Automating Legal Work in a Turbulent Time
Starting a new technology project right now may be the last thing on your mind. Change was hard enough when life was merely frenetic.
Still, you, your colleagues, and your clients are likely doing things that could be done more easily. Thoughtful automation can radically streamline many aspects of legal work, like gathering client information and instructions, structuring workflow, and generating high-quality first drafts of complex documents.
New circumstances raise new opportunities.
I’ll keep this short. And try to avoid platitudes.
Bad news, good news
In addition to all of the scary developments around public health and the general economy, the professional legal services outlook is sobering. Clients will be even more cost-conscious, and there will be increased competition for well-paying work.
The quantity of legal work to be done is likely to increase significantly, though, both as the crisis worsens and as it recedes. People will need legal help more than ever. The scale of demand could be breathtaking — at the same time as corporations, individuals, governments, and NGOs may have fewer resources with which to underwrite the costs. But a lot of that work will involve common issues and tasks, and become routine. Which means it should be amenable to tech-enabled optimization. (Of course ‘routine’ can be a slippery concept. See Computational Intelligence and the Paradoxes of Legal Routine.)
On the bright side
There are other positive aspects to all of this:
· More tools than ever abound for automating professional work.
· The cost of entry and the required level of effort have never been lower.
· These things don’t require in-person activity to create or deploy. Digital tools can be built and used by folks who are safely separated. Contactless commerce!
· It can be therapeutic to have a focus in this time of high distraction.
· Software is better behaved than some people.
Do what you can with what you have where you are
The above slogan is often attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, who evidently attributed it to someone else. It reminds us of key questions: Where are you? What do you have? and What can you do?
If you already have, or have access to, a functioning installation of a power tool like Contract Express, HotDocs, Neota Logic, or XpressDox, make use of that infrastructure. Also check out some of the many others, such as Bryter, Documate and Community Lawyer.
What kinds of problems and opportunities do you see coming your way? What do you frequently need to document, analyze, or run checklists around? Is there a new micro-niche you might colonize? What could help you be well prepared for the post-lockdown surge?
The criteria for choosing among possible projects may need to be tuned for present circumstances:
· We often talk about grabbing the low hanging fruit — that is, automation candidates that promise high value with relatively little effort. Consider settling for things that offer good value with moderate effort.
· Priority should be given to stuff that can be rapidly developed and deployed.
· Short term benefits trump marketing value and bragging rights.
· People who have a “fire on the desk” tend to be more receptive to credible offers of help.
· Keep in mind that benefits can include both efficiency and quality control.
Eight actions to consider
1. If you have time on your hands, spend some of it on steps that will help you make good use of time in the future.
2. Find out what tools and talents your organization already has available for automating legal work.
3. Have a couple projects in mind before you choose one, and think in comparative return-on-investment terms. The ROI framework outlined in Work Less, See More Success may be useful.
4. If you can afford to defer furloughing presently unbusy staff or contractors, consider mobilizing them instead for future readiness. Make creative use of momentarily underutilized human resources.
5. Revisit projects you may have considered in the past and put aside. Ideas that might not have seemed promising in ‘normal’ times may look different now.
6. If you move forward in a classic area like document automation, check out this oldie but goodie: Keys to a Successful Document Assembly Project.
7. Find a law school that offers courses in which students build legal apps, and get involved. You can provide valuable input as a domain expert, and maybe also get low-cost help for your own initiatives.
8. Keep pro bono in your sights. You can likely leverage your impact there as well by working smarter. A2J Author is one shining resource for that world. (Some problems that eventually will surge are momentarily in abeyance. E.g., evictions, foreclosures, and utility terminations are stayed in some states. That gives us time.)
Happy days will be here again
Today’s hardships will eventually be behind us. Things will get better. And you’ll be better off if you use some of the intervening time to position yourself well for those better times. There are cost-effective tools for automating work. Use them as aggressively as possible. Wherever you are.
