b'10 Local Government LawyerFigure 16: What are the main benefits of using legal technology? (rank THREE in order)93%To get greater producvity from exisng sta 17% 70%6%An opportunity to update working pracces20% 75% Heads of legal are well aware of the and systems 35% potential benefits of legal technology, 20% especially with regard to productivity gains To enable maers to be resourced by more2% 27% and the opportunity it provides to update 15%junior sta 12% working practices and work more closely with clients (FIG 16). Yet the Big Bang for Enable us to retain more work in-house 2% 10% 25% legal technology in the local government 13% sector still seems some way off.Heads of legal were asked what the Opportunity to introduce more self-service for3% 22%client departments 5% barriers to greater deployment of legal 14% technology were (FIG 17) and unsurprisingly Greater opportunity to collaborate with2% 22% the most common answer was lack of 8% resources. However, perhaps more telling client departments 12%is the second most popular answer, that 0% 15% it is difficult for prospective purchasers To improve work-life balance 3% 12% to quantify the return on investment of technology. Despite the growth in legal To reduce the number of sta 0% 6% work, there is little spare cash in which 3%3% to invest in projects that do not have a 6% quantifiable benefit at the end and this Other 2%2% would seem to be an area that some of the 2% technology providers need to focus on.2% What technology, shared services and To enable us to sell more legal services externally 0%0%2% ABSs have in common is that they require investment of both money and time now 0%As a recruitment tool 0% for rewards that may not be realised for 0%0% some years to come. One clue to the lack of investment in both is in the answers to In top three First Second Third the biggest management challenges (FIG 8) where cost control comes second only Figure 17: What are the biggest obstacles to making more use of legal IT? (rank THREE in order) to the recruitment of staff in the list of challenges.It is the classic Catch-22 situationmost Budget constraints 19% 57% 84% of the initiatives that would save money 8% in the long-term have a short-term cost, Lack of clarity on the return on investment 78% which many legal teams have neither the 21% 40% time nor resources to address. Most legal 17%departments are simply too busy to take the Lack of technical support for specialist products9% 47% steps to make themselves more efficientat my council 16% 22% and less busy.Soware products do not suciently align with7% 47% Unsurprisingly then, 50% of lawyers our business processes or objecves 16% expect their departments to remain 24% independent and of a similar size to now 5% 29% in the future, compared with just 31% who Sta not prepared for the culture change required 5% 14% thought the same four years ago. To quote another literary work, it is simply a case of Concern of sta over eect on jobs 0% 5% back to the future for many in-house legal 0%2% teams.1%Other 1%0% Derek Bedlow is the publisher of Local 0% Government Lawyer. He can be reached at In top three First Second Third derek.bedlow@localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk.'