Hiring and training new talent in a law firm is extremely expensive, and with legal attrition rates at nearly 25% in recent years, your costs may be at an all-time high. At the same time, there is a growing talent shortage due to increased competition, tighter budgets, and higher demands for a better work experience.

How can you deliver a better working experience and help get new hires to productivity as quickly as possible amid this swirl of events? Our answer: modern, platform technology.

How legal technology is transforming culture and productivity

84% of US firms already taking advantage of legal technology and automation report a significant increase in organizational efficiency and considerable financial returns. Technology can also improve your staff’s work-life balance, which is often one of the top reasons for turnover. Here’s how:

1. Eliminating repetitive tasks with automation

Manual tasks like triaging intakes, drafting standard documents, or updating case milestones slow your team down. Legal automation software gives law firms a way to scale without sacrificing quality.

With Litify, teams can automatically assign tasks, route new business to the right person, and generate documents based on pre-set logic tied to case type. Everything from the first client interaction to the final resolution becomes part of a repeatable process.

For example, Nyman Turkish increased their intake conversion rate by 300% after switching to Litify’s questionnaires. They now capture the right information on the first call and move qualified leads to the case team without delays.

Litify also offers matter plans – visual and automated task templates that populate as soon as a new case is opened. The software makes it easier to stay on track with deadlines and helps your team move forward.

At McFarlane Law, they’re using matter plans to automatically create time entries for the billable work that can often slip through the cracks, such as generating that standard document. This has enabled them to standardize the hours they’re billing for across each matter type and client, driving an 85% collection rate.

By reducing these minute, repetitive tasks, you not only improve the employee experience but also business performance. Further, automation reduces the risk of human error in these manual tasks and replaces it with consistent, repeatable practices.

Many legacy systems were built before automation rose to the forefront. Others may offer workflow tools, but the foundation can be dated and difficult to use, which limits who can implement it while increasing the time and costs of doing so. Since Litify is built on Salesforce, it’s easy to make changes in the platform without IT support or knowing any code.

2. Enhancing usability for legal teams

Even the best technology won’t help your firm if no one wants to use it. Usability drives adoption, and adoption drives productivity.

That’s why Litify allows firms to easily create tailored dashboards by team and role. A paralegal can log in and immediately see pending discovery deadlines, while an intake specialist sees today’s new leads and follow-ups. This provides each user with the specific information they need to get their casework done efficiently and effectively — while boosting team-wide adoption.

According to the 2024 Technology Perceptions Report, legal professionals at “tech-savvy” law firms say they are more satisfied in their jobs and more efficient at their work than those at less technology-forward firms.

Your staff increasingly expect convenience and transparency in every other aspect of their lives. They wake up in the morning to the sound of a smartphone alarm. They check their calendar for the day and skim their email inboxes before getting out of bed. They may even call a car or pre-order a coffee on their way to work.

So, it should come as no surprise that they expect the same level of service and access while at work. Choosing the right law firm productivity software can help meet those expectations and encourage team-wide adoption.

3. Embracing cloud accessibility for work-life balance

When expectations for a better working experience are growing and work-life balance is one of the top reasons for employee turnover, it becomes critical to let staff work how and where they want.

Traditional on-premise servers require your team to work on-site, which limits access and can create version-control issues. With a cloud-based solution like Litify, your team can securely work from anywhere and even access information or documents from their phones while on the go.

Documents are always up-to-date, so there’s no need to email files to yourself or wait to get back to the office. And with a strong integration to Outlook, your employees can capture time and manage deadlines and events while working from their inboxes.

Security will always remain a top concern, but research has shown that cloud solutions are often more secure than on-premise servers. On-premise setups demand constant updates and maintenance to keep up with modern cybersecurity threats – a burden many law firms aren't equipped to handle.

Because Litify is built on Salesforce, it benefits from enterprise-grade security features baked into the platform. That includes multi-factor authentication, detailed audit trails, and data encryption both in transit and at rest.

In fact, one of our own clients once experienced a company-wide data breach. But because of our strict security measures, Litify was the only system that wasn’t hacked. Our platform remained untouched thanks to its secure, Salesforce-backed architecture.

With the flexibility to work securely from anywhere, your team no longer has to choose between productivity and work-life balance. The legal industry’s migration to the cloud is also a migration toward a more modern workplace model.

Changing legal work culture through innovation

You need modern technology to spot hidden efficiencies and profitability for your business, but you also need an innovative mindset and culture to make it work. In fact, according to the Litify 2024 State of AI Report, 70% of professionals say it's important to work at an organization that embraces advanced technology.

Learning how to drive change on all these fronts is a tough job, and it’s one that probably wasn’t taught in law school. This level of leadership and innovation isn’t easy, but it can be learned, which is why we set out to produce our podcast all about Transforming the Culture of Law. Follow us there for additional strategies and insights for building a great culture and retaining talent.

When you’re ready to see how Litify software can support your firm, schedule a personalized demo with our team of experts. You can also explore the power of the platform on your own in our guided product tour.