The Garrigues-ICADE LegalTech & NewLaw Observatory opens debate on potential 2030 digital agenda for legal industry

Fernando Vives, executive chairman at Garrigues and for the observatory, noted that "the digitization of legal services requires an approach involving common models and architectures for industry players and the promotion of associations and consortia, which is one of the primary goals of this observatory. At Garrigues we have set ourselves an ambitious agenda for innovation and digitization of our operations, fully aware that it has to be coordinated with those of our fellow key players".

"Set against an understanding of legal technology, the observatory’s vocation is to study the meaning and extent of NewLaw, seen as the attitudes of legal professionals towards adoption and inclusion of the opportunities and advantages of technology in the creation of new services, or simply, how to do the same things differently (whenever they really present an advantage compared with the OldLaw way)", commented Íñigo Navarro, codirector of the new observatory created in Comillas. 

The observatory’s reach encompasses the activities of all legal players and legal professionals and its activities combine those of a research center, of a meeting point and neutral space for industry players, and of a laboratory where projects are launched serving to test these industry transformations.

"We escape from the noise created around innovation by launching projects in our laboratory which will serve to analyze the digitization process in the industry with special care at all times towards the impact they may have on professionals", remarked Moisés Menéndez, of counsel at Garrigues and codirector of the Legaltech & NewLaw Observatory. 

Speakers at the conference talked about the possible 2030 digital agenda for Spanish legal players and the transformation processes that a few professionals from the largest legal players in Spain have identified. Regarding this subject, Abel Veiga, dean of the law faculty at Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Comillas ICADE), underlined the importance of analyzing which technological macrotrends may be identified as key to enhancing productivity and efficiency, and to transforming and reconsidering how legal professionals carry out their activities or provide their services. "The observatory will keep studying these agendas in depth with representatives of these companies making up the Spanish legal industry", Veiga pointed out in his speech.