Why Do Small Legal Teams Need Legal Operations Software?

For the past many years, in-house lawyers remained the table turners for businesses. These professionals, with comprehensive knowledge of laws and regulations, have helped established companies in running their business legally. 

But, with time, the role of lawyers has shifted from solely being legal advisors to emerging business leaders. They are now paying attention to competencies like financial management, cross-functional alignment, data analytics, communication, and strategic planning to fit into the modern business model.

Now, here comes the challenge.

To meet this demand, they require a legal operations manager. While this seems an easy decision for big corporations, it makes small teams struggle to a great extent due to the higher cost associated with hiring a legal operations manager. 

This is where legal operations software comes to the rescue. 

The legal operations management platform, in the form of different characteristics and benefits, enable small teams to satisfy the market needs and relish the perk of using technology in the legal domain. And ultimately, become a part of the market anticipated to grow from USD 1.075Bn to USD 3.565Bn with a CAGR of 14.2% between 2018-2027.

What is a Legal operations software?

A Legal operations software is basically a digital platform that simplifies how these teams simplify their processes, take data-driven decisions, and make their legal department act like a business unit.

Now as you know what the term means, let’s focus upon reasons a small team should ask a legal software development company to build a customized software for managing their legal operations.

[NOTE: As already hinted earlier, this blog is written for small legal teams, and not for big and established corporates. So, in case you are a corporate looking ahead to invest in legal operations software development, consult with our legal app development experts.]

Benefits of legal operations software to small teams

1.   Higher efficiency & productivity

When talking about legal processes, the team often has to perform tasks like managing outside counselling. This is a time consuming task and requires having one or more team members working dedicatedly.

Now, while medium and large teams can easily dedicate a resource particularly for this process, small teams can’t afford. This is because they already have limited people on board to perform different tasks. If they shift an individual to this process only, they might not be able to complete other tasks on time. Or, in the other scenario, deliver low-quality services.

Here, a legal operations platform can help small firms in streamlining the management of all invoicing and other related processes in the form of eBilling and matter management tools. Something that can improve time efficiency as well as an individual’s productivity.

In fact, it has been found that an increase in efficiency by 6% with the help of some workflow automation solution in the legal processes can add up to around $100,000 in staff time even in a team of 10 professionals.

2.  Increased reliability & support

Another reason why small teams need modern legal operations software is that it can boost reliability and support.

The legal software for handling operations plays a pivotal role in enabling legal professionals to share all the information associated with invoices and other processes with others in real-time. This makes it easier for them to rely upon each other for any particular information and support effectively, even when not working under the same roof.

3.  Enhanced business strategies & planning

With the use of legal operations systems for billing and other processes, one can maintain transparency within the team. This can help in keeping everyone updated with varied aspects of the business and get a clearer understanding of what would be the probable future of business and what challenges are (or will) hinder their path to success. This further helps them with planning business strategies that drives better results.

4.  Better spend control

Another benefit of considering software for legal operations is better spend control.

When operating manually, we often end up spending more or twice as much effort and capital required to perform a single operation. Also, we find it hard to determine what process is delivering fruitful outcomes in the near and distant future.

Legal operations solutions, designed by a recognized lawyer app development company, offers access to heap of data and reporting & analytics possibilities, makes it easier for one to have a real-time record of all the spending and assess the associated benefits. And this way, manage the spendings to get better profits.

It has been found that introducing a legal software into traditional processes for handling operations can reduce outside legal spending by over $250,000 yearly.

5.  Lower cost

What’s more, it has been found that the price charged by any legal app development company for developing legal operations software is comparably lower than that of hiring a manager or using other available alternatives in the long run.

6.  Quick ROI

Another reason why small teams must consider legal operations software is that they can analyze and predict the future opportunities and grab them in an efficient yet small way. Also, they can mitigate the existing market challenges and focus on coming up with new ideas for brand marketing, which can increase conversions and ultimately, ROI.

“Now as you know the set of reasons small teams should go for legal operations solutions, you must be wondering, “What to do next?” 

So, let’s end this article while covering steps to consider for embracing a legal operations platform into your processes.

Steps to embrace legal operations software in your small business

1.  Get an in-depth understanding of capability of Legal operations software

Though the aforementioned benefits might have given you a hint why your small legal team needs a legal operation software, there’s more to it. A Legal operation software performs numerous tasks and serves you with better and profitable opportunities in an enhanced way. 

So, the first step towards entering the legal operations app market and building a better future is to get a comprehensive knowledge of the working and characteristics of this legaltech solution.

2.  Bring your team on board to discuss challenges and opportunities

Once you get a clear understanding, the next step is to sit with your small team and look into what challenges they are facing right now. What opportunities they feel are getting missed out in the current scenario, and how a legal operation software can help in the same.

This will empower you to address challenges and difficulties not yet discussed and make a required decision, rather than getting swayed with the idea of introducing a legal tech software into your working area.

3.  Hire an expert legal software development agency

The next yet most prominent step to take is to hire the right legal tech service provider.

That implies, finding and connecting with a law firm software development agency that understands and helps in enhancing your plan, is familiar with the hidden challenges, and assists your small legal team achieve more of the benefits of legal operations software with minimal effort.

THE AUTHOR

Peeyush Singh

DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER