Attorney Automator

Legal technology for the real world.

A practical, actionable perspective on #legaltech from an attorney & software architect.

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

The legal industry lags behind in taking advantage of technological innovation.

Is this just the fault of attorneys, law firms, and the billable hour? Or is there more to it?

A lot of the skepticism attorneys have had towards #legaltech is justified 😯.

A thread 👇

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

@ronfriedmann I'm curious whether the use cases are for relatively tangential items (e.g., sending a notification for late invoices), or very simple one-off tasks (fill out a form -> generate and email a doc), or for core business processes.

The last is unlikely to have many success stories.

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

@Clevy_Law That you should think about how your technological systems fit in your business systems, rather than vice versa.

Most know that, but in practice, there's a lot of trying to conform one's business processes into an ill-fitting, out of the box solution.

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

6. Software architecture matters. If it's done right, you won't have to worry about it. If it's done wrong, it can cause serious, potentially irreversible problems.

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

1. Define your objectives, make them quantifiable. Don't engage in digital transformation for the sake of it.

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

5. Visualize the business processes you are already using and are planning on using with something like BPMN or CMMN.

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

@LTechnologist 3. If you're developing software, make sure everyone involved (developers, pms) understands the domain.

Seems obvious, but usually, time is not budgeted for people to simply learn. Quiz the team involved. Don't assume you'll have a conversation and everyone will understand.

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

Sounds a bit idealistic.

But one of the most powerful shifts in process improvement was shifting from thinking in terms of resource utilization (e.g., is everyone always busy w/work?) to throughput.

Being busy all the time is a warning sign. Even aside from the human cost.

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

If you're thinking about using #legaltech in a law practice, you first need to define your objectives & measurable benchmarks.

Most of the time, firms aim profits or customer satisfaction.

But my favorite -- more free time. Measured by how many Fridays you take off a month

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

If this sounds interesting to you, join my newsletter for some concrete examples. Next issue I will show in detail how to map out a very simple, very manual process.

https://t.co/yHfME0QU9O

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

🧵 Modernizing a legal practice is more about the business model than it is about any piece of technology.

But, within a larger framework, #legaltech can make a huge difference.

What is that framework? 👇

[Attorney Automator @attnyautomator]

📈Evaluate

You need to measure whether you are hitting your objectives, and if not, why not. You likely won't get it right the first time.

It's very easy to try to preserve how you imagine things are working than the quantifiable reality -- which isn't as rosy at first.