The Legal Tech to English Dictionary

When it comes to the business of law, the pandemic era has reinforced an industry truism: Effective adoption of technology is the key to ongoing success. 

As the Wolters Kluwer 2021 Law Firm Profitability Decision Makers survey revealed, over 80% of respondents — those helping to guide the country’s largest law firms — say technology adoption is “of critical importance” to the goal of efficiently delivering client services. But ask this same group about how their own firms are doing on tech adoption, and the largest cohort will tell you: “fair.” 

Findings like these appear to reflect a broad tension in the industry: While lawyers are eager to acknowledge the growing importance of technology, they may hold lukewarm views of their own tech savvy. This is precisely the gap addressed by The Legal Tech-to-English Dictionary (2022 ed.), a lighthearted introduction to the tech and business operations terms lawyers need to know (and likely don’t). 

There’s a term for when attorneys use Latin words and arcane terminology to describe legal processes to consumers: “legalese.” But there’s no similar term for when vendors use technical and other arcane terms to describe their legal software operations to lawyers. True, this dynamic may seem unfair. But now you have the Legal Tech-to-English Dictionary to help us cope.