Evaluating Legal Software: The Cost of the Status Quo

On the planet of legislation, custom usually reigns supreme. For hundreds of years, the authorized career has caught to time-honored practices and methodologies, relying closely on established norms. Nevertheless, because the world evolves at an distinctive tempo, sticking to the established order can sluggish progress, suppress innovation, and in the long run, trigger your agency to depart cash on the desk.

Immediately, greater than ever, legislation companies face elevated strain to adapt and modernize to remain aggressive as a result of quantity of instruments on the market which are making it simpler for legal professionals to achieve extra purchasers. Consumer expectations are additionally growing with know-how making on-line funds, on-line conferences, and so on., the norm. But, many legislation companies are hesitant to embrace change and disrupt established routines and workflows due to the effort and time concerned.

On this publish, we’ll dive into the transformative energy of authorized know-how—and the way not adopting the newest efficiencies provided by authorized tech might imply your agency is leaving cash on the desk.

Time is cash: The price of indecision

Quantifying how a lot cash or productiveness you’re dropping by doing what you’ve all the time accomplished may be troublesome. Even in case you don’t see points along with your means of working, there’s doubtless a chance so that you can be extra environment friendly. Time is a lawyer’s most precious useful resource, so investing {dollars} into software program places extra time again in your day, opening up alternatives to spend that point on billable work or broader enchancment initiatives in your agency.

It could actually appear onerous to justify the time funding in adopting new processes and instruments at first, as time is quantifiable however not as tangible as {dollars} within the financial institution. When you might not see time saved returned as {dollars} in your checking account instantly, you’ll discover an total improve in your agency’s effectivity, increasing the chance to tackle extra billable work.

How you can measure the influence of not making a change

When reviewing your present processes, figuring out inefficiencies is usually fairly easy.

You’ll inherently acknowledge non-billable duties that eat extreme time or lack effectivity however you received’t all the time think about what that is actually costing you.

Discuss along with your agency’s employees and establish their ache factors and the duties that take them the longest. By pinpointing these areas and quantifying the time invested, together with contemplating the prices of operating your corporation, you possibly can start to unveil alternatives for enchancment.

Some inquiries to ask your self and your agency employees:

How lengthy do frequent processes take? Is there a present course of that’s taking on extra time than you want to? Have you learnt of a greater means or instrument to make this extra course of environment friendly?
How dependable is our present resolution? Does your present resolution get the job accomplished, however is it a sluggish course of? Is your employees coping with crashes, bugs, or an unreliable service?
How complete is your present product providing? Are you utilizing totally different instruments for billing, case administration, funds, doc automation, reporting, calendaring, and so on.?
How simple is your present course of? Does everybody within the agency know methods to use the instruments? Is it simple to coach new crew members? Is it intuitive and user-friendly?
Is assist simply accessible? When seeking to arrange new on-line integrations, organising new processes, or coping with common questions, how simple can you contact assist out of your present instrument? Do questions get answered in a well timed method?
How usually are errors made? With a number of handbook processes, human error, missed paperwork, missed signatures, or missed deadlines can have an effect on any stage of a case.

Tip: Be sure you obtain our authorized software program analysis template on the finish of this text to assist hold your ideas on the analysis course of in a single place. This manner, you possibly can simply see what sticking with the established order is at the moment costing you.

One other means to have a look at measuring the price of inefficiencies is to have a look at billable hours misplaced. As per the newest Authorized Traits Report, legal professionals are nonetheless spending nearly all of their day on non-billable duties. For instance, in case you’re sticking along with your present system for shopper consumption as an alternative of utilizing an answer that permits you to drastically cut back time spent on consumption, appointment bookings, and creating engagement letters, you would be leaving cash on the desk.

Evaluating legal software

One other instance: Say that proper now, billing takes you eight hours every month when utilizing spreadsheets and Phrase paperwork. But when adopting a contemporary authorized billing resolution can cut back this time to 30-60 minutes, you’re liberating up roughly seven hours every month—that’s over 80 hours a yr! In fact, that doesn’t mechanically imply your agency will add 80 billable hours per yr—you could not even invoice by the hour—however this time spent on routine duties could possibly be invested in concepts and initiatives to develop your shopper base and develop your agency.

Ask your self: how are operational duties being accomplished at my agency as we speak, and what else might I do with the additional time obtained from a extra automated resolution?

For agency house owners: The significance of know-how for worker satisfaction

Worker satisfaction is a giant piece of the puzzle when making an attempt to shift away from the established order. Some staff is likely to be nervous about change, whereas others is likely to be begging for it.

For instance, when each crew member should use a specific software program, nevertheless it proves to be sluggish, and liable to crashes and errors, it inevitably creates frustration and might even result in resentment within the office. On the flip aspect, some staff might cling to familiarity, discovering consolation and safety in software program they’ve used for years, thus hesitating to embrace change.

When contemplating a change to the established order at your agency, there are a few issues to contemplate.

Are you susceptible to dropping staff in case you create change? Will your staff embrace change, and what’s going to it value to lose them? Take inventory of your vital staff, and make sure you talk proactively and put collectively an implementation plan that will get their buy-in and units them up for achievement.
Does just one individual actually know and perceive your present software program system? Why is that, and what would occur in the event that they depart? On the very least, guarantee you’ve a number of individuals in your crew who know and perceive your agency’s present instruments. If you change to a brand new instrument, discover out what sort of coaching is obtainable, and clearly doc any specifics concerning how your agency makes use of the instrument.
Are your staff going to be arrange for achievement? Switching software program packages will contain coaching to make sure a wholesome adoption–and so that you can get essentially the most bang in your buck. Learn Jack Newton’s The Consumer-Centered Legislation Agency for ideas not simply on client-centered lawyering, however on change administration as effectively.

The 2023 Authorized Traits Report for Mid-Sized Legislation Corporations, reported that 67% of legal professionals in mid-sized companies utilizing cloud-based LPM software program reported that their relationships with colleagues had been good or excellent (in comparison with 35% of legal professionals in mid-sized companies not utilizing cloud-based LPM software program).

Moreover, solo legislation companies utilizing cloud-based LPM software program are 24% extra prone to report being pleased with their skilled life and 21% extra prone to be glad with their very own psychological and emotional wellness, as reported within the 2023 Authorized Traits Report for Solo Legislation Corporations.

Listed below are a couple of methods authorized software program could make your agency extra environment friendly and enhance worker satisfaction:

Scale back billing inefficiencies

Money taped over a broken window

Should you’re not utilizing authorized billing software program, you would possibly spend a number of time manually monitoring your time, bills, invoices and emailing purchasers with follow-ups and reminders for cost.

The 2023 Authorized Traits Report for Mid-Market Corporations discovered that 24% p.c of these surveyed admitted that their agency takes too lengthy to bill or invoice purchasers after finishing the work. These inefficiencies through the billing course of can result in unpaid invoices, as usually, the longer an bill goes unpaid after the completion of a case, the upper the probabilities are that it’ll by no means be. Mid-sized legislation companies additionally reported getting paid greater than twice as quick when utilizing on-line funds from a authorized billing software program resolution.

Moreover, the 2023 Authorized Traits Report reported companies utilizing billing options noticed modest will increase of their realization charges (the quantity of hours billed) and assortment charges (quantity of billed hours collected on). In different phrases, not solely does the common legislation agency invoice extra utilizing these billing options as a strong enterprise lever—they usually acquire a larger proportion of their payments. Using this know-how will permit your staff and purchasers to expertise a greater billing workflow when you get hold of extra billable hours in your week

Scale back handbook shopper consumption

One of many extra time-consuming duties at any legislation agency is shopper consumption: attracting new purchasers, gathering their info, organising calls, and getting them logged into your system.

When utilizing conventional strategies, legal professionals and agency employees might speak to the potential shopper over the telephone or by way of electronic mail, usually with a number of forwards and backwards. You will need to then manually add the shopper’s private and case info into your present course of and decide occasions to fulfill that work for each events’ schedules (which may, once more, result in a number of forwards and backwards). This may be a particularly time-consuming and repetitive course of that takes you away from billable work and different important duties.

With a extra automated course of utilizing shopper consumption software program, you possibly can unlock hours of labor with on-line consumption varieties that auto-fill information into key paperwork and varieties and make the most of a hands-free calendar scheduling instrument. Leads will change into purchasers extra seamlessly, decreasing the chance of dropping purchasers and permitting your time to change into extra targeted on the case at hand.

Scale back time finding templates and authorized varieties

As all legal professionals, paralegals, and legislation agency directors know, finding particular varieties and authorized templates can take up a number of non-billable hours in per week. Sifting and sorting by way of paperwork is usually simply part of the job, nevertheless it doesn’t should be.

When working and not using a doc administration instrument, authorized professionals are caught doing routine and rote work as an alternative of labor that provides extra worth to your agency. With the ability to search by way of a web-based library of courtroom varieties and authorized templates, save generally used paperwork and varieties, auto-fill info, and add paperwork from different instruments (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and so on.), proper inside a doc administration instrument can cut back errors and frustration whereas providing you with, and your employees, treasured time again.

For agency employees: How you can introduce change as an worker

Should you don’t get to resolve on what know-how your agency makes use of, how do you go about convincing the companions that there’s a higher means? Should you work for somebody snug of their methods and their conventional processes, this will likely appear daunting, particularly if the brand new course of prices greater than the present technique.

The underside line for any enterprise proprietor and managing accomplice finally boils down to 1 factor: ROI (return on funding). They are going to be most eager about what this new know-how will do for them and the agency’s total success. It will be onerous proof to disregard in case you can show that they might be making a sound funding to avoid wasting time, improve income and income, enhance worker satisfaction, and improve total enterprise operations.

And to high off your argument, the common lawyer’s hourly fee is $225/per hour. If authorized software program can prevent one hour monthly of non-billable work, that point can now go in direction of billable duties, that means it’s usually paid for itself.

Cease paying to stay with the established order

Authorized know-how has the facility to revolutionize how legislation companies function. By simplifying duties with trendy software program options, you pace up processes like shopper consumption, doc administration, and funds—creating new possibilities in your agency to enhance its companies and hold your purchasers and agency employees comfortable.

By making the change to utilizing authorized software program options, extra of your time turns into cash, as you’re in a position to tackle greater than earlier than. The bounds are actually limitless, with the digital age introducing extra progressive software program options to enhance the authorized panorama on a regular basis. And the perfect a part of all, adopting know-how in a agency permits legal professionals to focus extra on what actually issues—serving to their purchasers.

Embarking on this alteration and ditching the instruments and processes you’ve all the time used would possibly seem intimidating, however the rewards might be noticeable from the bounce. It’s excessive time for legislation companies to let go of outdated methods, welcome new concepts, and set sail towards a future filled with success and prosperity. Should you’re able to dive into Clio, join a demo as we speak, and don’t overlook to take a look at the connected assets to this text.

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