Document Software: Document Generation Process for Law Firms
Documents in a law firm setting are mission critical. And while there are dozens of different types of “document software,” none offers a better return on investment (ROI) for law firms than document generation platforms, such as the global leader in document generation process automation, HotDocs.
To date, 80% of the Am Law 200, not to mention thousands of small- to medium-sized law firms and corporate legal departments, use HotDocs to transform documents into process apps—everything from simple documents having just a few variables to lengthy, rule-based documents having hundreds of variables and sophisticated business rules. Such process apps utilize a sequence of interactive forms to gather all necessary information to automatically generate anything from a first draft of a negotiated instrument to a set of transaction-ready documents and forms. With the data gathered, it’s a simple matter of printing documents and profiling them into a document management system or ECM. Document generation (document assembly) process apps can be deployed as standalone software programs or can be integrated into virtually any kind of BPM workflow or case management system.
One Am Law 100 law firm having more than 450 lawyers in 10+ offices in the United States utilizes HotDocs process applications across dozens of practice areas, including estate planning, public finance, and real estate transactions. This firm’s Wealth Management department is responsible for producing sophisticated wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents for high-net-worth individuals with complex financial situations. With the old copy-and-paste techniques, generating such documents was difficult and time consuming, often taking the firm’s word processing department a full day for a single transaction. In addition to the time involved, the manual process was prone to human error, which left the firm in a high risk situation. The firm reports that HotDocs process apps generate documents much faster and do so with much greater accuracy than the old method.
A regional firm in the Western United States has been using HotDocs for more than a decade to generate business formation documents, contracts, real estate documents, and estate planning documents. The firm reports that HotDocs process apps are an indispensible part of its software infrastructure, enabling the firm to engage in its high-volume, transactional practice with safety.
Recently, this regional firm subscribed toHotDocs Document Services, a SaaS application which affords the firm the ability to generate documents from within any common web browser while eliminating the need to install updates and manage software on individual PCs. A headline feature ofDocument Servicesis Client Interviews, a functionality that allows the law firm to email interviews directly to clients. The firm reports that Client Interviews is an “incredible” feature that is saving the firm’s staff a “tremendous amount of time” entering client data.
Of course, that’s just a sample of the law firms that have revolutionized their practices with HotDocs. To learn more about how HotDocs can help your law firm, give us a call.