Law Firm Technology, Process, and Automation Advisory
Law Firm Technology, Process, and Automation Advisory
What should the role of technology be in my law firm?
Technology should help your firm:
Be more effective and save you money through automation
Automate routine tasks like document review, legal research, and timekeeping, freeing up lawyers to focus on more complex, high-value work.
Streamline workflows, improving organization and collaboration.
Ensure a “single version of truth” for your data and enable analyses.
Support critical analytics (e.g., staff productivity, firm liquidity) for your decisions
Eliminate entering the same data to multiple documents and systems
Avoid conflicting information
Help you expand the reach of your legal services
Enable new ways to deliver your legal services
How can technology automate and simplify my work?
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Your intake forms, document signing, consultation scheduling, etc. can be automated. The rule is: if an action has a clear trigger and you can define the process - automation is possible. Since most client interactions have distinct triggers, you can significantly streamline them.
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Research reveals that over one-fifth of an attorney's workday is consumed by mundane follow-up emails and calls. Think: signature requests, form reminders, invoice inquiries. A staggering 80%+ of these are automatable. Beyond the wasted time, there's the cost of missed opportunities due to forgotten follow-ups.
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Same as above if you work with GenZs.
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Technology will allow you to rapidly draft most common legal documents by automatically gathering client data from various sources and then following pre-designed templates t[ create contracts, agreements, and other legal paperwork in minutes.
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Your technology should be proactive, e.g., provide timely notifications for key events (like signed agreements), send deadline reminders, automatically assign and track team tasks, update clients on milestones, manage client portal uploads, and offer visual workflow progress through tools like Kanban boards.
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Creating invoices and receiving payments can be fully automated, along with follow-ups on the unpaid invoices.
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Your system should do variety of basic compliance checks, e.g., automated conflict check, GDPR (where data is stored) compliance, document retention.
How much should my firm spend on IT?
2024 survey by International Legal Technology Association revealed that 80% of the participants spend anywhere between $5,000 and $21,000 per lawyer.
To put this in perspective, $5,000 per employee is similar to how much a basic manufacturing plant would spend, while $21,000 is in line with banking industry – one of the largest technology spenders.