Announcing the Litera UK Technology in M&A Report

While there are several surveys that track the progress of technology adoption in the legal industry, they rarely illuminate the state of technology in specific practice areas. To help fill that gap for one practice area, Litera is excited to announce the release of our new survey: Technology in M&A Report: AI, Tech Adoption, and Talent Management in the UK. 

There are a wide variety of technology tools targeted toward M&A teams in law firms, and we hope this research will help the industry better understand the needs M&A lawyers in the UK, their attitudes towards new technologies, and where they are in their digital transformation journey. 

The report is based on a quantitative survey of over 350 M&A specialists at law firms globally, but with a narrowed view on our findings from respondents working in the UK. It includes insights on the technologies they are using, their technology investment plans, the staffing and talent retention implications of technology adoption, and their view of the future of technology in M&A practice, particularly regarding the impact of machine learning technologies. 

Below are three key takeaways from our research:

• Lawyers in the UK are innovators and early adopters who are using transaction technologies to support every stage of their M&A work. These technology solutions span the entire deal lifecycle, from due diligence and document drafting through negotiation and closing, including overall transaction organization and workflow tools. And while UK lawyers are overall satisfied with their technology, the more familiar and well-adopted tools earned slightly lower satisfaction scores, indicating some hedonic adaptation.
• UK lawyers are continuing to invest in new technologies, creating new staff roles, and planning for ongoing training to ensure that their people have the knowledge to use their tools effectively. Technology is only as good as the people using it—and M&A lawyers in the UK are clearly planning to make the most of their tools and their people. Our respondents’ firms are planning further investments in technology and creating new roles for legal knowledge managers, data analysts, and more.
• AI is on its way to becoming a standard practice in due diligence, thanks to its accuracy and speed. As eDiscovery professionals learned over a decade ago, AI can transform document review—and that’s as true for due diligence and contract review as it is for litigation. With the rising tide of business documents and data, M&A lawyers must turn to technology to stay competitive, especially when market volatility is forcing legal teams to mitigate uncertainty by closing deals faster than ever before.

To read more about the survey results including a full analysis of these main themes, you can download the full report.