There are many advantages for law firms to take a ‘paper-lite’ approach to their administrative function. The cost savings realized are often considerable through reducing paper, ink, printers, archiving, storage, and inefficient work practices related to printing, sorting and binding. Further, many staff and clients expect environmentally friendly law firms and reducing paper is a good way of becoming a ‘green-friendly’ firm.

Reducing paper is however a challenge particularly for those lawyers who think very fondly of their red pen.

The three main reasons why law firms struggle to adopt a paper-lite approach is:

1. Generational challenges including a historical familiarity to a paper-heavy practice;

2. An insufficient understanding of the technology available; and

3. A lack of clarity and direction to effectively manage the change.

To overcome these challenges, ensure that your program is realistic in terms of scope and timeframe. Start small, one practice team at a time.

From a change management perspective, someone must ‘lead’ the change. Converting a Partner or senior lawyer to ‘paper-lite’ early on in the process will increase the likelihood of a successful project. Less tech-savvy lawyers heavily entrenched in their paper-heavy practices will resist change. Work closely with them and give them responsibility for the project. This will assist in dealing with the resistance. Ensure there are some quick wins in your project timeline.

Finding the right technology is an integral part of a law firm’s journey to an efficient Paper-lite environment. An advanced PDF application, such as PDF Docs, will give you the ability to create, edit and review, as well as powerful bundling and binding capabilities. These functions assist those within the firm who rely less on paper when undertaking their ‘day to day’ administrative tasks

When weighing up the benefits of embarking on a paper-lite project, it should be noted that the courts are also embracing technology within their processes. Submissions can now be completed in electronic form, as well as creating and submitting court filings.

A Document Management System (DMS) is equally as important. The use of full text searching across all documents and automatic OCR’ing of your electronic data is essential. Automatic email tagging and filing are also a must-have, as well as a considered folder structure in which to save matter data, otherwise, you may waste time trying to find documents.

Finally, flexibility is important and the ability for technology. Allowing access to matter data from any location, on any device is powerful and supports flexible working and collaboration.

A law firm legal tech journey has many challenges, from choosing the right solution and vendor to align with your strategy, to managing change. Remember that the newest and shiniest piece of technology will be inefficient unless a successful implementation occurs.

Gaining an understanding of your firm’s demographic will also assist. Most law firms have Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Zall operating off the same technology platforms, but each generation has different levels of technology sophistication. Such a wide range of skills poses challenges. The generation gap is only likely to increase as Gen Alpha begins to emerge and who will be the most technical generation yet.

Paper-lite and speech recognition are both good examples of how operational efficiencies can be delivered with the right legal tech solutions. Coupled with an effective change strategy, you will be well on your way to building upon your firm’s successful legal tech journey. See More: Top Legal Technology Companies in APAC