Across a range of roles and responsibilities, a recent report found that stress plagues many mid-sized law firms. The simple answer is increasing the use of technology.
The survey covered responses from lawyers, paralegals, and administrative support professionals at mid-sized law firms. According to the report, almost 75% of individuals reported feeling stressed, burned out, or overwhelmed in the past year. The leading cause of the stress was understaffing. The most popular answer was to increase the use of technology to help firms become more efficient and effective.
The power of tech is real – and it’s growing. As a managed IT service provider for midsized law firms in the Greater Phoenix Area, we have seen how tech can transform the operations of a law firm.
Reduce Law Firm Stress With Tech
The report was comprehensive, surveying everyone from legal staff to firm administrators, IT, finance, operations, HR, and other support functions. 50% of the firms surveyed were 20-100 employee firms, 40% had 10-20 employees, and just 10% were firms of over 100 employees.
92% of the firms surveyed said they had been impacted by staffing and resource shortages, presumably leading to the increased stress of staff. Despite the stress increase, responders overwhelmingly reported that technology could help their firm adapt and that technology is also critical to client satisfaction.
Further, 70% of respondents reported that technology is vital to the quality of the firm’s legal work and profitability.
Adapting Law Firm Technology Use
Technology – within law firms and elsewhere – is constantly changing. The survey also had respondents report on how technology has evolved within their firms over the past three years and the areas they believe their firms should invest more heavily in technology.
The changes in technology were reported as follows:
- Increased online meeting attendance
- Increased use of digital documents
- Online tools used for task management (replacing paper)
Areas to invest in technology were reported as follows:
- Increased document automation and management
- Legal process automation
- Billing and collections management
Improving Tech in Law Firms
Generally, the key to improving technology use in law firms is data that backs up the return on investment. Why are motivated firms investing in tech? The number one reason is the ability for clients to access files from anywhere.
Firms were also motivated by work quality, cost, and security.
5 Reasons Law Firms Are Investing in Tech
- Increasing data security
- Cost reduction
- Increased quality of work
- Data consolidation and more accessible data access
- Automating manual administrative processes
Better Tech for Phoenix Law Firms
With experience working with small to midsize law firms in the Greater Phoenix Area, we see the pain points of law firms firsthand. The number one goal is client satisfaction. With that goal in mind, firms should invest in tools that improve client satisfaction and aid employees in getting their job done better and more efficiently. In the process, stress is usually reduced as a bonus!
If you are a law firm wondering what you could be doing better, or your employees are facing burnout from outdated, manual processes – PK Tech (and technology in general) can help. Get in touch with a member of our team or schedule a free 15-minute discovery call.
