January 2023- Milestones and Predictions

For the past several years, Legaltech News has kicked off the new year with a series of pieces featuring insights from a broad spectrum of industry experts and thought leaders who share their predictions for the coming year. This year, new editor Stephanie Wilkins has expanded that series to include compilations of what industry experts believed were the biggest developments of 2022. In late December she published 2022 Milestones, and in the first few weeks of January the 2023 Predictions followed.

Several of the pieces in the most recent series included quotes from QuisLex subject matter experts. Here is the insight they shared:

December 22, 2022

Legal Tech’s Milestones for the Business of Law and Remote Work in 2022

David Cochran, QuisLex director of sales operations and channel partners, shared: “Remote working during the pandemic was a necessity to ensure business continuity and as much ‘normalcy’ as possible. This was a big change for many companies and their teams, and in some instances, the transition was painful. However, it could be argued that communication and collaboration actually improved during this period versus the traditional ‘in-office’ scenario. There seemed to be more empathy, since everyone was in the ‘same boat’ and was dealing with the same challenges. As we move back to the office, the hope is that collaboration and communication will continue to be a key business focus.”

In the same piece, QuisLex CEO Ram Vasudevan offered: “Both law firms and law schools are adjusting their training of young lawyers to go beyond the traditional core legal competencies. Key skills needed for success are not only analytical and communication skills, but proficiency in technology, data and analytics, math and statistics, finance and budgeting, and large-scale project management.”

December 27, 2022

Legal Tech’s Milestones for E-Discovery in 2022

Brian Corbin, QuisLex vice president for legal solutions and operational excellence, noted: “Emerging data sources are an ongoing challenge for legal teams, but 2022 felt different. The platforms that helped pandemic-era teams stay afloat crept into U.S. case law more frequently, and regulatory scrutiny around mobile chat apps and ephemeral data continued with no end in sight. The meeting recording functions of Teams and Zoom also became problematic for firms complying with SEC books and records requirements, and more IT-focused tools like JIRA, Slack, and GitHub became fair game. Having the right people (internal, external, onshore, offshore, experts, novices, influencers, doers) is the starting point for legal departments addressing these challenges.”

December 28, 2022 

Legal Tech’s Milestones for Hiring, Staffing and the Economy in 2022

Julie Maeir, QuisLex director of human resources and communications, said: “Hiring in the legal tech arena has had its ups and downs post-Covid. One big plus has been the ability to hire great talent to work remotely. It really opens the candidate pool when you no longer need to limit yourself to one geographic area. The downside until recently has been the inability to recruit to the legal tech product or services arena from law firms due to the salaries and perks they were offering to their attorneys and staff.”

January 3, 2023 

Legal Tech’s Predictions for Artificial Intelligence in 2023

QuisLex COO Sirisha Gummaregula shared: “We saw what generative AI is capable of when it took long strides in 2022 in many areas. Could 2023 be any different or even better, with generative AI making a dent in the legal drafting space? I believe it’s possible. There are already players such as Copy.AI and Spellbook. Lawyers can generate texts by entering system prompts into a generative AI software or use it in contract drafting, negotiation suggestions and creating term summaries.”

January 4, 2023

Legal Tech’s Predictions for the Business of Law in 2023

CEO Ram Vasudevan predicted: “We will continue to see many different types of ‘New Law’, from the increased use of ALSPs to perhaps the use of non-attorney-owned law firms. As tech budgets come under increasing pressure, greater focus will be on leveraging technology and processes to execute tasks most efficiently and economically.”

January 5, 2023

Legal Tech’s Predictions for Contract Technology in 2023

Richard A. Capalby Sr., QuisLex executive director of corporate solutions, stated: “2023 sees the effective date or enactment of new data privacy regulations in several states and internationally, so, practically speaking, companies will need to implement scalable strategies for identifying and amending their existing data privacy agreements. More proactive legal departments will look to ‘mine’ existing agreements utilizing in-house- or ALSP-provided data analysis to identify economic opportunities as renewals or other renegotiation activities arise, and to streamline their agreement execution process with detailed playbooks for the most negotiated clauses and escalation procedures.”

January 6, 2023

Legal Tech’s Predictions for Cybersecurity in 2023

Michel Sahyoun, QuisLex chief technology officer, offered: “We predict an increase in attacker sophistication and a surge in the volume of cyberattacks driven by a climate of economic downturn and massive layoffs. This will lead to a significant rise in the adoption of managed security services, in particular for midsized companies that struggle to hire and retain sufficient numbers of security personnel. Since endpoints tend to generate the most alerts and noise, the focus will be on utilizing managed endpoint detection and response (EDR) providers to free security teams to focus on other aspects of their infrastructure.”

January 12, 2023

Legal Tech’s Predictions for Innovating for Good in 2023

Leonard Harmon, QuisLex diversity, equity & inclusion manager and business development, noted: “In 2023, law firms will optimize current methods and implement new procedures to not only increase the hiring and retention of women, under-represented racial/ethnic groups, and LGBTQ+ candidates, but also increase the hiring of minority and women-owned alternative legal service providers as partners by 30%.”

January 17, 2023

Legal Tech’s Predictions for Privacy in 2023

Melissa Paulk, QuisLex senior commercial attorney, shared: “2023 is going to be an exciting year in Privacy Law! With the United States moving forward with a Federal Privacy Bill that may preempt state laws along with several major state privacy laws coming online—which law will reign supreme? I believe 2023 will mark the beginning of a move closer to a Global Privacy Law, as localized privacy laws are consolidated and emerging legislation continues to develop with the GDPR as its foundation.”

Read all of the milestones and predictions shared in the Legaltech News series here.