The Top 5 IT Challenges in the Legal Sector

As with any industry, the legal sector has its own IT challenges and considerations that are important to be aware of. With the modern world progressing as it is, not being ready for the challenges that your legal company could face may be the difference between success and catastrophe.

In this article, we are going to discuss the IT challenges you could face and detail how you can prepare yourself, and your business, to take them on.

Cybersecurity and Data Security

With 75% of law firms having stated that they have experienced a cyber-attack, the legal sector is a high-value target. This is why keeping up with the latest advancements in cybersecurity is vital.

It may seem trivial, but cybersecurity is becoming increasingly vital for law businesses around the world. As attacks become more intelligent and powerful, unprepared victims are at risk.

From social engineering and access breaches to hacking and ransomware, many different threats are looming. Taking the time to ensure that you are educated and have the proper preparations in place is important. Remember – any small vulnerability could cause a massive amount of damage and disruption throughout your business.

Meeting Compliance Requirements

Compliance requirements are everywhere. Between software compliance and more sweeping compliance issues like GDPR, ensuring that your organisation meets the necessary requirements is critical – after all, not remaining compliant with important acts and regulations can result in hefty fines for your business.

A lack of compliance does not just end in fines. It can also lead to –

Data Breaches and Security Vulnerabilities: A lot of compliance regulations are in place for security reasons – these are regulations ensure that protections are in place.

Loss of Business and Partnership: If your company is in breach of compliance, it can appear less trustworthy. This is why ensuring that compliance is met is vital to maintaining key industry relationships and maintaining your customer base.

Damage to Reputation: Getting caught breaching compliance regulations is a stain on your organisation’s reputation and can cause irreparable damage to your company.

Remote and Hybrid Communications and Collaboration

The legal sector is experiencing a massive shift towards remote work and online communications. This presents many new challenges for your organisation –

Logistics: The logistical strain of figuring out a solution to enable remote working and collaboration can be daunting.

Security: If your team will need to be able to access files while at home, which presents security concerns.

Cost: The cost of providing your entire organisation with the tools necessary to enable home working is a new expenditure. Whilst cheaper overall, the initial cost is a large expenditure of capital.

Reliability: Whatever system is used for remote working needs to be reliable. When it comes to an organisation as time-sensitive as a legal firm, every second counts – and your communications application going down could be drastic.

All of these require time, resources, and planning to work out and research. Why not contact us today? We will be able to help you through the complete process!

Time-Consuming Manual Tasks

Streamlining essential tasks is crucial to saving valuable time and resources. These tasks, often critical processes, play a pivotal role in maintaining seamless operations within your organisation. However, dedicating excessive time and effort to these tasks can be counterproductive. That is why optimising these processes for accuracy and efficiency is essential.

However, with the help of automation and tools like Power Automate, these tasks can be done by an automatic system – meaning that you can dedicate resources to the parts of your organisation that are more important.

By using automation, you can not only ensure that everything is completed to a high standard – you can also eliminate the possibility of human error.

Archival and Legal Hold of ESI

Safely and securely holding data – whether that’s case files, evidence, or sensitive information – is crucial to every law firm. However, given that much of the legal system has transitioned to a digital-first workflow (including remote court hearings, digital case management systems etc.), legal organisations are now expected to handle archives and legal hold as electronically stored information (ESI).

This means that much of the materials used within the legal system have also moved online. This is a large consideration for any law business, as there are many challenges when it comes to integrating the digital-first system into a traditional legal organisation. For example –

Security: Ensuring the ESI handled by your organisation is secure and safe is vital, as the ESI handled this way is often important to ongoing cases. Bad security could leave a window open to tampering and even sabotage in extreme cases.

Redundancy: For this reason, it is crucial to ensure that multiple copies are made. If an important ESI is stored on a single central server which is then damaged, it become irretrievable.

Accessibility: Files that are stored away digitally also need to be quickly and easily accessible. Things change fast in the legal world, so ensuring that there is no downtime in accessing the data is vital.

How We Can Help Solve These Challenges

The modern legal world is taking IT into its stride, and the challenges that are arising as a byproduct of that are important considerations for any law firm.

Ready to elevate your law company’s IT capabilities to new heights? Look no further! The experienced team at Extech Cloud is here to provide the assistance and expertise you need. We specialize in partnering with small to medium businesses located in Burgess Hill, Crawley, Brighton, and throughout Sussex and Surrey. Our mission is to support you on your path to success. Contact us today to explore the potential of Microsoft Outlook and speak directly with one of our specialists. Let us empower your law firm with innovative technology and drive your business forward.