As I have discussed before, the legal profession, especially the law firm end of it, can’t be thought of as a monolithic marketplace. Instead, today’s legal marketplace is composed of various segments. These segments have business models and goals that are so different that they might be thought of as distinct businesses entirely. Marketers and vendors need to understand that different the sizes and types of law firms are have fundamentally different motivations and concerns. They also need to know where all law firms are similar. And various surveys can help in this understanding.
Toward the end of this year’s ILTA conference, for example, ILTA released an Executive Summary of its annual technology survey. This tech survey, along with those done by the ABA and ALM, forms the basis of much of our law firm knowledge when it comes to tech. The ILTA survey respondents tend to be from larger firms and are people who work in the legal tech field as opposed to practicing lawyers.
This year’s Summary is particularly interesting. It focuses the important. similarities and differences between small firms, mid-size firms, and large firms when it comes to tech
This year’s Summary is particularly interesting. It focuses the important. similarities and differences between small firms, mid-size firms, and large firms when it comes to tech. I don’t recall ILTA focusing on differences by firm size before. But it’s a good idea.
Some General Observations
ILTA notes at the outset that the pandemic has significantly impacted firms of all sizes. While many tech tools used by law firms are the same as pre-pandemic, there are radical differences in how those tools are now being deployed and used. And the use continues to evolve at a rapid pace. The differences in that deployment
