AI Responsibly with ndMAX
The majority of the legal industry recognizes the closing process as a series of both tedious and challenging tasks. And it’s true: from rising costs to an influx of chaotic paperwork, there are a lot of ways closings can be problematic. Today, most clients expect things to be done quickly, at low cost, and with minimal hiccups—and did we mention they often want every step available digitally? That can seem like a tall order, but there are ways to make it happen.
When it comes to closings, our customers typically have five key challenges:
Let’s take a deeper look at these and how to solve them.
A 2017 survey of law and legal tech by Aderant found that the majority of law professionals see improving operational efficiency (read: time-saving processes) as one of the top two challenges facing their firms. And it’s no secret that closings can be time consuming for all parties, as the hunt for an ever-growing list of documents and signatures can appear endless.
Streamlined processes and better collaborative tools. When faced with a new closing, the last thing you want is for your transactional lawyers to feel like they’re stumbling around in the dark.
The first thing you can do to cut down on the time a closing takes is ensure you’re developing effective and easy-to-follow processes. Create a documented plan of what steps should be taken and when, along with a helpful list of resources that can be used when a problem arises.
Additionally, implementing better workspace tools can allow for seamless collaboration that can improve legal team efficiency, cut back on miscommunication, and eliminate the completion of redundant tasks.
The final closing binder isn’t the only time a closing uses massive amounts of printed papers. Often, lawyers find themselves faced with several versions of hundreds of documents that are printed off, sometimes more than once.
Digital, cloud-based document management systems like NetDocuments are a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to store, work on, and distribute these important documents.
NetDocuments tools are easy to use and integrate directly with your favorite applications, making them a better alternative to stacks of paper on the ground.
This is another problem that arises when it comes to the thousands of pages that accompany closings. Unless you’re an organization savant, it can be easy for one (or more) of these integral documents to get lost in the shuffle.
SetBuilder provides users an easy way to combine and organize sets of documents in one location. It provides an intuitive way for deal teams to coordinate on closings, automate manual closing binder processes and quickly find the documents they’re looking for to save time and headaches.
Consider this: the average lawyer reports spending almost a full hour each day organizing firm information and a little less than half an hour organizing physical and electronic workspaces. Imagine how much productivity would increase if that organization was already taken care of.
From the physical materials involved in a closing to mounting billable hours, closings can get expensive quickly. As you’re able to cut down on those costs, the more likely you are to have satisfied, returning clients. In fact, a recent Legal Trends Report compiled by Clio shows that the overall cost of services had a greater effect on the law industry’s Net Promoter Score than any other factor.
A cost-effective document management service and simplified tools are two easy-to-implement solutions that can have a drastic effect on your bottom line. When everything you need is in one place and a breeze to navigate, your efficiency will skyrocket, automatically decreasing your overall costs.
When dealing with a closing, you’re in possession of a lot of highly sensitive information and it can be difficult to figure out how to protect this information while keeping it accessible to the people who need it.
Moving to a digital matter file can provide you a way to securely store encrypted information and ensure its protection. It also allows your staff to access all documents, easily collaborate on them, and use enterprise search to quickly find what they need.
Your clients are depending on your firm to help them navigate the often tumultuous time surrounding a closing. Making even a couple of these changes to your workflows can make your closings run more smoothly and efficiently. And that can translate to big wins for your staff of transactional lawyers.
Even better? The benefits of those improved processes are funneled back to you in the form of more time and money.
Interested in learning more about how to improve your closings? Schedule a demo with NetDocuments to get more information about revamping your current processes!
