Nexian recently hosted the first session of the Legal Modern Workplace webinar series. Matt Newton was joined by Derek Southall (Hyperscale) and Nigel Stott (Switalskis Solicitors) to discuss the technology challenges facing UK law firms and what a joined-up strategy looks like in practice. Here are the key takeaways:
On Wednesday, 11th February, we hosted the first session in our Legal Modern Workplace webinar series, tackling one of the most pressing questions facing law firm leaders today: is the technology underpinning your firm actually working for you?
We were joined by two experienced voices from across the legal sector: Derek Southall, founder and CEO of Hyperscale, who works closely with law firm leaders of all sizes across the UK; and Nigel Stott, CTO of Switalskis Solicitors, a circa 400-person firm in the north of England with a clear and ambitious vision for how technology can transform both the employee and client experience.
Together, the three of us covered legacy system frustration, M&A disruption in the legal tech market, the AI debate, and what a genuinely joined-up tech strategy looks like in practice. Here is a summary of the key themes.
The session opened with an honest look at the scale of challenge facing small and mid-size law firms right now. Derek set the scene, describing a landscape of legacy technology that has not kept pace, SaaS vendors with misaligned roadmaps, pricing pressures, and near-constant M&A activity in the legal tech market.
"They're having a really tough time, and particularly where it's an SME firm, where there's an endless list of things to do. Legacy technology isn't where it needs to be, there's been a lot of change in recent years, and just trying to catch up and keep up to date with that is hard."
Derek Southall, Founder and CEO, Hyperscale
Nigel echoed this from his position on the front line, pointing to the ever-increasing volume of requests landing on his team from department heads who are being pushed harder on fee targets and chargeable time. The demands are rising, and technology is expected to keep up.
One of the most striking points Derek made was about the recalibration of demand driven by AI. Firms are no longer comparing like-for-like systems. They are asking where they will get the greatest return overall, and AI is increasingly central to that calculation.
A significant portion of the discussion centred on the two dominant strategies law firms are currently navigating: consolidating within a single-vendor ecosystem or going best-of-breed and assembling a stack of best-in-class individual tools.
The honest takeaway is that both come with compromises. The aggregator route offers simplicity, but M&A activity in the legal tech space has created real concern. Derek noted that products can stagnate after acquisition, great people leave, and pricing dynamics shift under private equity ownership.
"I was on a call not so long ago with five IT directors and CTOs of large law firms. When I asked who the great suppliers were, many of them said they increasingly favour independent, owner-managed suppliers because they're getting a better service."
Derek Southall, Founder and CEO, Hyperscale
On the other side, best of breed gives firms access to deeper capabilities in specific areas, but it introduces its own complexity. Managing multiple vendor relationships, ensuring meaningful integrations, and maintaining data consistency across a fragmented stack is genuinely hard work.
What is clear is that mid-tier firms are increasingly moving in a best-of-breed direction, driven in part by the arrival of more open, browser-based practice management systems with robust APIs. Nigel described how Switalskis approaches this: understanding both the vendor roadmap and the firm's own technology strategy, then using platforms like Microsoft Azure to fill the gaps where internal products fall short.
"We need platforms we can build out. We've got to be agile. The agility and scalability that Microsoft platforms provide us really help us with that kind of strategy."
Nigel Stott, CTO, Switalskis Solicitors
Derek added that the vendors who stand out are those with genuinely flexible APIs and a transparent approach to data. Firms that can access their own data freely, integrate with the Microsoft stack, and shape the product through meaningful engagement with the vendor are in a significantly stronger position.
Regardless of where firms land on the aggregator vs. best of breed spectrum, Microsoft kept emerging as the common thread throughout the conversation. The agility and scalability of the Microsoft platform, including Azure, Copilot, Purview, and the broader 365 stack, is giving firms a way to build out capabilities that their core legal software alone cannot deliver.
The conversation also touched on the slow but important move away from virtual desktop environments like Citrix. One attendee commented in the session chat: "death to VDI by a million cuts" -- and it is hard to disagree. Whilst VDI has served a purpose, it consistently delivers a poorer user experience, particularly when it comes to modern collaboration tools like Teams. Moving to browser-based working reduces infrastructure overhead and opens the door to a more connected, collaborative firm.
Nigel confirmed that this transition is already well underway at Switalskis, with a steady reduction in on-premise infrastructure and a clear strategic preference for cloud-based and browser-based solutions going forward.
AI generated some of the liveliest discussions of the session. Nigel drew a useful distinction between two types of AI use in legal practice: operational AI, covering the day-to-day tasks like drafting, summarising, and transcription; and strategic AI, which is more about redesigning processes at a deeper level.
Copilot handles much of the operational layer well and is increasingly accessible for firms of all sizes. But for more complex, process-level applications, tools built on Azure AI are proving necessary, particularly where PMS vendors have not yet developed sufficient native AI capability.
Derek pointed to the rapid maturation of specialist legal AI tools, such as Harvey and Legora, which are delivering impressive results in areas like document analysis and legal research.
"I sat in a room the other day and somebody said they wouldn't move to a firm that didn't have Copilot, or Harvey, or Legora. I can see that coming. The value these tools are presenting compared with some of the legacy tech is something we have to take into account."
Derek Southall, Founder and CEO, Hyperscale
The sensible approach right now is to experiment deliberately, build in agility, and avoid locking in for the long term. The market is moving too fast for anything else.
One theme that ran consistently through the session was data. Whether the goal is better analytics, smarter AI, or simply knowing what is sitting in your document management system, the foundation has to come first.
Tools like Microsoft Purview, which most firms already have access to in some form through their 365 subscription, are a critical part of that foundation. Data labelling, sensitivity classification, and role-based access controls are not the most exciting topics, but they are what make responsible and effective use of AI possible.
As Matt highlighted during the session, deploying Copilot across a law firm's data estate without that groundwork in place is a significant risk. You do not want to let people loose with Copilot across your data landscape until you know what is there and what they should have access to.
Derek reinforced the point around data strategy, noting that firms are increasingly looking to bring data into their own environment so they can do smarter things with it. For firms considering this, the message was simple: do not wait. Even basic steps around understanding what data you hold, who has access to it, and whether any of it is redundant will pay dividends as AI use deepens.
The session closed with a question that resonates with many firm leaders: if you feel overwhelmed and unsure where to start, what should the priorities be?
Derek's advice was grounded and practical: accept that you cannot do everything at once, and stop pretending you can. The goal is not to implement every available tool. It is to be genuinely excellent in the areas that matter most to your clients and your people.
"Be really clear and focused on what you want to be, be really clear on where you're at now, and then start building the steps to take the journey from one to the other."
Derek Southall, Founder and CEO, Hyperscale
Nigel added a word of warning against analysis paralysis. The environment is complex, things are moving fast, and there will never be a perfect moment to act.
"Don't get into analysis paralysis. At some point, we've just got to make that decision. It might feel like you're putting in one solution that overlaps with another. You've just got to make a call on it, because it's the pace of change that matters."
Nigel Stott, CTO, Switalskis Solicitors
The overarching message from the session is one we feel strongly about at Nexian: make sure your technology strategy and your business strategy are built together, not in sequence. The software decisions and the IT infrastructure decisions need to inform each other. A joined-up approach is what separates firms that make real progress from those that end up making expensive changes twice.
This webinar was the first in our Legal Modern Workplace series, a programme designed to help law firm leaders build a clearer picture of what a joined-up technology strategy looks like in practice. Coming sessions cover everything from moving away from virtual desktops to Copilot versus specialist legal AI tools, to what your internal IT team should look like going forward.
If you would like to go deeper on the themes from this session, our Legal Modern Workplace white paper sets out a framework for building a technology strategy that actually connects, covering practice management, Microsoft 365, AI, data, and more.
nexian.co.uk/legal-modern-workplace-whitepaper
Or get in touch with the team if you would like to talk through where your firm is on its technology journey.