In the UK,
two-thirds of lawyers gave the opportunity to work in an intellectually
stimulating environment as a key reason for their choice of profession, and
more than a third became lawyers to do ‘rewarding work’, according to a survey
of 258 lawyers (125 in the UK and 133 in the USA).
The survey,
conducted by legal industry cloud provider Intapp, revealed that three-fifths
of UK lawyers are satisfied with their work-life balance. However, 45% of UK
lawyers complain they do more administrative tasks than they expected and
nearly a fifth (18%) say either the majority or nearly all of their time is
spent on low-value work.
Asked about
technology and their expectations for the future, 30% of UK lawyers wanted
their firm to modernise the workflow process and 29% felt their firm should
provide services to make elements of their legal work more efficient.
Some 44% of UK
lawyers want to see their firm invest in content or document management systems,
28% want to see investment in mobile-enabled technologies and 41% feel that
artificial technology (AI) could help improve conflicts clearance.
Chris Turk,
regional vice president, EMEA of Intapp, said: ‘These survey results have shown
the impact that tools and processes available can have on the daily life of a
lawyer.
‘Modern
firms―those that take into account the environment of a firm, and the impact of
technology on its employees―are the ones that will see the most positive
change.’
