Learning something new is never easy — especially technology. However, refraining from implementing new technology at the law firm hinders its development.
Report 2021 Legal Trends Report (https://www.clio.com/resources/legal-trends/) on legal trends with 2021 showed that the wide use of well-implemented technology correlates with the company's success.
In fact, these companies are o 37% more inclined to use online payment solutions, o 41% more often to use customer portals, and o 46% more often for customer reception and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions.
Reporting tools are also used twice as often in developing companies or companies that have recorded at least 20% revenue growth year to year. The success of these companies emphasizes the importance of technology in a constantly closer and highly competitive market.
Now that you understand the importance of implementing new technologies, you are probably wondering what is the best way to start using technology in your company. Patrick Palace and Jordan Couch of Palace Law in Tacoma, Washington, D.C. spent some time sharing specific lessons-based advice they learned when implementing new technology at Palace Law. Here's what they had to say.
Start from scratch
When implementing new technologies, it is important to stay focused instead of letting yourself get carried away with fancy functions. Jordan points out four elements that form the basis of technology that will effectively practice law:
Communications. To best serve your customers and colleagues, “you have to communicate in a way that is best for them,” said Jordan. Identify whether your company will communicate by email, text messages or a combination of each.
Papers. Finding a solution that will safely store documents and allow easy cooperation is the key to the success of the law firm. Examples include Google or Office 365.
Workflow management. "A tool that will manage your workflow is a necessity".
Practice management. Practice management software is one of the most powerful tools in your technology facility. Jordan recommends software that “directly connects to the elements on this list — if not, you start wrong and quickly discourage yourself when the processes start to deteriorate.”
Make sure the entire team has access to the tools
When you first implement a new technology in your company, it is important to make sure that everyone in your office is free to use the above mentioned tools. This creates a collaborative environment in which people can share their experiences and advice with colleagues who are not so familiar with technology.
Jordan shares: “There will be people at every law firm who are unfriendly to technology. But in our company, we organized a meeting to see what our employees think of new tools.
People shared tips on how to make the best of software and we even found new ways to use the basic tools.” Working with the entire team, you will constantly find new and improved ways to use technologies for your company's success.
Focus on your goals
Once you have mastered the basic tools, the next step is to identify specific problems. For example, in Palace Law it was important to identify processes that had to be improved before the technology was implemented. The implementation of a new technology without assessing your company's needs will cause more problems than solutions.
Jordan explains that “technology is not a first step — first it is necessary to set targets and then identify the tools needed to achieve these objectives”.
Jordan stated that lawyers “often jump into technology, hoping to respond.” But the power of technology cannot be properly exploited unless companies are focused on a clear set of targets.
Identify areas in your company that can be automated
Many lawyers are burdened with administrative work and repetitive tasks. For example, old processes of accepting Palace Law customers included numerous paper forms and rigid communications flows. This resulted in losing receipt forms, leading to a waste of time looking for important information about the customer.
Thanks to technology, this old road has long passed, and Palace Law has systems that provide efficient processing of customer admission forms, so no customer will be forgotten. Ask yourself and the team members for tasks that are repetitive and tedious. Then identify processes and technologies that can mitigate these problems.
Always view and improve processes
At this point, you have basic technological facilities, identified problems and clearly defined objectives as to how technology will improve your business. But it's not over. With the development of legal practice and the evolution of customer expectations, your processes also change.
It is therefore important to review and reflect on the improvements that can be made in order to further improve their processes.
“We are in the third version of our processes and we are constantly adding steps when someone notices“ it would be nice if we could do it automatically, ” and we take that into account in our improvements.” For example, Palace Law can automatically create new clients and contacts in Clio.
But that is not the end of the matter — through document automation all relevant information is collected as part of customer admission processes and is used to create initial contracts. "We are looking for improvements that reduce the workload and provide a better impression for customers," Patrick said.
Customers do not have to go back to the office, because everything is digitally signed, making their process efficient not only for themselves, but also for their customers. As mentioned earlier, technology solutions have become the expectations of customers.
As detected in the report on legal trends with 2021, 79% consumers consider the possibility of working remotely with a lawyer as a key factor in choosing the person you want to work with. Iteration is the key to maximum use of technology.
Do not be discouraged if you do not do it well the first time, there will always be difficulties in learning when you learn something new.
Don't be afraid to order the implementation process outside
According to the Legal Trends Report from 2017 Lawyers spent an average of six hours a day on illegal work. To give the lawyers of Palace Law time to practice law, the team decided to hire a new group of professionals involved in project management and implementation of new technologies.
"The task of the project manager is to implement projects that have been approved by the management team". In addition, Patrick hired someone to code, write and work on improving user experience to make life much easier for his lawyers.
Patrick advises companies to "establish systems, hire people with technological skills and allow lawyers to practice law".
Create and follow the process of implementing new technology
In addition to outsourcing implementation and management of new solutions, Palace Law recommends that companies apply a specific process to assess and prioritise ideas. After identifying the object you want to automate or improve using technology, ask yourself questions that will help you determine if this task is really needed.
It is helpful to think about this in terms of contribution (the amount of time to make improvements) compared to the results (what the result will be). If your contribution is greater than your score, it may not be the best decision to go ahead with new technology or improvement.
Palace Law relies on specific teams that set task priorities and then implement them by the project manager. They constantly exploit the power of technology, without hindering lawyers from spending hours practicing law.
Improve practice through technology
Don't be afraid to dip into technology for your company. Regardless of size or technological experience, the adoption of technology is the first step towards becoming a more efficient, productive and profitable law firm. Jordan says that thanks to technology, his company "is able to provide customers with a higher quality of service with less stress".
Palace Law accelerates towards technology as quickly as possible to better practice law and develop its activities. This may also be possible for you — remember these steps to implement the new technology:
- 1. Start at the bottom. Focus on communication tools, document management, workflow and practice management.
- 2. Make sure everyone has access to the tools.
- 3. Create an environment where open dialogue is encouraged to provide your team with the comfort of using technology.
- 4. Focus on your goals. Distraction by different options of legal technology can be easy — focus, making sure that every tool helps achieve the company’s overall objectives.
- 5. Browse and improve processes. Include key stakeholders to discuss what technology works and areas where it can be improved.
- 6. Implementation of outsourcing. Let the lawyers focus on practicing law through outsourcing the implementation and implementation of new technologies.
- 7. Create implementation process. Create an evaluation and implementation process when reviewing new technologies to make sure they are in line with the company's objectives.
This post was originally published on clio.com.