Work Smarter! These New Law Firm Technology Trends Will Revolutionize Your Office.
Law firms are facing a major push to take a more digital approach to their services. Which is why utilizing the right law firm technology can create a better experience for both your clients and your team.
Not sure how to start implementing the right tech in your law firm? Read on for our top recommendations.
How Law Firm Technology Can Benefit Your Office
Whether your law firm is growing or just starting out there are a number of benefits that come from utilizing the right technology. For one, you can free up countless hours to be able to better focus on your client.
You’ll also find that some positions could be filled by using the right tech platform, leaving more room in the budget for larger investments or pay raises. If your law firm has multiple offices in different locations, the right tech platform can also make it easier to keep track of all of the moving pieces.
Get On the Cloud
Any law firm deals with massive amounts of documents in files. Buying excess memory can quickly become expensive, and other methods of backing up data don’t allow you to access it from wherever you are.
Help your team stay connected to all important client files from wherever they are by having password protected files linked to the cloud. This will save you from any risk of a database crash or being unable to locate a file when it’s really needed.
Tap into AI Learning
Enhancing your employee’s education is a simple way to raise the overall value of your firm. This can be done simply and affordable by utilizing AI learning software. These courses allow real skills to be practiced on artificial intelligence so your lawyers and staff can be primed for real-life circumstances.
The software is adaptable for everyone from lawyers to office assistants and is a great way to qualify employees for in-house raises. You might find yourself taking advantage of the courses yourself.
Stay Secure
It’s important to have your client files close at hand, however, it’s important to remember that your clients expect you to keep this information secure. Just one piece of information getting into the wrong hands can be enough to sink your entire law firm.
Play it safe by investing in advanced business firewalls. Many of these firewall programmers hire white hat hackers to repeatedly test them to ensure there are no holes in your security. You may also consider hiring a white hat hacker for yourself to double check for any vulnerabilities.
Automate Your Marketing
Marketing is an essential part of creating a steady stream of clients coming in and staying in touch with past clients. However, busy law firms often don’t have the time to create daily social media posts or send out weekly newsletters.
That’s why it’s so helpful to utilize an email or social media platform. These platforms are designed to help you schedule posts and emails ahead of time while tracking response rates to ensure you’re receiving a solid ROI. Through such platforms, you can schedule an entire month of posting in just a few hours.
Simplify Client Communication
Receive files and keeping clients in the loop can be a hassle and can lead to countless hours wasted on email. Since time is vital in most client cases, simplify client communication by utilizing a communication or management app like Slack.
This will give your clients instant access to you while creating a secure space for links and files to be exchanged. Since the apps work from multiple mobile devices, it’s the perfect solution for teams that are on the go.
Streamline Templates and Documents
As a law firm it’s likely you will be repeatedly sending out the same forms and contracts for your clients to fill out. This can all be easily streamlined through the use of a template management system. These systems make it easy to keep all of your templates in one organized location.
You can control who has access to which templates and can even sort them based on practice type or document type. Since it’s a platform multiple offices can utilize the software without needs for separate devices.
Create Clear Communication within the Firm
Often one client will require completed tasks from multiple team members, and sorting through lengthy email chains and searching for files can quickly become a time waster.
Instead, try utilizing a project management app like Trello. Individual “cards” can be created for each client and customized teams can be assigned to each card. Individual team members can be tagged on specific tasks and documents can easily be requested and exchanged. Most importantly, the platform allows individual tasks to be marked with deadlines to ensure the project moves along smoothly.
Invoicing
Invoicing clients on time (and getting paid on time) is what keeps a firm running. However, when cases run longer than expected hourly billing can be a mess to keep track of.
Try using an app like Toggl that keeps track of each hour spent for different clients, and even allows you to label what was worked on during that hour. The platform easily integrates this data into one easy to read invoice that can be sent to your client directly. The app will also inform you when the invoice has been viewed.
Tax and HR
With multiple clients coming in and out of your firm’s doors it can be difficult to keep tabs on every receipt and expense spent. Utilizing a tax app helps your employees easily submit receipts and invoices from business trips or travel expenses while sorting them into different categories.
This will make it much easier to complete your business taxes once tax season rolls around. Which, yes, there’s an app to do your taxes as well.
Streamlining Your Law Firm
Law firm technology tools are the perfect addition to any law firm looking to enhance organization and productivity. Each app and software platform is dedicated to making a specific task in your office much easier.
If you’re looking for more steps on how to further automate your office today, we suggest checking out our blog on online legal documents for your law firm.
