Law firms and in-house legal teams are increasingly implementing legal technology solutions to improve their efficiency. Many have adopted legal software products to help automate routine tasks. In this blog we will consider how legal automation tools can save lawyers time and money.
Many lawyers spend too much time on admin and not enough time with clients. This depends to some degree on the level of administrative support available; those working in larger firms are more likely to have access to secretaries, paralegals and assistance from a practice management team. But as many firms have been reducing their support staff to remain competitive, it often falls to junior lawyers to pick up tasks which would have previously been handled by paralegals and legal secretaries. This can cause frustrations and also means that junior fee earners spend less time on billable work.
Investment in technology which automates routine tasks can free up the time of lawyers, allowing them to focus on their clients and spend more of their working day “lawyering” rather than carrying out admin functions. Legal software tools can help both lawyers in private practice and those who work in-house, optimising their efficiency.
Certain software tools aid workflow management or tracking of billable hours, but some of the most useful products focus on the automation of legal document production.
Lawyers invariably spend a lot of time working with a range of legal documents, including contracts and standard forms which need to be tailored or filled out for their clients. But legal document management is often haphazard and many routine tasks end up being repeated countless times, such as filling out the same details on multiple forms, or constantly updating clauses which are out of date in an old precedent.
Fortunately UUֱ has some effective solutions to streamline legal document creation. We offer a range of services which can automate many of the routine tasks associated with drafting contracts and filling out forms, including:
LexisCreate enables lawyers to easily search through precedents and individual clauses, and add them into the document. Since it is integrated into Microsoft Office, it reduces the need to switch between different programmes (known as context switching), preventing distractions. It also facilitates collaborative working, allowing different elements in a document to be assigned to specific members of the team.
LexisSmart Forms provides access to over 4,000 fillable forms. The relevant form can be searched for easily and some fields can be automatically filled out, eg with details of the firm. The tool can be integrated with case management systems and individual forms can be shared in Adobe format with colleagues and clients.
LexisSmart Precedents minimises time spent manually drafting new legal documents. It uses a questionnaire to guide lawyers through the document creation process, helping to improve speed and reduce any drafting errors. It’s also integrated with LexisPSL so that the most up-to-date law can be quickly cross-referenced, adding to peace of mind.
To find out more about any of our legal automation software tools, click on the relevant links above or get in touch here.
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