Time and Technology in the Law Firm

"Scientific management" refers to the optimization of the way tasks are performed. The goal is to simplify the job to the point that it is done in the best possible way. Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of scientific management, asserted that observation and experimentation (time & motion studies) would lead managers to determine the "one right way" that a job should be carried out. As Taylor opined, "hardly a competent workman can be found who does not devote a considerable amount of time to studying just how slow he can work and still convince his employer that he is going at a good pace."

Taylor’s system was widely adopted in the early 1900's until labor unions pushed for a minimum wage against his view that employees should be paid strictly based on performance. Taylor’s ideas came to be viewed by organized labor as a way for business to exploit workers rather than a way to improve business. But while Taylor’s theory had drawbacks such as monotony and exploitation, there are elements of his idealism which can improve the efficiency with which legal professionals represent their clients. Giving your paralegal the technology he/she needs to compete in a technological age is a prime example. There can be no dispute that technology, when effectively utilized, shortens the number of man-hours required on almost any project. For instance, affirmative action plans require a large amount of statistical analysis, but the same formulas are utilized across a large number of employee job groups. Spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel and Quattro Pro will allow you to input a set of core data and then link that data to respective worksheets where formulas will perform all the statistical outcomes automatically. Your paralegal’s job then becomes one of data entry and output, versus innumerable man-hours spent with a calculator. The same applies to firm productivity reports prepared by office personnel.

Something as simple as preparing medical summaries can be more beneficial when a uniform system is put in place. Storing summaries in a common network location gives everyone immediate and up-to-date access to medical information. Maintaining and tracking statuses in the same document eliminates the necessity of two network documents, and hence, your paralegal opening and making entries into two separate documents. Knowing the nuances associated with software utilized for data search and retrieval is also important. For instance, typing a date in the format mm/dd/yy may not allow a chronological date ordering of entries in some applications, but it may in others. To avoid this pitfall, the date can be entered in three separate columns and sorted by the year, month, and day columns in order to obtain the same result.

A brief bank is one of the most important elements of a thriving practice. While it is true that the only constant in law is change, there are many issues of law which remain landmark. Scanning and imaging now provides the ability to place related motions and briefs on the firm’s network. Time associated with re-inventing the wheel for each issue of law is lost profit. A cross-reference system or key is no longer needed to store and maintain them either. Language identifiers (document names) can be used with or without your firm’s document management system and allow for easy search and retrieval of various briefs and motions.

How many times have you noticed your secretary or paralegal sending global emails searching for a process server or a court reporter? Utilizing public folders to store universal contact data can eliminate this redundancy and put up-to-date information at your legal professional’s fingertips. The only requirement is that you assign someone with the task of inputting and maintaining the global address book. The same applies to expert witnesses. Maintain their names, addresses, and specialities in a global folder and then link that folder to his/her curriculum vitae, publications and rates.

Online repositories are fast becoming the best method of sharing discovery in multi-district and class action litigation and other large cases. Repositories can be intelligent enough to record when a document is accessed, or barely sophisticated enough to store the document images. Who will best know the important elements of a particular software needed by your practice? Many times office personnel who are not even required to work in the software are called upon to analyze and make software choices. Involve your paralegal in these decisions and reap the rewards of technology. He/she is more likely to welcome the introduction of the software if he/she played a role in its selection.

A law firm is limited only by it’s perceptions. Stated another way, we evolve to the extent of our imaginations, both as individuals and professionals. Frederick Taylor may have been pessimistic when he suggested that all employees find ways to work slower than their employers would prefer, but he had considerable foresight when he observed, "the first object of any good system must be that of developing first class men." In our race to build a better mouse trap, we must remember that time and technology can never replace the brain power needed to engineer systems and procedures that work more efficiently for legal professionals and the clients they serve. Neither does technology negate the need to effectively develop and train our legal professionals. An ever increasing element of the legal profession is the need for continuing education in technology. If time is money, then paralegals savvy in technology are certain to ensure a return on your investment.