Today’s legal departments and law firms are under immense pressure to work quicker and reduce costs, whilst continuing to deliver high quality services. McKinsey estimates that 23% of work done by lawyers can be automated by existing technology. So, it’s no surprise that many firms are turning to legal automation to help drive efficiency. 

The rise of automation has generated a lot of interest amongst firms in the past few years, and firms are continuing to invest in these technologies. According to recent research from HSBC UK, 74% of law firms selected document automation as their main technology investment focus. A further 32% of firms prioritised smart contracts as a key investment. 

Many of today’s common legal processes can be automated - from client intake and document automation to contract management and e-signing. As legal automation - and client demands - continue to evolve, now’s the perfect time to evaluate whether or not you’re benefiting from all legal automation has to offer. Here, we look at four major potential benefits of automation that your firm should be considering when evaluating (or re-evaluating) your legal technology. 

Ease of use and adoption

Any effective legal technology tool should be built for ease of use, providing a level of self-service. Whether you’re encouraging lawyers to automate documents or collaborating with clients through self-service portals, the technology should be simple to access and easy to use. Simply put, if lawyers don’t know how to use the technology, they won’t use it! 

Lawyers should have the ability to create and automate documents with no coding, IT or developer involvement. Additionally, your staff should be empowered to configure and modify workflows on their own. To bolster adoption, it’s best to use tools and processes with which your users are already familiar, when available. 

For example, Sysero’s document automation solution enables lawyers and staff to effortlessly create templates within Microsoft Word, and can be easily integrated with the firm’s document management system and knowledge management system. 

Better compliance

With today’s constantly changing regulatory environment, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest regulations. That’s why it’s important to have as much visibility and transparency across your firm as possible. 

The right legal automation tool should enable you to track and monitor transactions across workflows and provide an audit trail that can support your compliance efforts. Your workflow automation tool should also enable you to embed compliance into lawyers’ daily work. In fact, best-in-class legal automation tools like Sysero automatically log and track transactions to provide a clear audit trail to ensure full accountability. Additionally, as one lawyer makes a nuanced decision based on relevant information, their expertise can be modeled into automated workflows and processes, enabling subtle judgements to be made en masse.

Increased agility

The events of the past year have impressed upon nearly every organisation in the world the need for business agility. Today’s firms need to be able to quickly adapt to changing circumstances to continue business-as-usual. 

Legal automation can make your firm more nimble, agile and adaptable to business disruptions. With cloud-based automation tools like Sysero, you can make critical information and processes available to lawyers, staff and clients at a moment’s notice, no matter where they may be located. From client onboarding and contract negotiations to self-service legal transactions, the right legal automation solution can simplify complex processes and make it easy to conduct everyday business from outside the office. 

Enhanced Collaboration with Clients

Client collaboration has evolved a lot over the past couple of years. Where firms were once focused on sharing information via portals, now they are offering up self-service transactions to deliver always-on service. 

Done right, legal automation can be used to make it easier to collaborate with clients on key elements of service delivery. From e-signing contracts to providing on-demand legal documents, an effective legal automation tool provides your firm with the flexibility and agility to serve clients in a remote environment, while also creating service differentiation and boosting profitability. With Sysero, you can power automated client acceptance, contact management and self-service client portals - all from a single solution. 

Ongoing Benefits from Legal Automation

While it may seem like a lot to expect from legal automation - the right solution can provide all of the benefits and more. In today’s world, there’s no reason why your lawyers and legal staff should be spending time on tedious, mundane tasks. Instead, they should be focused on more important, value-added services that can help your firm stand out from the competition. 

Ready to realise the benefits of automation? Get in touch with our team to discuss how we can help you design and deploy a solution to address your unique needs and challenges.