Bloomberg Law recently compared the results of two 2020 surveys, March’s Legal Operations Survey and July’s Legal Technology Survey, to reveal a post-pandemic surge in the use of collaboration tools such as Confluence and SharePoint by law firms and corporate law departments. No, that’s not surprising. What is surprising, however, is just how much more inside counsel seem to value collaboration compared to outside counsel. The numbers tell the tale. Law firms have experienced a healthy 63% increase in use of collaboration tools, while corporate counsel have experienced a staggering 305% increase. Why the gap? “It’s unclear why in-house legal departments are using collaboration tools so much more often than law firms,” Bloomberg says. “One reason could be that in-house departments had more fully embraced project management and in-person collaboration before the pandemic, sending those attorneys to technological solutions faster when forced to work from home. Another reason could be that firm practitioners simply collaborate less frequently than their in-house counterparts, or do so using older technologies like traditional email.”
Published October 9, 2020.
