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64
Smart Spaces:
The Next Frontier for Legal Tech?
B Y D O N F U C H S , V P O F H I G H Q
A
s legal technolo fads come and go, one
concept that's currently trending in an
upward direction has stickiness written
all over it. Recently included in the Gartner Top 10
Strategic Technolo Trends for 2019, smart spaces
are where people and technolo come together in one
place, either in a physical or digital location. Similarly,
digital workplaces are taking the business world by
storm as companies try desperately to connect their
distributed workforce and disparate IT systems.
In this article, I explore how smart spaces
address the needs of law firms and corporate legal
departments. I also introduce examples of where
smart space-like concepts have been attempted
already in legal environments. And finally, this piece
outlines an "ideal state" for bringing these two worlds
together, providing a road map for success and
sustainability.
Defining a smart space
When it comes to defining trends, Gartner has been
at the forefront of understanding where technolo
innovation is heading and predicting how it will
influence the organizations they consult with. While
it's not a surprise that artificial intelligence, analytics
and blockchain feature prominently in their Top 10
Strategic Technolo Trends list, the inclusion of
smart spaces is intriguing for those of us who look at
this type of insight through a legal lens.
According to Gartner, "A smart space is a
physical or digital environment in which humans and
