Legal Tech: A Real-World Path for Lawyers

The legal technology industry has emerged as an area of interest for lawyers, academics, investors, and technology entrepreneurs. The “AI hype” has been driven by the recognition that technology can address inefficiencies, improve access to justice, and redefine what it means to hire a law firm.

However, amidst this enthusiasm, misconceptions about the nature and purpose of legal technology persist. Two particularly pervasive myths warrant closer examination:

1. The idea that the success of legal tech hinges on disruptive innovation
2. The belief is that blockchain represents the future of legal technology.

Addressing these misconceptions is critical to ensuring the legal profession takes a pragmatic, practical approach to adopting and integrating technology.

Practical Integration in Legal Tech

Tech entrepreneurs in legal technology often follow what Silicon Valley sells, emphasizing disruption, innovation, and risk-taking. In other words, sink or swim. Either become a billion-dollar company or die.

While such an approach may work well for consumer-facing technologies or in hype spaces like cryptocurrency, it is ill-suited to the realities of the legal industry. Law firms are often into risk aversion and require time to implement technological solutions.

They also want technology that easily integrates into existing workflows (like Microsoft Word) rather than those that demand wholesale transformation. Companies like Clio can justify law firms tearing out their tech infrastructure to sign up for their products. But it’s unlikely that law firms will do so for new tech startups like Caseway.

Consider the example of contract analysis. Law firms hold vast quantities of data in legal agreements, but much of this data remains underutilized. Established machine learning techniques can extract structured insights from these documents, allowing lawyers to access critical information. We call this at Caseway a “bespoke agent.”

For instance, a lawyer advising on a share purchase agreement could analyze hundreds of similar contracts executed by the law firm in the past to identify prevailing trends or mechanisms, such as locked-box provisions.

Such advancements do not necessitate radical innovation. Instead, they represent the application of existing, well-established legal technologies to meet the specific needs of law firms. An AI startup should focus on incremental improvement—using current software to improve accuracy, efficiency, and accessibility within the profession.

Blockchain: A Misaligned Focus

Blockchain, another often discussed topic in legal technology, exemplifies the pitfalls of hype over substance. While blockchain technology has undeniable utility in specific domains, such as cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (at least in theory), its relevance to law firms doesn’t exist.

The concept of "smart contracts," often discussed by “crypto bros” as a game-changing development, underscores this misalignment. Legal contracts are inherently complex, relying on nuanced terms such as "force majeure" or "material breach," which are intentionally flexible to account for unforeseen circumstances. Smart contracts, by contrast, are rigid and binary, ill-suited to capturing the subtleties of legal language and interpretation.

While blockchain-based solutions may find application in some niche areas—such as land registries or automated transactional processes—these innovations do not address the core functions of a law firm. They are tools to complement, rather than transform, the work of lawyers. It is, therefore, useful to critically evaluate claims of blockchain’s potential within legal technology to make sure that resources are directed toward technologies with proven, practical benefits.

The Case for Pragmatism in Legal Tech

The true promise of legal technology lies in its capacity to enhance, rather than upend, the practice of law. At Caseway, we focus on practical applications, such as software that uses AI to process vast quantities of case law and assist in contract drafting. These technologies speed up routine tasks, enabling lawyers to devote more time to complex problem-solving and client engagement.

Legal technology also democratizes, making sophisticated software accessible to smaller law firms. This contributes to more significant professional equity and improves access to justice for underserved populations.

Adopting a measured, evidence-based approach is imperative as law firms continue to engage with technology.

Rather than chasing trends or embracing innovation for its own sake, law firms should prioritize the implementation of proven technologies that address tangible needs. The focus must remain on improving the quality and accessibility of legal services while respecting the foundational principles of the legal profession.