Janelle’s law firm faces an all-too-common industry problem.
The many lawyers and legal professionals who work for her pour their blood, sweat, and tears into their job. Daily. Yet inefficiencies in her practice leave everyone feeling like they’re forever spinning their wheels. The situation grew desperate recently, putting her firm in danger on two major fronts: a staff of highly paid professionals risking burnout, and clients questioning the value her firm provides after receiving massive bills.
Fortunately, our team of AI experts at Louder Co. found the perfect solution for Janelle’s woes. But first we had to document the problem. The root issue was eDiscovery, a process of collecting, reviewing, and producing evidence based on the entirely digital way most people now lead their lives and conduct business.
eDiscovery is now a crucial part of legal cases in today’s frenetic world, yet it was tearing her legal practice apart. Janelle’s issue concerned her firm’s eDiscovery process. Entirely manual, it killed productivity. (*No matter what kind of company you run, whether it is a professional firm like Janelle’s or a manufacturing shop, productivity equals profitability.) Louder Co. immediately saw that retooling the firm’s eDiscovery process held the key to boosting organizational performance.
Now for the nitty-gritty details. Janelle’s firm suffered from a process so arcane it could demolish the work-life balance of even the most seasoned lawyer, blasting stress levels through the roof. The aforementioned manual review would take a team of 10 employees thousands of hours to comb through up to three terabytes of data for a typical business case.
Worse, despite all of this herculean effort, the firm could not confidently say it had gone through more than 25% of the available documents with any degree of scrutiny. The grueling workload resulted in untold fatigue, sick downs, even the departure of a key firm contributor who couldn’t take it anymore. This is precisely when Janelle knew she needed help. A colleague helpfully referred her to Louder Co.
During our first meeting, our team told Janelle AI products now exist specifically aimed at transforming eDiscovery from a painful undertaking to a straightforward, productive activity. Initially, she experienced skepticism. “Can AI really solve our problem?” Janelle asked. Knowing it could, we established a comprehensive process to prove to our newest client we could explode her firm’s productivity—while also wowing her clients with the results.
Upon learning of Janelle’s current process, Louder Co. generated a wish list of desired workflow features. Top of the list? The firm needed a software solution to interface with Outlook while maintaining compatibility with common industry data portals. We used this wish list, along with knowledge of the firm, to present half a dozen eDiscovery software candidates. (Our pool was so large because Louder Co. doesn’t limit ourselves to dealing with a few vendors. Instead, we maintain flexibility to match each client with the perfect AI solution.)
Presenting candidates was just the start of an intensive selection process. Based on both our deep knowledge of the AI industry and of Janelle’s business, we devised a scorecard grading each solution on its merits. This narrowed the field down to five different options. We then scheduled demos with each vendor, creating sample scenarios to show Janelle and her team how the software works on cases similar to those they litigate. We then compared the results of each software package, making our final recommendation in a collaborative way, involving Janelle’s team. This especially gave them the needed confidence they’d reached the correct decision.
The right solution for Janelle’s firm proved to be Nextpoint. A breakthrough eDiscovery platform, it offers unlimited data uploads, an easy-to-use relevancy review interface, and strong collaboration tools. The manual process that once took a large team thousands of hours (and was never truly completed to the firm’s satisfaction) now required the AI system eight hours. That’s right. In less than a full workday for most partners, it accomplished the seemingly impossible. All that remained was just 40 to 60 hours of human time to review results and make strategic decisions.
Implementation also went smoothly thanks to Louder Co.’s help. Our team worked through the entire change management with ongoing training and communication for key stakeholders. Janelle was thrilled. Practically overnight her least productive practice area—one that also destroyed employee morale and lessened her clients’ opinion of her value transformed. From an employee perspective, lawyers can now spend their time doing what they were hired to do: practice law and zealously represent clients. From the firm’s perspective, Janelle can now take on more cases, generating more revenue without increasing her headcount. In fact, during a routine follow up, she told me her team “forgot what life was like before Nextpoint.”
This tale shows the impact AI can have on your business regardless of industry, but only if you partner with Louder Co., AI experts revolutionizing small and medium-sized companies with greater productivity and profitability. Contact Louder Co. today to learn how we can help you achieve the success you deserve by turning your business’ headaches into an afterthought.
