White Papers | Is Your Firm Keeping Up? A Look at the 2006 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report
We always look forward to seeing how America’s law firms are using technology and the ABA’s annual legal technology survey provides the most thorough report on trends. The 2006 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report does not disappoint, offering a smorgasbord of helpful information that can provide law firms a reality check about whether they keeping up with the Joneses when it comes to utilizing technology investments to achieve their strategic business objectives.
The responses echoed something we at Rafte & Company have been advocating: the critical importance of business continuity and disaster recovery planning. It’s been nearly a year since hurricanes Katrina and Rita wreaked havoc on law firms in New Orleans and throughout much of the Gulf Coast region. In that time, lawyers all over the country have embraced the need for a proactive plan to help them maintain continuous operations before during and after a disaster.
The 2006 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, an annual project of the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, is a comprehensive look at how the legal profession uses technology. More than 2,500 ABA lawyer members in private practice in the United States returned questionnaires.
Key findings from the survey include:
- More than half of respondents assert that they have a disaster recovery plan in place, an increase of 12 percentage points since last year's survey.
- A quarter of respondents do not know whether their firm has a disaster recovery plan, which begs the question: what good is even the best plan if law firm employees aren’t fully educated in their roles and responsibilities well beforehand?
- The survey also found that there is fertile ground for Rafte & Company’s new IS Helpdesk service, a legal technology outsourcing initiative aimed at smaller law firms that don’t have technical support staff. More than four out of ten respondents have no technical support staff at any locations for their firm. Seventeen percent have one technical support person, eight percent have two, and 38 percent have three or more technical support staff at their firms. Comparing these figures to previous surveys, it is clear that internal technical support is down significantly.
- Respondents were more aware of the essential security measures that help prevent other causes of electronic data loss. There seems to be a general understanding of the importance of using firewalls, spyware prevention software and business conduct policies on issues such as e-mail usage. This is great news for those responsible for the keeping law firm information technology systems up and running.
- Nearly two thirds of respondents said they have experienced an attack by a computer virus. They said the effects of the attacks ranged from loss of network access, to nonfunctional computers, to the expense of paying a consultant to get the computer system running again.
- Law firms clearly are responding to the demands of an increasingly mobile society and the increasing demands among clients for immediate access to attorneys. Almost one quarter of respondents' firms plan to purchase personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones or BlackBerrys® within the next six months. This is an increase over last year's figure of 15 percent.
- The survey found that the use of PDAs is following the trend we saw a few years ago with laptops. They are becoming ubiquitous. Of those who have mobile devices, many report using them nearly everywhere they go. The contacts and calendar functions are most frequently cited functions as being critical for doing their jobs.
- Finally, Web sites such as this one are among the top sources of information about legal technology. Respondents said the top five sources they rely upon are print resources (73 percent), Web sites (59 percent), their peers (50 percent), staff (38 percent) and continuing legal education (33 percent).
According to the ABA, respondents to the survey represent a wide cross section of law firm sizes. Twenty-two percent of respondents are solo practitioners, while 27 percent work in small firms of two to nine lawyers, 20 percent are in firms with 10 to 49 lawyers, seven percent are in firms with 50 to 99 lawyers, and 23 percent are in large firms with 100 or more lawyers. This year, about five percent more large firms, and fewer firms of two to nine lawyers, are represented than in the 2004-2005 survey.
The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which oversees the survey each year, is a specialized unit providing lawyers, bar associations, law schools and other legal organizations with information on technology’s use in the practice of law. The Center’s professional staff research and write on technology issues and provide continuing legal education on practice management using technology.
The executive summary, trend reports, and the full survey are available online through the ABA Web Store or the ABA Service Center at 800-285-2221 [Product Code: 2680065P]. For more information on the 2006 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report or the resource center, visit http://www.lawtechnology.org or call 312/988-5465.
