75% of attendees at Two Step webinar rated using document automation technologies as “very important” to improving law firm productivity.
Needham, MA – April 8, 2008 — Two Step Software, Inc., a leader in corporate governance and stock plan administration solutions, reported that during its International Legal Technology Association (ILTA)- sponsored webinar entitled “Higher Productivity Increases the Bottom Line at Law Firms” held April 7th, leading legal technology specialists agreed that document automation was key to providing excellent client service and increasing profits.
During the 60-minute live, online presentation, seasoned veterans from Goodwin Procter LLP, LexisNexis HotDocs, Capstone Practice Systems, and Two Step Software all commented that in the current legal environment new technologies that enable seamless information exchange with document automation increases productivity and creates opportunities for next generation client service. “In the document intensive world of corporate law, one of the fastest ways to achieve higher productivity is by providing immediate access to client information and automating the creation of corporate governance and ownership documents – a law firm’s most tangible client deliverable,” said Two Step Software CEO, Gary D. Levine. During audience polling, 75% of attendees rated using technologies like document automation as “very important” to improving law firm productivity.
Doug Cornelius, an attorney and member of the knowledge management department at Goodwin Procter, said clients are looking to get more for their money and are expecting faster delivery of answers and documents. “There is an argument from some law firms that if it takes 10 minutes to produce a document instead of an hour and 10 minutes, then that is one less hour to bill and one less hour of billable revenue,” he said. “But, we have seen a change in the industry where the client may not be willing to pay for that hour; it might be billable but not collectible. In addition, sometimes you just don’t have that extra hour to get it done.”
Valerie Connell, Product Manager for Legal Content Management at LexisNexis®, has seen a trend of law firm clients who are doing more comparison shopping and who are not willing to pay large fees for standard document creation work or proofreading. “With document automation, you get a competitive advantage,” said Connell. “It can mean the difference between having a major client loss or growth for your firm.” In fact, she has seen law firms increase revenue by automating the documentation process and giving clients limited access — which opened up attorney schedules for more billable hours and impressed clients enough so more referrals were generated.
Connell finished her talk with a piece of advice to law firm attendees. “If you leave this webinar with nothing else, the most important thing I can emphasize is minimizing risk to your law firm,” she said. “If you are doing search and replace and pulling up existing documents, you could miss information … If you automate the process, you know what goes in the document is specific to your client, so you are minimizing your risk of malpractice.”
Bart Earle, Senior Consultant at Capstone Practice Systems, demonstrated a Delaware incorporation package that merged company specific information into multiple documents. He cited increased attorney and staff productivity, standardized best practices, streamlined document production, greater accuracy, and elimination of IT resources, as quantifiable benefits derived by automation.
Levine summarized the thoughts of the panel telling attendees, “Better use of legal technology leads to higher productivity and better client service. In the legal services marketplace, measurable improvements in client service have been proven to directly impact the bottom line.” A recording of the webinar, as well as the related materials, are available at: www.twostep.com/docassembly.
About Two Step’s Document Assembly Module for Corporate Focus
Two Step’s Document Assembly Module for Corporate Focus, powered by HotDocs® Server, is the first corporate governance solution to embed the server version of the HotDocs engine. This combination enables users of Corporate Focus to be able to retrieve client-specific information and automatically generate standard corporate documents without having to leave the Corporate Focus user interface or having to install or configure any additional software.
