If you are an ActionStep customer or are considering ActionStep as an option to replace your legacy practice management system, you will likely be very interested in a number of new options that are available for ActionStep customers to create the type of complex legal documents that law firms are going to need to be able to create in an era when anyone will be able to access some form of AI to create documents. Differentiation in this area will be increasingly valuable.

The ability to create more complex legal documents has been a key gap in most practice management systems we have looked at. While most practice management system providers market their solutions as having document automation, it falls far short of what we know is possible with specialist tools. Being able to merge names, addresses, and dates is not advanced document automation!

We can see that ActionStep now has at least three good new options, which should be a strong differentiating factor for firms considering a switch. Even if you’ve looked at ActionStep before and it wasn’t the right fit at that time, it may be time for a fresh look.

Option 1: ActionStep “Builder” (Knackly)

Those of you who are existing ActionStep customers will be aware that ActionStep has long had a tight integration with what is known as “HotDocs Classic” (the older version of HotDocs). HotDocs Classic has been heavily used, particularly in the US estate planning market, to create packages of complex documents. The ability to do this via ActionStep, pulling through matter data and automatically saving the documents back to ActionStep, was very valuable.

However, changes in HotDocs’ ownership several years ago meant that it was – for a time – owned by CARET, which had its own practice management system that competes with ActionStep in North America. CARET cancelled the HotDocs integration.

As a result, ActionStep has sourced its own solution, which is coming soon and will be known as “Builder”. Builder is a white label of the Knackly solution, launched in 2019 and created by former HotDocs staff.

A screenshot of ActionStep’s coming “Builder” solution.

The reviews on Knackly’s website are very positive, although indicating that the product is not yet fully featured and that new features are being released.

Option 2: For ActionStep customers who use NetDocuments - PatternBuilder

Knackly has several integrations, including with NetDocuments. NetDocuments and ActionStep have a very tight relationship, and many law firms use both.

In addition to the integrations between ActionStep, Builder/Knackly, and NetDocuments, NetDocuments offers its own solution – PatternBuilder.

I have been experimenting with PatternBuilder recently, as I’m particularly interested in their AI solution, PatternBuilder MAX. While I don’t, at this stage, see PatternBuilder as being as strong as HotDocs (and probably Knackly) in the most complex legal document automation, I do like the concept of being able to pair traditional document automation and generative AI within Apps that make the user experience much easier and higher quality.

You can see some of my initial thoughts and approaches in this area and why I am so interested in this in this video:

Option 3: For firms that already have, or want, HotDocs and want the latest HotDocs solution, HotDocs Advance

Many ActionStep customers have invested substantial time and money in HotDocs for years.

While many document automation solutions – including Knackly – offer HotDocs conversion tools, some firms will not want to switch to another solution and go through the time and cost of building and testing a new solution. Instead, they may prefer to upgrade to the latest HotDocs solution – HotDocs Advance.

We have been working with HotDocs Advance since 2019. In our experience, it remains the leading solution for firms that want advanced legal document automation.

This was also the conclusion of LegalTechHub in their May 2024 report after reviewing 150 vendors: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2024/05/23/legaltech-hub-releases-in-depth-competitive-analysis-on-legal-techs-document-automation-providers/?slreturn=20240808032103

We’ve also seen this on a project we are currently working on for a US estate planning law firm. While they were already using another automation solution to generate their documents, our HotDocs Advance solution is taking several additional hours out of each matter, a level of time savings the customer has described as jaw-dropping.

Our friends at ProLegalTech are experts in HotDocs Advance. We introduced them to HotDocs as part of our project to migrate MinterEllisonRuddWatts to HotDocs Advance (you can read the case study here). They have subsequently become deep experts in HotDocs Advance integration.

ProLegalTech has recently built an integration between HotDocs Advance and ActionStep at the request of an ActionStep customer who needed to retain their investment in HotDocs and ActionStep to create comprehensive sets of US estate planning documents. This integration is live and working well for that customer (and the many firms that work with ActionStep and HotDocs through them). It can also be available to other ActionStep/HotDocs customers.

You can see more of why we use and recommend HotDocs Advance and the integration with ActionStep in this video.

The integration has a very simple mapping mechanism, and I was able to map most of the fields for my contacts within around 15 minutes, as you can see in the video, even though the HotDocs templates had not been designed with an ActionStep integration in mind.

HotDocs is no longer owned by CARET, having recently been acquired by Mitratech in June 2024. This was a strategic acquisition by Mitratech, and we are looking forward to seeing how they can move the product even further forward.

Because we have been working with HotDocs Advance since 2019 and HotDocs since 2016, we have a lot of pre-built automation that we can use to help our clients convert to HotDocs Advance and get immediate results from their automation solution.

Conclusion

A practice management system shouldn’t just be for keeping track of time and helping the finance team with trust accounting and billing.

It should help the primary users – the lawyers – to do their work better and more efficiently, as that is what will lead to greater profits for the firm and satisfaction from the clients and staff.

While most practice management systems are limited in their ability to generate advanced legal documents, ActionStep customers have at least three good new options available to consider. I encourage anyone looking at their practice management system options to consider these possibilities.

LawHawk is a partner of ActionStep, NetDocuments and HotDocs. If you are an ActionStep customer or are considering becoming one and would like to know more about your document automation options, please get in touch for a free, no-obligation consultation.