Unlock Time Freedom: 50 Automation Hacks for Law Firm Owners

I STILL don't understand how anyone paid bills in the old days.

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My landscaper is the ONLY bill I don't have automated, and I genuinely have considered firing him and finding a new person because of it. But he does SUCH a great job and is a nice guy, that I suck it up every month to do it.

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And honestly, it gives me more emotional impact than the time it takes to pay it manually every month. 

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BUT...Automation is to time what compound interest is to money.

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The SOONER you do it, the more time it saves. And you can use that time for whatever you want.

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So here, I present to you 50 things you can do TODAY to save you time for the rest of your life.

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1) SET ALL YOUR BILLS TO AUTOPAY - I cannot stress this enough. It might take you an hour to track them all down, but if it saves 30 minutes a month, then in 2 months you're covered. Then for every year, you are saving 6 hours...every 4 years you get a full day back, etc.

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2) Set a reminder every year in your CMS to have a staff member pay your annual business dues (whatever your state calls them) and send them to your accountant.

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3) Create a client intake form that saves the most common pieces of case info the same way for every client - bonus points if it automates the collection of that data too

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4) Create a consistent digital filing system so you can find all your common documents (LLC, Logos, etc).

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5) Create a template for common email(s) - this can be lead inquiries, case updates, review requests, or ANYTHING.

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In Cal Newport's A World Without Email, he shares the insight that if something would take 30x or more time to do it than it would to build the automation it should be done. So basically any email you are going to send 30 times or more is worth doing this way.

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6) Create a template for a common motion you file a lot - notice of appearance, discover, proposed orders, again ANY go a LOOOOOOOONG way.

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My $0.02 on this - start with the ones you do the MOST, then move to the ones that take the MOST time. That way you maximize the time savings immediately and can use that saved time to deal with the more onerous ones.

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7) Create auto booking links - seriously, we do not need 17 emails to get a consistent time only to realize we are in different time zones.

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8) Have your case management system automatically set reminders before deadlines for statutes of limitations, filing deadlines, answers, other deadlines, etc.

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9) Have your billing system automatically follow up with people who do not pay their invoices.

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10) Set your contract up to for e-signature - this is hopefully the dead horse I have beaten.

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11) Schedule social media posts - this might be a hot topic, but at the end of the day, if you currently aren't posting as much as you want to - THIS is the start. If you have a full team, they might want to post live all the time...but for now, to save time - schedule posts.

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12) Create automated email follow-up campaigns for potential clients.

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13) Create automated email follow-up campaigns for prior clients.

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14) Create automated email follow-up campaigns for leads that never hired you. We call this a long-term nurture campaign.

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How long? It depends on your client.  

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For reactionary law (car accidents, criminal, civil defense after a suit if filed) it might be 30 days or less before it's not worth the follow-up.

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For proactive law (thinking about divorce, estate planning, civil plaintiff considering whether to bring a claim or not) it might be several months to even YEARS of follow-up that is worth doing.

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The record I have seen is a family law client coming back 5 years later to start their divorce.

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15) Use Zoom or Google Meet to avoid having to commute to the office every day.

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16) Hire a phone answering company to get overflow calls and cover nights and weekends.

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17) Create a chatbot on your website and social media channels to answer common questions.

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I am aware of the potential privacy or attorney-client relationship issues here (especially if there's BAD advice given), so I think it's better to just upload your content to a bot and force it to answer specific questions with info you have given v just a plug-in for chat GPT.

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18) Create a client portal so they can get updates on their case whenever they want - yes I still HATE a client portal. I don't think anyone WANTS to do that, but I am aware it can save time.

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19) (Instead what I like) is to put a booking link on your emails for clients to set a meeting for a case update - I usually do 15 minutes set for Friday afternoons. This way my staff can prep for the meeting and it's booked with the client instead of fielding a bunch of calls during the day that distracts and takes time from the other work.

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20) Use a project management system so you don't have to email or get emailed for an answer to every question - this is probably NOT your case management system, but you might be able to make one work for some of this.

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21) Hire a law school student to do the research you need for legal motions (make sure they are using Westlaw access legally).

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22) Create a zap to move client emails from your CRM/CMS to your gmail/outlook so you don't have to use 2 systems to email clients

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23) Hire a bookkeeper/accountant to create better financial records for taxes and trust accounts

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24) Set reminders in your phone to reach out to referral sources every so often

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25) Use AI to outline topics for videos

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26) Use AI to write the first draft of blog posts for SEO

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27) Find a program that will automatically track time if you are using billable hours - REALLY stop using the billable hour, but still...if you must, at least automate the time collection

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28) Put together a shared SOP/P&P manual - this can be an internal chat bot, something in Tetra, a custom-built wiki, or just a Google doc linked to how you want things done with video and written out instructions - this is worth it's weight in GOLD.

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Ryan McKeen shared at a conference that he got an alert his had been accessed 10,000 times - in theory that's 10,000 questions that didn't have to be answered by someone else at the firm.

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The time savings adds up FAST!

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29) Automate the info to and from your client during onboarding - this is the BIGGEST stage I see firms skimping on now.

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I think we (all of us reading this) have finally convinced enough firm owners to have a solid intake/sales/whatever you want to call it process. And clearly, we are all great lawyers. But that onboarding is the next phase I think we need to push our industry to do better in.

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What information does EVERY client need (now that they are a CLIENT)?

What info do you need FROM the client?

What expectations can you set for them?

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Do all of that automatically.

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30) Automate your requests for reviews AFTER the case is over.

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Yes, still be personal. But ALSO make sure it happens.

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31) Collect the right data to decide what is a waste of time that you can stop doing (this is probably most common in marketing, what platforms are a waste? What else can you stop doing to market the firm?) but you can apply this to everything if you try hard enough.

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32) Outsource HR - seriously tracking every tax document, sick day, etc can be DAUNTING. Just get it off your plate to another company or at least a software.

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33) Organize your google drive/dropbox/box/iCloud/etc so you can ACTUALLY find stuff.

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Seriously, the stuff that I KNOW is there, but cannot find...or need 30 minutes to find...a little bit of organization goes a LONG way.

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34) Create email filters

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My current FAVORITE one - any email that has the word "Unsubscribe" or "manage your settings" gets removed from my inbox and put into a folder Stuff to Read. Boom, time saved.

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35) Automate client case updates - think the Domino's Pizza tracker but for your law firm. This will prevent a LOT of calls.

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36) Go through your intake scripts and build in conditional logic so that the staff only asks the right questions for each case (or so the client only answers the right questions for their case)

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37) Create an automatic reminder for scheduled meetings to make sure the other person shows up (on time).

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38) Repurpose your large content down into micro-content (or vice versa). For example, a blog post can quickly become 10-15 tweets. Or a year of blog posts can also become a book.

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39) Use Loom to send videos. I can be more personable and also be understood better than typing out an email a lot of the time. Maybe this newsletter should have been a video...

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40) Automate NPS scores, and solicit client feedback on what you can do better - then implement the ideas that you should.

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41) Learn Zapier (or hire someone) to make your programs talk to each other instead of needing to do double data entry.

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42) Add a link to your youtube or website FAQs to your email signature on emails that go to clients.

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43) Use text expander (or text replace on the iPhone) to get quick things like addresses and phone numbers and emails down to just a few clicks of the keyboard.

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44) Use a dictation tool to turn your speech into written format for people who prefer to read v listen to instructions.

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45) Keep all your passwords somewhere - the upside, if you held me hostage I cannot get into my own accounts... downside, I cannot get into my own accounts, and reset my passwords at least once every few months.

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46) Make a checklist - what things do you do SO often that you forget some of the simple things? Turn them into a checklist.

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One example that has been great for us has been opening/closing the office. This way everyone remembers to close the windows/change the AC/lock the door/check the fridge for old food/etc.

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47) Get yourself an assistant - there's really no better way to save time, than to hire someone whose job is to save you time.

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48) Have a backup for all jobs.

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If only one person knows how to do something and they leave, it's going to be a struggle to train the next person. If two people know how to do a job, the other person can train the new person on it.

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49) Say NO to that case that you KNOW is going to steal your time.

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This is really the BIGGEST piece of advice I can give you. I have a lot of friends who dabble in PI law and then ask me 50 questions on that one case they took. Sure, they're going to get more than the 25% associated attorney fee...but could they have used that time to make MORE money by focusing on the cases they know they can rock in minimum time.

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50) Use Chat GPT to give you 50 ideas for things a law firm owner can do today to save time later - to be fair, I made a LOT of changes to their list and how I edited it, but I want to give credit where it is due.

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Next week, I am going to throw it back to our article about my goal to drive 120 PI referrals and give you an update now that we are more than 1/3 of the way through the year.

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Until then, may you get the Star, befriend the primate, meet the princess, and save the Kingdom!

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