Document automation is not just for lawyers in firms

While the LawHawk system has been designed to make it easy for law firms to pick up document automation to provide better service to their clients at a low per-use cost, it is also suitable - probably more so - for in-house teams. 

In-house teams don't have an obsolete business model to protect - they simply have more work than they can get through, and a more urgent need to find solutions - for them and the businesses they support.

To work out if document automation could help you, consider these 7 questions:

1   Are you struggling with the "more for less challenge"?

Are you currently on the sharp end of the "more for less" challenge, with a CEO/CFO looking to cut your budget by 20% or more and a need to work differently to make it happen?

2  Are you getting value from your existing precedents?

Have you invested substantial time and money in creating standard precedents or other documents which are currently basic Word templates:

• which are hard to store, locate and use?
• which have - or should have - optional wording and sections that change depending on the type of customer, service, product etc. to ensure they deliver in practice?
• which require knowledge, effort and careful attention to prepare each time?
• with guidance notes which are often not read or followed, or which slow users down because they have to be deleted from the document each time?
• which are not being used as much or as well as they should be because they are slow and difficult to use?

3   Do you need new or better precedents?

Do you not currently have your own precedents - at all or as good as you would like - but would like to create some if it could be done to a high standard, at a reasonable cost?

4   Do you or those your support spend a lot of time inserting and checking the same information across multiple documents?

Does the same information need to be inserted into multiple documents as part of the process, and then checked and rechecked to make sure it is consistent?

5   Are you spending too much time on less important things?

Does the in-house legal team spend too much time

• drafting documents that the business or customers could ideally draft themselves?
• fixing documents that the business has attempted to draft themselves?
• giving people alternative clauses when the single option allowed for in the precedent is not suitable?
• tidying up situations that wouldn't have arisen if the right document had been used in the right way?
• giving regular training or guidance on basic legal issues and how documents should be completed?

6   Are you spending more than you need to on external lawyers?

Are you outsourcing work to expensive external lawyers which could quickly be done internally?

Are your external lawyers using technology to work faster and for better value?

7   Do you struggle to get IT support?

Do you struggle to get approval and support to install and maintain software that could help you work better?

If you have any of these issues, and would like to know if document automation could help your organisation, please see this more detailed resource page for in-house lawyers, or get in touch for a chat and a demonstration of some examples of how it could work for you.