{"id":8688,"date":"2022-02-11T13:58:55","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T13:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clio.com\/uk\/?p=8688"},"modified":"2026-02-27T23:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:54:31","slug":"legal-workflow-automation-law-firm-revenue-lawyer-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketing.dev.clio.systems\/uk\/blog\/legal-workflow-automation-law-firm-revenue-lawyer-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"How Legal Workflow Automation Increases Law Firm Revenue and Efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legal admin work is crucial to running a successful firm, but it\u2019s also something law firms can struggle with. For many law firm staff, particularly legal secretaries, office managers, and legal administrative staff, the processes at their firm make admin time-consuming, tedious, and detracts their focus from building the firm.\u00a0<\/span>For fee-earning lawyers, these processes can distract or take time away from billable work. So how can firms make legal admin work easier, improve lawyer efficiency, and increase firm revenue? By embracing legal workflow automation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, cloud-based, all-in-one solutions make it easier to operate remotely. With <\/span>9\/10<\/span><\/a> UK-based lawyers not wanting to return to the office full-time, firms must implement remote-friendly tools to maintain performance levels with a dispersed workforce.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dig into five key ways in which legal workflow automation can make legal admin work easier, improve lawyer efficiency, and increase firm revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Tedious document processes<\/span><\/h2>\n

Whether it\u2019s a detailed contract or something shorter but still essential, such as client letters, lawyers know just how much time and effort it takes to draft complex documents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Only, this doesn’t have to be the case. Global management consultancy McKinsey estimates that <\/span>23%<\/span><\/a> of a lawyer\u2019s work can be automated\u2014and document drafting is one such task. Firms often choose to create new documents from scratch for each case. However, in many instances, there\u2019s no reason why they can\u2019t simply use templates and automation to create first drafts in seconds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, for many legal professionals, trying to find the right document can often be a nightmarish situation. Is it saved to your company drive? In a G-Drive? Dropbox folder? Or wait\u2014did you save it in your computer\u2019s download folder?<\/span><\/p>\n

This might sound like a minor inconvenience. But if six of your firm\u2019s lawyers or other firm staff each spend just 10 minutes a day digging around for the right documents, that\u2019s an hour wasted. That\u2019s without counting how long it takes to create documents from scratch that could be more easily created from templates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Document automation makes it easier for lawyers and other law firm staff to create new documents from existing templates, reduces the time to create a first draft, and speeds up the end-to-end contracting and communication processes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An accessible document management solution can make a big difference, too. Rather than having firm members searching through multiple places, documents can be associated with specific matters, while lawyers can even search for a specific word or phrase to find just the document that they\u2019re looking for. It also makes it easier to share key documents with clients.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(For an example of how this works, see <\/span>Clio\u2019s Legal Document Management feature<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Inefficient client intake and onboarding processes<\/span><\/h2>\n

Converting prospective clients to actual clients can make or break a law firm\u2019s revenue and growth trajectory. For that reason, client intake and client onboarding processes are an essential consideration\u2014but often one of the least efficient of many firms’ operations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Firms with manual legal client onboarding processes often waste precious time and energy collecting and trying to find client details. That can be hard when those details are on various pads of paper, Post-It notes, or in diaries. Often this data is then manually uploaded into a client spreadsheet or document when staff next have a spare few minutes. Which, unsurprisingly, isn\u2019t often.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawyers might even forget about recording prospective client information entirely, given that they usually have 1,001 things to worry about at any one moment in time\u2014meaning potential clients slip through the cracks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Client relationship management (CRM) software can help massively here, enabling firms to automate their end-to-end client intake process. CRM software can be used in a number of ways that cut out manual processes and can make legal client intake and client onboarding quicker, more efficient, and less cumbersome. Legal CRM software can enable your firm to do the following:<\/span><\/p>\n