The role of technology in legal teams—an interview with Rob Booth

The role of technology in legal teams—an interview with Rob Booth

Sophie Gould sat down with Rob Booth, General Counsel of the Crown Estate, to discuss the role of technology in the legal industry, and in particular in-house legal teams. The interview came off the back of the recent ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû report,  .

Rob stressed the importance and value of capturing data and ensuring that it is properly fed back into his team's systems. It is only when you have a consistent feedback loop of data that you can reach the insights necessary to introduce a step change into process. Interestingly, our report echoes this sentiment with 72% of respondents expecting tech to enable new data insights in the future.

An interesting point of difference between our research report and Rob's view is that expectation of in-house lawyers relating to costs and technology. 75% of respondents expect lower fees from law firms as a result of using technology. Rob's perspective was that he wouldn't necessary punish law firms with lower margins as technology can provide a myriad of benefits beyond cost savings - for example better accuracy and speed of delivery.

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About the author:
Sophie Gould

Sophie is Head of Learning & Development at F-LEX Legal - an award winning legal tech startup helping law firms and organisations manage a flexible work force and supporting lawyers to make smarter life/work choices.Ìý

As part of her portfolio career Sophie runs various learning and development and networking forums for in-house lawyers and mentors junior lawyers.Ìý These include Flying Solo for small and solo legal teams and Aspire for junior in-house lawyers which she runs for ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû UK.Ìý She also works with schools and organisations to promote social mobility within the legal profession, working with The Social Mobility Business Partnership and Aspiring Solicitors.Ìý

She trained as a lawyer in the City and worked as an in-house lawyer for 10 years including as Head of Legal for Virgin Radio and Ginger Media Group.ÌýÌý

Outside of work she is happily married with three sons and enjoys morning walks along the beach with her two dogs.