How Legal Automation Will Empower Your Team

Start by asking yourself the question: Does my team enjoy the work they do?

We talk to General Counsels and Heads of Legal on a daily basis and statistically speaking the answer is typically a resounding ​“No!”. Getting out of the weeds of transactional high volume, low variability, and often low risk work is difficult, because the same type of work is increasing year on year, your team is not getting any bigger (perhaps even smaller) and your budget is flat. Oh… let’s not forget that the business expectations are on the rise – difficult is an understatement!

So how can Legal Automation help?

Automation of routine Legal tasks will ultimately free up the locked capacity of your Legal team to focus on ​“real” Legal work. This will allow you and your team to become more of a strategic partner to the business, hence transforming your team from transactional to one that proactively manages risks.

How is this done?

Although automation tools for the Legal industry have been around for a few years, the Legal automation technology landscape is fractured with different types of automation tools focusing on contract creation, contract management, digital signature, etc. where the historic problem has been to implement these solutions and then later to integrate them.

Think about a process you know well

Work comes to you from the business (email, call, knock on the door?) — assign a Lawyer(s) to a given task and gather the facts then apply the law — create a document — negotiate/​iterate (with the business or externally) — execute an agreement (how long does this take?) and finally store, report, and create an audit trail.

Now, imagine that the entire train of activity can be automated through a single automation tool. How much time (therefore money) would this save you, your team and your business? Yes, the business too — by empowering your business users to self-serve on routine Legal tasks through elegant business-facing Legal apps.

But perhaps one of the biggest payoffs to implementing a Legal automation solution is that it allows in-house teams to accumulate data which can be utilised in real analysis, resulting in genuine insight which can be fed back to the business. For example: renewal dates, margins, contract volumes, risk thresholds, turn-around times and performance management are all essential and invaluable sources of data if handled correctly.

A world first

Transforming Legal departments to unlock their true value is the reason why Legal Gateway exists. Now with over 100 clients globally, Plexus Gateway — the world’s most advanced Legal operating system — is empowering in-house departments to unlock their value by increasing productivity, accelerating turnaround times, improving management of risk, lowering costs, improving client satisfaction and thus ensuring happier, more engaged Lawyers.