Lawyers today have way too much to do, and juggling all those balls in the air at once could be blocking you from higher profitability.
Whether you're managing client intake, handling admin, updating client files, processing invoices, scheduling social media, or trying to crank out blog posts for better SEO Performance, you're probably spreading yourself too thin. One Clio Legal Trends Report found that lawyers only spend 29% of their days on billable hours.
The good news is that some of the processes you're handling now can be outsourced, and others can benefit from workflow management.
Workflow management refers to a repeatable series of steps that define how to handle a particular task. Your law firm workflow management is about planning, structuring, and executing the steps needed to complete a particular task. The order of events in workflow management is very important since the process is linear. The best things to plug into legal workflow automation software and systems in your law firm are routine tasks and recurring processes from end to end.
Exploring all options for workflow management in your practice can reduce some of your administrative work and ensure that staff members and clients follow the same process every time.
Workflow Management vs. Business Process Management vs. Project Management
Many terms related to optimizing your business are often used interchangeably, but they actually mean different things.
Understanding the distinctions among these terms will empower law firms to identify the right legal workflow tools and programs that align with their specific goals. Here’s a breakdown of three key concepts that lawyers often reference when discussing streamlining their operations: workflow management, business process management, and project management.
Workflow Management
Workflow management refers to the systematic coordination of a series of tasks that need to be accomplished from the first step to the last. It involves several critical aspects:
- Task Sequencing: Workflow management ensures that tasks are carried out in a predetermined sequence, making it easier to track progress and identify potential bottlenecks.
- Collaboration Across Teams: Multiple tasks can be managed by multiple people or systems, facilitating collaboration within legal teams. Your software can assign tasks to various team members, enhancing efficiency and accountability.
- Focus on Efficiency: This approach emphasizes getting a single task done in the most efficient manner possible. For personal injury lawyers and other legal professionals, workflow management tools can help with repetitive administrative tasks like document creation and preparation, client communication, and case tracking, freeing up attorneys to focus on more complex legal matters.
For example, a personal injury lawyer might use legal workflow solutions to automate the process of gathering client information, drafting initial pleadings, and scheduling court appearances, ensuring that each step is completed correctly and promptly.
Business Process Management
Business process management (BPM) operates at a higher level than workflow management. It involves a broader perspective that encompasses multiple workflows and focuses on optimizing all organizational processes collectively. Key features include:
- Integration of Workflows: BPM manages numerous workflows, datasets, notifications, and reports, ensuring that various processes within the law firm are interconnected and operate smoothly.
- Optimization Focus: The goal of BPM is to analyze and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes altogether, rather than focusing on a single task or workflow. By evaluating how different workflows interact, law firms can identify areas for improvement that will enhance overall operational performance.
- Comprehensive Analysis: BPM often involves more extensive data analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing firms to generate insights that can drive strategic decision-making. This could include assessing client demographics, tracking case outcomes, or evaluating resource allocation across various departments.
In essence, while workflow management hones in on individual tasks, BPM takes a step back to optimize the entire suite of processes, making it an essential strategy for law firms looking to improve their overall efficiency.
Project Management
Project management, on the other hand, requires a specialized approach to manage unique projects that encompass multiple tasks, often with specific objectives. Here are the defining characteristics:
- Unique Objectives: Most projects entail multiple tasks, each of which can be unique to the project's specific goals. For instance, a law firm may engage in a pro bono initiative that involves distinct phases—recruiting volunteers, onboarding, case assignments, and community outreach—all with unique requirements.
- Planning and Adaptation: Given project variability, project management necessitates thorough planning and adaptability. Legal projects often have specific timeframes, budgets, and resources that must be intricately monitored and adjusted as the project progresses.
- Task Complexity: Unlike workflow management, where tasks occur in a linear and repetitive fashion, project management must account for tasks that may not be repeated precisely in future endeavors. This requires legal professionals to employ tools that facilitate flexibility and collaborative problem-solving.
Likewise, all three of these types of management differ from case management since case management requires unique touchpoints and considerations based on the specifics of the legal matter.
Use Cases for Legal Workflow Management Software in Law Firms
Since most law firms have similar phases to their work with clients, legal workflow management software has multiple applications in your law firm.
Some of the easiest areas to incorporate legal workflow software into a law practice include client intake, billing, client communication, and document automation for lawyers. Legal workflow software may excel in one or more of these areas.
Client Intake
Client intake requires some personalization but also involves the same steps repeated by your staff. Workflow automation software can optimize this process for your law firm to speed it up without sacrificing any of the personal touches.
For example, once a client places a call, fills out a form, or requests information over email, your legal workflow software could trigger a follow-up check-in call with information about the next steps. Continuing to nurture prospective clients through good communication is a hallmark of a solid client intake workflow.
Billing
There's no reason lawyers should ever spend substantial time sending out invoices, monitoring whether they've been paid, or checking in with a client with an overdue bill.
Since you probably use the same step-by-step process and timelines for each client, it's easy to use workflow management software for law firms to create automated workflows for you.
Client Communication
Whether you practice personal injury or family law, every case probably kicks off with a similar request for information. As the claim proceeds, you can use templates and automation to notify your clients about what's going on with their cases.
Legal workflow software could enable you to build in as much customization as you want to save time as you go.
Document Management
There's no need to reinvent the wheel when drafting documents. Creating plug-and-play documents is also powerful for ensuring you don't miss any details.
The average worker wastes over four hours per week just looking for paper. With document templates, you can go paperless in your law office and make searching, editing, and writing much faster.
How Law Firms May Benefit from Legal Workflow Automation Software
Automating as much as possible is a goal for any busy personal injury lawyer. That usually means adding software to your tech stack. Legal workflow automation software has many benefits for law firms and corporate legal departments of all sizes, including:
Reducing the Chances of Mistakes or Missed Deadlines
Workflow management software helps minimize human error by automating repetitive tasks and standardizing processes. When attorneys and staff rely less on memory and manual entry, mistakes such as incorrect data entry or overlooked deadlines decrease significantly.
Automated reminders and alerts can be set up to notify team members of approaching deadlines, ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks. This is particularly crucial in personal injury law, where missed deadlines can lead to the dismissal of a case or lost opportunities for clients.
Making it Easier to Train Staff on Your Processes
With workflow management software, established procedures can be easily documented and incorporated into the system. New employees can access these workflows on demand, allowing them to learn the firm's processes efficiently. This reduces the learning curve for new hires and ensures that all team members are following the same practices, retaining consistency in case handling.
By using legal workflow automation to streamline training, law firms can allocate more time to developing skills and building relationships rather than focusing solely on onboarding processes.
Producing More Consistent Work and Outcomes
Standardizing legal workflows improves consistency in the quality of work and outcomes. Workflow management software allows firms to create templated documents, checklists, and procedures that attorneys and staff can use across similar cases. This ensures that all critical steps are followed each time, reducing variability in legal processes. As a result, clients receive a uniform experience regardless of which attorney handles their case, enhancing the firm's reputation for reliability and professionalism.
Staying More Focused on the Tasks That Matter
By automating routine tasks and managing workflows effectively, attorneys can dedicate their time and energy to high-value activities that require their expertise, such as negotiating settlements, preparing for trial, or crafting legal strategies.
Workflow management software can help eliminate distractions by streamlining communication and providing clear visibility into task assignments. This allows lawyers to prioritize their workload effectively, ultimately leading to better client service and improved case outcomes.
Enhancing Collaboration Among Team Members
Effective communication is essential in the legal profession, especially within a personal injury practice where multiple team members may be involved in a case.
Workflow management software facilitates collaboration by providing a shared platform where legal teams can view the status of tasks, share documents, and communicate on case developments in real time. This transparency fosters seamless collaboration, reduces the risk of miscommunication, and keeps everyone aligned on case objectives.
Improving Client Satisfaction and Retention
When law firms operate efficiently with streamlined processes, clients benefit from timely updates and quicker turnarounds on their cases. Workflow management software can automate client communications, such as status updates or payment reminders, enhancing the overall client experience.
Satisfied clients are more likely to return for future legal needs and refer others to the firm, ultimately contributing to the firm's growth and success.
Workflow Management Software Options
Attorneys have plenty of options when it comes to workflow management tools, but each one can come with unique pros and cons.
To help you pick the best legal workflow software for you, we've assembled this list of popular options along with the features that real attorneys like about them.
Before selecting a tool, you might want to compare its features with your existing tech stack and overall goals to ensure it will work for your firm.
Clio
Clio is an industry leader for a reason. Clio Grow, in particular, has a lot of features that you may or may not use. They include:
Clio's software has a ton of bells and whistles (in addition to expenses), so smaller firm owners might want to calculate how much time they think they'll save and perhaps opt for something simpler unless your firm is growing at a rapid rate.
Daneilis R., however, loves the workflow options inside Clio, noting, "I like that Clio is very user-friendly. You can create many different matters on the intake, hired, and did not hire pipeline to create an efficient flow for the intake process."
CFlow
What's unique about CFlow is that it wasn't built specifically for law firms, but can work well for lawyers.
Since it was built to integrate with many other tools, there's probably already a connection or a Zap you can use to customize CFlow to your law firm. It comes with features like:
- Customized workflow builds
- Automatic data backups
- No coding required
- Accessible via the web, tablet, or app
One user shared, "It is an excellent tool for project management where you can automate the processes and customize the processes however you need."
Others users noted that it can be hard to get the hang of things for new employees who don't understand the how or why behind a particular process built into Cflow.
MyCase
MyCase comes complete with legal document management and process automation, making it easy to incorporate into your practice. Within MyCase, you can also:
- Automate recurring tasks
- Assign deadlines
- Create custom workflows to assign deadlines/tasks to you or others
MyCase has many users who talk about how easy it is to use, which can be great for your own purposes or training your staff.
Some users remark that MyCase could have better features for automated follow-up on overdue invoices, but overall, many of them are happy with what's included.
Lawyer Scott Y. says, "MyCase offers a cohesive platform to handle my billing and accounts receivable. I really appreciate the ease of interacting with clients through the platform and the ability to monitor when and if a client has viewed an invoice. Also, the ease of receiving electronic payment and delivering invoices electronically is tremendously helpful."
Smokeball
Smokeball promises that you'll be able to manage all of the firm's tasks, document workflows, and deadlines from one place. It is a legal practice management software with generally positive reviews.
Some of Smokeball's features include:
- Simple trust accounting
- Easy reporting
- Time tracking
- Client communication portal
- Mobile app
- E-filing
- Document automation
Smokeball may be best when working with staff who are not as tech-savvy or familiar with legal issues as you are.
Legal assistant Christopher G. notes, "Smokeball has not only made it significantly easier to keep track of all of our law firm's clients and cases, but it has also allowed me a smooth transition into the legal world as an entry-level Legal Assistant. The Forms & Templates are very helpful for learning how to draft motions, notices, and other legal documents."
A few users have noted that while Smokeball rolls out new features, it's not always the smoothest process. If you're an early adopter of new features, expect some bugs and lag time until they are fixed.
Considerations Before Choosing New Workflow Management Software
Before signing up for a free trial or getting the whole team to train on new software, think carefully about how it suits your practice and your individual goals.
Here are some things to remember as you research workflow management tools for lawyers:
- How well does the new software integrate with your existing software, such as document management or client intake?
- How will this software support the lifecycle of each client case?
- What is the learning curve for staff members with the new software?
- What kind of technical support will you receive for onboarding and beyond?
- Do you have enough repetitive or recurring processes that your investment makes sense?
Not all law firms need workflow management software. If you have a small law firm and a limited caseload, you might not need to invest in workflow tools until you find yourself doing the same tasks repeatedly. When purchasing software for your law firm, start with what saves you the most time and boosts your client experience. You may add workflow management software once you hit a pressure point with manual processes or existing lawyer tools.
Workflow management is just one aspect of how to manage a law firm, but it's an important one.
