Reshaping Document Workflow Automation for Lawyers and Legal Firms
Key takeaways
- Document Workflow Automaton is the use of an automation tool to create workflows and streamline and automate all the tasks and processing of legal documents.
- The essential legal services that can be automated using document workflow automation are contract drafting and review, document filing, due diligence, document creation, etc.
- By leveraging document workflow automation, lawyers and legal firms can achieve benefits like instant generation of legal documents, unlimited storage systems, visibility and trackability of these documents, etc.
- With a tool like Cflow, desired goals, and objectives can be achieved with ease. It has the potential to curb the limitations and hence improve the effectiveness of the process.
Achieving customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal for the service-based legal industry. The efficiency of the work determines the quality of the service that is provided and the customer satisfaction levels. Additionally, this profession is majorly based on hours billed for work done for the clients and generates revenue accordingly.
Moreover, the administrative work is extremely tedious as it involves a lot of paperwork. Hence, it requires a legal document management system, where every process and service is optimized to a better quality. Document workflow automation for lawyers in a life-changing solution that enhances legal services. Read further into the concepts of legal document automation and explore its benefits and steps of implementation.
Table of Contents
What is Document Workflow Automation?
Document Workflow Automaton or legal workflow automation is the practice of using an automation tool to create workflows and streamline and automate all the tasks and processing of legal documents. As one of the most time-consuming and expensive sectors with numerous legal procedures and clients to cater to, it is essential to adopt a solution that would handle these areas through document workflow automation for lawyers is an essential solution to adopt.
Just like any other automated process, legal document automation also removes several limitations from the legal procedures and administrative processes. The time spent on these processes is extremely high due to their redundant nature. According to traditional legal practices, tasks such as drafting and formatting documents, and managing several clients have been difficult. It becomes indispensable to have a potential approach that can effectively enhance the process, help manage time, and reduce errors.
Building an automated workflow enables lawyers to focus more on strategic tasks and employ skills and expertise in other important areas of work. Using legal workflow automation law firms can automate any process from billing to document management.
There are several other benefits that lawyers can have access to with proper and legal document management. Let us find out by reading further.
Why Automate Legal Workflow Processes?
Legal workflow processes are one of the most hectic duties to be carried out flawlessly. Automation software comes in handy in handling such overlapping works and also gives many advantages in services to the clients. This will also help in giving out a good and established image for the lawyer/firm, and also attract new customers easily. Here are some of the reasons why law firms and lawyers have to go with document workflow automation.
- Erase any chance of human-induced errors or duplicate entries.
- Provide the best and smoothest client service through automated processes.
- More satisfaction is brought to the attorney as they can work more efficiently on revenue-inducing duties.
- Improve factors like transparency and communication flow within the working setup.
- Remove excess expenditures like labor and physical documentation.
- Enables the users to create their custom workflow for all the legal practices.
- At the end of the day, a lot of time is saved when human labor and redundancies in the process are removed. The pace of the process is increased and efficiency is improved.
What Legal Services Can Be Automated?
All the processes do not have to be necessarily automated and not every task can be automated. However, there might be some crucial tasks that come with limitations that affect efficiency. These limitations can be repetitive tasks, errors, ineffective document management, etc. These can be automated by using document automation. Here is a list of legal services that can be automated.
- Contract drafting
- Contract review
- Document filing
- Legal research
- Legal compliance
- Due diligence
- IP protection
- Document retrieval
- Document creation
Let us consider document creation for example. This task entails a lot of repetitive work. Additionally, it will consume a lot of time to manually create and define different fields in the document and also set the corresponding variables.
Document automation workflow that is specifically built for lawyers, allows the users to have a system where the software automatically creates custom and accurate documents at a much faster pace than manual action. When a human makes ten documents per day, a software tool can create a limitless number of documents in an instant.
This is how automation brings out the efficiency in the legal processes. Let us understand this automation process a little deeper.
Types of Document Automation and Management Systems
With the market filled with numerous types of document automation and management solutions based on the different industries, choosing the right solutions is highly recommended. For lawyers, there are mainly two categories of automation software with functionalities for document automation. They are:
- Standalone document automation software
- Legal practice management software ( has built-in document automation and management functions)
End-to-end workflow automation
Build fully-customizable, no code process workflows in a jiffy.
6 Steps to Automate Legal Document Management
Document workflow automation for lawyers might seem simple yet some solid steps have to be followed to implement an automation system. Here are the six important steps that firms/lawyers can follow to automate legal document management.
- Decide what to automate
- Evaluate the value of the tasks
- Create an automation plan
- Research the different automation tools
- Have a change management plan
- Analyze review and iterate the process
Step 1: Decide what to Automate
The first important step to take is to decide on the duties or the processes that you wish to automate. Choosing the right tasks becomes essential and helps to focus on improving efficiency. As mentioned earlier, not all processes have to be automated. Some of them might be already efficient enough and are stable with the existing resources. Hence, look for processes that use an excess amount of time, human labor, and cost.
Step 2: Evaluate the value of the Tasks
So, how can you weigh the different processes and duties that exist in the legal workflow and decide what to automate? This can be done by evaluating the processes based on certain parameters that will help you determine their efficiency. Some important things to consider are as follows:
- Does it take a lot of time to complete?
- Is the task repetitive and tedious?
- Is the task a necessary part of the workflow?
- Is the task time-sensitive?
Step 3: Create a Plan for Automation
Once the tasks that have to be automated have been decided, building up a plan for the automation process is very crucial. Having a plan will give a fixed framework with the right actions that have to be taken. With an action plan, each change can be implemented successfully. When a plan is drafted it will allow you to prioritize the chosen tasks and the order in which you wish to carry out the process.
Step 4: Research the Different Automation Tools
Several automation tools are available in the market and choosing the right tool will determine the success rate of your automation journey. Proper research has to be done to find different options available and study the features clearly. Having a clear idea about the features of the available tools will help in determining which tool will match the goals and objectives of your automation process.
By using an automation tool legal firms can achieve the following perks:
- Increase workflow efficiency as it helps in automating the documents and also simultaneously sharing data and information with the clients and stakeholders with web-based documents.
- Increase accuracy with error-free data transfer and entry.
- Increase valuable time with customers/clients rather than spending it on redundant and tedious legal processes
Step 5: Have A Change Management Plan
A shift in the work structure can create significant turbulence in the existing dynamics. Therefore, having a change management plan is crucial at this level. For every change that is made, the right adjustments have to be administered to the system to reduce the effect of the shift.
Step 6: Analyze Review and Iterate the process
Once the automation has been implemented, it is important to analyze and review the results and impact of automation. Doing this will allow you to have a clear idea of what is working for your organization.
Choosing Law Firm Document Automation Software
Choosing the right software for the automation of your legal duties and tasks is highly essential. Once the goals for the automation are set, here are a few things to keep in mind for choosing the most suitable tool for your firm.
Determine the Firm’s Needs
Determining your needs is the primary step to take. You need to have a clear idea of your firm’s needs and what you are aiming to achieve. Doing this will allow you to determine the type of workflow automation tool that is best suited for your work culture.
Assess the Firm’s Capabilities
Every firm has varying degrees of capabilities. Hence, it is essential to understand how much your first can carry. Certain parameters like the budget, the impact of switching to a new system of work, the time that it takes, etc. require deep consideration. It is also essential to understand what difference this tool will bring to your working conditions.
Check for Security
Security and privacy are crucial aspects when it comes to documentation and storage. Therefore, a tool that supports cloud-based storage and offers security to the stored document is the best option.
Scalability of the Tool
The tool that you choose must be scalable and should have the potential to scale to the changing industrial trends. Since the goals and objectives that you set are long-term, the tool must be adaptable to the changing requirements.
Features to Look for in a Legal Document Automation Tool
Here are some of the ideal and basic features that you must look for in an automaton tool for legal services.
- Enables instant generation of legal documents
- Provides unlimited storage system
- Allows visibility and trackability of documents
- Allows the use of electronic signatures
- Provides access to remote documents
- File documents directly from the source
- Capture billable time from any document
- Share documents with ease
- Promises security and privacy
- Gives you document templates
- Performs automatic calculations
Efficient Legal Document Automation with Cflow
Cflow is the best tool that will effectively cater to document workflow automation for lawyers. Cflow is best known for its no-code property, that is, it does not require any code to build a workflow for the legal processes. With comprehensive and business-friendly features, our platform can help streamline all processes and administrative tasks into one space.
This exponentially improves the productivity of the business. An automated document management system enhances the quality of the service bringing in higher customer/client satisfaction. Cflow promises a deep sense of clarity with its zero-coding ability and hence legal documents can be easily generated and approved in an instant.
This also improves the pace of the complete process drastically. Integration with more than 1000 other third-party applications is one of the strongest suites of Cflow.
Some of the benefits that Cflow offers are:
- Our tool reduces the complexity of document management. Generating and storing different types of documents can be easily achieved.
- It enables the users to store and review documents digitally.
- It allows the users to simultaneously keep track of all the client transactions, payment receipts, and other essential legal documents.
- It is a centralized platform where errors and frauds can be easily detected and removed.
- The platform allows seamless integration with other necessary third-party applications for the smooth conduction of the process.
- It helps the lawyers maintain a healthy relationship with their clients, with automated features like electronic signatures, cloud storage, and data entry.
- The platform also offers an automatic reminders and notifications system, that would send reminder notifications to the users regarding deadlines, approval, and other important tasks.
Conclusion
Hence, it is evident that shifting to a solution like automation can change the nature of the service that you offer. Legal processes are hectic and need a systemic way to reach out and manage different clients simultaneously, additionally bringing harmony within the workings of the firm as well. This is quite difficult to achieve.
However, with an automation tool like Cflow, the desired goals, and objectives can be achieved with ease. It has the potential to curb the limitations and hence improve the effectiveness of the process.
To find out more about what Cflow can offer, sign up now!
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