Data Analytics Changing Law Firms’ Way Of Working
Legal analytics is a developing field that is reshaping the legal profession’s future. Even law firms are estimated to spend more than $9 billion on legal analytics software by 2028.
But, what is legal analytics in the first place? What impact will it have on the legal profession?
You may already know about the intersections between big law and big data. In the past years, we’ve seen some significant breakthroughs in legal analytics.
“How are we doing?” is a frequently asked question in in-house legal departments. This simple inquiry can signify a variety of things. For example, how are we performing in terms of financial health or contract tweaking for business? Moreover, it could be compliance activities or litigation.
Typically, the legal field lacked the necessary data to properly measure and publish its conclusions. However, today organizations of all sizes are highly expecting their legal counsel to make valuable use of data. They want them to report data in the same manner that the rest of the company does. As a result, major legal firms have made data analytics a core goal for in-house attorneys.
What is Legal Analytics?
It’s the process of applying data to your decision-making on topics affecting legal forms and attorneys. For example, legal strategy, forecasting, and resource management. Legal analytics can give you a competitive edge by giving unparalleled transparency. Moreover, it gives insight into internal departments, council members, and decision-makers.
In general, there are three types of data in the legal sector:
- Individual data
- Internal law firm data
- Legal industry data
Individual data relates to current and prospects’ online activities on your site. This is what makes it different from the internal law firm. Individual data is typically sourced through Google Analytics, cookies, and email marketing. But, one can gather internal data from regular activities in your legal department. Some of its examples are time monitoring and billing rates. On the other hand, industry data flows from third-party research organizations. And it is used to determine legal industry trends.
Using data analytics was not that easy a few years back. It was difficult to gain any useful insights from the huge amount of legal data accessible.
However, legal professionals now have the tools to make data-driven decisions. They can use it while designing case strategies, estimating case results, and even gaining new clients. Recent technology breakthroughs have been a great help in doing so. Language processing, AI, and machine learning are some of the examples.
Computers can complete work at unrivaled speeds. This helps you save time and money for your legal departments and professionals.
Legal research
Legal research and analytics are familiar to most legal professionals and attorneys. Finding the correct precedents or statuses could offer you an advantage in court. One of the most significant ways that big data is recasting the legal profession is in this area.
However, conducting accurate, inventive, in-depth legal research can be time-consuming. In the legal field, data analytics can help you in locating relevant cases in each practice area. And even for that, you wouldn’t have to go through each one manually.
Offering electronic finding
Legal processes take maintaining, collecting, reviewing, and transmitting case-related information. These activities have traditionally been a time-consuming and tedious procedure for legal professionals. However, the introduction of e-Discovery software has made it a lot easier. Switching electronic data between parties during litigation and investigations is simpler now.
Instead of sifting through mounds of documents or focusing on only those that include the exact keywords, e-Discovery legal analytics solutions allow you to filter documents by data range. This eliminates the need for manual labor.
Analytics that predicts the future
For legal professionals and attorneys, foreseeing the future is no longer difficult. Predictive analytics can help legal leaders offer unique trends insights. Moreover, it helps specify correlations, and irregularities to create a case, evaluate suspects, and devise litigation tactics.
Data analytics can also help legal departments streamline their hiring processes. It helps assess potential applicants and put together the finest team possible. Additionally, it allows legal professionals to determine whether they need partners, external counsel, or freelancers for specific assignments.
Leaders can use predictive analytics to make better decisions
We’ve all experienced the anxiety of having to sift through heaps of paperwork. It’s frustrating going through rows of spreadsheet data to get the number we need. Even Google-like searches keep professionals seeking information for an average of 23% of their time.
However, times have changed. Seamless software dashboards now provide essential team members with real-time access to the most up-to-date information. Graphs and charts are examples of data visualization approaches. They highlight trends and insights.
Processing of insurance claims has been made easier
A claim that appears to be straightforward can often end up costing more than anticipated. That is a significant challenge for insurance companies. It’s not easy deciding how many resources the processing will take. Moreover, what resources to assign to an investigation of a claim to decrease the insurer’s costs.
Legal data analytics tools can decipher claims. Also, they can help predict when they may grow more complicated. There’s a new type of analytics that combines the power of analytics with the subject knowledge of users. It can aid legal practitioners in better understanding the characteristics of difficult claims. According to AccidentClaims.co.uk, taking simple inputs to describe a behavior contained in the data, will imply legal professionals:
- Which data features are the most beneficial for predicting which claims would be complicated.
- Present them with a variety of statements, many of which are difficult.
- Create a model allowing legal counsel to predict which future disputes will be difficult to resolve.
Increased marketing potential
Legal marketing analytics can also help lawyers better understand their ideal clients. Their plan stands out from the competition. This allows them to develop a more comprehensive marketing campaign. The campaign speaks to its target demographic and thus provides better results.
Furthermore, legal analytics can help you estimate where your prospects are coming from. This helps you focus your marketing efforts and budget on the most effective networking and social media sites.
Boost your company’s growth potential
Legal data insights make it simple to spot trends. Moreover, they help identify patterns indicating when and where a company’s growth happens. Similarly, it tells where greater potential can be achieved through concentrated efforts. Targeted business development activities help cut costs and win new clients. Additionally, more intelligent data insights make it easier to increase your financial potential.
Your company only needs to invest in legal data analytics. It’ll help them capture previously uncovered opportunities and increase their growth potential.
