Technology is changing the landscape of the legal world, and making it possible for law firms to achieve new heights in terms of client service, transparency, and making smart, data driven choices.  Roland Vogl, Executive Director of Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology (LST), will be the keynote speaker at the LMA Technology Conference in San Francisco in October.

Vogl says, “Currently, technology is coming to the law from all sides.  It’s making the law more efficient for all stakeholders, it’s giving lawyers a better understanding of what’s relevant for a particular case, and they can use new technologies to be more empirical and data-driven about their decision making.  It gives lawyers a way to make internal processes more efficient, and deliver their services to their clients more efficiently.”  There is a lot of potential with technology in the law, however, the road is not sunshine and roses.  Significant challenges must be faced down to reap the rewards of technology in law firms, and Vogl believes legal marketing professionals are uniquely positioned to advocate and strategize for the appropriate technologies for their law firms.

He elaborates, “It’s challenging for law firms to figure out what technologies to embrace. Firms need to determine what they need, what their clients need, and how to use technology to add value in the most efficient way.”  Many attorneys are not interested in solving this problem, as Vogl points out: “Lawyers don’t really want to run businesses, they want to practice law. The best way to package or bundle or make their legal expertise available and accessible to create a data informed work product is not a lawyer’s priority.”