3 Doc Management Hacks To Rev Up Your Practice

Save time and boost your bottom line with these Luddite-friendly tips from the Non-Event.

Syncing up a closing portfolio. Heading off human error. Bolstering your overall practice management strategy

In our latest installment of the Above the Law Non-Eventcast, our panelists detail quick upgrades to your document management processes (or lack thereof).

Read on for the best doc management hacks, according to the experts at Filevine, Foxit, MyCase, and Pathagoras.

And feel free to visit the Non-Event for all of your practice management and document management needs.

Build Forward Better

The assembly of packages of documents, particularly related to specific matters, can often be upgraded to a lawyer’s great benefit — a dynamic that experts say often flies under their radar.  

Multiple PDFs and other documents can be assembled into one master PDF that has everything you need in one place, for example, with the possibility of concurrently editing the entire portfolio.  

“It’s easily referenced and you can find whatever you need in there,” said Mike Bigelow, product marketing manager at Foxit. “There are also other things like bookmarks and the security function.” 

Pathagoras owner Roy Lasris has a similar take. 

“Your document assembly system should be able to assemble more than just a document,” he said. “It should be able to assemble for you a package of documents: a trust package, a real estate closing package.”

Head Off Human Error

It’s been well documented that lawyers frequently reuse boilerplate language in varied documents, and new opportunities for typos and other errors arise every time this language is introduced into a new setting. 

But implementing keyboard shortcuts can help eliminate that possibility while saving a lot of time, noted Cain Elliott of Filevine.

“It can be very helpful in drafting to have something where your keyboard is keyed-in to certain phrases you’re using over and over,” he said, “and a couple of keystrokes to give you those instead of typing it out again and again without changing your grammar, spelling, or whatever other foibles we may introduce.”

Consider Practice Management

Nicole Black of MyCase noted that the most important step is the initial choice of matching software to the needs of a particular firm, referring listeners to recent columns on the subject she wrote for the ABA Journal.

In particular, she said, firms should consider the role of practice management software

“I wrote one last month on document assembly. And I wrote one about a year ago on document management tools,” she said. “And those are broad overviews of the tool itself and how it can help you — and then a deep dive into the options within practice management software, and then standalone options for each of those types of tools.”

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