ALL firms have documents to automate

Most firms possess a wealth of automatable documents, even where they rely on third party resources for their core legal precedents.

Because many firms use external know‑how providers rather than maintaining a full in‑house precedent bank, it’s easy to assume there’s nothing internal worth automating.

But in so many firms we’ve worked with, we have found high-impact automation opportunities within documents that firms use every day. For example:

➡️ Engagement letters: multiple, complex moving parts (work type, fee structures, liability thresholds etc) make these perfect for automation.

➡️ Legal opinions: intricate, high risk, scenario-driven documents that can take hours to draft manually; automation can generate approved first-draft content in a fraction of the time.

➡️ Client-specific styles: for recurring clients, you may have developed legal documents, checklists or other matter-related paperwork with approved starting points every time – by crafting this content into a consolidated template (or suite), automation can accelerate delivery, streamline workflow and showcase innovation to your client.

➡️ Documents not covered by third party resources, each with a range of content options and which are regularly used by your team - such as bespoke practice-area documents, side letters, board minutes, letters of wishes, due diligence reports, checklists, regulatory paperwork, explanatory notes and so on.

➡️ Internal business papers –  internal comms, business reporting, marketing materials and other processes often reuse standardised content options; automating these can deliver drafts in minutes, not hours.

There are huge opportunities and just as importantly, automation has never been more accessible for firms of every size.

You don’t need to automate every detail. In fact, doing so can often be counter-productive. Instead, focus at first on the “heavy lifting” elements of your drafting processes to save non-billable time, free up resource, improve margins against fixed fees and reduce risk.

Content can be scoped, developed into a living template and automated using established methodology.

If you’re unsure where to begin, start out with a simple internal audit:

❓ What do you draft repeatedly where the content options are broadly the same each time?

❓ What is complex or slow to draft manually?

❓ Where do fee earners and business services teams lose drafting time?

❓ Where do you run drafting risk?

Analyse from team to team, and cover both fee earning and business services groups. From there, your automation priorities will quickly start to crystallise. Then evaluate what’s needed, prioritise the most impactful projects and build from there.