Technological capability:
infrastructure and tools
This chapter describes what legal organizations have to operate: the infrastructure that supports them, the tools they actually use and the training with which they prepare their teams. It is the material foundation on which everything else is built.
The foundation is reasonably covered (good infrastructure, everyday communication tools), but there are two clear gaps: advanced management software is rarely contracted and used even less, and training in key digital competencies is scarce.
Technological infrastructure
We assessed infrastructure with five statements about access to technology, the capacity of existing systems, the traceability of decisions, the compatibility between tools and the difficulty of contracting specialized software.
The greatest concerns (in both audiences) are those that measure barriers: the difficulty of contracting specialized legal software and the compatibility problems between tools. By contrast, most perceive that their infrastructure does support digital work.
What accompanies good infrastructure
Law firms
Legal departments
Strength of the relationship (Evans, 1996): very weak (0–0.19), weak (0.20–0.39), moderate (0.40–0.59), strong (0.60–0.79), very strong (0.80–1). The gray bars indicate relationships that the study does not distinguish from zero (not significant).
Here appears one of the clearest structural findings of the study:
- In law firms, infrastructure goes hand in hand with everything else (management practices, training, efficiency, knowledge). It does not operate in isolation: the firms with better infrastructure have more mature ecosystems overall.
- In legal departments, infrastructure relates to almost nothing. Corporate legal departments inherit the infrastructure of the IT area of the company, so this perception does not necessarily reflect their actual level of adoption or technological maturity.
What was tested and what did we find?
- Does the technology access gap hold back digitalization? In law firms, yes, it is a perceived barrier. In legal departments, no (they inherit corporate infrastructure). Confirmed in law firms.
- Does existing infrastructure support digital work? Both audiences agree that yes. The idea that base technical capacity would be lacking is not confirmed.
- Is fragmentation between tools a dominant barrier? It does not emerge as a priority problem in the Mexican context. Not confirmed.
The methodological detail and the literature review of these hypotheses are in the methodology appendix.
Information security
Security is a critical dimension of technological capability, especially in a sector that handles confidential information. We asked what security measures each organization has implemented.
Formal certifications are almost nonexistent
Basic security measures have reasonable adoption (multi-factor authentication and data encryption are the most frequent), but formal information security management certifications are practically nonexistent: the ISO 27001 certification is held by barely around 6% of law firms and 10% of legal departments, and the ISO 27701 (on privacy) even less. In a sector that safeguards sensitive third-party information, it is a relevant gap between everyday practice and formal assurance standards.
Technological tools
The goal of this module is to measure the actual use of 15 technological tools and not just their contracting. It is important to make this distinction because mere contracting does not translate into transformation. Identifying these gaps makes it possible to better surface needs and solutions, future investments and a comparison between peers.
Usage scale: 0 = not contracted, 1 = never, 3 = occasional, 5 = daily use.
The pattern repeats in both audiences: communication and basic document management tools (videoconferencing, document managers, digital signature) have high, everyday use. By contrast, specialized software (contract management, legal CRM, ticket management) shows low use: in many organizations it is not even contracted. The gap is not in the base tools, but in the advanced management ones.
Team training
We measured the frequency with which organizations train their teams on 14 topics relevant to digital transformation.
Frequency scale: 0 = never, 4 = constantly (more than 5 times a year).
Training deficits coincide with adoption barriers
The topics with the lowest training investment are, precisely, the most relevant for digital transformation: change management, data analysis and visualization, metric design and monitoring, and legal design. More than half of organizations have never trained their team in them. The problem, then, is not only technological but also formative.
In general terms, legal departments invest somewhat more in training than law firms, especially in data protection, cybersecurity and document management, topics where corporate departments face greater regulatory pressure.
In summary
The base technological capability is reasonably covered (good infrastructure, everyday communication tools), but there are two clear gaps: the advanced management software is rarely contracted and used even less, and training in key digital competencies is scarce. In legal departments, moreover, the corporate infrastructure "hides" the true level of maturity of the legal area.
How to cite
Prince Tritto, P., Villa Berger, P., Salmon, L., Muñoz Ponce, M., & Limón González, J. B. (2026). Technology Maturity Index for the Legal Industry: pilot study (data from Mexico, 2025). Law and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Universidad Panamericana; KermaPartners; Lemontech. https://labderia.up.edu.mx/en/legaltech-report
Prince Tritto, P., Villa Berger, P., Salmon, L., Muñoz Ponce, M., Limón González, J. B.. 2026. Technology Maturity Index for the Legal Industry: pilot study (data from Mexico, 2025). Law and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Universidad Panamericana; KermaPartners; Lemontech. https://labderia.up.edu.mx/en/legaltech-report.
Prince Tritto, P., et al. Technology Maturity Index for the Legal Industry: pilot study (data from Mexico, 2025). Law and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Universidad Panamericana; KermaPartners; Lemontech, 2026, https://labderia.up.edu.mx/en/legaltech-report.
@techreport{princetritto2026legaltech, author = {Prince Tritto, Philippe and Villa Berger, Patricia and Salmon, Luciana and Muñoz Ponce, Marcela and Limón González, José Briam}, title = {Technology Maturity Index for the Legal Industry: pilot study (data from Mexico, 2025)}, institution = {Law and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Universidad Panamericana; KermaPartners; Lemontech}, year = {2026}, url = {https://labderia.up.edu.mx/en/legaltech-report} }