‘We use bitcoin technology to purchase coffees’
A long dozen of law firms have been rated the most technologically advanced in the UK, as part of this year’s Legal Cheek survey of over 2,000 trainees and junior lawyers.
The winner will be announced at the Legal Cheek Awards 2020 at Sea Containers, London, on Thursday 26 March.
Rookie solicitors were asked to rate their firm’s tech savvy on a scale of one to ten, with one described as ‘Horse-drawn’ and the top score of ten defined as ‘Full self-driving’.
Here is the 13-strong shortlist:
- Addleshaw Goddard
- Allen & Overy
- Bird & Bird
- Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
- CMS
- Clifford Chance
- DWF
- Gowling WLG
- Orrick
- Osborne Clarke
- Pinsent Masons
- Taylor Wessing
- Womble Bond Dickinson
Tech is indeed a hot topic in law right now but what’s really happening on the ground? As part of this year’s survey we received hundreds of anonymous comments from rookies who cut through the lawtech hype and provided us with details about how their firms’ investment in tech has impacted their daily lives.
Here are a select few from some of the firms listed above:
How tech savvy is your firm?
“We have an entire team dedicated to legal technology, with the opportunity for trainees to now do seats in legal tech — I think that speaks for itself.”
“We’ve paid for the tech, but i think it’s fair to say getting everyone to use (and to use it to it’s capabilities) is a bit of an uphill struggle. But I would question any firm that says 100% of their partners use Slack and have dispensed with pen and paper.”
“Have u heard about our tech hub? We’re basically the Uber of law!”
“At the forefront of technical innovation. Plenty of new initiatives to incorporate technology into work — they may not always work, but this did not keep them from trying. Forensic team provides critical support to litigators. There were at least two rounds of tech surveys since I’ve joined. Gadget bar in virtual desktops is a blessing from heaven.”
“We use bitcoin technology to purchase coffees (and get a free coffee!)”
“Something the firm is very hot on. We are all on connected desks, telephones are being migrated to Skype, and a lot of meetings are done interactively using apps.”
“Completely agile, using AI — we are currently teaching a robot how to determine if documents are privileged or non-privileged on a huge international litigation involving several countries.”
The winning law firm will be announced at the Legal Cheek Awards 2020 at Sea Containers, London, on Thursday 26 March.
