What is a legal technology professional?

Jan 23, 2023

Written By Toby Clyde

Law has traditionally been, well, quite traditional. In 2019, as global investment in legal technology surpassed one billion dollars, The Law Society lamented that “significant barriers to adoption still remain”. One pandemic later, much has changed. The UK has a booming legal tech sector and many large City firms now have their own tech incubators. This has created a new kind of legal worker: the Legal Technology Professional.

What is a Legal Technology Professional?

Such is the rapid pace of change in this sector, it is difficult to point to a single, common definition. A technology role at a large firm will work very differently to a product-focused job at a legal tech start-up. You might also hear it referred to by a few different names, like Legal Technologist, Legal Engineer or Legal Analyst.

However, generally speaking, a Legal Technology Professional is someone who helps law firms use technology to work more efficiently. This might be to manage workflows, like implementing a web-based platform to track the progress of transactions, or to streamline document processing, like training AI to perform contract review.

What does this look like in practice?

A basic example is e-signature. Prior to the pandemic, many firms still required a pen-on-paper signature in most cases. This quickly changed once meeting in person was no longer an option.

But, while the switch to e-signatures made the process of signing documents much faster, it also created new problems. Electronic signatures are now big business; it can be tricky to choose the right provider in a crowded marketplace. Like any new technology, the legal status of e-signatures varies across jurisdictions. And, above all, you need a robust document management system to securely handle the whole process.

Fee-earners often don’t have time to get to grips with and then implement an entirely new system. But the stakes are high: even minor errors in, for example, an automated contract screening process, can have serious consequences.

This is where a Legal Tech role is essential. Even if they aren’t responsible for developing the technology, a Legal Technologist needs to understand a platform or tool well enough to apply it in a way that actually meets the firm’s needs.

The legal technology sector

Of course, opportunities in this area aren’t confined purely to traditional law firms. Boosted by large venture capital investment and government research funding, the UK legal tech industry has grown considerably in the last few years.

This is a broad sector. Although investment has focused on technology around regulatory compliance and legal document management, start-ups in this space cover many bases. Companies include Legatics, a transaction management platform; CrowdJustice, a crowdfunding service for legal issues; and Alacrity Law, a platform to help companies manage external counsel.

This means that the scope of a Legal Technology Professional outside of a firm can be very broad. It may involve advising firms in a similar manner to that described previously but as an external vendor. Or it could be more product-focused, helping to develop new legal technology.

A LawtechUK study from 2020 estimated that specialist legal tech providers could grow to employ between 8,000 and 12,500 by 2026. Potential annual demand, excluding regulatory compliance products, could be worth between “£7bn and £22bn”. If you’re looking for an alternative legal career in a rapidly evolving sector, there is no need to stick to a traditional law firm.

Is legal technology for you?

What do you need to succeed in a legal tech job? Coding ability, while useful, isn’t essential. Nor is a legal background, necessarily. But, there are some broad-based skills that are worth just as much as proficiency in Python:

Problem-solving

This is an important part of any legal role, but no more so than in tech. No new tool or platform, no matter how high-tech, is worth anything to a firm unless it is delivering real value, that is to say, solving a meaningful problem.

Process analysis and project management

These are core parts of the job: getting to grips with a complex legal process, deploying the right technology and then building an appropriate solution.

Adaptability

New tech means new ways of doing things. But this requires a willingness to change, and then, crucially, the ability to convince others. This can be tricky in a rapidly developing area like legal tech.

An important caveat is that roles vary considerably and some firms may require a STEM background or legal experience. But this is part of what makes legal technology such a fascinating field: it is an opportunity for people from many different backgrounds to find an exciting career in law.

Next steps

Perhaps this sounds like the job for you, so what next?

Many large firms now have graduate programmes in this space, like Clifford Chance’s IGNITE or the Ashurst ADVANCE pathway programme, to name just two. Some are akin to a traditional training contract and will allow you to qualify as a solicitor, whereas others are more open-ended.

Ultimately, there is no set career path, at least not yet. But this gives you the freedom to decide what suits you. You might prefer a customer-facing role at a start-up to the nitty-gritty of process automation. Many roles in the sector may not exist yet. Keep an open mind and you’re sure to have an interesting and exciting career.

Legal Technology