Opus 2 Survey Reveals Law Firms Poised to Reap Big Benefits by Adopting Litigation-Specific Tools and Cloud Workspaces

Global News

30
Sep
2015

Editor

Today, Opus 2 International released the results of its inaugural survey of litigation practices, examining trends in evidence management, case analysis and collaboration among litigation professionals. The survey report, entitled Case Team Collaboration in the 21st Century: A Report on Litigation Work Product, Workflow, and Technology, also explores the potential of new cloud-based tools to help legal teams prepare for motions, depositions and trial, with specific attention to managing transcripts and the evidentiary record, and collaborating on related work product.

Amongst other findings, the survey reveals that 89 percent of litigation teams report that the methods they are currently using to access and manage case documents and transcripts from outside the office are more likely to hinder, rather than help, collaboration. The complete report can be downloaded here.

“The survey confirms what we’ve suspected for some time: legal professionals may be able to realize significant benefits from the use of cloud-based workspaces for collaboration,” said Graham Smith-Bernal, Founder of Opus 2 Magnum. “The survey results should give litigators a better understanding of their own technology gaps, and indicate areas in which twenty-first-century tools can help fill those gaps and simplify legal workflows and processes.”

The survey was conceived in the wake of three significant developments in the practice of law: growing pressure on legal departments and law firms to demonstrate value and efficiency to clients, dramatic increases in the use of mobile devices amongst attorneys, and recent resolutions to amend the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct with a requirement to  keeping up with technology relevant to the client and the representation, and also by protecting electronically stored confidential client information” as an explicit duty for every attorney.

The survey results reveal a striking disconnect between the high value respondents place on collaborative work on the one hand and the largely unsophisticated tools and methods they use to perform this work on the other hand. Seventy-nine percent of law firms still use “old school” methods, with only 9 percent classifying these methods as “easy.” The report suggests that litigators are frustrated with the tools they currently use to analyze evidence, manage cases and collaborate with team members, and the profession is poised to adopt more advanced technology that accommodates an increasingly mobile workforce and demands for greater efficiency.

Results and Key Findings

The survey generated responses on how thoughts and ideas are compiled, how case-team work product is shared among team members, and which tools and methods are used for this work. Among the key findings:

• Old-school methods are still used in litigation
• Default tools are primitive, yet teams are increasingly dispersed and performing collaborative work has become more complex
• Team collaboration is common and valued

• Legal teams’ “intellectual property” is not nearly as secure as it should be.