To remain competitive in the modern legal landscape, law firms must proactively seek ways to maximize efficiency and enhance transparency. Private firms should be willing to evolve and adapt in alignment with the shifting expectations of investors, stakeholders, and clients.
As part of these efforts, legal professionals should recognize that law firm entity management is an operational pillar of utmost importance, not simply an auxiliary responsibility. These organizations must adopt proven best practices and emerging technologies if they hope to refine internal operations.
Digital Best Practices for Law Firms
Like virtually all other major industries, the legal sector is becoming increasingly reliant on digital resources and an interconnected business model.
As such, many of our recommended best practices are centered around adopting efficient online tools, preserving confidential client data, and paving the way for streamlined collaboration among all partners and support staff.
Specifically, our recommended digital best practices for law firm entity management include:
Proactive Risk Reduction
While enhanced collaboration is an integral part of becoming more efficient and productive, it is equally important to maintain total control over all vital documents.
Law firms must be able to restrict where and how documents are being shared in order to protect the interests of their clients. This goal can be accomplished by deploying proactive risk reduction protocols and adopting a cloud-based entity management solution.
Cloud-based technologies allow law firms to significantly reduce risk by eliminating the need to store files locally. Instead, all team members can store important files in a central location that can be readily accessed by all authorized users.
Improved Security
Our second best practice involves improving cybersecurity across all digital resources. Cloud-based law firm entity management solutions allow law firms to do just that by providing them with access to leading-edge security tools.
Cloud-based technologies use encryption in order to make data less accessible to hackers or unauthorized users. When combined with customizable security settings, these features offer security that is far superior to on-site solutions.
For an added layer of protection, cloud-based entity management software is actively monitored by a dedicated security team.
Centralized Workflow
One of the most significant barriers to productivity is a lack of a centralized workflow. Traditionally, law firms rely on a myriad of different applications, systems, and manual document management practices. As a result, valuable client information can be disjointed and inaccessible.
Therefore, we recommend that law firms create a centralized workflow by implementing an all-in-one entity management solution. This single source of truth will not only enhance organizational efficiency, but will also aid the firm in avoiding compliance issues.
Enabling eSignatures
Modern eSignatures have become a universally accepted method of ratifying legal documents. However, far too many law firms still rely on physical document signing protocols.
In order to remedy this issue, law firms should enable eSignatures to save time and expedite document processing. A comprehensive law firm entity management solution will allow lawyers to both send out documents and receive them once they have been electronically signed.
Challenges Posed by Over Reliance on Legacy Systems
As evidenced by the best practices outlined above, adopting a cloud-based law firm entity management solution can alleviate many of the pain points that are faced by private legal teams. With that being said, it is important to understand the challenges that may be created by a continued reliance on archaic entity management tools.
By identifying these barriers and discussing how they can be overcome with cloud-based technologies, you can increase organizational buy-in and demonstrate the value of more modern solutions to key stakeholders.
Lack of Trust in Data
As a legal professional, you know all too well how bad data can create distrust within an organization. If you and your counterparts lack confidence in the accuracy of your records, then you will be forced to engage in redundant tasks in order to remedy any inaccuracies.
Unreliable Reporting
Archaic tools often lead to unreliable reporting. Manual reporting practices are unnecessarily tedious, time consuming, and wasteful. To compound matters, misentering even a single piece of information can create a cascade effect that has long-lasting impacts on the organization.
Compliance Concerns
Finally, outdated legacy systems can expose your law firm to unnecessary risk of reputational damage or financial penalties. These tools can cause the firm to miss important deadlines, lose track of closely regulated records, or commit other unintentional violations.
Streamline Law Firm Entity Management with the Right Technology
Would you like to learn more about the challenges associated with using outdated entity management tools? Are you interested in adopting proven best practices in order to enhance your law firm’s entity management protocols?
Download our Best Practices in Firm Entity Management eBook. Our experts provide valuable insights that can help your firm increase profitability, enhance transparency, and preserve your brand image in the modern legal ecosystem.
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