The COVID-19 pandemic increased the digital transformation in the legal sector. Many law firms took advantage of the occasion to automate their processes, applying various technologies such as Project Management, billing or collection platforms, special software for legal advice, etc.
LegalTech is a technological solution that allows lawyers to be more efficient. Countries in Europe and Asia have successfully implemented technology in their daily operations since previous years, leaving a global footprint. One of the reasons why LegalTech has not been fully developed in Mexico is institutional support. Currently, neither law schools nor professional associations are trained to implement it.
Access to this type of information’s reduced mainly due to the English language in which most of the texts on the subject are available. However, the biggest problem that has been seen for the development of LegalTech in Mexico has been the investment capacity of law firms, in the sense that professionals in the sector work long hours, making the service expensive and with inconsistent quality.
Another reason that may explain the low development of LegalTech in Mexico is entrepreneurship, which is crucial to boost the growth of LegalTech since law firms must bet on implementing the automation of their processes.
Tradition is undoubtedly one stigma, thanks to COVID-19, that has been disappearing in the sector, in the sense that innovation has not been a cornerstone for the legal industry, for providers and clients. The traditional office-based legal service has slowly been replaced by virtual meetings via video calls and filing in large physical containers by space in the cloud on some server with impenetrable security.
In conclusion, judicial bodies have realized the importance of LegalTech tools in the world. Now, correctly processing information and managing every process in a firm is a necessity that requires increasingly sophisticated systems. Each country has a different pace, but Mexico has assimilated the LegalTech concept’s importance unquestionably.
Génesis Moyeda Salazar
Gloria Ponce de León & Hernández