In the past decade, we have seen a noticeable change in the manner in which the business of law is carried out. Technological advancements in the sector have resulted in members of the legal community donning multiple hats, with a decided increase in the roles that a lawyer plays in a company.
A few decades ago, a lawyer was only responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance, mitigation of commercial risk and resolution of disputes; today, lawyers are drafting company policies, managing high value transactions end to end, and taking charge of adding to the growth of an enterprise. The legal profession has evolved to a multidimensional discipline, requiring an arsenal of skills barely restricted to knowledge of the law.
One of the major reasons for this change has been the integration of technology into the delivery of legal services. Cloud computing, especially, has brought about a series of changes that have completely transformed the meaning of the term “legal services”. At one point of time not too long ago, the negotiation of a multiparty commercial contract meant large legal teams spending weeks in a conference room, going over each and every clause, trying to find a potential loophole or risk.
Today, thanks to tools of contract lifecycle automation, the same process of negotiation is completed in a couple of days. Similarly, other tasks and repetitive manual activities performed by legal personnel on a daily basis have been simplified, and largely automated using technology.
Integrated tools of project management are enabling lawyers to automate a large chunk of complex functions by creating a chronological sequence of tasks with pre-defined timelines, which can then be assigned to suitable members of the team. To put it simply, upon matter intake, the system can create and assign tasks automatically, with clear deadlines and rules governing the smooth execution of the entire process.
Let’s take a real-world example – general counsel and members of corporate legal departments are often required to perform due diligence and credit checks on other entities, this being a multi-step process. Leveraging the principles of project management, lawyers can divide this one complex task into 5-6 sub tasks placed chronologically in a sequence of events, with pre-decided time lines and rules governing the completion of this process. Thus, instead of having to relay the same instructions and following up with multiple stakeholders, legal departments can save numerous hours by templatizing the entire process of due diligence.
Today, with lawyers acting in the capacity of project managers and business analysts, the need of the hour is an all-round practice management tool which enables them to serve their clients more effectively, by applying business and technical practices to the delivery of legal services. RazorLex effortlessly integrates automation and legal project management, enabling lawyers to easily track progress of matters, bottlenecks, resource availability, work-in-progress, project budget and much more.
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