Diversity and Innovation

Diversity and Innovation: the impact of everyone adapting to technology

Technology has enabled many within the legal industry to transition to remote working practically overnight in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Much of this technology is not new, but out of necessity, everyone was forced to learn to use it to ensure business continuity. This has resulted in increased confidence and acceptance of technology solutions such as videoconferencing, and specific legal tech tools such as collaboration platforms and e-signature tools. This is promising - as an industry, legal tech will continue to evolve and grow beyond COVID-19, making the delivery of legal services more efficient and remote-friendly.

There is a risk, however, that the pandemic might exacerbate existing gender inequality in legal tech 1 and the broader legal industry. This could happen in two ways:

Firstly, the pandemic could have a disproportionately negative effect on women in the workforce overall, including women in law and legal tech. In a recent study, the Institute of Fiscal Studies and UCL 2 found that during the lockdown, mothers were more likely than fathers to have been furloughed or laid off, and even if they were still working, only did a third of the uninterrupted paidwork hours that fathers did, often due to childcare demands. The result of this, according to the researchers, could be “a further increase in the gender wage gap”.

This is echoed by the findings of a survey conducted by Next 100 Years 3 on the impact of the pandemic on women working in the legal profession specifically. They found that, of 870 respondents, 65% were concerned that lockdown was exaggerating existing inequalities between men and women.

Secondly, diversity initiatives could be side-lined as companies face increased financial pressures. The public health crisis has triggered an economic crisis, causing law firms and legal tech companies to furlough staff, impose hiring freezes and focus on surviving the pandemic. With companies in cost-cutting mode, diversity and inclusion efforts are likely to slip further down the priorities list. Indeed, over 50% of respondents to the Next 100 Years survey voiced concerns that diversity initiatives will fall by the wayside as a result of COVID-19.

COVID-19 aside, we have been going through a period of immense change across the legal industry, with alternative delivery models and new technology being explored and applied to legal services delivery. We need a diverse workforce to help us deliver true innovation and continue the good work we’ve done so far; companies need to avoid inadvertently letting the pandemic undo the progress we’ve made on gender diversity.

Nevertheless, there is a silver lining. Through the crisis, we are seeing flexible and remote working practices legitimised; managers are realising that you can be out of the office and be doing good work at the same time. This shift in attitude in favour of remote working is likely to persist and will have a positive effect on women in the legal industry in the long run. Women disproportionately carry family responsibilities, but the rise of flexible working, which has been facilitated in our industry particularly by legal tech solutions, will hopefully encourage more women to remain in the workforce as it becomes easier to balance home and work life.

Helpfully for women, flexible working is not just a women’s issue; lockdown has also given more men a taste of the benefits, which is likely to result in a quicker and more sustained shift in attitudes as agile practices are championed by men and women alike.

Another outcome of remote working is that men and women are forced to operate on a level playing field: remotely. The pandemic has, at least temporarily, meant that women are not missing out on work-related activities, such as social gatherings and business travel, that they would normally find difficult to participate in while juggling primary carer responsibilities. These obstacles have historically held back women advancement in the workplace, but at least in the interim, the barriers have been removed.

The pandemic will have permanent and far-reaching effects on legal tech and the broader legal industry. Digital transformation will continue, and even accelerate, and technology will play a vital role in the delivery of legal services.

To continue delivering innovative products, services and business practices, we need a diverse and inclusive workforce. As we emerge from the pandemic, we need to continue our efforts to build this, particularly given the potentially negative effects of the pandemic on women in the legal industry. Failure to account for diversity issues as we navigate through the crisis will lead to a less inclusive, dynamic and resilient future for us all. ■

Ivy Wong - Product Manager Thomson Reuters and creator of the Legal Geek Mentorship Programme www.legalgeek.co/mentorship/

1. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberg-law-analysis/ analysis-legal-techs-gender-diversity-problem

2. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/may/parents-especiallymothers-paying-heavy-price-lockdown

3. https://next100years.org.uk/survey/