Changing Legal Tech Platforms: Easy or Challenging?

By Rasmeet Charya and Charanjot Pastagia

Have you ever felt stuck with the current application or platform you are using? While researching legal technology applications and platforms, we came across an insightful observation by Douglas Adams - "We are stuck with technology when what we want is just stuff that works."  In our opinion, this holds true in the present times.

Today, legal tech encompasses a wide array of technologies and tools designed to assist legal professionals, including lawyers, in-house legal counsel, and corporate teams, in various aspects such as document management, case management, research, e-discovery, contract analysis, and more. With the legal tech landscape continually evolving, innovating, and surprising its audience with new platforms and applications, there is an ongoing need to update, upgrade, integrate, and embrace new technology to facilitate the ever-changing legal and regulatory work more efficiently and productively.

Even changing to a new smartphone can be a daunting task amidst numerous other responsibilities. So, imagine changing an entire legal tech application. Such a change not only involves costs for acquiring new software but also demands substantial effort for data migration, training, and the potential for disruptions in productivity during the transition.

Subscription Models

Before we delve into the challenges, it is essential to understand the various pricing structures and business models offered by legal tech companies, such as Software as a Service (SaaS), per-user licensing, tiered pricing, and more. While these models aim to provide flexibility and often grant access to specialized legal software, tools, or services on a recurring payment basis, knowing the total cost of ownership is crucial when making an informed decision about subscribing and potentially switching legal tech platforms.

Typically, business or legal users subscribe to the model that aligns with the structure and requirements of their legal practice, legal department, or business needs, budget, and usage. However, these requirements are likely to change in the future, prompting a desire to subscribe to new technology. So, what happens when you want to change to new technology?

Challenges

Often, sales and marketing teams tend to focus on highlighting the broad features of their tools and software. However, they may not always address the process of ending or changing a subscription. While processes are in place to collect client feedback, little attention is given to a client's experience during a software transition. Based on our various project experiences and customer responses, changing legal tech software can be a complex and challenging process due to various factors. These include the unique nature of the legal industry and the sensitive information it deals with. Here are some of the real challenges associated with changing legal tech software that need effective solutions:

1. Data Migration: The most daunting task is data migration, as law firms and departments often have vast amounts of data, including case files, documents, client and business information. Migrating this data to a new software system can be a significant challenge, as it must be done accurately and securely to avoid data loss or breaches. During data migration, there is a risk of data loss or corruption. Maintaining data integrity and ensuring that all historical information is preserved is a significant challenge. The cost and feasibility of migrating existing data to the new platform can also be a determining factor. Some providers offer data migration assistance as part of their service, while others may charge additional fees for this.
   

2. Integration with Existing Systems: Legal tech software is often part of a larger ecosystem of tools and software used by businesses or law firms. Ensuring that the new software integrates seamlessly with existing systems, such as ERPs, practice management software, billing systems, and document management, can be challenging. Ensuring that the new software remains compatible with other software and receives regular updates and support is essential to avoid future issues. 
   

3. Resistance to Adoption: Legal professionals may resist change to adopting new technology as it can disrupt their established workflows. Legal tech companies can handhold and provide adequate training and support to ensure that lawyers, paralegals, and staff can effectively use the new software. Overcoming user resistance and gaining buy-in is a significant challenge.
   

4. Security and Compliance: The legal industry deals with highly sensitive and confidential information. Any software change must ensure compliance with necessary security and privacy regulations. This involves data encryption, access control, and various other security measures.
   

5. Customization and Workflow: Legal processes can be highly customized and may vary significantly between firms and practice areas. Adapting the new software to meet the specific workflow and process needs of the firm or business can be a challenge. Switching platforms may mean losing these customizations and having to recreate them in the new system. For example, a legal department may have extensively customized its case management software to match its unique workflow and jurisdictional requirements. Switching platforms means starting from scratch.
   

6. Lack of Standardization: On the contrary, legal tech solutions also lack standardized data structures and formats, making it challenging to move data seamlessly between platforms. This lack of standardization can create friction when transitioning. For example, a client may try to switch e-discovery platforms but face difficulties aligning the metadata structures and tagging conventions used in their old system with the new one.
   

7. Downtime: There may be periods of downtime during the transition, which can affect a law firm's ability to serve clients and generate revenue. Minimizing downtime is a critical consideration.
   

8. Vendor Lock-In: Some legal tech vendors have difficult lock-ins for clients to switch to competing products, which can include proprietary file formats, data encryption, or exclusive data storage arrangements. For example, a client may be locked into a legal document management system that uses a proprietary file format making it a difficult and expensive exercise to switch to a different platform.
   

9. Negative Covenants/Contractual Obligations: Clients may have signed long-term contracts with legal tech providers, which can impose penalties or fees for early termination. These contractual obligations can be a significant hurdle to switching. For instance, a law firm may want to switch to a new practice management software, but their existing contract with the current provider includes a hefty termination fee.
   

10. Data Cleanup and Quality Control: When transitioning to a new legal tech platform, clients may need to clean up and validate data to ensure accuracy and consistency, which can be a time-consuming process. For example, a client may discover that their old legal billing software contains duplicate entries and inconsistencies in billing data when they migrate to a new billing platform.

These challenges can make it costly and time-consuming for clients to switch to a more suitable solution, even when their current legal tech tool does not effectively meet their requirements.

Solutions

As the legal tech industry is still emerging, learning from user experiences is the most significant driving force. Gaining user confidence comes from respecting the user's decision to end their subscription and helping the transition occur seamlessly. Here are some suggestions to address the transition challenges:

1. Dedicated Transition Team: Legal tech companies can establish dedicated transition teams to plan the transition smoothly, involving key stakeholders who work with experienced IT professionals specializing in legal tech. These teams can implement and execute a comprehensive transition plan and provide adequate support for a successful transition.
   

2. Training and Adoption: Typically, legal professionals resist change to venture outside their comfort zones, especially when adopting new technology. Legal tech companies can handhold and provide adequate training and support to ensure that lawyers, paralegals, and staff are able to effectively use the new software. This is crucial for a smooth transition.
   

3. Change Management: Law firms/businesses must implement change management strategies for a smooth transition. This includes facilitating communication between outgoing and incoming service providers, providing training, and addressing concerns and feedback from users.
   

4. Standardization and Data Portability: It is high time that the legal industry creates and adopts industry-standard data formats and structures to make data more portable between different legal tech platforms. Organizations like SALI are standardizing legal data and collaborating with various legal tech companies such as NetDocuments, Microsoft, etc. to help increase data interoperability and fuel emerging technologies like AI. This will also increase opportunities for integration.
   

5. Tools to Export Data: Legal tech providers should offer tools and features that help clients export their data in a standard format. These tools/features should be user-friendly and comprehensive, allowing bulk download and export of every data, tracker, or document that can be reused and imported into the new platform.
   

6. Client Offboarding as a Process: While contractual terms often address data return, deletion, and purging following contract completion or rescission, there is a lack of concrete evidence demonstrating these activities within the practices of legal tech companies. With the integration of AI, the magnitude of client data utilization throughout the legal tech landscape is beyond imagination. Therefore, it is imperative to establish a comprehensive offboarding process encompassing client or project closure, clearly delineating the necessary steps for data return, deletion, and purging. This process should outline where client data resides across all repositories, specify the format in which it will be returned, detail the handling of migration or transition requests to other platforms, and provide robust support mechanisms. Such a process not only instils confidence in clients but also aligns with data privacy regulations, fostering consistency in data migration standards.
   

7. Integration: - Open APIs: Legal tech providers should offer open application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow for easier integration with other tools and systems. This can promote interoperability. - Integration Partnerships: Several legal tech providers are fostering partnerships to create pre-built integrations between commonly used platforms. These partnerships can provide clients with seamless connections between different tools in the legal ecosystem.
   

8. User-Friendly Contractual Terms: It is essential to return client/user data seamlessly without additional costs or effort. Switching to alternative solutions should be without excessive penalties. Legal tech providers can offer more flexible contracts that allow clients/users to adjust their subscriptions when the system is not in use, archive data at a lower cost, etc., to ensure cost-effectiveness and stickiness to the legal tech solution.
   

9. Legal Tech Consulting: Consulting legal tech and innovation experts/consultants for objective evaluations of data security, data portability, and user-friendliness of legal tech software, particularly regarding transition, can provide valuable insights before committing to a new platform.
   

List of Subscription Models

1. SaaS (Software as a Service) Subscriptions: Legal tech companies offer their software and tools on a subscription basis. Users pay a regular fee (monthly or annually) to access and use the software. SaaS models are popular for legal research platforms, document management systems, and case management software.
   

2. Per-User Licensing: Some legal tech solutions charge on a per-user basis. Law firms or legal departments pay for each user who needs access to the software. This model is common for practice management software and legal research tools.
   

3. Tiered Pricing: Legal tech companies may offer tiered subscription plans with different levels of service or access. Higher-tier plans typically include more features, user licenses, or additional support. This model is often seen in e-discovery, contract management, and legal research tools.
   

4. Pricing Based on Usage: In this model, clients are charged based on their usage of the software or service. For example, legal research platforms may charge based on the number of searches or documents accessed.
   

5. Pay-As-You-Go: Some legal tech services offer pay-as-you-go pricing, allowing users to pay only for the resources they use. This model is common in cloud-based solutions and e-discovery platforms.
   

6. Freemium Models: Legal tech companies may offer basic features or limited access for free and charge for premium or advanced features. Users can choose to upgrade to a paid subscription to unlock additional functionality.
   

7. Fixed-Fee Subscription: Law firms or legal departments pay a fixed, predictable monthly or annual fee for a comprehensive suite of legal tech tools and services. This model can include various software and support services.
   

8. Customised/Tailored Pricing: Some legal tech companies provide tailored pricing based on the specific needs and scale of a law firm or legal department.
   

9. Hybrid Models: Some companies combine multiple pricing models to cater to a broader customer base. For example, they may offer SaaS subscriptions for their core software and charge separately for add-on modules or premium support.
   

10. Free Trial of Software: Many legal tech solutions offer free trials of their software for a specific period during which users can explore the software's features and functionality. Post the trial period, users can choose to subscribe to a paid plan.

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About the Authors:

Rasmeet Charya (l) is a strategic advisor on legal innovation and technology, an Indian and UK lawyer by qualification, with 23+ years of experience across the legal industry - litigation, law firm, ALSP, corporations, compliance, and risk advisory.

She is a legal innovator with hands-on experience in developing and implementing transformation, innovation, and technology across organizations in her various roles as Chief Innovation Officer, Strategic Advisor, Head of Product Innovation, and many more.

She is part of global legal tech and innovation forums, a speaker, and a thought leader. With a deep desire to contribute to the legal ecosystem, she actively lectures, designs, and conducts legal tech and innovation courses for law schools to equip law schools and future lawyers with legal tech and innovation expertise.

Charanjot Pastagia (r) is a passionate legal tech enthusiast who bridges the gap between traditional legal practices and cutting-edge technology. She comes with extensive experience, a strong commitment to compliance, and an innovative approach to problem-solving in a process-driven environment. With a diverse background that spans law firms, offshore legal service providers, and in-house legal support departments, she has established herself as a versatile professional in the realm of legal compliance and due diligence operating across India and the United States.

Throughout her career, Charanjot has closely collaborated with technology teams, leveraging her legal expertise to create innovative web-based solutions that cater to the unique needs of her clients. This convergence of law and technology reflects her commitment to staying at the forefront of the ever-evolving legal-tech landscape.

She is the founder of Join the Dots (JTDS), a US-based legal tech and design consulting and continues her passion for exploring the intersection of legal technology solutions, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and knowledge management through JTDS.

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