Thomson Reuters: Turn thousands of tasks into one with automation

One of the most difficult parts about changing one’s behaviour is simply breaking the habit that first time. It’s why there’s a movement called “couch to 5K”—getting off the couch is the first and toughest step for many.

For lawyers facing a mountain of work, taking the time to set yourself up for a more efficient process can be daunting. It may feel like a distraction rather than creating a progress for the efficient, on-going work for clients.

For those who wish they were free from the enormous volume of paperwork, there is another way, and it starts with preparation.

Consider one real-world example: If your firm had 12,000 documents to review, and each one had 75 questions to answer, the task will take weeks to complete. Even with a sizeable team working in concert, the sheer volume of work is daunting. One of those, “Where do I even start?” kind of tasks others might shrink from.

Rather than just digging into the work, perhaps working through the necessary outcome and improving the process first will be more effective?  By automating even a portion of a task that large, you stand to shave hours off the time involved to complete the project.

Focus on processes, not just tasks

That is precisely what the team at Foot Anstey did. As they explained in a 2020 webinar, ‘How HighQ elevates law firm productivity’, when faced with the opportunity to pitch a client, the firm looked at not only the size of the work, but the manner in which it had been performed in the past.

Instead of using manual processes and discrete spreadsheets, Foot Anstey leveraged automation and databases to create a workflow that streamlined the effort and standardised the information. The time and thought spent in preparation wound up delivering results four times faster than their previous method, and crucially, winning the firm new business.

Where automation can help your law firm

Not everything can be automated, of course. However, there are some common elements of legal workflows that lend themselves to automation quite naturally. Document creation, for example, requires a large amount of repetitive work. Diving right into the work may seem like the best way to get ahead, but taking the time to defining the fields in a document, and setting up corresponding variables, it’s easy for a computer to automatically create custom, accurate documents on a scale no human can match.

For one, ten, or even a hundred documents, the return on investment on setting up an automation probably isn’t there. However, scaled across multiple clients or within bigger deals, the numbers can easily reach into the thousands. That’s where automation shines.

Automation also benefits law firms in legal workflows. Consider just how much of your time is spent passing documents back and forth or notifying the relevant parties of their next steps. That is work that need not fall upon you. Spend time up front to define the triggers and actions relevant to your legal project and your subsequent work will move smoothly through the process.

Suppose you had a client who needed to review each document once a specific action was taken. In a manual world, that simple requirement could spawn dozens of emails. Even if your firm relies on virtual data rooms or dedicated file sharing sites, there is still the act of notifying the client and confirming their receipt and response to each task.

All of these tasks can be automated. Notifications can be triggered by a new document being added to a watched folder. Signoffs can prompt paralegals to take action. Moreover, the client dashboard can be automatically updated with real-time data around the status of each project—which can improve client communications and increase speedy responsiveness.

Think about what’s possible

Automating the legal workflow is relatively easy, but it does require a willingness to look at the forest for the trees. Without a clear view of your process—as a whole—it is challenging to see what is possible to improve. If you are looking for a better way to work, make sure you’re using the right tool to automate your documents and workflows. Client care will flow easier with automating, reduce risk, and free time to pursue new business.