Lawyer Monthly - January 2022 Edition

26 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | JAN 2022 2022 TRENDS OUTLOOK: GLOBAL LEGAL SECTOR Over the past several years, the legal sector has undergone some of the most substantial changes in decades, prompted by several factors including technological advances and client demand. However, there is no doubt that the past two years have accelerated this shift further still. With the pandemic not yet over, technology forever growing smarter, and client expectations ever evolving, there is one key question that should be sat at the forefront of every legal professional’s mind: what is coming next? Here are five major legal trends to look for in 2022. AI AI is gaining huge momentum in all professional sectors, and the legal sector is no exception. Law firms are increasingly realising the value of smart AI managing particular tasks. As data volumes con- tinue to expand, it is becoming increas- ingly necessary for firms to use technol - ogy to supplement manpower to speed up and streamline data management, filing and storage. IndustryARC’s LegalTech Artificial Intel - ligence Market Forecast for 2021-2026 predicts that AI will speed up the con- tract review progress of law firms by 20- 90% without sacrificing accuracy. Mean - while, a report by Zion Market Research suggests that the global AI legal technol- ogy market is expected to generate over $37.8 billion by 2026 at a compound an- nual growth rate of almost 36%. 1 Automation Similarly, workflow auto - mation is set to be another leading legal trend for 2022. According to a 2018 study by researchers at the McK- insey Global Institute, 23% of a lawyer’s work is automatable. Meanwhile, De- loitte predicts that 100,000 legal roles will come to be automated by 2036. Automation is already becoming increasingly popular within the sector as firms recognise au - tomatable tasks to boost effi - ciency and reduce expenses. A reduction in manual work and repetitive tasks, ease in record-keeping, and usage metrics are among the key benefits report - ed by firms that have already made the shift. 2022 Trends Outlook: Global Legal Sector Beginning our round-up of trends that we expect to see in the new year, Lawyer Monthly web editor Rachel Makinson analyses the technological and service-level changes coming to the sector internationally. Where should your law firm be looking to invest in the months ahead? Read on for some of our thoughts. 2