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.

But law firms' recent migration to a remote environment has increased demand from clients for "self-sufficiency," noted Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein chief information officer Skip Lohmeyer. "So any solution that helps quickly and efficiently get the work done without having to engage other human resources in the firm is going to be given serious consideration for implementation," Lohmeyer said.