Legal Tech Implementation: 7-Step Roadmap

Here's a quick guide to implementing legal tech in your firm:

1. Set Goals and Scope
2. Define Legal Areas
3. Involve Key People
4. Manage Data
5. Assess Risks
6. Set Up Tools and Processes
7. Review and Improve

This roadmap helps you:

• Avoid common pitfalls
• Get everyone on board
• Align tech with business goals

Key benefits:

• Streamlined workflows
• Better rule compliance
• Improved client communication

Step	Main Task	Key Outcome
1	Set clear targets	Focused implementation
2	Identify crucial data	Targeted tech solutions
3	Create RACI matrix	Clear responsibilities
4	Ensure data accuracy	Reliable tech performance
5	Plan for issues	Reduced implementation risks
6	Integrate new and old systems	Smooth workflow
7	Gather user feedback	Continuous improvement

Follow this guide to make your legal work more efficient with technology.

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Step 1: Set Goals and Scope

The first step in bringing in new legal tech is to set clear goals and decide what your project will cover. This step is key to making sure your new tech works well.

Know the Legal Rules

Before you start, you need to know what legal rules your new tech needs to follow. This means:

• Checking current rules you must follow
• Looking at data protection and privacy laws
• Finding out about legal standards for your industry

By knowing these rules, you make sure your new tech follows the law and avoids problems.

Set Clear Goals

Setting clear goals helps your legal tech project succeed. Use this table to help set good goals:

Goal Part	What It Means	Example
Specific	Say exactly what you want to do	Cut contract review time by 30%
Measurable	Have a way to check progress	Track time spent on reviews before and after
Achievable	Make sure you can reach the goal	Set a fair time for learning and using the new tech
Relevant	Match goals with what your business needs	Help clients faster
Time-bound	Set a date to reach the goal	Get results in 6 months

Clear goals give your team a plan to follow. They also help you show how the new tech is helping.

Pick Where to Start

It's best to start small with one or two areas. This helps your team get used to the new tech. Here's how to choose:

1. Find the biggest problems in your current work
2. Look for areas where new tech can help the most
3. Think about tasks that must be done right for legal reasons

You might want to start with:

• Contract management: Making it easier to create, check, and approve contracts
• Compliance tracking: Using tech to check if you're following the rules

Starting small in important areas can show quick wins. This can help get more support for using new tech in other areas later.

Step 2: Define Legal Areas

Picking the right legal areas for new tech is key. This step helps you know what data you'll work with, where to start, and how to match your tech plans with your business goals.

Identify Data Types

When bringing in new tech, you need to know what kinds of data you'll handle. This might include:

Data Type	Examples
Contracts	Service agreements, employment contracts
Legal documents	NDAs, leases, compliance reports
Case information	Client files, court documents
Personal data	Client contact details, billing info

Knowing these data types helps you pick tech that can handle your specific needs.

Start Small

It's smart to start with a small project when bringing in new tech. This helps because:

• It's easier to manage
• There's less risk
• People can learn the new system more easily
• You can show quick results

Try starting with one simple task, like using a Word form sent by email to get client info. This lets you test things out before moving to bigger projects.

Match Tech with Business Goals

Your tech plans should help your business grow. To do this:

1. Set clear goals that new tech can help you reach

2. Talk to everyone who will use the new tech

3. Look at what you need and how tech can help

4. Make sure people learn how to use the new tech well

When your tech plans fit your business goals, you can:

Benefit	How It Helps
Work smarter	Use tech to do things better and faster
Serve clients better	Give clients what they need more quickly
Solve real problems	Use tech to fix actual issues in your work
Stay ahead	Keep up with or beat your competition

Step 3: Involve Key People

Getting the right people involved is key for making legal tech work well. This step helps make sure everyone knows what to do, supports the project, and talks well with each other.

Create a RACI Matrix

A RACI matrix shows who does what in your legal tech project:

Role	Responsible	Accountable	Consulted	Informed
Project Manager	X		X	X
Legal Team Lead		X	X	X
IT Department	X		X	X
End Users			X	X
Vendor	X		X

This table helps everyone know their job in the project, which makes work smoother.

Get Support

Getting key people to back your project is important:

1. Find tech-friendly people in your group
2. Try a small test first to show how it helps
3. Talk about how it fixes problems
4. Answer worries about jobs or work changes
5. Show quick good results to get people excited

Remember, getting people to like and understand the new tech helps them use it.

Plan Communication

Good talking keeps everyone in the loop:

What to Do	How to Do It
Make a clear plan	Write down how you'll share info
Use different ways to talk	Try email, meetings, and company websites
Give updates often	Let people know how things are going
Listen to feedback	Answer questions and worries quickly
Offer help	Give training and support

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Step 4: Manage Data

Good data management is key for making legal tech work well. This step looks at finding important data, setting up good ways to collect it, and making sure the data is correct to help the new tech.

Focus on Key Data

When bringing in new legal tech, it's important to focus on data that matters:

• Find the most important types of data for your legal work
• Choose data that helps with court cases and early case planning
• Look for information that helps you make good choices for your firm

You can use tools like Gavelytics, Lex Machina, and Ravel by LexisNexis to get useful information from outside sources. These tools can help you make smart choices and plan well.

Set Up Data Collection

Setting up good ways to collect data is important for getting the most out of your new tech:

1. Make clear rules for how to put in data
2. Write down the best ways to collect data
3. Teach new workers how to put in data correctly
4. Use case management software to make data collection easier

You might want to use tools like Brainspace by Reveal or Power BI and Tableau to help you collect and look at data better.

Make Sure Data is Correct

Having correct data is very important for your new legal tech to work well:

What to Check	What It Means	How to Do It
Is it right?	Make sure data is correct and up-to-date	Check and update information often
Is it the same everywhere?	Use the same format for all data	Set rules for how data should look
Is it complete?	Get all the information you need	Make some fields required when putting in data
Is it useful?	Focus on data that helps your business	Look at your data often and remove what you don't need

To make your data better:

1. Run reports often to find problems with data entry
2. Ask team members to check data as they use it
3. Clean up data to fix things that don't match
4. Use data management tools that help keep data correct

Step 5: Assess Risks

Checking for risks is a key part of bringing in new legal tech. By finding possible problems and making plans to fix them, you can make the process smoother and keep your group safe from threats.

Gather Information

Putting all important data in one place helps you check for risks better:

1. Bring data from different places into one system
2. Use cloud systems so people can work together from anywhere
3. Use tech tools to automatically collect and look at data for following rules

Find Problems and Gaps

Looking at all your data helps you see issues and areas to make better:

1. Use data tools to find possible risks and rule-breaking
2. Check your tech systems often to find weak spots
3. Watch how people and money move to spot odd things

Make Plans to Handle Risks

Making good plans to deal with risks helps keep your work going:

Risk Type	How to Handle It	Steps to Take
Computer Safety	Make systems safer	- Use strong codes - Make people prove who they are twice - Check safety often
Keeping Data Private	Follow the rules	- Know about new rules - Make rules for keeping data safe - Teach people how to handle data
Getting People to Use New Tech	Help people accept change	- Give good training - Show how new tech helps - Ask important people what they think
Keeping Work Going	Have backup plans	- Make ways to save and get back data - Have other ways to do work - Practice what to do if things go wrong

Step 6: Set Up Tools and Processes

Setting up the right tools and processes helps make legal tech work well. This step looks at making good work plans, picking the right tools, and making new systems work with old ones.

Create Work Plans and Reminders

Making work plans and reminders that run by themselves can help legal tasks go faster:

1. Look at how your firm works now to see what can be done automatically
2. Say who does what in each step of the work
3. Use systems that watch tasks to make sure they're done on time
4. Set up reminders for important dates, paper checks, and talking to clients
5. Check and fix work plans often to make sure they still help your firm

Pick Task Tools

Choosing good task tools helps legal work go smoothly:

Tool Feature	Why It's Good
Handles many jobs	Helps with papers, time tracking, and billing
Easy to use with others	Lets team members work together well
Fits your needs	Works for things like making documents or signing up clients
Can grow with you	Handles more work as your firm gets bigger

Look at tools like Clio or Rocket Matter that do many jobs at once.

Make New Tools Work with Old Ones

Getting new legal tech to work with what you already have is important:

1. Find all the old systems that need to connect with the new tech
2. Make sure new and old systems can talk to each other before you start
3. Use special connectors to link different computer programs
4. Think about using one main system to keep all your papers in order
5. Make a place to store and find old work, research, and other useful info

Step 7: Review and Improve

This last step looks at how well the new legal tech is working, gets feedback, and plans for making things better.

Check Results

To see if the new tech is helping:

1. Set up ways to measure success based on your goals
2. Look at how it affects costs, work speed, and output
3. Time how long legal tasks take now
4. Ask clients what they think
5. See if it's easier to follow rules and avoid problems

Use this table to compare before and after:

What to Measure	Before	After	How Much Better
Money Saved	$	$	%
Work Speed	Time	Time	%
Client Happiness	Score	Score	%
Following Rules	%	%	%
Problems	#	#	%

Get User Feedback

Ask people using the tech what they think:

1. Do surveys to see if they like it
2. Have group talks about what's good and bad
3. Make it easy for people to give ideas all the time
4. Look at how much people are using the tech
5. Let people share their thoughts freely

Follow these steps to use the feedback:

1. Get the feedback
2. Look at what's most important
3. Make plans to fix things
4. Make the changes
5. Tell users what you've done

Plan Next Steps

Based on what you learn, plan how to make the tech better:

1. Find areas to grow or add new features
2. Pick what to fix first based on what helps most
3. Set times for when you'll make changes
4. Make sure you have people to train and help users
5. Keep learning about new tech for lawyers

Here's how to keep making things better:

What to Do	Why It Helps
Check tech often	Keep systems up-to-date
Keep training people	Help users do more with the tech
Work with IT and legal teams	Make sure everything works together
Look at what other firms do	Learn from others
Try new legal tech	Solve new problems as they come up

Conclusion

Key Points Recap

Here's a quick look at the 7 steps for putting legal tech to work:

Step	What to Do
1. Set Goals and Scope	Know the rules and set clear targets
2. Define Legal Areas	Focus on key data and match business needs
3. Involve Key People	Make a who-does-what list and get support
4. Manage Data	Pick important info and keep it correct
5. Assess Risks	Spot problems and make fix-it plans
6. Set Up Tools and Processes	Create work steps and link with old systems
7. Review and Improve	Check results, ask for thoughts, and plan updates

Keep Getting Better

Making legal tech work well is an ongoing job. Here's how to stay on top:

• Watch how things are going
• Ask users what they think
• Learn about new tech
• Check if your needs have changed
• Update your plans to fit new goals

By doing these things, you'll make sure your legal tech:

• Keeps working well
• Fits what your business needs
• Helps you stay ahead of other firms

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