With LegalTech 2009 taking place this week in New York, now is a good time to take a look at some of the trends in ECM for law firms. What's most striking at the moment is that the recession hasn't avoided the legal industry this time around, as detailed in the Wall Street Journal's recent front page story Recession Batters Law Firms, Triggering Layoffs, Closings.

What this means for many firms is finding a way to lower overhead costs and help lawyers and staff members work more efficiently. In going around the globe talking to law firm IT managers, we have found that top firms are continuing to invest in IT projects, especially ones that are quick and easy to implement. Among the projects at the top of the list are:

• Eliminate duplicate systems. One large firm had a document management system in its UK headquarters from one vendor and different one in the U.S. By eliminating the duplicate system, it saves the cost of maintaining a separate server and software environment and improves collaboration. You can read more here.
• Extend Office and SharePoint.Microsoft Office and SharePoint are extremely popular across the legal industry. One way to leverage that investment further is to use software solutions built on the SharePoint platform.
• Automate email filing. Regulatory and firm policies require good record keeping practices around email, which has become the de facto way of communicating at law firms. One way to make it easy on lawyers is to automate email filing, as part of email lifecycle management. Such automated tools are integrated into Outlook and provide suggestions on filing locations, bulk filing and metadata markers to make it easy to find emails.
• Work with clients to lower eDiscovery costs. Many firms are finding that working with clients to take a proactive approach to eDiscovery benefits both the firm and its clients. High eDiscovery costs eat into client's resources so that they often have to scale back in other areas in a legal action including legal fees. It makes sense to work with clients to implement ECM-based eDiscovery solutions that can make it significantly easier, faster and far less costly to retrieve electronic information. Many firms are finding that working with clients to take a proactive approach to eDiscovery benefits both the firm and its clients.

If you're at LegalTech this year, be sure to swing by our booth, #2306. See you there.