Back To School – Eversheds Sutherland launches LegalTech Training
July 29, 2019
2 min read
What's going on here?
Global leader Eversheds Sutherland have announced a new LegalTech training scheme for their UK technology partners.
What does this mean?
From September, all UK partners in the field of technology will take part in a training programme focusing on LegalTech.
LegalTech is the use of technology and software to provide and assist the provision of legal services. Examples of such technology includes Blockchain technology, Big Data analytics and the use of AI robotics.
Andrew McManus (co-head of innovation at Eversheds) said there is a growing necessity for partners to be able to comfortably discuss the key issues and the firm’s capabilities with clients. Mr McManus described the training by saying ‘the idea is that every partner will go through a face-to-face exercise with a range of people training them on technology.’
The firm has previously run similar training sessions on hot topics such as GDPR.
Why should law firms care?
With LegalTech becoming an increasingly important trend in law, this is another example of how law firms are adapting to this big change. This isn’t Eversheds’ only announcement in the technology field. Last November, the firm introduced an innovation crowdsourcing platform, Idea Drop, across its 66 offices which allows lawyers and staff to share, like and rate each other’s ideas for improving services.
Competitor firm Clifford Chance are also keeping up to date with the latest legal technologies and recently announced a new training contract scheme ‘IGNITE’, which will focus specifically on technology.
Similarly, Reed Smith announced last year that 5 of their summer associates would be placed in a program where they will work on developing projects that use technology to improve legal services.
As the demand for future-facing lawyers increases, law firms must keep up to date with the latest technologies in order to give clients commercially relevant advice in the most efficient way possible. This may include technology-focused training from the outset as we can see from the introduction of technology-specific training contracts or training programs for well-established lawyers.
We expect to see even more law firms ‘updating’ soon.
Report written by Erin Stockdale
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