Boosting legal knowledge worker productivity

Legal professionals are the quintessential knowledge workers, relying on their expertise, creativity, and problem-solving skills to tackle complex legal challenges. However, operational tasks often hinder their focus on fee-earning activities and overall productivity. Intelligent IT solutions, adapted for legal professionals can optimise workflows and drive growth. This blog will explore proven solutions to enhance legal productivity through strategic technology choices.

Understanding Knowledge Management systems in law firms

Knowledge Management (KM) systems are specialised technologies and processes that capture, organise, and disseminate an organisation's intellectual assets, including documents, case notes, legal precedents, and expertise.

The importance of these systems is underscored by a Gartner survey revealing that 47% of digital workers struggle to find the information they need to perform their jobs effectively. In legal practice knowledge is everything, and KM systems could significantly boost productivity by providing quick access to critical information.

In legal settings, KM systems can offer significantly impact in these areas:

• Rapid access to legal knowledge: KM systems provide quick access to centralised legal resources, reducing research time.
• Enhanced collaboration and knowledge sharing: they connect legal teams, enabling seamless sharing of insights and expertise.
• Leveraging predictive analytics and legal insights: AI-driven KM systems offer predictive insights to support decision-making.
• Reducing onboarding time for new legal professionals: KM tools accelerate onboarding by providing instant access to essential knowledge.
• Mitigating knowledge loss from departing employees: KM systems retain valuable insights, protecting the firm's knowledge base.

Unlocking new potential with AI-enhanced KM systems

Integrating AI technologies, such as Microsoft Copilot, into KM systems can significantly enhance their effectiveness. AI acts as an intelligent assistant, analysing vast amounts of data to dynamically suggest relevant documents and even draft initial responses based on historical information and case data. For instance, when working on a new case, AI could instantly surface similar past cases from your firm, and relevant legal precedents.

However, it's crucial to first organise your data, tools, and KM processes effectively. This preparatory step creates a solid foundation, allowing AI to function as a powerful reasoning layer on top of your well-structured information, ultimately maximising the benefits of this advanced technology.

Enhancing real-time collaboration and flexibility

Cloud-based collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams (a social layer of KM) have become essential in the modern workplace, enabling teams to work seamlessly across different locations. A study by Forrester found that organisations adopting social, collaborative platforms like Teams saved 4 hours per week per knowledge worker. These collaboration tools are particularly valuable in the legal industry, where lawyers and support staff often work across multiple offices and need to coordinate on cases in real time.

Boosting employee engagement and wellbeing

The use of flexible digital tools is also closely linked to employee engagement and wellbeing. According to Gallup, disengaged employees cost the world economy an astonishing $8.8 trillion in lost productivity. Tools that promote flexibility, such as remote work platforms, contribute significantly to maintaining a motivated and healthy workforce.

According to Gartner, employers who deliver "radical flexibility" - the ability for employees to choose where and with whom people work - have a 40% higher percentage of high-performing employees. In the legal industry, where high workloads and demanding schedules are common, maintaining employee engagement and wellbeing is crucial. Digital tools that offer flexibility help legal professionals balance their work and personal lives more effectively.

Embracing automation across day-to-day legal processes

Automation is a powerful method for improving productivity in legal settings by reducing the time spent on routine tasks. According to the Harvard Business Review, knowledge workers, including legal professionals, spend an average of 41% of their time on non-strategic, administrative work. By automating these processes, law firms can enhance efficiency and client service. Here are examples of how automation can be effectively applied using specialised legal software and IT services:

Workflow automation: Integrated workflow automation tools streamline client onboarding, billing approvals, and conflict checks, cutting administrative time and reducing errors. Automated workflows ensure tasks are completed consistently, enhancing overall operational efficiency.

Client communication: Automated communication platforms manage client intake, appointment scheduling, and updates, ensuring clients receive timely responses and enhancing overall service quality without adding to the administrative burden.

Time and billing automation: Time-tracking and billing automation tools can capture billable hours automatically, generate invoices, and track payments with minimal human intervention. This not only improves billing accuracy and reduces the time spent on manual entry but also helps firms maintain a steady cash flow by minimising delays in invoicing and payment collection.

Empowering legal professionals with citizen development

Citizen development empowers non-technical staff to create applications and automate processes using low-code or no-code platforms, unlocking new efficiencies for legal firms. By leveraging citizen development, law firms can rapidly respond to changes in regulations or client demands, creating solutions that are tailored to their unique legal environment or simply automate draining admin.

Case studies in other industries show real results. For instance, pharma firm Moderna uses over 700 specialised GPTs to streamline complex tasks. Another low-code option is Copilot Studio as used by this Brazilian travel firm to better serve customers by replacing time-consuming and error-prone manual data collation tasks.

The continuing importance of cloud

Cloud may be receding behind AI as the technology du jour, but it remains the foundation for productivity gains. Technology adoption is rapidly enhancing operational efficiency and enabling the flexible work environments discussed above. A recent study found that 68% of law firms have moved over half of their core systems to the cloud, reflecting a significant shift towards cloud-first strategies. This transition supports remote work, offers secure access to critical data, and reduces the need for costly on-premises infrastructure. Additionally, 23% of firms plan to be entirely cloud-based within the next 18 months, highlighting the growing confidence in cloud solutions to meet the needs of modern legal practices.

OneAdvanced - supporting legal productivity

As the digital landscape evolves, legal firms investing in productivity-enhancing technology will improve operational performance, drive strategic growth, and maintain their innovative edge. Choosing the right technology partner is essential.

OneAdvanced IT Services have 30 years of experience working with UK law firms, with deep expertise in optimising productivity. Our legal specific IT solutions streamline workflows, reduce administrative burdens, and empower legal professionals to focus on high-value tasks. Get in touch today to learn how we can help.

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