Legal Automation Guide for Law Firms

Legal automation tools cut error rates and reduce repetitive manual work so your law firm can do more with less. You can use automation across nearly every firm function, from intake to time capture to accounts payable. Most automations use if-then logic and are triggered by a user decision or an event in your legal practice management system. 

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What Is Legal Automation (and Why It Matters for Law Firms)

Legal automations improve law firms’ productivity and reduce human error by automatically completing a task or process when a trigger event occurs. Automation can help law firms control costs, increase client satisfaction, and scale their businesses more effectively. 

Automations Enhance Existing Legal Workflows

Most law firm automation tools come with the most common automations preloaded. You can also create custom automations to match your firm’s existing workflows, like:

• Initiating critical tasks, like opening the conflict of interest interface whenever a new client or contact is entered.
• Reducing manual work, like allowing accounting clerks to change billing codes in multiple fee records simultaneously.
• Preventing delays, like running prior-month productivity reports on the first working day of a month and email them to the appropriate supervisors. 
• Keeping clients up to date, like creating a draft reminder email to the client and deponent when a deposition date is entered in the calendar. 
• Expediting time-consuming tasks and reducing errors, like assembling a prefilled fee agreement packet in Microsoft Word when the client screening workflow is marked complete.

Automations Add Speed and Reduce Mistakes Across Functions

Nearly every law firm function includes repetitive, rote work that can be automated. Examples include:

• Client work. Work faster and reduce errors with automations for drafting and assembling documents, drafting emails, adding calendar appointments, and running reports.

• Time capture. Preserve timekeepers’ billable time with automations that simplify entering time, drafting fee entries, and revising billing statements. 

• Billing and financials. Empower small teams with automations that review and update key metrics, run financial reports, process invoices, and manage payments.

• Trust accounting. Ensure compliance in less time with automation that creates real-time dashboards, manages recordkeeping, and helps clerks spot errors before they happen.

• Marketing and intake. Get more qualified leads and boost conversion with automations for follow-ups, eSignatures, appointment reminders, and marketing sequences. 

Top Benefits of Legal Automation for Law Firms

Legal automation offers immediate advantages, and its value compounds over time.

1. Increased productivity. Streamline rote tasks, reduce time and money spent correcting errors, and free staff to invest time in more complex tasks.
2. Enhanced client experience. Reduce response times while retaining personalized interactions, increasing client satisfaction, repeat business, and referrals. 
3. Lower costs. Enjoy quick ROI by reducing labor costs, increasing potentially billable time, and boosting attorney and staff satisfaction. 
4. Better data security and compliance. Control how users handle confidential information, reduce unnecessary data access, and build in compliance. 
5. Scalability. Grow more efficiently by standardizing procedures and documents, speeding up workflows, and reducing the need for repetitive labor.
6. Competitive advantage. Show clients who are looking for efficient and modern legal services that your firm is innovating with technology to serve them better.
7. Insightful data analytics. Discover analytics that give you deep insight into your firm’s operations so you can make informed decisions for improvement.

Ready to automate your firm’s daily workflows? Get started with Tabs3 and discover how automation saves time and reduces stress.

5 Legal Workflows You Can Automate Today

The best tasks to automate are ones that you do the same way every time. Tasks that require consultation, decision-making, or collaboration are not good candidates for automation. To get the greatest ROI, look for tasks that directly impact revenue, that have high labor costs, or that are prone to consequential error. 

1. Intervene Early with Fee Entry Problems

Fee entries are notoriously labor-intensive, and they can make or break your firm’s financial health. They are also error-prone, especially if your law firm serves business clients with a variety of billing requirements. 

Consider adopting automation that remind timekeepers of firm and client guidelines. For example, you might add a pop-up reminder when the timekeeper tries to enter a block of more than six hours (block billing) or violates a client billing guideline. You might also create an automation to send a notification to the supervising attorneys and/or firm administrator for more serious errors. 

2. Docket Deadlines Immediately

Missed deadlines are a serious problem for law firms. Major misses can permanently deprive clients of legal rights and lead to costly bar complaints and/or malpractice suits. Creating calendar entries, however, is a multi-step process that may be part of a long, complex workflow. 

You can simplify the docketing process with automation. Try creating an automation that opens a pre-filled calendar entry whenever a statute of limitations date or other important deadline is entered in your practice management software. The user can quickly review the calendar entry for accuracy and save it, so nothing falls through the cracks.

3. Keep Clients Informed 

Lack of communication is one of the most common problems cited in bar complaints. Clients also want communication to feel personal. Without automation, frequent, individualized communication can significantly reduce productivity for attorneys and professional staff alike. 

Using custom letter and email templates automatically populated with client information, you can quickly produce and send personalized updates to clients. You can also create reminder automations that pop up a pre-filled message whenever a client update should be sent, like when a proceeding is scheduled or a claim has been filed on their behalf.

4. Assemble Documents Efficiently

Manually drafting and assembling documents, especially multi-part documents, can drain staff capacity and introduce costly errors. With automation, you can define document templates ahead of time. When it is time to assemble the documents, automation can populate the template from your practice management system, so nothing gets lost in translation. 

For example, if your matters require new clients to fill out forms, you could create an automation to automatically create the new client packet in Word. It could pre-populate the forms with the information the client has already shared, so they do not have to repeat themselves. Finally, it could prepare a draft email to the client with documents attached. 

5. Schedule Appointments Promptly

Setting appointments and distributing reminders is a cross-functional need, impacting both intake and client matters. Automation can help your team schedule appointments efficiently and automate the reminder process. For some workflows, you may also be able to fully automate setting, docketing, and appointment reminders. 

For example, you could automate key aspects of your client intake workflow. You can use your CRM to send intake forms by text or email, dynamically select relevant questions on intake forms, and send automatic texts or email reminders. You can also automate email and text marketing campaigns to specific segments of your audience. 

How Tabs3 Software Powers Legal Automation

Every product in the Tabs3 ecosystem includes automation tools. Many automated legal workflows are built in from the start. Firms can also create custom automations. 

With Tabs3 Billing in Tabs3 Cloud, the billing and accounting functions can create time-saving automations. Timekeepers can also automate aspects of time entry, and supervisors can automate parts of billing review. Examples include:

• Opening a new fee entry whenever a phone call is logged.
• Warning timekeepers about client fee description requirements.
• Editing multiple fee entries simultaneously.
• Managing edits and approvals in the pre-billing process electronically. 
• Automating electronic payments with Tabs3Pay.

Tabs3 Financials in Tabs3 Cloud makes it simple to automate tasks for trust accounting, accounts payable, and general ledger, like:

• Logging payments made to the firm from the trust account in Tabs3 Billing. 
• Entering recurring transactions and summarizing vendor payments.
• Checking journal entries to make sure they balance before saving records.

PracticeMaster in Tabs3 Cloud supports event-triggered and user-triggered automations, called WorkFlows. Law firms have realized substantial time savings with WorkFlows, processing paperwork up to 33% faster. Watch WorkFlows in action (4:36).

Common WorkFlow automations include:

• Notifying appropriate parties when a key matter record is changed, like the primary timekeeper, support staff, or the firm administrator.
• Drafting an email notifying the client and the deponent when a deposition is scheduled
• Starting Word document assembly for a client letter when a calendar record is added. See how document assembly works (2:27). 
• Creating a trust check request from a document management record and warning the user if the check request is saved without an attachment. 

See the WorkFlows Guide for a deeper dive into Tabs3 PracticeMaster WorkFlows. 

Tabs3 CRM, an add-on for PracticeMaster, and Tabs3 Websites also offer automation options, including: 

• Hosting custom intake forms with dynamic, logic-based questions on your Tabs3 Website and delivering the filled-out forms to Tabs3 CRM.
• Sending intake forms to prospective clients through text or email and nurturing leads with automated text or email reminders. 
• Creating personalized text or email marketing campaigns that target specific segments of your audience. 

Legal Automation Frequently Asked Questions

What kinds of legal tasks are suitable for automation?

Automation is most helpful for frequent tasks that are done the same way every time. To get the best ROI, automate tasks that tie directly impact billing/finances, tasks with high labor costs, and tasks that are prone to serious errors. 

Good candidates for automation include spotting errors in fee entries or bills, assembling documents, and docketing critical dates like statutes of limitations. 

Are there any legal tasks that should not be automated?

Yes. It generally is not worth your time to automate documents that are not used frequently. In addition, tasks that require consultation and/or exercising legal judgment should be carefully supervised by humans.

How can legal automation tools help my firm become more profitable?

Yes. Automation can help you scale your business by avoiding unnecessary labor costs and reducing exposure to risks, like data entry errors that impact trust accounting or case deadlines. It can also make your team get more done and spend more of their time on billable tasks. 

What are the most common automated legal workflows?

Document assembly, time capture, docket/calendar management, billing tasks, intake, and marketing are popular automation use cases with many law firms. With your firm’s unique goals and challenges in mind, you can choose automations that will yield the greatest ROI for you.