In-house lawyers back to office full time according to ContractWorks survey

The ContractWorks survey shows that in-house lawyers must return to the office full time due to the deficient technology of many legal departments. According to the contract management software company, whose research polled 350 in-house lawyers across the U.S. and the U.K, a most advanced tech would facilitate fully remote work but the legal departments are still in the process of adopting new systems.

“The results of our research may come as a wake-up call to legal department bosses,” said Mark Rhodes, managing director of ContractWorks. Most in-house lawyers aren’t enthusiastic about returning to the office full time but at the moment most legal departments are not prepared for a fully remote work.

Rhodes added giving legal departments the tools to work remotely can also increase job satisfaction and employee happiness.“Technology plays a crucial role in making home-working policies a success and organizations that don’t prioritize selecting the right tools for their teams risk not being able to implement remote working on a sustainable basis.”

Despite 64% of the American lawyers reporting they do not want to go back to the office on a full-time basis, 44% of survey respondents said they have already done so. Only 19% of the respondents work under a hybrid model.

Thirty percent of respondents said lack of resources at their organization prevented them from adopting the technological tools that would allow them to fully work remotely. Twenty-seven percent of the surveyed lawyers pointed to budget constraints in their own departments, while another 29% said a lack of tech literacy was slowing adoption of new tools.

More than one-third of the respondents opined that access to litigation management software and contract management software were their top tech priorities.

Many organizations seem to be making progress: Fifty-four percent half of the in-house lawyers surveyed said the pandemic fast-tracked the adoption of legal technology by at least three years, with 39% reporting they now use contract management software and 34% reporting using matter management software.

In summary, nearly half the respondents said adopting these tools have made their jobs more enjoyable.