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By Jared Correia, Red Cave Consulting
Since the beginning of 2020, when workforces became distributed across the world, law firm owners have been seeking to add processes to their law practice, as if looking for a Holy Grail. And it’s not really an analogy; process management for law firms sort of is the Holy Grail. If you want to make the most money possible in your law firm, you need to process the most possible cases — and you can only do that if your law firm is operating at peak efficiency, which allows you to accommodate the most work. The math is pretty simple.
Of course, the question becomes: Just how do you create and manage workflows in your law firm?
Now, this is going to get very meta — because the way that you apply processes in your law firm is through a process. Generally speaking, there are three stages that law firm owners need to move through before reaching the highest level of process management in their law firms, which is automated workflows. So, let’s go through each of those steps.
Case review meetings. Pretty much every law firm ever has held case review meetings on a recurring basis. That’s when everybody gets into a conference room together, and the law firm files get dropped on the table or opened individually on a software interface — and then, the managing partner goes down the list. What’s happening in this case? OK, how about this one? Until you get through all the cases. Now, that sounds great — until you realize that’s how you’re spending your Saturdays.
Internal communication platforms. Obviously, that’s something of an ad hoc situation. So, let’s review these cases at irregular intervals, just to see where we’re at. Now, for sure, modern technology tools like case management software help to add flesh to that bone, as well as offering a continuing chronology of tasks. But if that’s the only time your law firm is discussing advancing cases, that’s a problem. How do you connect in between times, or assign additional tasks, as needed? Using communication tools like email, the notes function in your law practice management software or a platform like Slack can really elevate ongoing conversations about case process.
Manual workflow development. But rather than just talk things over, why not instead lay out a formalized program for managing each case that every person involved can follow? Instead of assigning individual tasks, stitch them together as workflows. Each person is assigned specific tasks, with supervisors being notified of task completion. These aggregations of tasks for specific case types include follow-up architecture and always lead to a definitivee endpoint.
Launching automated workflows. In a manual system, each task and each follow-up is managed by a human. In an automated system, as many of those tasks as possible are performed by software, both with respect to individual tasks as well as any subtasks, e.g., follow-ups on that task. For example, an esignature is requested, and at least three follow-ups are made,if the action is not completed by the client initially. At this point in time, law firm owners can use software to automate lots of functions, including those client-facing requests, templated responses, document generation, etc. And, the continued application of AI to legal technology promises further automation opportunities in the future.•
Jared D. Correia, esq., is the founder and CEO of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting. A former practicing attorney, Jared has been advising lawyers and law firms for over a decade. He is a regular presenter at local, regional and national events.\
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