| | June 20218CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONBy Caroline Boudreau Sweeney, Director, Knowledge Management/Innovation, Dorsey & Whitney LLPA PERSPECTIVE: TRENDS IN LEGAL TECHNOLOGY POST-PANDEMICThe legal technology industry has undergone a somewhat significant transition over the past year. Some of the change was undoubtedly the result of the need to immediately deploy certain technologies due to the nearly overnight transition to a remote work environment. However, the adoption of other innovative technologies has evolved over the course of the past year, as well. And, as has become the norm, data security efforts remain vigilant on both the law firm and corporate front. The "Pandemic Year" pushed us forward, and, really, it was all rather exciting! Mid-March 2020 found us suddenly working from home. It quickly became apparent that we would need to enable video conferencing capabilities to simulate the office environment, maintaining a sense of community with each other and connection to our clients. If we could not meet in person, we could meet via video. Our firm was not alone in the need to move up our planned migration to Zoom. Indeed, many firms found themselves expediting the deployment of Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and the like. Once we were able to connect our attorneys and clients via video conference, we soon found ourselves evaluating and vetting the capabilities and security of various platforms and vendors to allow for remote depositions, arbitrations, mediations, and even trials. A year later, we face the challenge of "zoom fatigue", but we know these video communication platforms are here to stay. In fact, there is consensus in the industry that remote depositions, in particular, will continue after we are free to once again meet face-to-face...Why pay to send counsel from Minneapolis to New York to attend a deposition when they can attend the deposition remotely for far less cost? And, the added benefit? You can use the remote deposition as a training platform for younger attorneys.We have seen not just a greater adoption of--and comfort with--video collaboration, but with on-line collaboration platforms, generally. Microsoft Teams became the standard for many organizations, not just for video conferencing but for chat and other collaboration capabilities. At our firm and others, we also saw the deployment of more extranet-like platforms to collaborate with clients on documents and case management. Suddenly, after years of trying to drive the adoption of Jabber presence indication and chat messaging, we had people asking for jabber on their mobile devices. The traditional desktop phone may soon be a relic of the past, as attorneys rely more upon their mobile devices and chat platforms to communicate. In my view, one of the most exciting changes over the past year has been the heightened interest in workflow automation. With the remote work environment, interest in technology to manage workflow to, and among, the support staff has started to pique the interest of management. Automated workflow Caroline Boudreau Sweeney
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