Ruth Doris: Automating the mounds of paper for the legal eagles

Legal firms have long been associated with mounds of paper files in dusty offices. Now firms like LexTech are disrupting the industry which is traditionally conservative by streamlining processes through the use of software to drive digitisation, data capture, and automation.

However, far from the idea of robot lawyers, LexTech’s co-founder and managing director Karl Manweiler says that technology can improve business by automating repetitive tasks to allow more time to be spent on high-value jobs and on fostering client relationships.

Its sister company, law firm, Leman, is the first fully paperless law firm in Ireland and has hosted the annual Future of Law and Legal Technology Forum since 2015.

Mr Manweiler, who has 20 years’ experience in technology at multinationals and at government agencies, says that by digitising and removing paper from a business, efficiency is increased. Digitisation is the starting point. The next step is data capture.

He says the issue isn’t typically a lack of data, but rather the challenges presented by how the data is formatted.

“By ensuring that the business is capturing the right information in the right structure, we can get the right insights,” he says.

Automating processes is the third prong of LexTech’s approach which can increase productivity and efficiency.

“If you think about any process, whether it’s legal, regulatory or business, that process has a number of steps and checkpoints. If that’s a human managed process, it’s open to something being missed.

“So by automating theprocess, it means that it’s managed consistently,” he says.

LexTech, he says, aims to minimise risk, reduce costs and increase efficiency for its clients who work in legal areas as diverse as transport and logistics, and property and development.

Mr Manweiler cites the example of a client which has a large fleet of vehicles: “They pay a very high insurance premium, and the cost of their claims are high. They wanted to be more proactive in how they manage their incidents with third parties and employees.”

LexTech’s solution replaced the company’s paper-based forms with an app which allows managers, drivers and, operators to capture information.

A facility allows faster and more efficient handling of incidents by issuing notifications. The organisation has minimised risk and reduced costs because they will pay out less in claims in 2019, he says.

Mr Manweiler has found companies prefer to invest in a platform-based system. He says chief information officers, or CIOs, and IT managers are reluctant to take on additional systems that don’t connect to existing systems within the company.

LexTech’s software is primarily built on Microsoft technology which can be fully integrated with existing systems. LexTech found that many clients are already licensed for Microsoft technology.

“We’re not trying to sell them something they don’t have, or they haven’t invested in,” he says.

“That’s a big plus for business. CIOs don’t want another single point solutions which only addresses the legal function or operations. They want a solution that can also connect into other arms of the business,” he says.

Commenting on the technological disruption of the legal sector, Mr Manweiler says “You can’t hold back the tide of technology.”

A technology-based system reduces the steps in processes when compared with manual methods. “In terms of the legal functionality, when we’re dealing with in-house counsel in organisations, we understand the law and the challenges. With our solutions, we can free up some of the time-consuming jobs that can be automated,” he says.

Automation and artificial intelligence are mooted to destroy jobs but, he says, automating specific tasks, including reviewing documents or management processes can free up time for lawyers for more higher value work.

LexTech met with large law firms in the UK for future expansion. It is also looking to cover litigation prevention, incident management and contract and property management.