Episode 141 - The Use of Data in Legal Practice – What’s happening in law firms right now?

Data – it sounds exciting, illuminating and intimidating all at the same time but, as we now know, it’s also referred to as the new oil or the new electricity – and for legal businesses, just as pervasive and precious!

So, how are we using data in our legal businesses right now? And, can we/should we know more, do more, and extract more from our data to make better decisions for our legal businesses and our clients?

In this podcast, we explored these questions and many more with Denise Doyle. Denise is an experienced legal ops professional – data in her role is like currency (digital and otherwise) in our economy – it’s central, nothing works without it, and nothing happens without analysing it! Denise explored the use of data in legal practice as the topic for her Research Fellowship with the Centre and in this session revealed what she found and why it matters to every legal practitioner!  

Topics covered in this episode include:

• The link between increased tech adoption and data usage
• The challenges for legal practitioners and practices in using data
• Where, how, and how often data analytics is showing up in legal business decision making and client matters…and why it’s important
• What’s driving (or not) upskilling in data understanding, use, and analysis
• Where education opportunities can/should/are being accessed (or not) about legal data
• How to approach and who to employ as your legal data analyst
• The emerging gap in data use and application between law firms and in-house legal departments…and why that matters
• How to close the data skills gap for lawyers…urgently!

Congrats on completing your Fellowship, Denise – great insights, great opportunities ahead – we know you’ll be leading them and helping all of us do more, understand more, and make more of our legal businesses for our clients through the magic of data!

If you are interested in learning more about the use and application of data in legal practice, please listen/watch this session (podcast Ep 142 and video) on The Data Driven Legal Practice – Fact, Fiction or Fantasy? too.