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Rise of LegalTech in Covid Era: Creating Law Firms of the Future

Rise of LegalTech in Covid Era: Creating Law Firms of the Future

A couple of years ago in the pre-Covid era, when one would talk about process automation or AI-based platforms it would generally get awkward responses. The presumption of such technology was very science fiction-like, that it is targeted to replace actual people on the job. As time would have it, Covid has forced upon a change in every sector including law.

Law firm or lawyer life was no longer daylong negotiations in a conference room, or running from one hearing and appearance to another or teams sitting together to research and strategize. It was a complete paradigm shift, where teams were forced to work individually from the safety of their homes, connected digitally with one another. With this came a lot of hurdles. Coordination and communication issues with teams, paperwork is now all-digital, research and reading are all on online resources, and the biggest one of all – the line of distinction between work and family line is now blurred. We all maybe culprits of this, but working from home has resulted in working round the clock for many. As it is assumed that they are always available, or now that commute time is saved so working hours are longer and also, there really is no real discipline in calling it the end of a working day.

With such a drastic change in the way we work, it became essential for firms to be equipped with proper tools to support their teams so that work goes on without any loss of efficiency or quality. Where this transition seemed so challenged, digital products like MikeLegal IP Suite and Mike DocuSieve have helped overcome most of these challenges.

Why go digital? There is more to the answer to this question than just – Covid forced us to. Investing in LegalTech can help:

  • Work to move on without any time lag or efficiency or quality loss no matter the circumstances
  • Allows work to continue from anywhere at anytime
  • Reduces dependency on others and external resources
  • Makes team members more independent and self-sufficient
  • Greater accuracy in work
  • Reduce time spent on non-billable mandates
  • Greater efficiency per team member
  • Increase in revenue
  • Allows for increased bandwidth to capture any missed revenue opportunity
  • Better client servicing
  • More work-life balance
  • Gives an edge over competitors and keeps you updated with the latest developments
  • Better consistencies across the work portfolio
  • Minimal chances of errors, higher accuracy
THE LEGALTECH EDGE

Covid has given a new rise in demand for LegalTech solutions. The value addition of such programs and how they assist and not replace them is more evident now. It’s not just about doing things online, but taking it a step further. Technology like NLP and machine learning, have allowed for the creation of ‘smart’ programs which help you work even better.

MikeLegal products are just that, first-of-their-kind, which help reduce the time one spends on legal ‘grunt work’. Such mundane tasks like – journal watch, trademark search, application status tracking, proofreading legal documents; not only consume a large number of working hours of a lawyer but are essential and need extreme precision and work on strict timelines. There can be no compromise on these tasks. But they can very well be automated.

There may be many trademark watch programs and other tools, but MikeLegal takes them a step above.

They have recently launched – MikeTM Lens and Mike DocuSieve.

  • MikeTM Lens is the first-ever image recognition trademark infringement tool created. It allows a comprehensive database search of logos with published marks. Hence, any similar ‘looking’ mark is also reported.
  • Mike DocuSieve automates the proofreading of the contracts from Microsoft Word itself. It’s a Microsoft Word plugin that gets added and viola! Errorfree, pristine, consistent contracts and legal documents within minutes.

With such tools at your disposal, not only can you allow your clients to stay one step ahead but also provide better legal protection to their intellectual property. And really, who wants to miss a chance to get more revenue? These things are just not possible at this scale in manual processes, which many of us still follow.

Even crucial things like proofreading are mostly done either in time-crunched situations manually or by others while you look after priority mandates. One error in numbers or referencing or incorrect definition can cost you and your client money and reputation both. But now with AI-powered plug-ins like Mike DocuSieve, you really don’t need to put yourself in any of the above situations.

Covid has forced all of us to adapt, change, upgrade and re-orient the way we work. But like all situations, the biggest boon has been the boom in the LegalTech field. So, it’s time for us to give these products a try. Who knew there would be a day when trademark watch in the 8000- page journal would take hours not days and weeks? Or that proofreading a contract would be as simple as using the correction tracker in Microsoft Word?

As life is now simpler with online banking and e-commerce, LegalTech is simplifying work too. Such tools empower you to be in control of your work and schedule. This way, while you delegate your grunt work to them, you can multitask, do more qualitative work without compromising on your work-life balance.

You can get details of MikeLegal products on their website www.mikelegal. com. For any other information, you can reach out to [email protected].

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