The latest trend in town is Automation [the use of technology to substitute or reduce human activity in everything from manufacturing to day-to-day business life] was happening before Covid-19. But the pandemic has accelerated the deployment of automation globally, creating benefits but also fears of worker disenfranchisement.

The Webster Dictionary, defines ‘automation’ as a technique for making a process or system operate automatically, without the need for a human being to be there to control or operate it. Automation is not confined to a specific area of technology, rather it relates to a vast area.

Automation technologies like chatbots, automated tele-calling, voice assistants, or the industrialized robotic environment are not new,’ says Sajai Singh, Co-Chair of the IBA Technology Law Committee and a partner at India-based J Sagar Associates. ‘Covid-19 has just provided the trigger and urgency to deploy them.’

The new Covid-19 era has forced companies out of the comfort zone of tradition. From socially-distanced video meetings to being able to sign e-documents in acquisitions or supply chains remotely.

Speed and convenience are two major advantages of automation. Along with the relative security of data-encrypted files over paper, ‘it’s saving a lot of money, as transactions become quicker,’ says Harles.

Technology has undoubtedly transformed our lives, creating unprecedented opportunities in areas ranging from freedom of expression to travel, trading and to global commerce. However, many fear there’s a risk of leaving sections of society – and a workforce – increasingly disenfranchised as technology develops.

According to Elise Groulx Diggs, Co-Chair of the IBA Business Human Rights Committee and Associate Tenant at Doughty Street Chambers in London. The pandemic is ‘the perfect test case for business and human rights,’ she says. ‘And it exposes the strategic weaknesses and pitfalls in our society, our supply chains, and our path of economic development.’

It’s fascinating to see what innovative law firms are doing with automation. It has vastly helped improve

• efficient internal processes
• Serving clients online
• Acquiring new clients
• streamlining the legal process,
• the creation, approval, and management of, often repetitive, legal tasks or augment lawyer productivity.

Automation will give your firm a competitive edge and allow you to better serve your clients with efficient, convenient legal products, processes, and services.

If you have been sitting on the fence, now is the time to get off the fence and embrace a new normal.

Automation CAN help to bolster your law firm’s competitive edge. Time to dive in or lose out.

The first steps maybe the hardest for you. That’s why you need a technology partner you can trust. Talk with us. We can help – [email protected].

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

https://autom.io/blog/innovative-law-firms-are-using-automation-for-these-4-things

‘Justice, Lawyering and Legal Education in the Digital Age’ (2013) Staudt, R.W. and Lauritsen, M. (eds.),

‘Technology-Assisted Review in E-Discovery Can be More Effective and More Efficient Than Exhaustive Manual Review’ (2011) XVII(3) Richmond Journal of Law and Technology 1. Grossman, M. and Cormack, G.,

The Lawyer Bubble Harper, S.J., (New York: Basic Books, 2013).

Digital Justice: Technology and the Internet of Conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017). Katz,