How will your litigation team’s technology keep up with growing caseloads and shifting client demands? A new research study highlights three ways to jumpstart innovation, including tips for injecting GenAI into your litigation support processes.
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Three Strategies for Driving Innovation in Litigation Support
According to a new study by Ari Kaplan Advisors, Advancing Litigation Support to Fuel Growth in a Changing Legal Market, 93% of litigation support directors surveyed reported that the volume of data they manage for an average litigation case is increasing, and 60% believe the continued growth of case data volumes will present challenges for their team.
These law firm leaders not only highlighted their concerns about caseloads and data but also shared strategies for driving innovation and managing change. While many consider their innovation investments adequate, they still face implementation challenges and other barriers. Half cited limited time as their primary obstacle to innovation, while others pointed to budget limitations (23%) and adoption difficulties (20%).
If your litigation team wants to strengthen its competitive edge, overcome the challenges posed by growing data, and avoid obstacles that can keep your firm stuck in place, consider these expert insights based on the study’s research.
1. Create a Culture of Creative Problem-Solving
One of the first steps in driving innovation is nurturing the right mindset. It’s easy to become comfortable with inaction, accepting the status quo rather than pushing for ongoing progress. As one survey respondent said: “Once we find something that works, we tend to stick with it rather than constantly identifying and evaluating new tools as they emerge.”
To create positive momentum and avoid letting “the way we’ve always done it” become an unmovable obstacle, turn to the most tech-savvy users on the team and encourage them to experiment with new processes and approaches, including exploring unused functionality such as customizations and integration options on existing toolsets. When these team members organically create solutions that deliver meaningful value and share them with teammates, it can help change the perception of technology among the broader team.
2. Focus on Incremental Improvement
Gradual but strategic change can also help alleviate some of the most common barriers to innovation reported by the survey participants. For those stretched thin for time, it’s easy to see the appeal of starting small. In addition, targeting specific needs and implementing solutions tailored to the team can reduce costs, increase adoption rates and minimize resistance to change.
Several survey participants said they’ve seen success by adding value to the team in small steps rather than taking on revolutionary projects. This has made change more comfortable for reluctant practitioners and helped them realize immediate benefits. One leader said:
“We are not trying to be super innovators; we are just trying to help our attorneys provide the best service they can, so our litigation support team is more focused on providing concierge-level service to the firm’s lawyers rather than driving rapid technological change.”
Another research participant echoed this tailored approach to incremental change, saying, “Within litigation, there are always individual preferences and unique ways to achieve success.”
Inviting clients to participate is another way to drive incremental change. Lack of client demand was among the top barriers to innovation reported in the survey. Even though clients may not be asking detailed questions about legal technology, it doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t interested in innovation. They may be looking to their law firms for examples of how to deploy emerging tools like generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Firms that engage their clients in this area may find new opportunities to deepen client relationships and deliver added value.
3. Make GenAI the Foundation of Innovation
Nearly every respondent (93%) said their firm is preparing for changes driven by GenAI, including establishing guardrails and protocols (90%). For litigation support specifically, respondents said GenAI would transform document analysis (100%), transcript management (90%), chronology creation (87%) and case strategy (77%). Currently, streamlining transcriptions and document summarization are among the most common GenAI use cases reported by litigation support directors.
While implementing AI is a big step, focusing on litigation support use cases can jumpstart the innovation cycle. Work with a pilot group to explore available AI capabilities within your current legal tech stack.
For example, transcript analysis has traditionally been a labor-intensive and time-sensitive task. With AI assistance, this task can be completed in a fraction of the time, allowing litigation teams to process more information in less time. As one survey participant said, “The days of first-year or junior associates conducting a transcript analysis are over, and this type of work is best suited to generative AI.”
Once this pilot group sees the technology in action and starts to share positive feedback, a virtuous cycle of innovation begins. Using this momentum, GenAI can be applied to other aspects of the litigation lifecycle, like summarizing hot documents, which exposes team members to a technology improvement that positively impacts their day-to-day productivity.
Don’t Wait to Try These Strategies
Innovation is critical for the continued growth of litigation teams, and teams that don’t take steps to fuel innovation will face a competitive disadvantage.
Because the legal industry has accepted the inevitability and promise of GenAI, clients are expecting their law firms to deploy it — they are curious about the benefits they can receive. In addition, litigation teams are feeling pressure from the proliferation of data volumes and sources, threatening profitability as more hours are needed to sift for relevant information. Because of these and other factors, teams with outdated technology and systems run the risk of being outpaced by their competition.
Note: The complete report, Advancing Litigation Support to Fuel Growth in a Changing Legal Market, is available for download here.
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