The number of in-house counsel’s is growing significantly, a big threat to law firms. Businesses are fed up with paying high billable hours and lawyers are bored of working crazy hours. A recent survey at General Counsel 2015, by The Economist and sponsored by LexisNexis (of course) found some interesting things in relation to LawTech opportunities. You can see all the stats in their trendy infographic (below).

We love stats, but we summarised relevant ones;

• How prepared for a data breach?
  – 48% fairly unprepared or very unprepared
• Which tech trend is biggest opportunity?
  – 31% smart contracts
  – 55% AI & Machine Learning
  – 10% on-demand / outsourcing
• Which tech trend is biggest risk?
  – 55% AI & Machine Learning
  – 13% on-demand / outsourcing
  – 29% none if the above
• How prepared is organisation for disruption in next 3-5 years?
  – 14% we will be the disrupters
  – 27% we are prepared for the disruption of our industry
  – 59% poorly or not prepared for the disruption

What we think;

We would love to hear more from the 5% who voted that AI is the biggest threat AND opportunity for General Counsel. AI is a buzz word right now in London LawTech and our next event on AI in law is a sell out.

Data security is a big threat to law firms and general counsel’s. It is not if there will be a breach, it is when. A whopping 48% of general counsels said they are either prepared or very unprepared is alarming, but this is a good opportunity to sell some security services.

General Counsels should be a key target for law tech startups in UK, they appear to be better embraces of new models and see technology as an opportunity to drive efficiency, where as a law firm profits from in-efficiency.

• General Counsel 2015 Conference The Economist [The Economist] LexisNexis [LexisNexis]