January 2022- Looking into Our Crystal Ball – QuisLex Experts Share Their Predictions for 2022

Earlier this month, Legaltech News published a series of prediction pieces sharing insights from industry experts and thought leaders about what they expect to see in a range of areas. Two of those topical compilations include forecasts about what to expect this year from members of our team at QuisLex:

Legal Tech’s Predictions for Contracts and CLM in 2022, published January 6, includes this quote from QuisLex chief operating officer Sirisha Gummaregula: “AI/ML is already changing how contracts are reviewed and negotiated. 2022 will see an increased use of blockchain technology and integration with AI for digital contracting with ‘smart contracts.’ Putting the contracts on a blockchain ledger will let parties securely view, revise and accept changes. A shared ledger of all activities will result in final copies of contracts accessible by only the parties with access, and with recorded versions and activity log.”

Legal Tech’s Predictions for E-Discovery in 2022, published January 5, includes a quote from Andrew Goodman, QuisLex associate vice president of legal solutions: “Remote working and distributed work environments will likely continue in 2022, but as the model becomes more prevalent and gains increased acceptance, it will also attract increased scrutiny. Data privacy concerns will lead sophisticated clients to seek solutions that are demonstrably secure, while still maintaining the scale to meet client demands and the flexibility to allocate resources in a cost-efficient manner. This will provide challenges in the e-discovery space because I also expect litigation and regulatory enforcement actions to return to pre-pandemic levels going into 2022.”

In the spirit of looking forward, several other QuisLex thought leaders share their ideas on what to expect in the coming year:

Under the umbrella of cybersecurity, Michel Sahyoun, QuisLex chief technology officer, says: “Cyberattacks are becoming vastly more sophisticated, and breaches more ubiquitous, prompting companies to reevaluate their security posture and breach response strategy and tooling. Defenders are deploying artificial intelligence-based products at each layer of their defensive shield to counter these novel threats. Expect IT departments to increase their patching cadence and the frequency of their vulnerability scans to reduce their attack surface.”

Privacy remains a hot topic for legal professionals worldwide. On this subject, Melissa Paulk, QuisLex senior commercial attorney and privacy SME, shares: “2022 should prove to be an exciting year for U.S. state data privacy laws, as individual states are rapidly expanding data privacy standards to better protect their consumers. In the coming year, watch for Maryland’s Online Consumer Protection Act, which expands California’s privacy regulatory framework. Maryland’s regulation may arguably become the most expansive state privacy regulation in the United States.”

Andrew Banquer, QuisLex vice president of corporate solutions, also shares insight on what he expects to see in contracts and CLM technology: “Law departments drowning in contract volumes that have been trying to do ‘more with less’ will rethink that strategy. In fact, many will flip that approach and start to do less with more. The ‘more’ will be a combination of self-help tools, AI-aided risk assessments, AI-aided redlining and outsourcing to ALSPs or lower-cost, flex resources. The ‘less’ will be a combination of practices to ensure that internal legal resources only see the most strategic contracts and focus the majority of their time providing proactive strategic counseling to the businesses they support.”

On the topic of legal operations and the business of law, Mark Wilcox, QuisLex global vice president of business development, offers, “This is not your father’s service provider. Today it’s all about expertise, partnership and tenured teams working as an extension of your legal department. Gone are the days of low-level hired contract workers or sending everything to outside counsel. New law is led by smart collaboration with strong ALSP partners across all aspects of legal operations.”

QuisLex chief executive officer Ram Vasudevan shares his insight on remote work and COVID-19: “COVID-19 has brought many changes to legal work, some that will now be permanent. One big change is that lawyers now realize that physical proximity is not required for good work. If you use technology, strong processes and knowledge effectively, location becomes less important.”

Will all these predictions come true? Contact us to let us know what you think!