eDiscovery Daily Blog
Organizations are Increasing Their Investment in Legal Data Analytics, According to New Survey: eDiscovery Trends
According to a new survey of more than 125 legal technology professionals released by Huron Legal earlier this week, 68% of respondents expect their organizations’ investment in legal data analytics to increase in the next two years.
As noted in their announcement, there are, however, several challenges to effectively implement legal data analytics identified by the respondents, including:
- Securing buy-in from senior leadership on the value of analytics (37% of respondents identified as the biggest challenge);
- Quality of data (22%);
- Cost of implementing data analytics effectively (23%),
- Lack of accessible data (9%);
- Threat to the practice of law (9%).
Also, 64% of respondents said that the legal industry is behind other industries when it comes to data analytics.
When asked about the one or more areas where data analytics is currently being applied in their organization, respondents replied as follows:
- 64% of respondents indicated that data analytics is currently being applied in eDiscovery;
- A third (33%) noted litigation management (i.e. case strategy, staffing);
- Nearly a quarter (24%) indicated law department management (i.e., matter budgeting, legal project management);
- Almost a third (29%) selected information governance;
- 17% pointed to outside counsel/law firm management (i.e., staffing, etc.);
- 16% noted rate/fee negotiation;
- 10% stated M&A evaluation.
Only about 10% of respondents said that data analytics is not being applied at all within their organization. Not surprisingly, 45% of respondents identified cost management and savings as the biggest benefit of data analytics in the legal industry.
“It is clear that the legal industry is starting to recognize the power of data analytics, as evidenced by the burgeoning use of emerging legal technology and the willingness to increase investment in analytics,” said Nathalie Hofman, managing director at Huron Legal. “However, in order to realize analytics’ full potential, legal professionals at all levels must be educated about how to best to use them. Analytics can inform decisions in a number of areas, leading to greater efficiency and cost effectiveness.”
No survey would be complete without a handy-dandy infographic to summarize the results, click here to view the infographic for this survey by Huron Legal.
So, what do you think? Do these results reflect a promising trend? Or do they reflect that we still have a long way to go? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscoveryDaily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.