Technology has been one of those explosions that has seen the majority of industries rejoice at the new-found freedom, adaptability, and ease of operating tech has given them. But this sense of happiness hasn’t transcended across all business-types, as the legal sector proves. For many law firms, there is a feeling of fear their age-old, traditional and (dare we say) archaic practice is under threat.

But it’s not the technology they should be worried about, it’s being slow in their adoption of tech that will be the real competition divider. Not all lawyers are going to follow every new technological trend. We get that. However, understanding the trends is absolutely essential if they are going to remain competitive.

So, without further ado, here are some top technological trends within the legal field and, even more importantly, how you should be using this tech:

1) Budgets Made Better

A huge part of part of planning amongst law firms is being able to budget effectively, which is something technology encourages by helping firms become more proactive. It’s about moving away from the break-fix mentality that so many of the older professions still have.

2) Train Them In Tech

While a good craftsman never blames his tools, it’s pretty darn important to accept a piece of technology is only going to be as effective as the person using it, which is why there has been a growing interest in training over recent years. As one study pointed out, when technology “fails”, it’s very rarely the technology that’s the issue. As such, training your employees on how to use the latest tech should become a major part of your development process and onboarding procedures.

3) Law On Cloud Nine

For those that still haven’t got their heads around the whole cloud computing thing; instead of storing software (or anything) on a device, you store it on the internet. This is incredibly useful for the legal industry for so many reasons, as you can see for yourself by reading this article on http://www.enteracloud.com/solutions/solutions-for-legal/. It’s not just about maintaining your IT infrastructure, or having your data backed-up, or adding an additional layer of security to your operation; it modernizes the legal industry by allowing employees to operate remotely. That means increased productivity and decreased ‘dead-time’.

4) Matter Of Security

Believe it or not, a recent study shows law firms are surprisingly weak when it comes to the matter of security. We’re talking 25% of firms having no security policies while less than 50% of firms use encryption devices to protect their files. The most common worry of all, though, is firms allowing employees to use their own devices, which not only adds responsibility to the individual but leaves firms at risk. To counter this and protect yourself at a time when data-protection is such a hot-topic (thank you Cambridge Analytica), it is so important your firm increases its security across the board, which can be done very easily by speaking to an IT services company.