2020 Aderant Business of Law Survey: Law Firms Were Prepared for Full Scale Remote Work and Expect Increases in Technology and Process Spending

Global News

13
May
2021

Editor

Most firms were unexpectedly prepared for the pandemic’s changes to daily operations and plan to invest substantially in technology and process in the coming years, according to The Aderant 2020 Business of Law and Legal Technology Survey results released today.

This marks the fourth consecutive year that Aderant^®, a leading global business management software provider for law firms, has hosted the survey. 

Conducted in August and September of 2020, the survey presented a valuable opportunity to examine how legal technology and finance departments weathered COVID’s unique challenges and to predict future developments.  Most firms plan to increase their budgets for technology and process software and adopt more cloud-based solutions. 

Highlights of the Aderant 2020 Business of Law and Legal Technology Survey: 

• An overwhelming 92% of firms surveyed said they were either completely or somewhat prepared for full scale remote work at the pandemic’s onset.  
• Despite readily adapting to keep their businesses operational throughout the pandemic, the top two challenges cited by law firms, Operational Efficiency and Technology Adoption, remained. Operational Efficiency has consistently been named the #1 challenge in previous Aderant surveys.
• Firms have realized that to achieve greater efficiency, they must be prepared to make significant investments in process and technology. Process improvements, software, and hardware topped the list of priorities for increased investment in the next 3-5 years.  
• Collaboration tools earned the spotlight in 2020 as firms strived to communicate effectively with colleagues and clients in a remote work environment. Cloud-based solutions that firms indicated would drive collaboration forward included: Secure External Portals/Extranets, Financial/Practice Management, Portals/Intranets.
• While firms may want to move their Practice Management Solution (PMS) to the cloud, obstacles including existing on-premise integrations can make it difficult.  More creative solutions, like a software as a service (SaaS) model offering hosting and maintenance services, will be crucial in the success of migrating PMS to the cloud.  

“Our 2020 Survey showed that law firms did phenomenally well at transforming their businesses and achieving strong business continuity during the pandemic,” said Chris Cartrett, Executive Vice President at Aderant.  “However, the challenges of last year were a wake-up call for firms to realize that efficiency concerns, process improvement, and technology adoption required greater investment.  As one of Aderant's busiest years on record, 2020 provided us with the unique opportunity to equip clients to better leverage technology to serve firm employees and remotely manage internal processes.” 

About the 2020 Survey

A total of 201 business of law and legal professionals from firms worldwide completed the 2020 Aderant Business of Law and Legal Technology Survey.  The size of respondent firms ranged from 25 attorneys to 500+ attorneys. The 2020 Survey had 33% more respondents than in 2019 and a greater response from EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) and APA (Asia/ Pacific/Australia) regions, translating to a more thorough representation of law firms globally.  

Click here to request the complete 2020 Survey report.