The best legal drafting software for lawyers
Law firms have started investing more and more money into LegalTech. By 2025, Gartner predicts budgets for this market will increase threefold. This LegalTech boom is great for firms that want to capitalise on software able to automate low-value or non-billable tasks because it means more of your lawyers’ time can be spent on client work.
Legal document editing and drafting software is an invaluable tool that makes the work of lawyers faster, easier, and more efficient. It can help them save both time and money by speeding up tasks that are not billable while allowing for a deeper focus on billable work. Thomson Reuters highlights this time save, reporting that users were able to save 82% of their time by automating document drafting.
Thankfully, this technology is everywhere, which means your firm has more choices than ever. However, the quality of this software varies dramatically. If you want to take advantage of it, you need to choose a solution that offers a more efficient and agile workflow and ticks all the boxes in terms of features.
What exactly is legal drafting software?
Choosing the right software might be easier said than done when the definition is often muddled. The term legal drafting software gets thrown around a lot so it’s important to outline exactly what it is.
To put it simply, drafting software automates much of the document drafting process lawyers would normally have to do manually. Others, like Definely Draft, enable lawyers to access and edit all the information in front of them, without leaving the provision they’re reviewing. This not only saves time switching between screens and devices, but it also means there’s no need to manually search for errors or missing information - every issue gets flagged for you. Our software is unique in this regard because it is the only one that assists lawyers in the active drafting stage of the legal contract lifestyle.
Why lawyers need legal drafting software
Document and legal contract drafting are some of the most time-consuming and unavoidable tasks. Luckily, automation can greatly reduce the amount of time lawyers have to spend on them. According to a Thomson Reuters survey, 91% of lawyers agreed that this type of software saved them time, while 89% said that the time saved allowed them to put more effort into higher-value activities.
Unsurprisingly, there are some risks associated with manual document drafting - the main one being that human error often creeps in. Having access to your firm’s gold standard clauses reduces this risk immediately since lawyers are not forced to create documents from scratch and potentially miss things that should be included.
Automation can solve these issues and the best document drafting software should offer features aimed at tackling these specific pain points.
The essential features of great legal drafting software
Document drafting software should have the following features to be worth considering:
Integration with current software and tracking changes
Integration means your law firm doesn’t have to incur the additional costs of purchasing extra software to ensure compatibility with a new drafting solution. Drafting software that can be plugged directly into Microsoft Word is much more valuable because the Microsoft Suite is likely already used by your firm. This creates a simplified workload and a smoother onboarding process for trainees and junior lawyers. It also means your lawyers can work across multiple documents and integrate with track changes.
Keeping context without leaving the provision
We’re sure your lawyers are tired of navigating away from their provision and then losing context - drafting software gives them the ability to pinpoint and edit information while retaining context, so they can ensure accuracy and decrease the risk of error. The use of multiple screens to review documents becomes a thing of the past since everything is in one place, saving your firm the additional costs of purchasing at least two screens for every employee.
Remote work from anywhere
When everything can be done on one screen, work can be accomplished anywhere. There's no need to print out any documentation or remain in the office. This means your lawyers have more flexibility than ever before, potentially preventing lawyer burnout. Happy lawyers are more productive, which benefits your employee retention rate and the bottom line.
Edit definitions in Definely split screen
Pop-out windows and split-screens allow lawyers to keep their context while reviewing and editing the provision they’re working on, allowing for much smoother editing. These windows also help in the search for definitions, flagging any undefined or unused terms in the document they are working on, for easy review. Definely Draft does all of this and more, and crucially, can help your law firms save money.
How much money legal contract drafting software can save
Investors are funnelling money into LegalTech. In 2021, The Financial Times reported that, across a period of 9 months, investment had increased by over $1 billion. Investors see the potential returns that LegalTech can bring, but that doesn’t mean the benefits are exclusive to them.
As reported by LawTech UK, increased use of digital technology could bring about “overall productivity gains worth up to £1.7bn annually”. With our time and cost calculator, you can find out exactly how much money your firm can save by utilising the best legal document drafting software.
For example, if you have a smaller firm, with 10 or so lawyers and an hourly rate of £150, you could save 1,250 hours per year, and create an additional £187,500 in billing. We don't have to tell you how beneficial this would be for your firm.
Legal drafting software is the solution
With our above example, you can see that legal contract drafting software, like Definely Draft, can save your firm an extraordinary amount of time and, in doing so, create new avenues for billing. Our legal drafting solution also enables everything to be done in-house, with ease and efficiency that manual document drafting could never achieve.
Book a demo today and discover how your law firm can benefit from a legal document drafting solution.
