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The Singapore Law Gazette

Managing Your Legal Practice is Now as Easy as ABC

We Know That Managing a Legal Practice is Hard Work

Everybody wants to build, grow and run a profitable law firm. However, it can be challenging and time-consuming to keep your practice running. Specifically, the lawyers we spoke to highlighted three pain points: Tracking, Accessibility and Support.

1. Tracking – What’s Going On?

We know how difficult it is to track the details of your cases. Even with existing legal practice solutions, information on each case and its ongoing tasks is not always easily found. This is especially problematic when someone leaves your firm and information gets lost in transition.

2. Accessibility – Why Can’t I Open This on My Phone?

We know how hard it is to access cases and information on the go. When you are out for a meeting, armed only with your phone, it is not always easy to see deadlines, meetings and documents at one place. Accessibility is increasingly important as clients experience connectivity in every other area of life and expect lawyers to be just as connected.

3. Support – I Need Help!

We know that technology is not always easy to adopt. Many existing solutions require lengthy installations, onboarding processes, disruptive updates or even data migration.

More Time Spent on Administrative Tasks and Less Time Doing Law

These problems are one of the reasons why lawyers spend so much unnecessary time on administrative tasks. Our internal research shows that lawyers and paralegals lose as much as 2.3 hours a week searching, but not finding, the right documents and another two hours re-creating documents that cannot be found.

The time wasted in document creation and management activities cost firms on average of $11,927 per lawyer a year or a 9.8% loss in the firm’s total productivity.

When you are bogged down with these tasks, you do not have the time to do things that truly matter. This makes it tough to manage work and life in the way you like.

Strike a Balance between Work and Life with a Practice Management Systems

With technology, you no longer need to struggle to find work-life balance. You can leverage on law firm management systems like Tessaract.io to support you in your work. You should typically be looking at case management, document management, research and billing software that can really supercharge your time, and make yourself more available.

Here are some key features that you should be looking out for in today’s systems:

1. Synchronised Storage Solutions

Many lawyers face the problem of using multiple storage systems. Do you have your documents spread out in a few different storage solutions? Look for a practice management system that can synchronise with multiple solutions such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Sharepoint. This feature would allow you to find all of your documents in one place. This also makes onboarding simple so you would not need to stop work to migrate your documents over to your new systems.

2. Easy Search for Documents from Multiple Sources and E-mails

Finding it difficult to look for documents that you need to refer to? Look for a practice management system that has the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature. This would make keyword searches simple and painless. With OCR, your Portable Document Format (PDF) documents or images would be converted to machine encoded text which is easily searchable. This reduces the time spent on the search for relevant documents across separate systems and allows members of your firm to recount details quicker.

3. Integrate Schedules across Personal and Work Calendars

Want to ensure you are on top of your schedules across work and personal life? Look for a practice management system that allows you to integrate Google and Outlook Calendars seamlessly. Be in control of your time and manage your life more effectively.

4. Voice over Internet Protocol Technology for Overseas Calls

Trying hard to keep up with what is happening in the team or with your clients? You might need a system that allows you to communicate between teams so you can log all information related to cases, spend less time waiting and more time collaborating.

5. Automation of Common Processes and Customised Workflows

Many cases follow a similar process, why not just customise your own way of dealing with those cases? There are systems which allow you to duplicate processes onto a new case and save up to 30 minutes of data-entry time every time you get started. By replicating case management workflows, you can preserve the standard operating procedures that your firm has acquired over the years.

6. Easy Implementation across the Team

Find a practice management system that actually allows you to get started immediately. Training to use the system should not take more than an hour and could done be at your own time and pace.

How Does a Practice Management System Benefit Me?

With technology solutions that have the abovementioned features, you can focus your attention on serving your clients and complete more billable tasks within the same timeframe as before. With more efficient processes in place, you can now deliver the competitive edge needed to increase your customer base and grow your business.

1. Save Time, Money and Energy with Practice Management Systems

A practice management system can empower you with the technological tools to work smarter. With technology, you can now do routine tasks more efficiently, quickly and save precious time for your lawyers and administrators by making your legal practice more efficient.

2. How Much Should I Be Committing?

It is an important question to figure out your budget when it comes to technology. Choose a vendor who can be there for you when problems arise, or one who listens to your feedback and makes the necessary updates. There are many systems out there which provide a demo, so try using one first before committing. If you cannot figure out what to do after ten minutes, then maybe it’s not the right tool for you.

We are at the crossroads of a huge digital revolution in the legal industry. If you want to redefine the way your law firm works or would like to find out more, you can request for an invite at https://tessaract.io/#request_invite.

Chief Executive Officer
Interstellar Group Pte Ltd
E-mail: [email protected]

Cherilyn Tan is the CEO of Interstellar Group Pte Ltd which builds technology based on the current needs of the legal professionals. Trained in processes and technology, Cherilyn currently is also the product manager of Tessaract.io. She uses design thinking as a research methodology to understand the pains of lawyers and together with the team, develops technology to make the lives of lawyers better.