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Colby Wegman

New Tech for Law Firms

From roofing to retail, every industry in the world is discovering that adopting new tech improves efficiency. The legal world is no exception. Law firms are realizing that software can help them build a broader client base and automate processes that once took up hours every day.

Below Colby Wegman discusses the biggest innovators in legal tech and how law firms are responding to these changes.

Innovative Legal Solutions for Employers

Law is notorious for its paperwork. Technological innovation doesn’t mean that there’s less paperwork – it just means that it can be filled out, organized, and filed much faster.

Several years ago, Littler Mendelson and Neota Logic launched a venture called ComplianceHR to change the game for companies’ legal departments. Littler Mendelson is the largest employment and labor law practice worldwide, and by partnering with Neota, it created a service that solved many of the legal headaches law firms face when it comes to filing paperwork.

Legal compliance is essential for an HR department, but there’s a lot to bear in mind given that most HR workers aren’t trained legal professionals. ComplianceHR provides up-to-date information on state and federal employment law and allows HR professionals to understand and act on their responsibilities more easily.

Since its inception, ComplianceHR has gone from strength to strength, and law firms even use its technology in-house. Similar services have emerged since, illustrating a huge market for law firms to innovate and provide technological solutions to help their commercial clients. It’s easy to ask what technology can do for your company internally – forward-thinking law firms are also seeing what new tech can do for their company’s growth and prospects.

Making it Easier for Clients to Engage

The biggest challenge facing most law firms in the digital age is driving client engagement. People hesitate to approach lawyers, even when they know they have a sound reason for seeking legal advice.

Software providers like MyCase and Iolite are building solutions to make client engagement much easier. Rather than contacting a lawyer in person, these software suites direct clients through the law firm’s website to a carefully-designed form that the lawyer can then read to get an idea of the case before responding to the client.

Of course, a full discussion with the legal expert who will represent you can’t fully be replaced by technology. However, innovations in this area drive engagement rates and enable law firms to take on more clients.

Colby Wegman client engagement

Keeping Track of Proceedings

Software providers also make it easier for lawyers to keep track of their documents and case timelines. For example, Iolite retains information about hearing dates and communications and ensures that the relevant parties are updated in due course.

Attorneys typically only spend a small portion of their day engaged in profitable client work. Increased automation of paperwork and monitoring means that there’s more time to work on cases.

New Tech will be Increasingly Adopted

Today’s legal software technology is improving how firms operate. Intuitive software and automation benefits law firms more than most other industries – the reduction in paperwork alone is a blessing.

We expect to see even more law firms transition to using data and HR management software to improve efficiency at their practices.

By Colby Wegman

Colby Wegman writes about commercial property investment and tech startup funding.

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