What is Legal Automation & Why Do In-House Teams Need It?

What is Legal Automation?

Legal automation is the practice of taking manual processes and automating them. The definition is as simple as it sounds. And while some improvements can happen without technology, legal teams often rely on legal automation tools like in-house legal digital solutions to simplify and speed up their operations.

Why Is Legal Automation Essential for In-House Teams?

Although the need for automation in the legal industry isn’t new, several recent shifts have made legal process automation a top priority for legal departments. Here are the three biggest drivers:

1. Pressure To Cut Costs & Maximize Resources

We see this a lot with our clients where part of their actual corporate strategy is to engage in cost-cutting. And often the consequences of this are passed onto the legal team who are made to take on more deals and more strategic work year-on-year, but with stagnation or reduction in headcount. 

We constantly hear this term of “do more, with less” within the legal industry but how do we do this with the same number of lawyers and the same size of the legal team who are already at maximum capacity? This is where automation comes in.

By automating legal tasks like triaging requests or generating standard documents, legal automation software enables teams to handle more work without burning out.

2. Growing Demand for Data-Driven Decision Making

In today’s world, legal teams are becoming increasingly conscious about the need to report on their team’s activities. This is because the Board, CEO, or Chief Legal Officer (CLO) now view the legal team as a strategic pillar rather than just a support function. This means, they require answers to questions like: “How many hours were spent on X task?,” “How many requests did we get from this side of the business?” and “How long does it take to complete these against SLAs?.”

However, the beauty of automation isn’t just to automate these processes. A strong legal automation platform can actually create digital touchpoints that capture that information in the first place, in order to make reporting easier and more accurate.

3. Push Towards Improving the Business User Experience

One of the qualities that is often overlooked is “How do we better improve the experience of our internal clients when they come and engage us for legal services?.” 

Manual requests and manual processes often end up in bottlenecks and result in long turnaround times for business users. This is because the process is largely inconsistent and run differently by different people. 

So, by implementing legal automation systems, legal teams can standardize best practices, provide 24/7 access to legal support, and enable faster, more consistent service. Not only is this beneficial for business users but it allows lawyers to actually spend their time on more high-value tasks because they’re not dealing with an NDA on the side.

Key Takeaways

In today’s world, legal automation is growing more and more important. With so many benefits for both lawyers and the business, legal teams are no longer asking if they should automate, but rather what to automate and which legal software automation tools will have the greatest impact.

For more information on legal automation, schedule a call with one of our technology consultants and see how Checkbox can help your team streamline processes and enhance efficiency.