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Existing tech trends will accelerate in wake of COVID-19
Legal teams and businesses that aren’t effectively leveraging technology – particularly since the outbreak of coronavirus – will likely struggle moving forward.
Jerome Doraisamy
In conversation with Lawyers Weekly, Relativity chief information officer Andrew Watts said that, as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, practitioners and legal teams and businesses will have to be ready for existing trends with legal tech to “accelerate” as part of a broader marketplace shift to a “new normal”.
“If current practices, tools or platforms cannot reach, collect and process these data types and if individuals and legal institutions aren’t leveraging technology like AI, they will likely struggle to meet the continuing needs of clients and service delivery,” he explained.
When asked to muse about the Australian e-discovery marketplace, Mr Watts said our nation is well aligned with “other mature worldwide legal environments”.
“There is a focus on increasing the use of technology platforms that leverage capabilities such as modern, powerfully simple usability for new and existing practitioners, automation, AI, cloud and demand the best cyber security to protect the unique data involved in this process,” he advised.
“Alongside our existing customers, we’re seeing that corporations in more progressive countries are increasingly looking at investments in SaaS products based on the many benefits public cloud services bring to the marketplace.
“Organisations that have leveraged these types of solutions were in a better position to successfully make the move to remote work and maintaining business continuity including continuing to collect and process data from sources like Microsoft Office 365, Zoom, Teams and other collaboration systems, as well as legacy end points despite significant restrictions on the movement of employees.”
Such alignment between Australia and comparable nations around the world justifies Relativity’s activity here, Mr Watts outlined.
“The evolution of technology is never-ending and providing solutions to individuals and legal institutions to meet these challenges is why we have chosen to focus on the community in Australia that is aligned to those goals and working closely with us to solve problems for corporations locally.”
More so than ever before, those who are willing to take the plunge and not shy away from innovation will flourish moving forward, Mr Watts concluded.
“Individuals who keep their skills relevant and legal institutions that ensure their platforms and processes are best-of-breed will be well equipped to meet their customers where they’re at – in a new environment with ever-increasing sources and types of data, alongside all of the existing needs,” he concluded.
“Those who are, are going to find opportunities to handle the most interesting and challenging projects in the post-pandemic world.”
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Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly. A former lawyer, he has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. He is also the host of all five shows under The Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network, and has overseen the brand's audio medium growth from 4,000 downloads per month to over 60,000 downloads per month, making The Lawyers Weekly Show the most popular industry-specific podcast in Australia. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of Minds Count.
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