5 Small Law Firms That Embraced Legaltech: 2023 Success Stories
Legal tech companies are providing more and more resources to meet the growing trends among legal tech law firms. A small law firm owner who has not yet adopted legal tech solutions might wonder, “How do I approach legal tech adoption?” A follow-up question might be, “Are there any success stories I can learn from?”
We at Lawrina have compiled five successful case studies of legal tech development in small law firms in 2023. We hope this list will help law firm owners make better decisions on legal tech applications.
Contract Review Software
The seven-person law firm Brinen & Associates was spending too much time on contract review. The time-consuming process didn’t leave the bandwidth for the firm to serve more clients. The firm’s owner Joshua D. Brinen sought a legal tech product as a solution and started using Loio, a legal сontract drafting and review software.
While scanning the whole agreement in Microsoft Word, Loio detects clauses, analyzes them, and provides a detailed report of any errors found and how to fix them instantly. According to a case study covered by the industry publication Legal IT Professionals, the firm has reviewed 10,000 legal documents with the help of this legal tech software within six months.
As a result, the firm was able to take on more clients and provide them with faster and more accurate document reviews, which boosted the quality of services offered by the firm. Moreover, this new legal tech firm expects to save $150,000 in operating costs annually.
Joshua D. Brinen also highlighted that Loio is helping his firm to withstand the competition among legal tech companies:
Case Management System
Gummerson & Nickolaus is a small law firm of 10 employees. The firm sought the best legal tech innovation to optimize its administrative workflow and dedicate more time to its clients. The law firm chose the MyCase legal tech product as its new case management system. With its help, the firm created an automated system that could optimize even the most complicated processes, such as billing.
“MyCase has given us the ability to be more effective at communicating with our clients,” stated the firm’s managing partner. The software has enabled the new legal tech firm’s clients to check their case status anytime, reducing the firm’s overall hours spent on phone calls.
The legal tech application also helped the team better track the time spent delivering legal services. For example, one of the firm’s attorneys billed nine hours daily before using MyCase. Now, she is billing from 11 to 12 hours with MyCase helping her track her time.
Client Acquisition Software
Darron S. Stewart owns a law firm of 28 employees and has faced considerable client growth. The number of client cases and questions was rising, so delegating the clientele between team members became inevitable. Darron found Lead Docket, a lawyer-focused lead conversion legal tech software. Read his impressions:
Precise data from a chosen legal tech solution can also regulate law firm employees’ workflow. Every legal professional will know what to do and who to ask for necessary advice.
In streamlining the clientele delegation process and optimizing workflow efficiency within growing law firm, founder could benefit from implementing a comprehensive Consulting Services Agreement to establish clear guidelines for client interactions, service provision, and team responsibilities. This agreement can enhance client management practices and foster smoother collaboration among legal professionals within the firm by outlining roles, expectations, and service standards.
IP Docketing Software
Pankaj Raval, the owner of Carbon Law Group, used to conduct IP docketing via Google Forms and spreadsheets. As his small practice started to grow, however, so did the need to optimize the allocation of time and resources.
After searching legal companies, the law firm chose Alt Legal as its new IP docketing legal tech software to speed up the docketing process and save time on the attorneys’ schedules for more high-value tasks. Now, the law firm owner doesn’t have to manually create a form for his clients and meet with them to fill it out — Alt Legal does this for him. All he has to do is click a couple of times to transfer the information into the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) software.
Doing routine tasks has already stopped being trendy. Time is money, and every second counts, so spending time on a client is better than spending it on something inhuman that legal tech innovations can help accomplish.
Time Tracking Software
Austin-based Promise Legal PLLC cooperates with transactional clients in corporate law, which implies regular email communication. As Managing Partner Alex Shahrestani shared, it took 50 percent of the daily working hours, and similar messages and topics only kept repeating. Promise Legal PLLC employees had to manage multiple tabs opened in browsers to have them always available.
Using legal tech software to solve the time-tracking issue helped every team member of Promise Legal PLLC solve other work productivity gaps where a human’s hand is not necessary. Alex did the same with contract redlining tasks by setting up in-house contract drafting and review software to optimize the lawyers’ workflow. Reviewing legal agreements cannot be entirely replaced in legal tech firms. However, the attorneys of Promise Legal PLLC have saved up to 500 working hours with the active usage of legal tech resources on the premises.
Conclusion
The success stories above show that applying legal tech products to the mechanical, time-consuming tasks of legal practice can be a win for a small law firm. Contract review, daily task automation, case management, and more solutions are only the beginning of complete legal tech development for law firms in the coming decades. The sky’s the limit for areas to boost a firm’s growth with legal tech companies.
