Each year the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center surveys ABA members to discover how lawyers are using technology in their practices nationwide. The ABA Legal Technology Survey Report is published in five volumes: Online Research, Marketing & Communications, Law Office Technology, Litigation, and Tech Basics. The published results represent one of the most comprehensive technology surveys of lawyers available.
The demographics in this year’s Technology Basics & Security volume, which covers technology planning and budgeting, resulted in the following statistics:
On average, respondents have been admitted to the bar for 30 years.
When preparing a budget, firms should consider budgeting for technology. According to the survey, the firms that mostly reported “yes” to budgeting for technology were firms that had 50-99 lawyers (94.1%). Conversely, 55.4% of solo firms reported that they did not have a budget for technology. Out of the total firms surveyed, 65.2% responded that they do budget for technology. For those firms that answered “yes” to budgeting for technology, 53.7% responded that their technology budget had increased compared to last year with 23.2% responding that their budget had stayed the same.
Respondents were asked “are lawyers required to stay abreast of the benefits and risks of technology as part of their basic competency requirement under your jurisdiction’s enactment of the rules of professional conduct?” The majority of respondents (70.6%) answered yes with 10.8% answering “no”. According to the survey, the firms that mostly reported “yes” to that requirement were firms with 100-499 lawyers (86.3%). Whereas, 21.4% of firms with 50-99 lawyers reported that they did not have a budget for technology. 14.7% of solo firms also responded “no”.
Respondents were asked a series of questions regarding how their technology purchasing decisions were influenced. Specifically, they were asked how influential the following were on their purchasing decisions:
According to the data, Staff Feedback appears to be “Very influential” upon purchasing decisions (39.2%) with Print and Online advertisement not having much influence at all as only .4% of respondents found both of those resources to be “Very influential”. Peers, Consultants, and Expert Reviews also had notable influence on Technology Purchasing Decisions.
Respondents were also asked “which of the following policies or plans governing technology does your law firm have?”
56.8% of respondents answered that they have an email use policy and only 33.9% answered that they have a Personal Technology Use/BYOD Policy. The other policies or plans ranked as follows:
Surprisingly, 19.9% answered “none”.
Respondents were asked which of the following security tools they have, and this is how the leading security tools used by firms ranked:
12.8% of respondents answered that they did not know which security tools they have.
According to the budgeting and planning results from the Technology Basics and Security volume of the 2024 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, more solo firms need to have a budget in place for technology. Additionally, the majority of firms that do have a technology budget in place, responded that their budget increased over the previous year. Given that law firm staff have a significant influence on purchasing decisions, firm owners should make sure to include staff and get their feedback when deciding on what tech products to purchase. Surprisingly, a fair number of respondents (19.9%) did not know what security policies their firms had in place. Firms should aim to do a better job at informing their attorneys and staff as to which security policies and tools are in place. This will likely lead to further conversation as to what other security policies could be added to make the firm more secure. Based on the data, most firms have spam filter and firewall as a security tools. However, 12.8% of respondents answered that they did not know what security tools were in place at their firms. If continue to strive to make technology and security a priority for their firms, they will run more efficiently, have more informed staff, and avoid potential breaches. The starting point for this should be creating a technology budget for the firm and then asking for peer recommendations with respect to technology and security tools. From there, the firm’s staff should have involvement by trying out each product and then providing feedback to help the firm make an informed decision as to which technology and security tools to implement into the practice.
