Email in Legal Services

There has been widespread coverage in the media over recent weeks about the future of email as a primary communication tool, particularly in the legal sector, which has seen a sharp rise in the use of collaborative tools such as Microsoft SharePoint, Cisco WebEx and various IM and social media platforms. We spoke to senior IT decision-makers within leading law firms about this trend. In conversations with those including the Head of Service Delivery at Norton Rose and the Operations Director at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, we've profiled current views on the future role of email within legal IT. Our research found there is a unanimous feeling that a fundamental shift in how people in the legal sector communicate is taking place, best summed up by one decision-maker saying "people want conversations, not messages". The question for suppliers and IT decision-makers in the legal sector is, how do you facilitate these conversations without compromising security, confidentiality and credibility?