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.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
Document Assembly,
Law Firm Management,
HotDocs Advance,
Legal Automation,
Matter Management,
Law Firm Strategy,
Law Firm Profitability,
HotDocs,
NetDocuments,
ActionStep,
PatternBuilder
One of the most interesting things I got from the recent World Commerce & Contracting Summit in Sydney was the report and session run by Dr Sara Cullen of Cullen Group on my Contract Management Style profile. If you haven't done one before, I recommend it.
My results are above, showing how I compare to the average person.
I wasn't particularly surprised that I scored highly for my focus on the relationship development, problem-solving, entrepreneur and scanner categories. They are all things that we have had to focus on when looking to build and grow a new business that intersects complex legal and compliance workflows with fast-moving technological advances. The need to talk to people, understand their problems, and match them to technologies that can solve them is constant – and what I enjoy.
I did pause to think about my relatively low scores for Organizer and Protector and whether those are things that I need to score more highly on.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
In-House Legal,
Digital Signatures,
Compliance,
Legal Automation,
Email Management,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management,
Knowledge Management
Although HotDocs Advance has been out for around five years, I know many organisations have not yet migrated across from HotDocs Classic.
There are many reasons for this, including:
- not understanding HotDocs Advance's full potential to go further than Classic and create more valuable solutions. With the world's most powerful document automation solution, you can do better-quality work much faster. You can support more clients without the cost of adding more staff, and you can charge higher fees for less time.
- Accessing HotDocs Classic via an integration such as ActionStep, where an integration with HotDocs Advance has not, until recently, been easily available.
However, from what I have observed, many more practical issues hold firms back. I summarise these and options for dealing with them below. For firms that are using ActionStep and who would like to integrate with HotDocs Advance, I share an exciting update on that below as well.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
HotDocs Advance
Last week was interesting in terms of both doing a lot of automation work, while also discussing potential approaches to new projects with prospective customers.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Law Firm Management,
Automated NDAs,
Legal Automation,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management,
Productivity
The problem
We often come across people who have some form of existing automation solution in place, but it isn’t meeting their needs and they aren’t sure what to do about it.
They have potentially invested a lot of money already in the existing solution, so there’s a large sunk cost that is in their mind.
Of course, the best thing to do is to ignore sunk costs – what's done is done - and to focus on what is the best decision from here on. Easier said than done, but still necessary!
Reasons
There could be a number of reasons why the existing solution isn’t meeting needs. These could include:
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Law Firm Management,
Digital Signatures,
Legal Automation,
Email Management,
Matter Management,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management,
Law Firm Strategy,
Knowledge Management
In legal automation, the most important thing is actually getting started and finding an initial project to get going with. Too many legal teams think about it, and think about it, and never actually start. But where do you start?
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Document Assembly,
Self-Service Legal Automation,
Automated NDAs,
Legal Automation,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management,
Productivity
I was curious when I saw this question in Deloitte's research in their In-house Insights Report “Trusted navigators in complex and challenging environments” prepared in response to a September 2022 survey of New Zealand's in-house legal community, on what technology systems do you have in place to support efficient/effective legal operations?
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Digital Signatures,
Compliance,
Legal Automation,
Email Management,
Matter Management,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management,
Knowledge Management
I'm looking forward to the 2024 ILANZ conference on 22 and 23 May. It's a great opportunity to get a feel for the issues and priorities of the New Zealand in-house legal community, as well as to connect with others who are working with, and providing solutions to, in-house lawyers.
This year, I'll be particularly interested in gauging in-house lawyers' feelings about technology and their plans to invest in it. Even as recently as September 2022, Deloitte's research in their In-house Insights Report “Trusted navigators in complex and challenging environments” prepared in response to a September 2022 survey of New Zealand's in-house legal community, showed that more than half of in-house teams were planning no change in their investment in technology. I found that surprising at the time.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Document Assembly,
Self-Service Legal Automation,
Compliance,
Legal Automation,
Matter Management,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management
Legal teams often rely on support from Finance, IT, or Procurement to access new technology and systems.
This is confirmed in the Deloitte In-house Insights Report “Trusted navigators in complex and challenging environments”, prepared in response to the September 2022 survey of New Zealand's in-house legal community, which identified the CFO/COO as the most common decision maker, followed by the CIO/IT Department.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Digital Signatures,
Legal Automation,
Matter Management,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management
021 339 527
lawhawk@lawhawk.nz
