Insights and updates
from MinuteBox

Reliable law firm technology helps legal professionals operate more efficiently and service clients more effectively. The right legal software can optimize workflows and streamline clerical tasks, helping legal teams dedicate more time and resources towards sourcing Legal Recurring Revenue to expand the prospects of the firm.

What type of technology is best suited to help grow your firm? Are there certain platforms that can help you streamline your workflows, improve client services, or a combination of the two? Would a platform like entity management software improve the organizational structure of your firm? Answers to each of these questions, and more are vital to sourcing the right type of legal technology to support the best interests of your own firm.

Why does a law firm need legal technology

When selecting legal technology, a firm needs to understand its most critical pain points. Any technology should help solve the logistical or operational challenges that your legal team faces each and every day.

So what are the common challenges that make most law firms select the right legal technology? In most cases, law firms need solutions that:

1. Automate the manual clerical tasks of running the law firm
2. Digitize corporate minute book record keeping processes
3. Provide advanced security to store and safeguard client information
4. Offer remote access to cloud-based accounts and applications
5. Increase opportunities for legal teams to generate revenue for the firm

While your specific legal challenges may vary in some capacity, those five common pain points are basically universal. Regardless of how your business operates, it’s important to identify the specific challenge you’re trying to solve with legal technology. Once you’ve pinpointed the exact need, you can select the right solution that will support your firm’s future growth.

Qualify a list of applicable software vendors

By identifying your specific needs, you can curate a list of software providers with solutions that can fit your bill. Review the descriptions of the software on each vendor’s website, and conduct your own research using third-party review sites. Customer testimonials posted on review sites such as G2.com describe real-world experiences of using the software, which will help you determine if the technology is the right fit for your firm.

Use your research to narrow down your curated list of vendors to a handful of viable prospects. Then, you can speak with a representative at each company and ask for a demo of the software. Seeing the technology in practice also provides a clear view as to whether the technology is best suited for your firm.

As you go through these walkthroughs, ask very probing questions of the demonstrators. Look for clarifications on how the software will solve your basic needs and evaluate how the responses measure up to your expectations. If it seems like a good fit, you can move forward to discuss pricing and subscriptions. If not, you can thank them for their time and move on.

Select the vendor, onboard your team, and implement the software

Upon researching a number of viable vendors, you’ve likely found one that stands out from the pack. If you’ve seen a solution that addresses your fundamental need for legal technology and has also been proven simple to operate, you’re ready to make a purchase.

When the deal is finalized, the vendor should assign an account executive or a training specialist to help onboard your team of legal professionals. For example, firms that agree to purchase MinuteBox are assigned an Onboarding Specialist and Customer Success Manager to oversee implementation and training. MinuteBox will even provide access to a team of scanning professionals to digitize minute book records on-site at your offices, if required. All scanning is completed on-site, guaranteeing that no records ever leave your office space. This is part of our commitment to client security and privacy protection, which is of utmost importance for legal professionals.

Onboarding timelines will differ based on the selected vendor, and the amount of developmental resources required to integrate the platform to your established workflows. You can ask those clarifying questions when evaluating the solution during your research phase.

Code-free solutions are easier to operate

Most law firms do not possess in-house developmental resources to manage the technicalities of a selected piece of software. If your firm also lacks developers and engineers, a solution that is intuitive and requires little to no coding is extremely beneficial.

Platforms like MinuteBox include built-in drag and drop functionality to help you complete the digitization of all corporate minute books. All uploaded records are intuitively organized into standard PDF-style documents, and you can use the drag-and-drop features to shuffle around any lines of copy within the records to match the intended deliverable to your own clients.
The platform also allows you to save previously inputted fields of copy and drag those same text blocks onto other documents. This is a great way to save valuable working time when creating new documents with sections that include identical transcripts. More efficient workflows are one of the prime reasons legal professionals invest in software in the first place. Code-free solutions fulfill those goals and empower legal teams to deliver better service to clients at faster rates.

Earlier this year MinuteBox team members (MB) had the pleasure of sitting down with Karen Dunn Skinner and David Skinner, the two principals of Gimbal Canada. Gimbal is an industry-leading consulting firm, advising leading law firms throughout Canada and the United States.

MB: How did you both find yourselves in the legal consulting field? And working with Fireman & Company?

Karen: Our goal has always been to help lawyers continuously improve their practice, their business, and their bottom line. After spending years practicing law for large international law firms, in-house, and also as sole practitioners, we came to the conclusion that there had to be a better way to practice law and deliver value to clients.

David: We were attracted to Lean’s focus on value and waste, especially its approach to identifying, evaluating, and then redesigning processes to eliminate, or at least reduce, waste. We saw the potential of Lean to transform the legal service delivery model. Since then, we’ve worked across North America applying Lean, mapping, and process improvement methodologies to improve all aspects of the model. Because we’ve both been lawyers for decades, we’re able to combine our knowledge of Lean and with our understanding of the legal profession. We apply Lean thinking to both the practice of law and the management of law firms and in-house legal departments. We help lawyers in firms and in-house teams do more with less.

Karen: We connected with the consultants at Fireman & Company and created the Performance, Profitability, and Innovation Group to help clients integrate a range of innovative solutions. As a group, we are able to offer deep expertise in pricing, process improvement, legal project management, knowledge management, staffing, legal technology, and data analysis. We improve service delivery by increasing efficiency and productivity, maximizing profits for law firms, and helping in-house legal departments better balance budgets, headcount, and workload.

MB: Has the legal industry embraced Lean and Six Sigma? Are they warming up to the idea?

David: Warming up? Yes. Embraced? No, but that has nothing to do with Lean’s methodologies or the tools. There is tremendous resistance in the legal industry to even the most basic of change. Not only are lawyers conservative by nature, but the partnership structure creates a huge amount of inertia. It can be hard for those interested in doing things differently to garner the necessary support for their innovations. Altman Weil’s 2017 Law Firms in Transition report revealed a disconnect between what leaders of some of the largest law firms know they should be doing and what they are actually doing: 94% of survey respondents said a focus on improved practice efficiency will be a permanent trend going forward, but only 49% said they have significantly changed their approach to the efficiency of legal service delivery.

MB: What is the biggest challenge(s) facing law firms today?

David: The biggest challenge facing law firms is that demand is flat or declining in most practice areas. The only way to get more business in this climate is to take it away from others. To do that, you’ve got to distinguish yourself from your competition by becoming some combination of better, faster, and/or cheaper. Improving productivity, quality, and profitability all ties back into efficiency and the value proposition for clients.

Technology can be another big challenge. Getting everyone in a firm to accept, adopt, and then regularly use technology to its full potential is a lot harder than you would think. Some lawyers even resist using Outlook and other calendaring systems. We know of others who still use WordPerfect.

Karen: Lawyers are also facing growing pressure from clients to be much more efficient; clients are demanding better quality service in less time and at less cost. In some cases, lawyers are under pressure to provide more interactive services, whether that’s more self-service through client-facing portals or more accurate data delivered in real time as to the progress and cost of their matters.

Then there’s competition from both traditional and non-traditional service providers. Historically, the more routine, commoditized legal work wasn’t seen as a priority for many of the big firms. They focused instead on more “bespoke” services for larger clients. It’s becoming increasingly clear to many that if you can get the process right, there’s a whole lot of money to be made, even on a fixed fee basis, from this commoditized work. Think of things like drafting commercial leases, litigating loan defaults, minute book storage and maintenance and filing trademark applications. The pressure is on for firms to recapture profitable portfolios of work they previously passed over.

David: And the category of non-traditional service providers who are competing against law firms continues to expand. Pressure is coming from accounting and auditing firms, legal process outsourcers, e-discovery and document review companies, and also organizations that provide alternatives to traditional legal staffing models.

MB: What kind(s) of law firms will succeed given the changing industry?

David: The firms most likely to succeed are those that have the most efficient methods of delivering real value to their clients at a fair and reasonable price. Such firms will have adopted an integrated approach to innovation. Rather than focusing on single initiatives, these firms will combine different change elements with other strategies in a comprehensive series of initiatives that they will actually execute and implement in a coherent fashion. Successful law firms will likely be characterized by an optimized use of existing technology and other tools delivering, among other things, cloud-based document, knowledge, and file management across mobile platforms that integrate with other relevant practice technologies to enhance collaboration.

MB: What role are clients playing to encourage their law firms to innovate? Should they be doing more?

Karen: Clients are driving the pressure to innovate. They want better value with greater certainty as to the cost. They are less inclined than ever to accept the inefficiency and waste that is common in law. They are simply holding lawyers to the very same standards that their own customers and clients demand of them. They’re not always happy with the pace of change, either. Thompson Hine recently released the results of a survey that showed a really clear “innovation gap” between what firms said they were doing and what clients perceived them to be doing.

MB: The recent Thomson Reuters/Georgetown Law report painted an image of an industry with flat demand and decreasing future returns. Is that an accurate description of law today?

David: We think so. That report’s findings are based on data, which we aren’t in a position to challenge, and it mirrors what we see in the firms we work with.

MB: Similar reports published by the same bodies have been released annually for years with nearly identical messages. Are we becoming inured to the message that change is required?

Karen: Maybe so, but that doesn’t lessen the need for nor the urgency of continuing to deliver the message. That Thompson Hine survey is very clear: clients want  change. Eventually, the industry will have to change. Citi Private Bank and Hildbrandt Consulting’s 2017 Client Advisory puts it well, “In a market where clients want the most efficient delivery of legal services, the market will reward law firms who focus on operational efficiency in its broadest sense — not just managing expenses, but transforming the way they run their firms and deliver legal services.”

MB: Are law firms actually reticent to adopt new technology? If so, why? If not, why does it seem like they are?

David: We have a colleague who always says, the best technology is the technology you actually use. If it doesn’t immediately make their work easier, with minimal effort on their part, lawyers are not going to use it, no matter what the ultimate benefit might be.

Karen: Firms aren’t reticent to buy new technology. Instead, they tend to look to technology to provide them with a silver bullet that will solve their problems. But technology is NOT a silver bullet. Technology doesn’t solve problems. Rather it’s the combination of smart and creative people using technology that solves problems. Adoption issues are usually related to (a) not really understanding the problems they’re trying to solve; (b) buying the next shiny butterfly without understanding how the lawyers will use it or interact with it (and without knowing if it will really solve their problems); and (c) not putting enough effort and time into training.

MB: What are some of the non-technological issues facing law firms today?

David: Clients aren’t buying time. They are paying for your knowledge and experience, and your ability to deliver what they need. That most lawyers bill by the hour creates a significant disconnect in the value proposition when viewed from the clients’ perspective.

As well, a tremendous amount of what we do as lawyers involves processes. If you don’t see the process in what you do, then you don’t really understand in detail what you (and those who produce work for you) do. Once you recognize the processes involved in your practice, it is easier to isolate and analyze each step to develop a comprehensive understanding of the costs and bottlenecks. With this information, you can determine what solutions (technological and otherwise) your law firm should consider adopting.

MB: How will the role of lawyers change given the rapid advances in legal technology?

Karen: Hopefully for the better. If technology can take over a lot of the lower-value tasks, then lawyers can concentrate on adding value where it’s actually needed. In an article by D. Casey Flaherty about contracts, he argues that standardization and automation are necessary, but first we have to really understand the meaning of the documents we’re standardizing. We have to examine the boilerplate content, parse those standard clauses, and focus our legal knowledge on making sure our contracts are delivering exactly what we say they are (and what our clients need). That’s the critical role for lawyers. Only then can the new documents be standardized and automated.

MB: What advice would you give to the new generation of lawyers, many of whom have been trained the same way as the previous generations?

David: Look at what you do from your client’s perspective. Most law firms are designed by lawyers for lawyers. They’re not designed for clients. Think about how you buy something major, like a car or a holiday. You shop around for options, research, consider the value you’re getting and then compare prices. And you know the price of all those options or elements up front. Now think about how you sell your legal services. In all likelihood, all you’re going to tell your client is how much you charge per hour. And often, you can’t even tell them how many of those expensive hours it’s going to take to get their result. That’s not “doing business from the client’s perspective.”

Also, look to develop business skills. Learn basic accounting, marketing, finance, change management, and design thinking. Engage in a conversation with your clients about their business (not just their legal problems). Educate yourself beyond the law in things that matter to your clients.

MB: As legal consultants, have you come across any interesting law firms or law firm initiatives?

Karen: We don’t like to play favourites…but one of the most interesting things I’ve seen lately is a shift in compensation models. It’s hard to get people to spend time on innovation or change when that time eats into their billables. We’re finally starting to see firms rewarding people for participating in projects and for successful completion of improvement initiatives. The reward may be financial compensation for participation, or credits for innovation hours. Firms are getting creative and it’s great to see.

Thank you both so much for taking the time to speak with us. Can’t wait to connect with the Gimbal team again soon.

Any law firm has an untold number of documents and case files assigned to each and every client. Every one of those records needs to be processed, reviewed, filed, sorted, tagged, and organized. Considering the average law firm has only 2.4 employees, it’s a lot of work that requires a serious time commitment to manage.

At a time when innovative technologies are transforming entire industries, law firms don’t want to be left behind in the race towards modernization. However, the right technology can help legal teams manage their own time more effectively. Let’s break that down a little.

Entity management software automates clerical work

It’s fair to say that one of the biggest time consumers in any firm is clerical work. Since case files and corporate documents include binders upon binders of paperwork, it takes a boatload of time and energy to sort through all those files.

Among the biggest benefits of using entity management software is that it eliminates these tedious clerical tasks. Instead of combing through physical binders of paperwork, legal teams can upload minute books and corporate documents onto cloud-based servers.

The platform organizes the files in standard PDF formats. Built-in sorting and tagging features make it easy for teams to organize the files. The best part is that it eliminates the risk of losing or misplacing any important records. Client satisfaction is a must for retention and business growth; lost corporate documents won’t boost satisfaction rates.

Keep track of important dates and expiries

Another useful asset that comes from entity management platforms is their built-in features and capabilities. One of those features is a built-in calendar designed to update legal professionals on pending dates related to client cases.

Suppose a new subsidiary of a corporation must submit its registration filing by a certain date. The platform reminds the legal team that the date is coming. The date on the calendar functions like a beacon, guiding legal teams on how to proceed and allowing all of the records to be completed in the appropriate amount of time.

Let’s say a regulatory license is due to expire without the proper renewal. The platform gives legal teams plenty of time to prepare for that deadline. All the documentation can be filed, signed, and submitted to the regulatory authorities in the appropriate amount of time.

Think of the entity management platform as a guide to help create a work-back schedule. Knowing that there are key dates and deadlines that must be adhered to, the platform helps teams organize all of the necessary steps that must be taken to ensure those deadlines proceed without incident. It’s a great resource to help teams become more organized, efficient, and effective at servicing clients.

Quickly generate reports summarizing client case files

Another significant time consumer for legal teams is client relations. Cases involving corporate documents are understandably complex. Minute book records for these cases contain hundreds, if not thousands, of files that influence the outcome of the case.

With entity management software, you can create documents that note the location, date, time, and filing of each minute book record into an organized database for reference. The software enables your team to operate in more efficient ways and adopt more streamlined workflows to record valuable information for clients.

The platform also includes advanced search capabilities that allow teams to easily find specific records in a case file, providing deeper insight into the matters at hand. All that search work is completed in a matter of seconds, as opposed to the laborious amount of time that would otherwise be spent combing through binders of physical records to find the file in question. By documenting the storage of the files in your entity management platform, a quick search tells your team where to find the records in question so the information can be uncovered.

Entity management software simplifies legal caseloads

Why continue to conduct legal work with outdated tedious approaches? Eliminate the need for paper documents and save your legal team countless hours of working time and energy. Invest in entity management software to modernize minute book management. It’s a more time and resource efficient solution to help teams provide greater service to their clients.

Cybersecurity matters have emerged as one of the biggest issues facing global businesses. The global average cost of a cybersecurity breach now stands at $4.45 million.

When looking at the numbers on a regional level, the data is even more alarming. For example, in the United States alone, during 2006, the average cost of data breaches was $3.54 million. Fast forward 17 years, and that cost has escalated by over 150% to an average of $9.48 million, according to Statista.

It’s not just the direct financial costs of data breaches that concern organizations. There’s also the matter of corporate compliance. Data security breaches affect corporate compliance protocols that, left unattended, could subject legal entities to even greater financial costs.

What is the role of cybersecurity in compliance?

Cyber compliance is a series of corporate processes designed to maintain data privacy and security. These processes must align with regulatory standards and by-laws to protect sensitive corporate records.

Protecting sensitive data and abiding by the laws aren’t the only reasons to invest in quality cybersecurity measures. Cyber compliance also makes practical business sense that supports growth initiatives. Compliance helps preserve trust with existing and future customers, while also improving overall security measures for the corporation.

5 emerging cybersecurity compliance trends

Cybersecurity breaches occur seemingly at random, and no entities seem impervious to such a breach. In August 2023, for example, the UK Electoral Commission was the victim of what it described as “a complex cyber-attack As many as 40 million UK citizens’ personal information was accessed through the UK’s hacked electoral registers.

Given the reach, breadth, and impact of cybersecurity breaches, legal entities must take proactive measures to protect their sensitive records and maintain corporate compliance. Here’s a breakdown of five of the biggest emerging cybersecurity compliance trends.

1. Reinforcing databases against threats of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting many traditional industries and workflows. While there are many benefits to incorporating AI into business practices, there are also an abundance of risks that could compromise corporate security and compliance.

Malicious actors can leverage AI to develop sophisticated malware that penetrates cybersecurity firewalls. These attacks risk becoming more prevalent if AI is primarily used by legal entities to manage cybersecurity. In one fell swoop, the defence mechanism can be turned into the commencement of a cyber attack.

To minimize the risk of these circumstances, ensure your cybersecurity measures are balanced by AI, machine learning technology, and human managers. Using technology can help automate and streamline many cybersecurity sequences. But you should always have human workers overseeing the platforms and ensuring no security measures are overlooked by the technology.

2. Ethics of using AI to enforce data security

There’s also the matter of business ethics regarding AI. Two key ethical concerns regarding the global adoption of AI solutions are the effects on data security and consumer privacy.

For AI to function properly, it requires substantial volumes of data to make decisions. As a result, there are growing concerns about how AI platforms collect and manage that data. If AI is collecting and analyzing sensitive data without giving consent or proper security clearances, the corporations using that technology could be liable for violations of privacy laws.

If your organization intends to use AI, ensure your corporate compliance framework includes the proper protocols to do so. Data must be handled with sensitive care and using strict security measures to avoid compromising any individual or corporate rights to privacy.

3. Security compliance rules and regulations

In the summer of 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted new security compliance rules. The new regulations require legal entities to disclose any cybersecurity incidents and provide annual summaries of their cybersecurity risk management, governance, and strategies.

The SEC deems any corporate data as the intellectual property of shareholders and stakeholders. According to the SEC, transparent disclosures of any compromises of that intellectual property will protect investors, corporations, and the public at large from unlawful uses of sensitive corporate data.

Ensure your compliance reporting structure includes any risks that compromise your corporate data security. Failure to provide transparent reports of this information risks leaving your entity exposed to the penalties of non-compliance.

4. Mitigation of third-party risks from partners or vendors

Very few corporate entities operate on an island. Relationships with affiliate partners or third-party vendors are vital to further grow the interests of the business.

However, in an increasingly interconnected world, those third-party relationships may not be as secure as they once were in the past. Integrations with these vendors that lack the proper security parameters could leave sensitive data vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

As part of a compliance framework, ensure all third-party vendor relationships are backed by robust security measures. Creating risk management policies that vet and evaluate third-party vendors reinforces your corporate security and strengthens the trust of all stakeholders.

5. Automation of more cyber compliance processes and workflows

Finally, corporations increasingly rely on technology (non-AI technologies) to help automate many compliance tasks and workflows. Entity management platforms are a prime example of these solutions, and the market size for entity management software solutions will reach $3.85 billion by 2026.

Entity management platforms like MinuteBox have built-in compliance frameworks that guide legal and compliance teams to build robust compliance protocols. The platform is very intuitive and user-friendly, relying on drag-and-drop modules to help formulate and organize compliance protocols in a centralized domain.

Users of entity management software report valuable time savings and operational efficiencies. The platform accelerates time spent managing corporate compliance protocols, while still maintaining the highest standards for data security and privacy protection.

As a result, expect more organizations to embrace these modern solutions for corporate compliance and data security. To hop onto the bandwagon, join the MinuteBox revolution and take the leading step towards modernized corporate compliance.

A subsidiary governance framework enables multinational corporations to manage their various legal entities prudently and responsibly. Implementing a strong subsidiary management framework can help prevent costly financial and reputational damage to the corporation’s brand identity as well as damage to their good standing in the marketplace.

Corporate entities are often complex and structured in very difficult ways that magnify the burden of compliance with federal regulations. Often, the corporate counsel departments that manage the legal aspects of these various entities are resource-lite and tasked with other responsibilities to the corporation.

Corporate counsel feel the pressure of their responsibilities

According to the 2022 In-House Counsel Compensation & Career Survey, which was conducted by The Counsel Network and the CCCA, over 50% of surveyed corporate counselors have responsibilities that go above and beyond maintaining corporate compliance.

A corporate counselor’s primary mandate is to provide legal services to individual employees of a corporation as well as legal counsel to protect the interests of the company as a whole. As part of their mandate, a corporate counselor’s day to day duties can include any of the following:

• Thorough legal research
• Contract evaluations and analyses
• Property law assessments
• Collective bargaining agreements
• Negotiations with government regulators
• Patent filing

Additionally, corporate counselor services may be required to:

• Consult with accountants or auditors to review corporate tax filings
• Prepare and review company documents for mergers and acquisitions
• Draft contracts for the leasing of equipment for the corporation
• Sit in on corporate meetings to discuss official governance policies

Majority of in-house counselors burdened by stress

Another study was conducted by the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association and Mondaq. They surveyed over 460 in-house legal professionals across Canada. According to the findings, 61% of chief legal officers and general counsel experience higher levels of stress and anxiety. This is largely due to the onus on their shoulders for the entity’s corporate compliance.

The numbers are even more concerning in publicly listed companies. The study found that 75% of general counsel representing public firms admit to recurring experiences of stress.

Help your corporate counsel reduce their stress by simplifying their workloads. Ensure your legal department has the resources to conduct proper entity management. If you’re being represented by outside counsel, request a meeting if there are gaps in the deliverables. Make an honest effort to better understand the situation. Perhaps resources were stretched very thin, a clerical oversight was made, or another unexpected reason. Don’t rush to make a bad judgment call without knowing all the facts.

Ensuring your corporate counsel is de-stressed isn’t just the moral thing to do; it also makes great business sense. Legal resources ensure quality and consistency in the entity management workflow. These are the necessary ingredients for accurate minute book records, vital documents should an audit be conducted on your business.

Tips to help corporate counsel simplify their workloads

Mindfulness, focus, and avoiding distractions are all ubiquitous best practices to help people in all professions improve their productivity. Corporate counsel benefit from these same approaches, but here are some specific ways to improve productivity in the legal department.

Improve time management skills

The high-stress environment of subsidiary management and corporate counsel requires legal professionals to operate with a high performance mindset. Time management is a vital skill to fulfill the needs of the corporate entity and avoid succumbing to the anxiety of all that work.

A time efficient subsidiary management solution automatically tracks all important dates related to contract negotiations or expirations and helps in-house counsel prioritize their tasks. They can adopt a work-back approach in their schedules, using those dates as the markers on the calendar. Tasks can be assigned in order of priority based on their relevance to the overall deliverables that must be implemented by those end dates.

Transparent communication with clients and colleagues

Upfront communication with clients and colleagues means the process is always moving forward. Any approvals or signatures to move a task along in the production pipeline are easily acquired by keeping all parties in the loop.

With a subsidiary management platform, all communications regarding corporate records are simple and straightforward. Prompts for signatures or reviews of corporate records are sent to the appropriate recipients, and, provided they have authorized access to the account, they can review those records at their own convenience. This saves your in-house counsel the time and stress of chasing people down to get important answers.

Modern minute book recordkeeping organizes all corporate documents

Finally, adopting a more modern approach to minute book recordkeeping eliminates most of the timely and stressful tasks of clerical work. As a corporate counselor, imagine the feeling of stress lifted off your shoulders knowing that there’s no risk any of your corporate entity’s official records will be lost or misplaced. Modern technology makes that hypothetical feeling a reality.

Using subsidiary management clouds, you can upload all corporate minute books into a secure platform that’s backed by biometric and hardware key authentication. Only the corporate officers and directors granted access to the account can view the records, ensuring all information remains as secure as it is convenient to access. There are also built-in integrations with e-signature solutions, allowing your legal team to gain required signatory approvals in minutes instead of days or weeks.
Help make your corporate counselors’ lives easier and more fulfilling. Join the MinuteBox revolution so your legal team can fall in love with subsidiary management all over again.

Talent management is arguably the most critical challenge for law firms today. That’s according to the results of a Thomson Reuters Institute report, which identified talent acquisition and retention as the top concerns facing the legal community.

The findings of the report suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted how firms both attract and retain talent. Legal professionals are demanding more flexible working arrangements from their employers to retain their positions. Many of the top paid legal minds increasingly prefer firms that utilize innovative technologies to improve daily work habits.

Salaries aren’t the only talent acquisition tactic for firms

The Thomson Reuters report cites ever-increasing salaries as a prime reason talent acquisition and retention are so competitive in the legal community. Financial pressure placed on firms to retain top legal minds is being felt in all corners of the globe. However, financial compensation isn’t the only incentive for legal talent to accept employment by their chosen firms.

Modern technology has broken down geographic barriers that previously restricted legal professionals from accepting employment outside of their home communities. Technology enables firms to connect with the top legal experts, regardless of location. Practicing legal professionals appreciate the flexibility afforded by firms that utilize this technology.

Attorney burnout impacts talent retention rates

Attracting great talent is half the battle, but retaining your top performers is the other challenge. The Thomson Reuters report cites attorney burnout as one of the driving reasons why firms have higher attrition rates, and the authors of the report recommend implementing solutions that address ongoing issues for legal professionals.

According to the American Bar Association, nearly 60% of all practicing attorneys work over 40 hours per week, and over one in five work more than 50 hours per week. Additionally, 87% of surveyed professionals said their law offices allowed remote or hybrid work. The majority of respondents said remote work did not impact their productivity or the number of billable hours they could charge to clients.

What’s the takeaway here? The data from the ABA study demonstrates that legal professionals are willing and able to put in the hours. The insights from the Thomson Reuters report suggest there are better ways for legal minds to utilize their talents more effectively. Firms would be wise to implement solutions that improve productivity to avoid the risk of burnout and attrition.

Entity management software helps increase time for billable hours

One way to reduce attorney burnout is to provide the resources that allow legal talent to devote more time towards servicing their clients. By providing the means to reduce time and labour attorneys must devote to minute book management, they receive more time and resources to increase billable hours. This is a great tactic to improve talent retention and help your firm work towards the larger objective of increasing Legal Recurring Revenue.

Entity management software is the best resource to modernize minute book management with more efficient workflows. Instead of sorting through binders upon binders of client minute books, professionals can upload all client records into cloud-based platforms.

Once the records are in the platform, they’re automatically organized into documents that resemble standard PDF files. This makes reviews and approvals of minute book records far more streamlined and efficient. If clients have questions about a particular document in their records, you can use entity management software’s advanced search capabilities to find the document in question in a matter of seconds.

Using modern entity management solutions, review processes that once took hours or days of clerical work are completed almost instantaneously. Legal professionals can use these solutions to improve their own productivity, reduce manual clerical work, and dedicate more time towards improving client relationships.

Showcase your modern workforce and attract the best talent

When you adapt your minute book management process to more modern workflows, your firm demonstrates a commitment to innovation. Positioning your firm as an innovative leader is very attractive to legal professionals, and an innovative approach to minute book management can improve your firm’s talent acquisition strategy.

Cloud-based entity management software allows legal talent to work with flexible solutions that improve their productivity. Fewer working hours are necessary for minute book management, which allows lawyers to feel more fulfilled and satisfied with how they spend their days.

The platforms are also beneficial to clients, allowing your legal team to respond to client inquiries with speed and proficiency. When clients feel that their attorneys have their best interests at heart, they’re far more likely to retain your firm for future services. Ultimately, modern approaches to minute book management help attract and retain your most talented legal minds, and they’ll support your efforts to boost Legal Recurring Revenue for the firm.