, and maintaining an eye on expenditures and legal matters. 

Over the recent years, there have been impressive strides in this field, with Business Intelligence (BI) reporting offering the ability to customize dashboards and reports to fit your specific needs. 

This means you can evaluate your legal team’s output and capacity, showcase their efficiency, and monitor status and workflow metrics as matters evolve. 

Having a bird’s eye view of actual legal spending, monitoring budgets across time and firms, and assessing financial metrics in real time is incredibly valuable. You can also use these insights to make strategic decisions about law firm engagement and project management performance.

  • Private Cloud

Think about cloud storage as a virtual data center. It’s not in your building or under your direct control, but rather, it’s a service you engage from a third-party provider. This is becoming a prominent alternative to on-premise servers, particularly for companies aiming to modernize their operations. 

Cloud storage presents many benefits, such as high scalability, impressive reliability, cost-effectiveness, and seamless access from any location – a feature proving increasingly beneficial in the growing ‘work from home’ trend.

In the vast realm of cloud storage, there are three primary types: public (also known as multi-tenant), private, and hybrid. The public or multi-tenant clouds are shared spaces used by multiple organizations, each having its individualized section within the shared cloud. 

However, a private cloud is exclusively dedicated to your organization, while a hybrid cloud combines both aspects.

Now, let’s dive into private cloud storage. You can imagine it as a digital fortress built solely for your organization. When exploring legal tech providers, seek out those offering private cloud infrastructure to guarantee enterprise-level data security.

Conclusion

As we gaze into 2023, legal departments focus on technology solutions that deliver efficiency and tackle pain points. Given the whispers of an impending recession, legal tech investments are becoming more strategic, focusing more on clear benefits. 

With projections suggesting that legal departments may triple their legal technology expenditures by 2025, tools that enhance legal service delivery efficiency are primed to take the lead.