Legal professionals are using technology to make legal services faster, more transparent, and more accessible.
The legal industry was built in another era and has historically adopted new technology more slowly than other industries. Several factors have delayed tech adoption. Legal work involves highly sensitive information and requires confidentiality.
Attorneys must also operate within regulatory requirements and ethical rules. Many government agencies and court systems still use outdated systems, making it difficult to use modern advances.
A significant portion of a legal team’s work involves administrative tasks, which take up valuable time. Automating many of these tasks would be beneficial. The growing demand for legal services is putting additional pressure on the industry to embrace technology to simplify processes and move cases through the legal system more quickly.
Adding to the complexity of the legal system is the growing inclusion of digital information and digital assets in cases. New forms of financial activity, such as cryptocurrency, are now part of major cases. As clients demand transparent, convenient communication, LegalTech innovations have moved to the forefront of industry discussion.
Although technology can make legal work faster and more efficient, the industry has struggled to automate it. In law, someone with professional expertise must make decisions. A person must oversee any new system to ensure accountability.
LegalTech can help in four areas: trust and estate administration, financial investigations involving cryptocurrency, immigration law and client advocacy, and law firm operations and data integration.
The Everyday Legal Problem Technology Is Built to Solve
When someone dies, families face the daunting task of finding their financial accounts, digital assets, and the person’s life online. Digital information can be scattered across email accounts, websites, online platforms, and devices, and may include information about assets and accounts that the family members didn’t know about.
Perpetua is a LegalTech company that uses technology to locate a deceased person’s digital assets and online accounts. Perpetua helps attorneys automate asset discovery through digital metadata analysis.
“Technology has this ability, between the cache, cookies, and metadata that’s been collected on you, storing almost an infinite, dare I say, memory over the course of your life. So pulling on that kind of allows us to track down what an individual might have created, what value they might have left,” says Jacqueline Deprey, co-founder and CEO of Perpetua.
Helping identify accounts, assets, and other relevant digital information can help the executor resolve the deceased’s estate faster and answer any relevant questions from the family.
“Being able to provide more transparency, to reduce the back and forth, the information-gathering stage, and to bring everyone into one cohesive view to stay on the same page is one value we see technology adding, and hopefully reducing the billable hours that come with all that tedious work from the estate lawyer side,” Deprey adds.
As the population ages, wealth will transfer significantly. As digital assets become an important part of an estate, questions may arise about legal access to the deceased’s accounts and information. Perpetua recognizes that clients may want different levels of information and detail, and it offers customizable views. AI can give clients more power over their estate after they’re gone.
“Someone could even specify before they pass away: ‘I want these accounts deleted, I want these passed down to certain individuals,’ with a human in the loop validating everything.”
Following the Digital Money Trail
Cryptocurrency has created a new challenge during divorce and bankruptcy litigation. Sometimes assets are hidden in offshore accounts and are missed by the opposing counsel.
“Family law attorneys all over are getting a Coinbase statement; they see the account balance at the bottom, they circle it, and they don’t realize that two years ago, the spouse withdrew two Bitcoin into a private wallet that’s just sitting there and now it’s worth $150,000. They look at balances, not transactions, and the transactions are so key,” says Robert Coons, founder of Heartland Blockchain Advisors.
Heartland Blockchain Advisors is a cryptocurrency investigation and blockchain forensics firm that works with attorneys, litigators, and individuals on divorce and civil disputes. The firm investigates on-chain transactions to find assets. Through mapping wallet flows, Heartland helps its clients claim what rightfully belongs to them.
“In all of my expert reports, I have to present a companion document that explains what in cryptocurrency is similar to concepts judges are familiar with, and then what is novel, because a lot of the time they just don’t know. Since you can’t compel someone to hand over their crypto wallet, the strategy is to offset that hidden value with other marital assets: the house, the 401K,” Coons adds.
According to Heartland Blockchain Advisors, fraudsters move cryptocurrency into private wallets. Because they are beyond subpoena power and not tied to ID, people already committing other crimes use these private wallets. As assets continue to be digitized, tracking them is becoming more essential.
“Just two weeks ago, Robinhood launched their own proprietary blockchain, and very soon you’ll be able to hold stocks and self-custody the same way that you can hold crypto. So your 401Ks, your IRAs, all of that is moving on-chain. All the investigation issues that we’re facing here with cryptocurrency will also exist for traditional assets.”
Automation Can Create More Time for Advocacy
Alaz Law Firm is a boutique law firm that provides legal services in US immigration law as well as corporate law and estate planning. Its immigration services include family-based immigration and green cards, employment-based visas, citizenship and naturalization, federal immigration litigation, and more. The firm has automated all its administrative tasks, so its attorneys can focus on representing clients.
“I can focus more on advocacy, client management, and client handholding. We have AI agents who are working for us day and night, even after business hours, and OCR that automatically transfers all the data to auto-populated forms that we can review and go through with the clients,” says Hasan Alaz, the managing attorney and founder of Alaz Law Firm.
According to him, the firm has a tech-first model that automates intake, form preparation, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) status monitoring.
“Trust can only be earned by being present with your clients. And in order for me to be present, I need to utilize all of the tools that are out there so that I can be more available. With that, we keep our almost 100% approval rate in all government agencies, and that’s what I’m proud of,” Alaz adds.
He is aware of the legal industry’s resistance to adopting LegalTech, but he rejects that mindset. Advocating for his clients is his mission, and he strongly believes technology helps him fulfill it.
“The legal field has always had a scarcity mindset. They always stay behind all of the technological improvements and developments. This time we need to be early adopters. All of our lawyers out there have not to be afraid of AI or technology, but really embrace it, starting with a full electronic transformation of government agencies like USCIS.”
Law Firms Struggle With Disconnected Technology
Melone Hatley, P.C. experienced rapid growth, growing from 2 staff members to 120 spread across 5 states. This period exposed a technology gap between affordable, siloed tools and more expensive enterprise platforms. Workarounds were costly, and disconnected software created delays that increased client costs.
“There’s just nothing in between affordable endpoint software and what AM Law 100 has. We’ve been struggling to create workarounds and layers on top that actually answer our needs, because nothing out there will tie together your CRM data, client data, attribution models, and financials all in one place,” says Charles Hatley, the CEO of Melone Hatley, P.C.
The solution was to build a bridge to close that gap with custom AI scripts. Meanwhile, client data remains in a closed, attorney-supervised system that complies with state bar rules.
“Every state is starting to put together laws saying that client confidentiality means the attorney has to understand what they’re doing and know where the data goes — and nobody knows where AI data goes. So I had Claude build a program that pulls my Power BI data and gives AI insights from a sterilized version of our data so that we can stay compliant while still getting those insights,” Hatley says.
Looking ahead, he wants a unified client portal that lets attorneys easily access all client information.
“For clients who want to talk on the phone, having a seamless conversation with their attorney, where they can say ‘I got this bill’ and the attorney can say ‘I see it right here, I see where it was paid’ without any transfers or holds. And for the client who doesn’t want to talk, a single portal where everything ties together, and they can log in and see their whole case.”
Most legal work revolves around gathering information, organizing documents, completing forms, tracking transactions, and updating clients. Though these tasks are essential, they are time-consuming and take away valuable time from clients. LegalTech can help with these tasks, giving attorneys more time to focus on client relationships and case strategy.
