The Paperless Law Firm: A real option or a 40-year-old pipe dream?

The oldest article on ‘the paperless office’ dates back 40 years to June 1975 and quotes the likes of George E. Pake, Head of the Xerox Research Centre at the time. George said, “In 1995, my office will be completely different; there will be a TV-display terminal with a keyboard sitting on my desk. I will be able to call up documents from my files on the screen by pressing a button. I don’t know how much hard copy printed paper I will want in this world.”

His prediction wasn’t far off in many ways, but many years from his vision of the future, few businesses can claim to be anywhere near ‘paperless’.

What are the statistics?

According to Envirowise, a government-funded group that advises businesses on sustainability, the average office worker uses 50 sheets of paper daily in unnecessary printing. They also say that 80.6 Million tonnes of printing and writing paper enter the waste stream each year in the UK, which accounts for 24% of total UK waste*.

Indeed, many firms who have made the switch to a paper-lite office have noticed the impact, with Neves LLP saving 121,000lbs of CO2 each year since moving to the Access Legal Case Management System. They've shared some stats with us below to show the impact this move has had in their firm. 

The enormous level of paper usage across the world contributes directly to deforestation, with 42 million trees cut down globally each day and, in fact, 46% of all trees on Earth have been destroyed by humans. This epidemic of deforestation has a damaging effect on our environment, contributing to climate change, soil erosion, flooding, wildlife extinction and ocean acidity levels. This is why going paper-lite should be at the forefront of many firms ESG activities.

How paperless is the legal profession?

Not many sectors can argue to be as overloaded with paper as the legal profession. The very nature of recording and managing evidence, signatures and legal documentation breeds paper. Law firms also have the legacy of evidence and records from days gone by to contend with too.

The question is, have we gone backwards?

For some law firms, the thought of going completely paperless is daunting and as the saying goes, being unable to see the woods for the tress is both true and ironic when discussing this subject. Many firms are opting for a paper-lite approach as the first step.

Adopting a paper-lite stance means using paper when there is no other option available to you, for example, when an original signature or signatures is required.

5 ways to make your law firm paperless

To help you on the way to a paperless or paper-lite firm, we’ve created our top five tips:

1. Get everyone on board and identify opportunities

We’re creatures of habit, and many of your fee earners have been conditioned to work traditionally, for example, read, print and file all emails from the client. Create a project team who will work together to review business processes to consider which uses the most paper, which may cause problems if they’re held up and which could easily be digitised. Once you’ve settled on the new process, use your legal case management system to create these paper-saving workflows and communicate them quickly.

2. Digitise existing and shred

To eliminate the bulk of your existing paper storage, you must turn all of your documents into digital form. Honestly, this will be time-consuming upfront but worth it in the end. Your project team should create a naming convention that is easy to follow to ensure that afterwards, your fee earners can easily create new and locate old files. Now that you’ve scanned all documents, you should employ a confidential shredding company's services, which is the safest and most secure way to destroy them.

3. Move to the cloud

In the overall timeline to a paper lite office, this should be at the beginning as it’s quite an essential part of the journey. In the first instance, cloud storage allows users to share and access files remotely without access to their local storage systems. Cloud technology is the backbone of remote working as it provides immediate access to your files wherever and whenever you need access. Keeping your files in the cloud is simply the smarter thing to do regarding security. Most, if not all, providers offer encryption, which is a process that scrambles your files into a string of unreadable code that is only readable with an encryption key.

Learn more: Cloud software for the legal sector

4. Strengthen Security

To take advantage of cloud storage’s increased security, you need to put the proper security measure in place from an internal perspective. Its recommended that you implement

Access permissions and restrictions: Your document cloud storage system should allow you the freedom to access files wherever and whenever but also limit access to documents and files at a team of role level. Ensuring only those who need access can gain have access

Secure portals: using a secure portal to send and receive sensitive documents provide a much more efficient and effective customer-centred experience.

Multifactor authentication: Phishing scams could cause both staff and clients to compromise their passwords; by implementing multifactor authentication, you’re adding an extra layer of protection before granting access to the system

Read more:  “Cyber security for law firms: everything you need to know”.

5. Change your culture

Finally, if a complete paper-free environment is too much and you prefer the paper-lite approach, why not encourage staff to ‘Think before they print’ and make sure all printers are set up duplex – half the amount of paper you use overnight, in-house recycling are simple and easy to adopt.

Can your law firm go paperless – A conclusion

Successfully reducing the use of paper isn’t a one-time event. It is a series of continuous efforts to move away from paper and establish a culture that frowns upon waste.

Adopting the right tools can go a long way toward creating an environment to support the paperless office. Re-architecting business processes to reduce paper usage making the best of your case management and practice management system is key.

*Guardian: Waste Recycling

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