A 2021 report revealed that many firms continue to be unreceptive to flexible work
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic fostering an environment ripe for the advent of flexible work schemes and legaltech adoption, the APAC region continues to lag behind on both, the 2021 Legal Workflow Management Report published by BigHand revealed.
The report showed that under half of the firms who responded to its study favoured flexible work, and over half still wanted staff to report to the office more often than not. This was in spite of the fact that more than 80% of respondents considered flexibility to be beneficial to work-life balance.
“The market research data does indicate that, despite the surge in demand we are seeing, firms in the APAC region are not progressing as quickly as in other regions,” BigHand APAC managing director Anthony Bleasdale said.
The legal profession has long been regarded as an industry that has been slow to adapt to change, with a predisposition towards a traditional way of working. Bleasdale pointed out that before the pandemic hit, law firms that integrated legaltech into their plans for the future “often experienced change challenges from traditional lawyers.”
However, law firms in the APAC region need to step up in this area in order to remain on the international radar.
“Firms, particularly in New Zealand and Australia, need to move quickly to adopt tech and new working practices to remain players on the global legal market,” Bleasdale explained. “How will they remain competitive against those that are? How will they evidence to their customers that they are operating efficiently? How will they retain talent who will see colleagues in other firms benefit from technology? How will they make informed decisions about their future business without informed data?”
