It’s no secret that technology is consistently growing more powerful and sophisticated. With this, is the increasing concern that tech will make us obsolete in the workforce. For lawyers, who already face fierce competition within their field, the fear of obsoletion can be even greater.
With technology that can conduct hours of research in minutes, greatly reduce human error, and employ artificial intelligence to draft documents, it’s not far-fetched to wonder: Will lawyers always be needed?
Read on for three practices that will help you to stay relevant in your field and defeat the threat of a full tech takeover.
Three Practices that Help You Beat Obsoletion
#1 Stay Curious
One of the healthiest and most effective approaches to change is to become better informed. The tech space feels like it is constantly introducing something new, and while this can become overwhelming, it’s not productive to bury your head in the sand. Instead, making a conscious effort to simply stay curious and open will get you much further.
Staying curious is not reserved only to technology, however. It is also a great advantage to you to continue questioning the way things are done in your practice or career. Just because something is the status quo does not mean it’s the best or most efficient approach. If you make it a regular practice to evaluate areas for growth, you are better equipped to find and tackle problems that may be present.
#2 Embrace Technology
Tech advances are a regular occurrence for all professionals, across every field. In order to stay relevant in your field, you should expect to make continued updates to the technology you use in your every day business operations. If you find you have fallen behind in technology, you may begin to fall behind professionally.
One of the ways you can embrace technology as an attorney is to explore the many ways you can incorporate more tech into your office operations. For example, are you still tracking your appointments and court dates on a physical calendar? Not only can this be cumbersome to manage, but it can be much harder to share your schedule with your employees and ultimately lead to wasted time and miscommunications.
While some tech advances such as a digital calendar are mostly straightforward, others may be a bit more complicated such as the recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI). In order to be aligned with the latest tech trends, attorneys have become increasingly interested in how they can use AI for their practice. Known for its popular uses as a content-generation and legal research tool, AI appears to have a growing significance for the modern attorney. However, it’s worth noting that with AI and any new technology, it’s important to consider the limitations and challenges of the tech.
Regardless of the extent to which you actively embrace technology, it’s best to figure out how best to leverage technology to make your practice more efficient. This requires making a concerted effort to really understand how the new devices and software work and actively pursuing tech solutions for your firm.
#3 Take Control
As a solo or small law firm practitioner, it’s likely that you will be wearing a lot of hats as both a business owner and an attorney. Relying on others to manage, market, and plan your practice puts you at risk of empowering someone who will do things to keep the status quo rather than pushing things forward and improving them. If your goals involve growing your practice, there are important steps to take today for a better tomorrow.
In order to survive obsoletion and achieve your business goals, you can’t simply follow the guidance of a salesperson, formula, or pundit. Instead, taking control of your business and approaching your strategy with urgency and enthusiasm will help you continue to grow.
One of the many ways you can take control in your business is with your firm’s digital presence. Having a modern, attractive, and effective law firm website is not only preferred by your potential clients but it has become expected in recent times. If your firm’s digital presence is an area that you struggle with, LawLytics can help.
Take action today for a better tomorrow with LawLytics
One of the biggest challenges to overcome as a business owner is finding the right tools and resources that will help you grow your business. At LawLytics, we help attorneys stay curious about digital marketing best practices, embrace technology with the latest tech tools and software, and take control of their digital presence.
If you’re not yet a LawLytics member and would like to know how we help attorneys avoid obsoletion and drive more business to their practice, schedule an interactive 20-minute demo with a product expert.
