Until now, more and more lawyers and law firms understand the importance of legal innovation. More often than not, lawyers think of technology when they think of innovation. Legal innovation is a much broader concept. The following are reasons why lawyers are less fond of legal innovation:
Lawyers combine innovation with legal technology
Innovation is about adapting the interactions of people, processes and technology to solve problems or create value, whether for the company or its clients. Technology can play a role in this, but it doesn’t need to be involved for something to be considered innovative. The fact that some lawyers equate innovation with legal technology may explain why they hesitate to embrace it. But once we get beyond this misconception, it opens up new possibilities.
Lawyers are careful and risk averse
Innovation can give rise to new ideas, to re-testing. However, most lawyers do not like to take risks. Lawyers tend to have personalities that are less open to trying new things. For lawyers to overcome their natural inclination to avoid change and its risks. The most interesting thing is that avoiding change also means you miss opportunities to improve your practice and the service you provide to clients.
Time Poor Attorney
This is why the time it takes to implement innovations is a significant constraint for lawyers. However, failing to invest in innovation at all is likely to result in a loss of productivity, efficiency and competitiveness. There was a time when PCs and smartphones were new technologies, and lawyers had to spend a lot of time learning how to use them. But what would a law firm look like if lawyers refused to adopt this technology? It’s safe to say that this company would be far less efficient but would likely go out of business.