The legal industry is facing a new era of transformation, driven by rapid advancements in digital technology. At the forefront of this change is generative artificial intelligence (AI), which is reshaping how law firms review, analyze, summarize, and draft legal documents. As AI technology continues to evolve, its application in legal document workflows is becoming increasingly indispensable. While large law firms with substantial resources may seem more equipped to embrace these innovations, small to midsize law firms can also experience immediate gains from embracing AI.
Addressing the AI Hesitations and Challenges Faced by Small and Midsize Law Firms
The adoption of AI technology can be met with a mix of hesitation and skepticism. Smaller firms typically operate with limited budgets and resources, making the investment in technology and AI tools a daunting prospect. Because the legal industry is rapidly adopting AI technology, it is critical that smaller firms not be left behind, so we’ll address how an AI-enhanced DMS can overcome the most common causes for concern and hesitation.
Technical Complexity
- Problem: The technical complexity of AI solutions can be overwhelming for smaller firms. Many of these firms lack the in-house IT expertise needed to integrate AI technology seamlessly into their existing workflows. This lack of technical support can lead to fears of disruption and downtime during the implementation process, further discouraging firms from taking the leap into AI.
- Solution: As AI technology becomes more accessible and user friendly, the barriers to entry for smaller firms are gradually diminishing. There are now more affordable AI solutions on the market that are specifically designed for the needs of smaller law firms. These tools are often easier to implement and come with robust support, making the transition smoother and less intimidating.
Cost of AI Solutions
- Problem: There is the perception that legal-specific AI solutions are very expensive. You may be surprised to find that AI solutions are more affordable than you think. While some tools like legal research that require specialized knowledge and access to expensive proprietary data may be costly, many of the common legal document-related tasks and workflows can easily be handled by utilizing AI and automation tools that have access to your document content and apply your knowledge combined with generative AI to build out bespoke solutions in a short amount of time that can amount to huge cost savings.
- Solution: For firms worried about the cost of AI, it’s important to consider the long-term savings and efficiency gains. While the initial investment in AI for legal documents might seem like a lot, the automation of routine, time-consuming tasks can lead to significant cost savings over time. This is particularly true for tasks like summarizing or analyzing legal documents. Firms can dramatically reduce the hours spent on manual work and instead ask AI to summarize legal documents in a matter of seconds. Not only does this improve the time it takes to keep things moving forward and getting answers for clients, it also improves the work life of legal teams.
Loss of the Human Touch with AI Use
- Problem: Beyond the financial and technical challenges, there is also a deep-seated concern about the potential loss of the human touch in legal practice. Smaller firms often pride themselves on offering personalized, client-focused services. The idea of relying on AI for writing legal documents or analyzing documents may seem at odds with the hands-on approach that these firms are known for.
- Solution: Developments in consumer technology mean that client expectations frequently change more rapidly than businesses can keep up. AI is popping up everywhere from Internet browsers to Amazon. Fortunately, an AI-enhanced DMS can be implemented in a way that complements the personalized service small- to- midsize firms are known for while enhancing the service that clients receive.
Rather than replacing the human touch, AI can augment it — providing lawyers with more time and resources to dedicate to client interactions and case strategy, as well as new ways of service clients. For example, AI for writing legal documents can handle the repetitive aspects of drafting, allowing lawyers to focus on tailoring documents to their clients’ specific needs. You may even be able to digitize and smooth out paper-based workflows or provide self-service solutions for clients to upload data or provide critical information.
Quality of Work
- Problem: Lawyers and legal assistants may worry that AI could compromise the quality of their work, especially when dealing with complex legal issues that require nuanced understanding and judgment.
- Solution: AI technology has the potential to reduce the tedious document-based workload on legal professionals, allowing them to focus on more strategic and high-value tasks. For instance, firms can use AI to quickly and accurately analyze large volumes of documents, identifying and extracting relevant information that might otherwise be overlooked by exhausted human eyes. This speeds up workflows, provides greater consistency, and reduces the risk of human error, providing peace of mind to lawyers concerned about maintaining high standards. Additionally, it means that some tasks traditionally performed by attorneys can be handled by other staff members.
Trusting AI
- Problem: There is the issue of trust. The legal industry is traditionally more cautious and risk-averse than some industries, because the stakes are frequently high in legal matters. The fear that AI might miss critical details in reviewing a legal document or make errors in legal research is a significant barrier to adoption. This hesitancy is compounded by concerns over data security, with many firms unsure whether AI systems can adequately protect sensitive client information.
- Solution: By leveraging documents kept securely stored within the DMS, many security concerns are alleviated. Nothing is being moved or uploaded to another system and NetDocuments has not only ensured that inputs and outputs are not retained by Microsoft Azure OpenAI (our large language model provider). We have also taken the additional step of ensuring that human and machine sensitive content reviews will not be performed, because of the delicate nature of much of the data that law firms handle. Having worked with law firms for decades, we knew this would be important to protect client confidentiality.
Another solution to the trust factor with AI is the way in which AI is leveraged within the DMS. By using the expertise contained within your documents to ground the responses, many of the common issues with hallucinations are eliminated. That being said, we will always advocate for keeping the human in the loop with any AI solution to provide oversight.
Despite these concerns, AI-enhanced Document Management Systems (DMS) offer solutions that can help smaller law firms overcome their hesitations. By streamlining case handling, AI can actually enhance, rather than diminish, the quality of services that these firms provide.
Embracing Intelligent Tech to Boost Service Delivery and Elevate Client Satisfaction
In today's digital era, leveraging technology to enhance service delivery is paramount. This case study showcases how Common Ground Condo Law, a small virtual law firm, tapped into the capabilities of NetDocuments' automation and AI to provide efficient, economical, and timely legal services.
"We could see ourselves finding ways to use NetDocuments’ capabilities to help us grow faster." – Chris Jaglowitz, Principal and Founder, Common Ground Condo Law
Read their story to discover how the firm has:
- Established a future-proof foundation for technology that supports their efforts to build and scale their business by integrating NetDocuments and Clio.
- Automated tedious, repetitive tasks and freed up time and expertise that can be spent on more strategic legal work.
- Increased productivity and reduced the time it takes to draft something like a new contract.
Read Case Study Now >
In conclusion, while the adoption of AI in the legal industry presents challenges for small and midsize law firms, the benefits can far outweigh the initial hurdles. An AI-enhanced DMS can revolutionize how firms handle cases, apply precedents and playbooks, and manage complex analysis of documents — ultimately helping them stay competitive in an increasingly digital world.
By addressing concerns around cost, complexity, and quality, smaller firms can harness the power of AI to enhance their services and better serve their clients. Embracing AI is not just about keeping up with larger competitors; it's about securing a sustainable and innovative future in the legal industry.
Discover your next differentiator: Download this guide to learn why having a DMS with seamless AI and automation built in is crucial for employee productivity and quality of life as firms look to attract and retain the best talent.
Scale your work like never before by bringing AI to your content in an intelligent DMS. Reach out now to begin your firm's transformation.
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