Logo for Zero messaging platform

Email software is an efficient tool for lawyers to communicate with clients, colleagues, and even adversaries. But efficiency gains are drained when lawyers manage messages and attachments and move them to a document and email management system (DMS) to organize them by matters. The tasks are problematic and spotty, but not billable.

A DMS, such as iManage Work or NetDocuments, can predict filing locations for email messages from metadata and historical filing information of all users. However, law firms can look beyond a DMS provider to resolve problems, since most DMS platforms support application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow third-party developers to build applications for end users.

Zero, a Los Gatos, California-based company, uses REST (Representational State Transfer) APIs from iManage, NetDocuments, and other DMS providers to help their customers execute faster by predicting and automatically filing email to a DMS. The company also allows customers to implement new business models with mobile time capture. The company's strategy aims to automate processes in software accepted and used by lawyers, such as Microsoft Outlook and iOS, and make itself invisible—a zero footprint.

Zero applies artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to file email messages, threads and attachments to a supported DMS. Moreover, it's fast. Rather than focusing on the centrally stored collective filing habits of all lawyers in a law firm, like iManage and NetDocuments, Zero focuses primarily on an individual lawyer's filing habits.

Zero develops a mobile-first native Apple iOS app called Zero for Mobile, and a complementary Outlook add-in called Zero for Desktop Companion. The iOS app and Outlook add-in use a law firm's Microsoft Exchange environment, so the local devices consume few messaging resources. The application inherits filing parameters from a DMS, in seconds, and respects assigned and walled-off matters, and any other security policies configured in the DMS for users.

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Zero for Mobile

If you can navigate and manage apps on iPhones, it will take little time to become familiar with Zero for Mobile. Although the app does not rely on Apple Mail, users will immediately see some familiar landmarks and filters in the UI, such as “Primary” and “Other” inboxes, and “Important” messages.

Zero for Mobile filters mail by importance, unread mail, attachments, starred, sender, and filed or not filed. The app uses NLP to help identify essential email and surfaces the most urgent. If Zero integrates with a firm's time and billing system, Zero for Mobile can derive message importance from a matter or client's value, calculated from the historical billing information, duration of an attorney-client relationship, and retainer amount. For example, a legal question from a long-term client may receive a higher priority than a new client who wants a status update.

Zero figure 1 Figure 1. Besides batch filing email messages to a DMS or linked folder, the Assistant reports on emails filed and time recorded. The Assistant also analyzes the Primary inbox and predicts “Emails to reply” and “Emails with requests.”

After creating an email message, or opening or replying to an email message or thread from the Primary inbox, Zero predicted the client matter and started capturing the time I spent on the message. If Zero for Mobile didn't anticipate a client matter, I selected one manually.

To complete a narrative for time capture, Zero notes the subject line or conversation topic and applies an activity description to each time entry. Then Zero for Mobile automatically sends time data via API to the firm's time management application. Zero supports all time management applications, including Aderant Expert, Bellefield Systems, Intapp Time, Thomson Reuters Elite, and Tikit Carpe Diem.

Besides time capture, I tested several Zero for Mobile features. I manually and batch filed messages and attachments to a DMS, or folder mapped to a DMS, and set Zero for Mobile to AutoFile—all one-click operations using the Zero for Mobile Assistant.

Zero for Mobile's data loss prevention (DLP) function warned me when sending an email to a recipient outside the firm or matter (Wrong Recipient Detection). DLP will soon come to Zero for Desktop Companion. When I replied to an email message, Zero for Mobile gave me the option to file the reply in the DMS after confirming or editing client attributes or turning on AutoFile.

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Zero for Desktop Companion (Outlook Add-In)

A user familiar with Outlook will have no trouble using Zero for Desktop Companion. The add-in installs to the Outlook Ribbon with intuitive icons and tags.

Zero_figure2 Figure 2. In the message list view in Outlook, the Destination column shows Zero's top suggested filing locations. From the Zero tab on the Microsoft Outlook Ribbon, a pull-down menu filters views of filed or unfiled email messages.

Depending on Zero's configuration, a user only sees filing options where the probability is more than 97-percent reliable, i.e., a 97-percent confidence level. When the confidence level is below that, Zero presents two or three filing options per message. The highest ranked prediction is featured at the top. Unlike ndMail, a histogram showing the confidence level is not needed.

Zero's email filing options and message attributes result from the configuration settings transferred from a DMS via REST API. In the Zero Desktop Companion I tested with NetDocuments, file mappings for a client, matter, author, document type, and description surfaced when I highlighted a message and clicked “File” from the Zero tab in the Outlook Ribbon. A dialog box opened to “quick file” the email in the DMS using the top filing option.