Legal automation is relevant for both law firms and in-house legal teams; however, this article focuses on the latter.
According to recent research by Gartner, 92% of legal departments expect flat or reduced budgets in 2021, and in an environment where work-loads continue to soar and the legal team becomes even more stretched, legal automation can play a big part in ‘doing more with even less’.
These are some of the most common benefits of legal automation for in-house legal departments:
Further, through streamlining processes, improving efficiency and structured communication, legal automation can also empower and enable the legal function to deliver a service that is more consistent, responsive and a provide a foundation for continuous improvement.
At one end of the continuum specialist solutions would be best, for example, with contract heavy legal functions, contract automation software is ideal for ensuring that contracts are managed in the most efficient way across the entire organisation. Alternatively, specialist document automation solutions could be required for very large legal departments and law firms alike. It is important to note that these specialist systems generally require a significant time investment to set up and manage, thus a dedicated project manager is recommended.
At the other end of the continuum is where the majority of small to mid-sized legal teams fit: they generally need the efficiency gains of automation, yet don’t have the scale required for the investment into a specialist solution. For these organisations, it’s best practice to find a technology provider that can give you the biggest impact across a breadth of areas. For example, a vendor that specialises in legal workflow automation can also be used for low complexity document automation and project management. A provider such as this may also be able to automate the management of matters, reduce manual administration time and track critical contract processes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is legal automation?
Legal automation is the use of software to manage, progress and standardise tasks that occur regularly across a legal function. This includes document creation, intake and triage of requests, work allocation, approval workflows, deadline tracking, external counsel briefing and data capture. Rather than handling these tasks manually each time, automation applies consistent rules and logic so the process runs the same way regardless of who is involved.
Will legal automation replace lawyers?
No. Automation handles the repeatable, administrative work that surrounds legal practice, routing requests, generating standard documents, triggering reminders, routing approvals, not the substantive legal judgement that lawyers provide. The practical effect is that lawyers spend less time on tasks they would rather not be doing, and more time on the work that genuinely requires their expertise and experience.
Which legal processes are best suited to automation?
Processes that are high volume, follow a defined sequence of steps, and do not require complex legal judgement are the strongest candidates. Common examples include standard contract generation, NDA processing, matter intake and triage, approval workflows for external instructions or budget changes, compliance sign-offs, contract deadline management and digital execution processes. The fact that a process is repeatable is usually the best indicator that it can be automated effectively.
What are the practical benefits for an in-house legal team?
The most direct benefits are a reduction in administrative overhead, faster response times for internal clients, and greater consistency in how processes are followed. Automation also reduces the risk of something being missed or handled differently depending on who is managing it. Teams that automate well tend to find that they can handle growing workloads without proportionate increases in headcount, and that they have better data to report on what the team is actually doing.
Does automation require technical expertise to set up?
Not with the right platform. Lawcadia’s no-code automation allows legal operations teams and in-house lawyers to design and configure workflows themselves, without needing to involve developers or write code. This makes it practical to build and adjust automated processes incrementally, starting with the areas that will deliver the clearest benefit and expanding from there.
How do you choose the right legal automation solution?
The right choice depends on the scale and nature of the team’s work. Specialist tools exist for high-volume contract management or sophisticated document automation, but these typically require significant investment in setup and ongoing management. For most, a platform that covers workflow automation, matter management, document management and reporting in a single system will deliver broader value with less operational complexity. Lawcadia is built specifically for this context, providing automation across the full legal operations function rather than addressing a single point in the process.