Capturing the trend of legal technology expanding in the front office, LawGeex has released their In-house Counsel’s Legal Tech 2018 Buyer’s Guide. With many tasks in legal work traditionally handled by lawyers or legal staff now becoming automated, the guide aims to help in-house legal teams facing the ever-increasing technology issues and opportunities. The guide assesses the Legal Tech market featuring 16 different categories, including contract drafting, eDiscovery, digital and signature, as well as prediction and litigation analytics software.

Navigating the technology
The guide includes listings of key providers in each category and highlights legal trends. The guide also showcases the experiences of legal teams at the forefront of adopting new technology, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, McDonald’s, NetApp amongst others. Guidance on buying legal tech and real-world examples highlight issues such as cost pressures and the need for more strategic use of technology by lawyers. Key areas featured are Artificial Intelligence (AI), funding and consolidation, blockchain, SaaS and cloud computing. The number of AI players listed in the guide has jumped threefold, from 40 to 66. AI iuse is expanding across the legal spectrum, and vendors are listed by legal discipline.

Increasing automation
The guide also sheds light on the investments involved. In the area of eDiscovery, between September 2017 and January 2018, some $153 million was invested. The guide also details the 22 biggest legal technology mergers and acquisitions, and the 45 largest fundings in the sector over the past year. Lucy Bassli, LawGeex chief legal strategist and ex Microsoft assistant general counsel, says “The greatest and most far-reaching change we are seeing is how For the first time, everyday tasks, such as analysing or reviewing contracts and researching legal issues for case law and regulatory insights, are becoming increasingly automated, at least in stages.” The guide can be found here.