‘Do or die’ was the message from delegates at this month’s Legal Week Strategic Technology Forum held in Portugal – keep at the cutting edge of technological developments or risk losing both clients and staff. Sophie Evans reports

It is a sign of the times that many of the issues legal IT professionals are grappling with are the same issues that are affecting lawyers. Whereas IT may have previously been viewed by fee earners as a back-office function, the strategic goals of IT and legal professionals have since become rather more entwined; both sides have a greater awareness
of each other’s role within the firm. In the words of Allen & Overy (A&O) managing partner David Morley: “pretty much everything we are doing now has a technology angle, but it is not always obvious.”