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3 reasons why automation technology should be a priority for modern law firms
Lawyers are confronted by a litany of time-consuming tasks on any given day. New technologies can remove much of this grunt work, but often the hardest part is simply taking the first step. However, there are some compelling reasons to do so, writes Marcus Zeltzer.
Marcus Zeltzer
In the legal profession, tradition and precedent matter. This, however, has often led to a slower adoption of technology that could make life easier for law firm practitioners and their clients.
Already, we are seeing a range of technologies that address specific tasks encountered by lawyers. Solutions like PEXA’s automated online property settlements are assisting property lawyers, while Docusign has streamlined the electronic signing process across the business world.
For law firms, in particular, I can see three compelling reasons to embrace technological advancements and task automation.
The first is the most straightforward: there are huge time and labour savings to be reaped.
Consider this example. A large business approaches a law firm to carry out a remediation project. The senior lawyer allocates this task to a graduate, who then spends many hours completing discovery tasks, creating spreadsheets and manually calculating instances of underpayments.
The senior lawyer in question has only an elementary knowledge of financial matters relevant to payroll, and the accuracy of their calculations cannot be verified or tested. As a consequence of this approach, much of the time spent on the task goes unbilled.
Alternatively, were the task to be automated, the incidence of human error is removed, and the firm can instead free up its graduate resources for more rigorous and complex legal work.
A second compelling reason to introduce automation into legal firms is the rapid evolution of client expectations. With time-saving technology pervading every industry sector in different ways, clients are becoming increasingly savvy about what constitutes good service. This means they are more likely to question anything that looks like excessive hours billed for low-value activities.
Increasingly, legal firms we speak to are seeing the effect of these changing expectations. It’s now becoming commonplace for many of them to write off time allocated to simple manual tasks in an effort to maintain competitiveness.
Firms that show their clients they are putting business priorities over profit will be best placed to prosper. Here, automation plays an important role through its ability to demonstrate the value of a firm’s services.
Consider the previously mentioned remediation project involving the senior and graduate lawyers. Apart from freeing up valuable human resources, leveraging technology in this situation enables a far more rapid and holistic understanding of the payments owed to employees while outlining the reasons for any underpayments. Lawyers’ time can instead be directed to the complex and invaluable work of providing their clients with insights – legal or otherwise – on enhancing compliance processes.
Ultimately, solutions that are delivered faster, more accurately, and more economically will demonstrate to clients that you are focused on their success, in turn solidifying trust.
The final reason to lean into automation relates to a more existential threat for the legal profession, namely that it grapples with a substantial shortage of lawyers. This is driven increasingly by the challenge of retaining adequately skilled legal professionals.
There are multiple issues to be reckoned with. An increasing number of lawyers and legal graduates are subject to overwork and are instead choosing to pursue non-legal career paths, which means those who stay in the profession are met with escalating workloads, leading to burnout and a continuing cycle of attrition.
While they remain a reality for most young lawyers, lower-value tasks often provide minimal opportunities for learning, personal growth, or significant value to clients. This often leads to job dissatisfaction, which can speed the departure of lawyers from the profession.
Automation of these tasks, however, paves the way for lawyers to concentrate on higher-value work, which is more professionally enriching. It also has the benefit of alleviating workload pressures, helping to reduce hours and a general sense of overwhelm.
In today’s quickly evolving legal environment, those willing to try a new approach are well placed to save their clients time and money. Concurrently, they will build trust and help to secure long-term partnerships.
Marcus Zeltzer is the co-founder and managing director at Yellow Canary.
