Legal innovation surveys and market research reports have cropped up in several jurisdictions and regions in recent years to take the pulse of the legal profession undergoing the innovation journey. These are highly valuable and hopefully there will be quality longitudinal data gathered, as continuous feedback is a critical factor of legal innovation.
The following is by no means an exhaustive anthology (by jurisdiction, region, and vendor):
Hong Kong
In December 2019, the Law Society of Hong Kong published the results and analysis of the Innovation Value Chain Survey (the “Survey”). The Survey was meant to obtain feedback on the innovation priorities of the 11,000 solicitors and registered foreign lawyers of the Hong Kong legal profession.
The United States
The American Bar Association (“ABA”) has set up the Legal Innovation Regulatory Survey to track the U.S. legal professional regulatory changes impacting innovation:
In the United States, legal services are primarily regulated by each state or jurisdiction through rules of professional conduct (which are directed at lawyers) as well as statutes and regulations (which are directed at both lawyers and other providers of law-related services). To date, there is no single resource that identifies which U.S. jurisdictions have adopted regulatory approaches that have the potential to innovate how legal services are delivered. This survey seeks to fill that void.
The survey remarks reveal that:
Overall, the survey reveals that relatively few jurisdictions have adopted regulatory innovations that have the potential to drive meaningful changes to how legal services are delivered. That said, several states over the last few years have begun to adopt or study more significant regulatory reforms. Our hope is that this survey can serve as a continuously updated resource regarding these efforts and related innovations in how legal services are delivered so that information about these developments is more readily available.
Asia-Pacific
The Singapore Academy of Law, the Future Law Innovation Programme, and the Singapore Management University have jointly published the “State of Legal Innovation in the Asia Pacific” report in 2019. It contains chapters on Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as Russia and the U.S.
Australia and New Zealand
An interesting piece “Innovation in the Australian legal profession” has been published in the International Journal of the Legal Profession in 2017. The Australian Legal Technology Association has also regular postings on legal innovation initiatives in Australia.
Europe
The Financial Times has an annual report and awards recognition program “FT Innovative Lawyers Europe“.
Lexis Nexis
Lexis Nexis published the report “Legal Technology: Looking Past the Hype” in 2018 (which has a U.K. focus).
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Legal Tracker Legal Department Operations (“LDO”) Index Report:
57% of legal departments are saying they have dedicated legal operations functions, even though the percentage of legal departments increasing their staff specifically dedicated to legal operations decreased slightly, to 17%.
There are also other reports, including the AI in Legal Report and the “Report on the State of the Legal Market” (US focused).
“Big 4” Alternative Legal Services Providers
- Deloitte “Future Trends for Legal Services“
- EY Global “Reimagining the Legal Function Report“
- KPMG “Global Legal Benchmarking Survey“
- PwC “Annual Law Firms’ Survey” (UK focused)