(Caveat incognitum) Legal Technophobia: It actually makes sense… but that won’t stop us.

Often, the most successful innovations are evolutions of existing ideas, rather than reinventions of the mousetrap.  For example, this 1883 reinvention of the mousetrap did not catch on.

A great example of game-changing, evolutionary innovation came in 2008 when Plum invented the “Baby Food Pouch.” They merged Gerber’s individually jarred baby food (invented 1927) and the Capri Sun juice pouch (invented 1969) to create one of the greatest inventions ever designed. (As the father an 18-month old, I stand by that statement.)

I will not spend time bemoaning the slow adoption of LegalTech in the world of litigation… wait, I guess I just did.  I know it’s easy to complain, but it does no good to blame the customer for not buying the product.   Instead, as the psychology-guy who lives in the world of law, I’m much more interested in the “Why.”

Legal Technophobia is a real thing… I Googled it AND I see it in Twitter feeds. ‘Nuff said.  It seems to be rooted in lawyers through a few clearly reasonable thought processes:

1. By nature, those in the legal field are risk-averse (according to research and anecdotal evidence).  In fact, this is an attribute most people want in their lawyers.
2. People are making a lot of money doing it the way they’ve always done it.
   
3. Many LegalTech advances are completely new animals, not evolutions of established species.
4. The value-add that some LegalTech innovations are delivering does not outweigh some of the following:
   1. The cost of the LegalTech.
   2. The time and effort it will take to learn, understand, pitch and implement the new LegalTech.
   3. The natural cognitive biases that all humans have when making big decisions: Risk Aversion, Prospect Theory and Loss Aversion, Confirmation Bias, etc.

Maybe I should just stop writing now and go wallow in a dark room with a pile of sin tax products?
No! I will maintain hope and tell you why.

While the law has a string of speed bumps in its road to innovation… many other sectors of the world do not.  How many old-school lawyers fought digital documents? And email? And texting? And doing business through smart phones?
INMHO (In My Humble Opinion-  if any old-school lawyers are reading this), Legal Technophobia will be conquered by gradual innovations in our clients’ non-legal lives that sneakily open lawyer eyes to the valuable possibilities LegalTech holds.

In this vein, I offer the following suggestions to my fellow LegalTech entrepreneurs:

1. Focus on being relatable. We must frame our innovation as an evolution of what already exists to our clients in their professional and/or personal lives.  “New” is scary. “Better” is intriguing.
2. Promote your fellow LegalTech entrepreneurs.  We need to demonstrate a wave has already arrived and nostalgia for past methods will not stop it.  Nobody (including our clients) wants to be the last one to the party.
3. We must tell stories of what our LegalTech HAS done, as opposed to what our LegalTech COULD do.  (If you have a start-up with a short track record.  Ignore this one.  I intimately know your pain.  Just keep chugging and keep your head up.)
4. Finally, we must truly understand the “Curse of Knowledge.”  When you’ve been neck-deep in something for years, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to view it as someone who is learning about it for the first time.  This is a psychological fact.  Too often, we in the LegalTech world talk to outsiders as if they are insiders (culminating in an overwhelming amount of confusion).  The resulting response is obvious… wariness of the unknown (caveat incognitum).

 

Convince,LLC and www.LitPredict.com founder Matt McCusker, MA is a nationally-known Litigation and former President of the American Society of Trial Consultants (ASTC). He has utilized his background in I/O Psychology to provide innovative solutions for legal teams and Fortune 500 corporations around the world.

Matt has served as a source for many media outlets (the Wall Street Journal, CNN, “This American Life with Ira Glass”, the Chicago Tribune, and more). He is available to teach/present about the crossroads of psychology and litigation at law schools, professional organizations and conferences.