Running a thriving law firm encompasses dozens of parameters. Arguably, keeping employees satisfied and efficient are the most important ones. Stressed out lawyers and paralegals are naturally less productive, which translates into lost growth opportunities for the company.
Today, being unhappy is a huge issue for legal workers. Let’s look at these stats from the ABA legal profession report:
- 21% of legal workers qualify as problem drinkers (more than triple the rate for the general population);
- 28% of lawyers struggle with depression;
- 19% have symptoms of anxiety.
Some lawyers would even lose $500 worth of billable hours just to share their pain on Quora.
To improve their employees’ well-being and productivity, IT and operations departments are increasingly adopting legal document software at their companies. Innovation-minded IT and operations managers usually prefer AI-driven solutions.
Why start with a legal document tech solution?
The answer seems pretty straightforward. The robotic job of reviewing and fine-tuning contracts accounts for a lion’s share of lawyers’ day-to-day work. Meanwhile, optimizing it requires neither significant investment, nor much time. All you need is trustworthy software. You can look for such software at G2 Crowd, LegalTechHub, Capterra, Crozdesk, and Bob Ambrogi's list.
But before we dig deeper into discussing the technology, let’s have a quick look at some benefits of introducing legal document software at a law firm:
- Improved productivity;
- Less stressed legal professionals;
- Faster document review;
- Fewer mistakes.
For legal specialists, it brings the following advantages:
- Less administrative work, more lawyering;
- More control over deadlines;
- Lower stress levels;
- More time for human interaction.
Earlier I’ve written that innovation-minded managers prefer artificial intelligence, or as data scientists call it, machine learning, to other solutions. It’s understandable since it is the most advanced technology available today.
At the same time, it’s a black box for many end-users. So, let’s see how it works.
Why is AI beneficial for legal document software?
No one can explain the workings and advantages of machine learning (ML) algorithms better than data scientists. Here’s what Serge Sotnyk, Senior Data Scientist behind legal document software Loio, has to say in this regard:
“Reviewing a contract may take lawyers hours or even days. Scanning through dozens of pages and thousands of words to find discrepancies in dates, names, places, numbers, lists, styles, etc. requires focus and an ability to process large amounts of data quickly.
On top of that, it’s an extremely boring job which takes a lot of energy and robs lawyers from the ability to switch to more fulfilling tasks like actual lawyering.”
He adds: “When using ML, legal professionals get an assistant that can process as much data as you give it in a matter of seconds. One may argue that ML is no different from traditional software in this regard. But with traditional software, we create rules for a machine (computer) to use to process data. Thus, the more data we use, the more rules we need. With time, such a tech solution gets much more difficult to maintain and becomes prone to making more mistakes.
With machine learning, it’s quite the opposite. We interact with a computer as if it were a child. We teach it by providing examples. Then the machine creates rules to process the data we feed it. With ML, the more data it learns from, the better it becomes at analyzing it. In other words, the growing amount of data is an advantage rather than a drawback for such a solution.
ML-based software is most effective when used to automate routine tasks. In contract review, one of the things it does is creating a list of inaccuracies in the processed document. But it gives users the control over making the final decision about correcting them.
Ultimately, ML lets legal professionals get rid of repetitive tasks, get more productive, and finally focus on creative things that they love doing.”
Although an AI-backed product is difficult to develop, it’s pretty easy to use. Therefore, end users, namely, lawyers, paralegals, and anyone working with legal documents don’t need to be super tech-savvy. In fact, some products are built as Microsoft Word add-ins, which brings the need for legal professionals to adjust to a new working environment to zero.
You can see it firsthand. Look at these screenshots of Loio, a Microsoft Word add-in that uses AI to make contract review and editing easier and faster. It looks like the interface has been slightly tweaked, nothing more. Right?
To wrap up, adopting AI-powered legal document software is a great option for law firms for several reasons:
- It lowers lawyers’ stress levels;
- It boosts overall productivity;
- It speeds up contract review and editing;
- It requires a small investment.
Besides, it helps IT and operations managers position themselves as innovation-minded professionals.
So, why not try it out today?