Each week, the Law.com Barometer newsletter, powered by the ALM Global Newsroom and Legalweek(year) 2021, brings you the trends, disruptions and shifts our reporters and editors are tracking through coverage spanning every beat and region across the ALM Global Newsroom. The micro-topic coverage will not only help you navigate the changing legal landscape, but also prepare you to discuss these shifts with thousands of legal leaders at our next virtual Legalweek(year) conference, happening on July 13-14. The upcoming sessions will cover a host of topics, including contracts and document automation, legal business strategies, e-discovery, litigation and data science and more. Click here to learn more and register for the most important virtual legal event of the year!

The Shift: Law Firm Tech Budgets Scrap “Next Big Thing” in Favor of the Basics

Especially after the pandemic, it’s not too much of a leap in logic to picture the “Law Office of the Future,” as brought to you by The Jetsons: robot receptions scanning never-ending databases of legal precedent to find the perfect evidence to take before the virtual court. To hear some tell it, these futuristic law firms are only a matter of time, the natural end of technological progression. But a closer look at law firm tech budgets tells a very different story.