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A host of new technologies—virtual legal assistants (VLAs), lawbots, chatbots, and document automation—are becoming more commonplace with each passing day. For example, Gartner, the global research firm, predicts that by 2023 a full 33% of in-house legal departments will retain a legal technology expert whose main role will support the automation of in-house workflows. Document automation, particularly, is bridging the gap between those with legal expertise and those with technology expertise, and it yields the most immediate benefits in terms of creating efficiencies while at the same time reducing costs.

For example, the Australian corporate and commercial law firm Sierra Legal has recently launched an automation services division through which it is "combining its legal and technical expertise to design and host bespoke automated contract packages for clients," says Michael Jeffery, a director at Sierra Legal. 

Automation allows law firms to provide new legal service delivery models to their clients, including professional services firms (particularly accounting firms and other law firms), in-house legal departments within larger organizations, and small to midsized businesses (SMBs) of all types that have limited resources to allocate to legally documenting their contracts and arrangements.

While the drivers for each market segment and each client can vary significantly, some of the key examples of where law firms are building automated document packages for clients—and the key efficiencies that are being created—typify the ways SMBs worldwide can use document automation to increase productivity with less resources:

1. Accounting Firms That Generate Legal and Quasi-Legal Documents

There are many types of legal (or quasi-legal) documents that accountants are often requested by their clients to prepare. These include loan agreements, corporate records, and trust deeds. Accountants typically need to request these documents from lawyers at significant cost. Alternatively, they have needed to purchase templates from online document libraries, an option that provides only a limited ability to customize those templates and a constant worry that they do not consider the latest changes to the law.

Now, using document automation, law firms are "able to work with accounting firms to design documents and workflows that are customized to clients' needs—but at a cost that is still comparable to the basic templates sold by online document libraries," Jeffery says.

2. In-House Legal Departments And The Business Units They Serve

While document automation can obviously assist in-house lawyers to generate contracts and other legal documents, many in-house lawyers are also interested in building automated contract packages for low value and low risk transactions. "With automated contract packages, the non-legal staff of the business can use and customize the documents themselves, without needing input from the legal department at all," Jeffery says. "By completely removing low value and low risk transactions from their workflow, by automating it, the in-house legal team is able to increase productivity and allocate time savings towards more important issues," he explains.

Jeffery adds, "Many people assume that automation only works with simple documents and form filling exercises. However, with the right system and planning, incredibly complex documents, workflow processes and decision trees are capable of being automated."

3. Small To Midsize Businesses Of All Varieties

SMBs can greatly benefit from document automation relating to legal matters. According to Jeffery this is for several reasons. First, many SMBs enter into commercial transactions without contracts at all, because many of them don't have the time or capacity to properly document their arrangements. Second, many SMBs can't justify the cost of consulting a lawyer to assist them with drafting their contracts. Third, many SMBs create problems for themselves by using or reusing contracts and contract terms that don't adequately reflect the agreed upon commercial arrangement. For example, many SMBs reuse previous deal contracts that may contain unfavorable terms specific to the previous deal.

Document automation is an efficient, practical, and cost effective solution for small to midsize businesses for all of this. For example, through the use of automation, firms like Sierra Legal are assisting small businesses three ways. First, document automation reduces risk and decreases the time required to generate legal agreements. Second, it reduces errors, by ensuring that the correct contract form is used each time. Third, it reduces costs, by allowing businesses to generate and customize their legal agreements themselves, without needing to consult a lawyer each time.

4. Small To Midsize Law Firms

The benefits of document automation for small to midsize law firms are a combination of the benefits seen for SMBs and in-house legal departments, as discussed above. The benefits are especially valuable given the increasing pressures on lawyers to prioritize among workflows and projects while at the same time increasing productivity and keeping costs down. As Jeffery puts it, "The practice of law has always been about problem solving. As lawyers, we need to become proficient with all of the tools and technology that we need to best serve our clients. Automation is one of the many tools that are now at our disposal."

5. Other Businesses Operating In Document Intensive Spaces

All of the above benefits of document automation—workflow productivity, efficiency, cost savings, and more—can also benefit other businesses that operate in document intensive spaces. These include businesses in the areas of insurance, financial services, risk management, commercial mortgages, and supply chain management. Document automation services intelligently blend legal expertise with technology in a way that allows automated document packages to seamlessly match the needs of almost any business, including SMBs.

Dorna Moini is the CEO of Documate, a no-code document automation platform that allows lawyers to build client-facing legal products.