Despite quickly expanding their remote work capabilities, law firms are struggling with another change: deploying more automated legal services. Many firms may be unable to meet the current demand for document automation, for instance, because their technology budgets are still held back by a pandemic-caused recession.

To be sure, law firms were implementing standardized legal document creation processes and software before COVID-19. Taft Stettinius & Hollister project management director James Keuning said the firm's document creation standardization predates his 2005 start date at the firm. He noted the standardization was created to meet clients' cost-efficiency requests. "Document creation is low-hanging fruit in terms of one way to decrease billable hours," he added.