When you’re in the business of billing by hour, minutes matter. The more efficiently you can use those minutes, the more hours per day you can theoretically bill.
And when the average lawyer only spends 2.5 hours per day on billable projects, there’s a lot of room for improvement.
That’s where automation comes in (and where we can help).
Where to Start When Automating Law Firm Tasks
When you feel like a hamster on the wheel, it can be hard to get off and change any of the daily habits you may have developed back in law school. But you’re not in law school anymore. You don’t have time to waste on administrative tasks that could easily be automated.
Start working more efficiently by implementing smart processes with the help of technology. Our team at Honeycrisp can guide you through the best places to start automating at your firm, and we even do the heavy lifting so the entire process is effortless for you.
Here are a few places we recommend starting.
Think Workflow, Not Individual Tasks
When you look at the daily operations of your law firm, what processes are routinely performed? Likely things like intaking new clients, managing myriad documentation, scheduling meetings and billing clients are a few that come to mind. Fortunately, all these processes are good candidates for automation.
Identifying repetitive processes like these, rather than one-off individual tasks, is the best place to start when looking to automate.
While shaving off a minute or two here and there may not seem like much, those minutes multiply. Perhaps even more beneficial, however, is that every time you automate something, it’s one less thing you have to worry about.
Minimizing human error by letting tech do the work is certainly a powerful reason to automate.
An Example of Law Firm Automation in Action
Let’s look at just one example of how automation could improve your law firm’s efficiency. Remember, the sky’s the limit when it comes to which processes you choose to automate, and we are always here to help you implement systems for the tasks you want to tackle.
Now, consider your client intake process (because we’re trying to boost billable hours, we need new clients, of course!). What does your current process look like? A first step towards automation involves creating an online form for the client to fill out, but you can take it further.
When that client intake form hits your office, it can sync automatically with your case management software, thereby creating a new client contact while also integrating with any of your other Mac technology.
Now, Your Turn
Automation is likely something you’ve been thinking about for a long time, and it’s also something you know you should be doing. On the other hand, we get that automation in and of itself can feel like a time-consuming process – a hurdle you just don’t have the capacity to deal with right now (or ever).
The good news, as mentioned, is we can help.
The better news is that once your process is set up, it’s smooth sailing ahead.
For questions or guidance, feel free to reach out to our team at Honeycrisp to schedule a consultation .
