Here is another vendor (Selectica) with their view on the Gartner Legal IT 2020 Scenario.
Selectica concludes that the Office of the General Counsel (GC), Chief Legal Officer, and supporting cast inside of corporate America has forever changed. No longer are they a group of lawyers that have moved out of the law office to handle matters, contracts or due diligence. They are now a formidable, knowledgeable and business savvy force that is connected with the executive management team if not reporting directly to the CEO.
I subscribe to the fundamental change of role, however I do not see that this has happpend in practise over the line. Many lawyers are still stuck in old roles and behaviour.
Selectica emphasizes also the fact that “highly skilled legal IT analysts and modelers will find new demands within the legal professions and associated technology providers. By 2019, 75% of corporate legal and IT departments will have shared staff.” Further, vendors of contract management solutions, big data and semantic analysis solutions are finding new markets in legal, IT, procurement and sales.
If the prediction comes thru or not, I am not prepared to sign off to (yet). However, I totally agree to the fact that new tools will emerge to support lawyers (and other contract professionals) in their task. What first comes to mind are tools to read and understand agreements!
Please read more here: General Counsels Can No Longer Be Just Corporate Lawyers.
