3#12 - Peter van Dam - Digital Transformation in the Legal Industry (Eng)

«A lawyer has to be compliant. An advice from a lawyer should be fault free. Therefore it is so difficult to just do something. It is not in their DNA."

Unlock the secrets to the legal sector's digital transformation with our latest guest, Peter van Dam, Chief Digital Officer at Simonsen Vogt and Wiig. We promise you a journey into the innovative realm where data management and artificial intelligence redefine the traditional practices of law. Peter offers us a glimpse into his professional trajectory from legal tech provider to digital pioneer, emphasizing how data and application integration are revolutionizing legal services.

Discover the unique challenges and opportunities that come in a new era of digital sophistication in the law profession. Our conversation dives into the significance of roles like Chief Digital Officer in shaping a progressive future for a historically conservative field. We share stories of how to catalyze excitement for technology among legal eagles and clients alike, and we explore the strategic vision needed to navigate the balance between innovation, confidentiality, and compliance.

The episode examines the expanding potential for automation within legal services. Here, the focus shifts to how digital tools enhance, rather than replace, the human expertise of lawyers. Rounding off the discussion, we shine a light on how law firms are upgrading their data access protocols, ensuring that sensitive information remains under lock and key.

My key takeaways:

LegalTech

• Legal might seem as a conservative section, but on the insight everyone, from lawyer, to staff to paralegal is working on continuous improvement and growing more and more efficient.
• Low code, citizen development, hackathons, etc. are ways to quickly iterate on ideas and applying them.
• Internal and external marketing of the importance of technology in law is important.
• You have to lift those first step barriers, an get first hand knowledge of using AI and tech, to really embrace it.

Document & Content Management

• Optimizing interoperability and data exchange between different document management tools is an interesting journey.
• There is huge, untapped potential in unstructured data.
• The biggest challenge for document management is to find ways of cutting through the noise of redundant, obsolete, and trivial data.
• You need a certain quality of data sources to utilize LLMs and genAI.
• Methods of AI Governance need to work in concert with classical methods of data and Information Management.
• Data volumes are growing exponentially, and so does the cost. Records Management is important to structure data, create retention schedules and ensure that datahis available according to need and regulatory requirements.

AI and trends in Technology

• Find a way to balance need and investment in a way that you have the relevant tools available when needed but are not exclusively reliant on those tools.
• Development in technology, data, AI, sustainability, etc. creates more demand for legal services - technological development accelerates legal demand.
• For the practice of law, human interaction is vital. There might be a more differentiated service offering going forward, but human interaction with a lawyer will still be at the core of the practice.

The role of CDO

• The role of CDO is challenged, because it can mean so many different things in different environments.
• A Chief Digital Officer is important to get enthusiasm about new technology and to actually get it implemented and used.
• Communication is the most important skill and tool.
• As a CDO or Digitalization department you need to think 6 month ahead, elicit trends and find out what can become relevant for your firm.