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At a time where budgets are squeezed, the public sector is under increased pressure to deliver more for less – and while investing in new technology might seem counter-productive to cutting costs, it may be the saving grace over-stretched legal departments in the public sector are so desperate for.

The states 27% of all lawyers in the UK work in the public sector, including health and local government, while an additional 7% work in other sector organisations, including advice centres, registered charities and education. Of those in the public sector, half (51%) work for a local government body and a fifth (21%) work for the Crown Prosecution Service.

With complex legal frameworks in place, numerous regulatory compliance and statutory duties to consider, and large workloads to manage, public sector legal departments have relied heavily on two solutions in the past; working crazy hours to ensure everything gets done on time and relying on outside counsel.

But in recent times a third option has emerged – and that is legal automation technology. Here’s why public sector legal teams are coming to rely on technology such as machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology to help increase productivity, reduce costs and streamline processes.

Legal automation technology can help streamline routine work

Despite the years of experience, training and academia required to be an effective lawyer, a significant proportion of the work is routine and requires little to no human judgement.

A found almost two thirds (63%) of in-house legal work is repeatable or routine.

But automated legal technology can help legal teams in the public sector to handle repetitive operational tasks that require no human judgement or interpretation, freeing up more time to do more important tasks.

As Brad Blickstein, Co-head of Baretz+Brunelle’s NewLaw Practice, puts it in the new ������Ƶ Big Four report:

“Law school teaches you to look for the differences in matters, so it’s quite hard to then come out of that thinking and forget all about the differences and instead focus on the 95% of everything that’s the same.”

To free up time for their lawyers to focus on high-priority tasks, legal departments are investing more and more in new legal technology ­– a found 3.9% of legal department budgets are being spent on technology, but this is expected to rise to 12% by 2025.

Public sector legal teams are including the Big Four on their panels

There’s increased pressure on in-house legal budgets within the public sector, which has forced them to revaluate what work can be kept in-house, what needs to be sent to a traditional law firm and what can be outsourced to an alternative provider.

As a result, a growing number of government organisations and other organisations in the public sector are adding the Big Four or other ALSPs to their panels. These firms can operate at scale and have access to local expertise in a more joined-up, consistent manner than traditional firms that might rely on local partner networks or only have small offices with limited practice-area coverage.

Read our report on how the Big Four are disrupting the legal sector

According to , PwC Legal works with public sector clients including The Wellcome Trust (tax litigation, VAT and indirect tax), EU commission (VAT and indirect tax) and Fife Council (VAT and indirect tax litigation, customs and excise). They’re also winning legal work outside the tax sphere, such as employment law work for The Pensions Regulator, City & Guilds of London and The Official Receiver. The Legal 500 also state that Big Four competitor, Deloitte Legal, is also working with the British Interactive Media Association for corporate law work.

How legal automation technology can help the public sector

There are hundreds of use cases for how automated legal technology can help streamline processes and cut costs in the public sector, but here are some of the most compelling:

Trademark registrations or verifications of disputes – legal tech can process high-volumes of legal documents for transactional or due diligence purposes.

Conflicts of interest – it can also be used to identify potential conflicts of interest by scanning databases at speed.

Legal contract automation and legal document automation – it can help pinpoint agreements that require review, and it can allow lawyers to easily accept or reject changes on common clauses or prewritten templates. Find out more about Lexis Create here.

Chatbots – it can save your team time responding to common queries over email or internal chat tools by providing automated answers in real time.

Self-service – digitised platforms that enable citizens to self-serve are increasingly popular. This option is high in demand in the private sector, too. A recent survey by the found this was the top technology in the pipeline for SRA-regulated law firms – 21% are planning to use it while 15% currently are.

Access to the latest AI and automated technology may have always felt like a lifetime away for most public sector legal departments a few years back, but the opportunity to utilise automated legal technology is becoming more and more of a possibility.

At ������Ƶ, we have a range of cutting-edge legal automation solutions available to public sector legal teams. Find out more here.