IS YOUR LAW FIRM COLLABORATING, PRODUCTIVE AND EFFICIENT?

Who isn’t looking to be a little more productive and efficient with their time? If a task is to be done, rest assured there is always a piece of software aiming to decrease the workload in its best possible way.

This question is one you need to think deeply about. Is your law firm collaborating, productive and efficient? Don’t be quick to answer. Spare it a deep thought.

Whether you are a lawyer, working as the legal technology operations director, or performing any other role, the ultimate goal of your law firm is to help your clients and your business succeed.

When everyone in your law office learns how to manage their time efficiently, it will be easier to manage a high volume of work and improve productivity across your company.

When your staff members are productive and give their best, your law firm will be able to offer quality services for your clients, which will eventually lead to increased profits.

You must agree with me then, that if your law firm collaborating, productive and efficient, the outcome will lead to satisfied clients and increased profits.

Collaboration can mean different things to different firms and individuals, from simply sharing information through to co-authoring documents.

The most effective collaboration in a law firm is not just about simply contributing to a knowledge base. It is the seamless bringing together and integration of all resources – including people, knowledge and information – to deliver high quality outcomes on complex issues.

This benefits not only the firm, but also the individual lawyers who work with other partners to serve and develop clients.

Collaborating with a wider group of partners on projects is known to boost a lawyer’s billed revenues. As lawyers use collaborative tools, they grow more accepting of them and even come to prefer collaboration to solo working.

Their preferences shift as they learn how to collaborate using technology. It becomes less time-consuming or daunting and they begin to understand the benefits and see the efficiencies.

Lawyers are also finding themselves needing to collaborate in ways that most were neither traditionally trained or inclined to do, nor ever imagined they would have to do.

Within the firm, they may find themselves working closely with IT and other non-lawyers now embedded in firms and integral to the delivery of their services. Investing in legal technology is a worthwhile decision to improve your law firm’s productivity, satisfy more clients, and maximize your business revenue.

Every legal professional can give their best and manage their work by experimenting with tools, apps, and platforms.

There are two key success factors for law firms looking to achieve collaboration and mobility. First, lawyers and senior managers should be expected to and should want to collaborate.

Secondly, firms need to embrace the latest mobile and flexible technologies and virtual platforms that exist to facilitate collaboration.

Some cutting-edge legal technology software you can use in your law office to boost your staff’s productivity and streamline your work process include but are in no way limited to:

1. Microsoft Office 365. It has changed how we see productivity! Legal professionals today face many challenges. There is the need to ensure compliance, and make sure your documents are secure and easily shared with teams and clients, Office 365 provides solutions to address these challenges and more, enabling you to reduce overheads, increase billable hours, enhance productivity, and provide the ability to work anywhere, anytime.

Tools within the package include Outlook, which enhances collaboration and internal communications by allowing you to view each other calendars and access email when you’re on the move through a secure mobile app.

2. Dropbox/Google Drive/One Drive etc. These cloud storage solutions make storage and file sharing easy and secure. They also allow for team folders with admin controls to manage department, case or project work and also easily recover deleted files and restore previous file versions – handy for ongoing cases.

Other useful features include password controls, remote wipe, admin dashboards to view team activity – and the list goes on. Cloud storage solutions for business really has been developed with collaboration and productivity in mind!

 

3. Grammarly. Lawyers in particular are careful when it comes to typos and lots of documentation means lots of writing. Mistakes are bound to happen and I’m sure we can all think of a time when spell check has let us down when it comes to grammar. And when talking about legal documents it’s never been more important to get it right. Proof reading for typos and grammatical errors takes time, and if any are missed, it creates a bad impression on clients.

Grammarly makes sure everything you type is clear, effective, and mistake-free by offering accurate, context-specific suggestions to make your work shine. It really does save you time, and make you look good!

 

4. Time Recording. It is an easy-to-use web-based solution that incorporates all the elements of timekeeping into a single, functionally rich solution for your firm.

Capture and manage billable time anywhere, at any point in the day, on any device online or offline. Timekeeping is made easy, billing becomes timely, cash flow is improved and time is never lost as a result of clever ‘best match’ technology. The interface is inspired by the best-designed consumer apps. This cuts the need for training and the ease of use makes time capture quicker.

5. Scan Capture. Paper to digital technology helps your firm reduce costs and sparks productivity by removing paper filing, retrieval, processing and storage burdens. Integrate images with document management, records management, and business software.

 

Technology can provide firms with the opportunity to cut down time spent in the office on time-consuming administrative tasks, freeing up more time to build significant relationships both in and out of the workplace.

One of the best ways to drive collaboration is to make it a positive experience for both the client and the fee earner. The key is making the knowledge and content easily available to everyone who needs it – and that includes key stakeholders inside and outside of the firm – to consume, edit and share content on a wide range of devices, systems and platforms on the move or in the office.

The best solutions will tap into platforms that end users, internal and external, already use or would like to use, at the time they want to use them, anywhere across. This is so important when time is a precious commodity for all of us, especially lawyers!

Is your law firm collaborating, productive and efficient? Or, is there any room for improvement? Why not talk with us, we can help you. We help legal professionals to be more efficient and profitable in running their business. Send us a mail: support@legalpediaonline.com.

 

 

REFERENCES

https://legodesk.com/legopedia/10-best-free-online-productivity-tools-for-lawyers/

https://workstorm.com/law-firms

https://www.lawtechnologytoday.org/2020/04/smart-tools-to-increase-your-law-firms-productivity/