Document management provides crucial flexibility for law firms

One of the biggest issues in the legal practice, dating back centuries, has been how difficult and time-consuming it can be to comb through the mountains of documents needed for just about any case. Fortunately, modern document management solutions allow law firms of nearly all sizes to make that process go much more quickly and easily, providing additional flexibility for staffers at all levels.

This starts with new hires, often those fresh out of law school, who would have traditionally been assigned to time-consuming tasks like document review, according to Legal Cheek. With greater flexibility through document scanning, management and workflows, even these relatively inexperienced legal professionals will have more time to devote to other duties that can add value for their employers and their future prospects in the field.

What it provides
Young legal professionals are, because of this technology, more likely to take on additional roles that give them a breadth of experience older lawyers simply didn't get at the same age, the report said. That, in turn, gives entire law firms a greater infrastructure when it comes to dealing with any number of issues.

"It's a great opportunity to build project management skills, since they'll be juggling a lot more balls than previous generations," Molly Russell, associate and global innovation consultant at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said at a recent panel at BPP University in London, according to the site.

Getting it right
Of course, law firms also have to make sure that they're properly investing in these platforms and ensuring whatever efforts they undertake to modernize their processes are done wisely, according to Legal Tech News. Getting it right is absolutely key as it relates to keeping up with other competitors in the field, especially because such adoption often comes with a price tag big enough to make avoiding missteps in adoption critical.

Firms should carefully evaluate their needs for document management and research what it takes to set up all necessary workflows, as a means of wringing as much value as possible from their efforts.