Discovering the Best Legal Case Management
5 Definitive Steps to Discovering the Best Law Firm Case Management for Your Practice
This is the time to rethink, reset and rise to a new model of providing legal services based on better law firm case management.
Why now?
- Clients are demanding it.
- A plethora of legal tech tools are available for implementing better, faster workflows.
- Other service industries (like the financial services sector) have already moved forward and plunged into new technology very successfully.
Here are five steps to follow in assessing the right legal technology you need.
Step 1: Identifying Processes
Take a close look at all of the processes involved in your firm’s day-to-day operations. This will be a long list. It starts with business development, lead qualification and intake procedures, including conflict checks and fee agreement development and signing.
The list then requires looking specifically at how you practice law. These processes vary greatly by practice area, but all have some common case management procedures such as setting up contact information, notes and timelines. Continue your list by looking at billing, invoicing and running the operations of the law firm. Finish up with a list of processes involved in collecting and analyzing data and running business intelligence reports.
Step 2: Categorizing Processes
Label each process according to type — standard, repetitive or custom. Standard processes happen frequently, remain very consistent and may already be efficient. These may not need much change/improvement. Repetitive processes involve a lot of duplicative steps and could benefit from technology intervention. Custom processes, as the name implies, change frequently and require a large amount of human involvement and interaction.
Focus first on the processes labeled repetitive. The goal is to strike a balance between efficiency through the use of automation and the necessity for the human touch in delivering superior legal services. Many studies show that improving repetitive processes can free up to 1/3 more human time for higher-level work.
Step 3: Develop a Workflow-Centric Approach
Weave together your technological processes in a way that provides a streamlined overall workflow, often referred to as a firm’s technology roadmap. This leads to better efficiency, lower costs, less stressed employees and happier, more satisfied clients. Find out more about how you can create your legal technology roadmap from UpLevel Ops, a legal advisory firm.
Step 4: Make Sure Your Software Plays Well with Others
Consider the interoperability of all tech tools and software to ensure smooth workflows. Interoperability is defined as the ability of software to exchange and make use of each other’s information. Legal case management software should be able to pull in data from other sources and effectively use the data to generate reports and provide all of the needed functionality.
Sometimes interoperability between software programs will require the use of additional software/apps like Zapier or other similar if this, then that programs. Ideally, these types of rules or communications between programs run in an automated manner to reduce human time and effort used on tasks like redundant data entry.
Step 5: Bringing It All Together with Business Intelligence
Make sure all of your workflows share data and properly communicate with legal case management software that provides robust analytics. You should be able to draw data from all necessary sources and view compelling marketing metrics in a visually appealing, dynamic dashboard.
Case management software like GrowPath provides better intakes, streamlined law firm case management and superior analytics. The cloud-based application allows for secure, remote access and updates constantly to provide real-time reporting. Let law firm case management technology provide a firm-wide foundation for your client-centered workflows.
To see how law firm case management can enhance your firm’s productivity, sign up for a GrowPath demo.