2024 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report
Published by the American Bar Association and sponsored by LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters, and ABA Legal Technology Resource Center (2024)
Interested in how your fellow attorneys leverage the use of technology in their practice? If you are, check out the 2024 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report. Since 1990, the American Bar Association has surveyed attorneys about their technology use. Its finding are published in five volumes and cover the following topics: online research, technology basics and security, law office technology, marketing and communication technology, and litigation.
Volume I, Online Research, looks at legal research, including the time spent researching, the formats most often used, the resources chosen as starting points in the legal research process, and the use of free online legal research tools, fee-based online resources, and remote resources. The attorneys surveyed also provided information about how they keep-up-date with legal trends and news and whether they use legal analytics in their practice or research. In keeping with the proliferation of artificial intelligence, the survey reports on lawyers’ use of AI and their concerns about the implementation and use of AI, such as cost, reliability, accuracy, data privacy, and security.
Volume II, Marketing & Communications, examines the methods by which attorneys communicate with clients and market their services, such as firm websites, blogs, newsletters, and social media. Respondents provided information about the social networks used and how those networks are employed. The report also looked at the respondent’s email usage and whether it was utilized to transmit confidential or privileged information.
Attorneys’ preferences for hardware, i.e. devices, and software are highlighted in Volume III, Law Office Technology. The survey categorizes software by type: document software (PDF creation, document/records management, redlining), general office software (databases, project management, time and billing), and legal-specific software (case/practice management, conflict-checking, calendaring).
Litigators will be interested particularly in Volume IV, Litigation & E-Technology. This volume gauges the prevalence of technology in courtroom practice. It looks at the use of mobile devices in the courtroom, courtroom technology training, and the availability and employment of litigation software. In addition, the survey results document attorneys’ usage of e-filing and e-discovery in their trial practice.
Volume V, Technology Basics & Security, addresses how the attorneys surveyed manage their technology budget and goals, how they stay informed about technology and its attendant risks and benefits, and what or who they consult when they experience tech issues or want to learn more about legal tech. Security was another topic that received lots of responses. The survey gathered information on the types of technology policies law firms had implemented and the availability of any security tools, such as encryption and spam filters. Respondents also reported on security breaches, including incidents of infection by viruses, spyware, or malware.
These volumes are available only through the Law Library’s LexisNexis Digital Library. For information about accessing this title, requesting an account, or browsing the collection, please see the Law Library’s eBook Collection webpage at https://www.harriscountylawlibrary.org/digital-collection.