The legal industry, one of the world’s oldest professions, is possibly the industry that produces the most amount of data in a year. If you aren’t aware by now, the legal system is filled with heavy, labor-oriented tasks, with paralegals and researchers scurrying to unearth, index and process information. This also means higher expenses, which are ultimately pushed onto the customer. Furthermore, in understaffed law offices, overworked investigators give cursory attention to each and every client. However, here’s how the introduction of Data Science is going to redefine the legal industry, to help make quick and informed decisions.

Cost & Time Savings

For a fraction of that cost and time, Data Science, coupled with Artificial Intelligence, can be substituted to carry out tedious research, lightening the load of courts and legal firms, and speeding up the judicial process. It has been proven that at times, AI might achieve better results, for clients may be more open talking to a non-judgmental machine, than to a person.

The Way Work Is Done

COVID-19 has also changed the way the world looks at remote work. Before COVID-19 happened, most business owners were not overly enthusiastic about remote work, because they assumed people would not really be working, when they “worked” from home. However, COVID-19 proved the assumption wrong. Employers found that unless the job itself required working onsite, employees worked equally well from their home offices. This situation also includes the legal industry, when suddenly, legal offices are moving to virtual workforces and distance learning.  Thus, the traditional legal culture was forcibly reshaped to address needs of the customers. In particular, in-house legal departments of businesses began handling majority of legal work.

This has led to a recalibration of the legal industry, where the heightened collaboration of in-house legal departments of businesses and legal service providers, is resulting in the traditional legal culture morphing into one required by the COVID-19 era of 2020 and beyond. Law firms are slowly imbibing corporate culture, with the core function of lawyers, which is practicing the law, merging with legal services that include engaging technology and understanding the client’s business.