There is currently a gold rush for technology. Just as in mid-nineteenth century, many Americans headed to California in search of the golden metal, today all roads lead to technology, which, as it happens, is also symbolically related to California (source of the world’s technological matrices) and to another metal, silicon.
And this technological FOMO hit the Brazilian legal market hard. Known for having one of the most intricate, competitive, and burdened legal systems in the world, lawtechs and legaltechs have found here a perfect ecosystem to develop.
However, as we known, technology is untamable, and many law firms started acquiring technological tools without a pre-existing operational maturity. Needless to say, this can lead to a lot of hassle, especially financial ones.
Therefore, before going on this captivating journey that is technology, law firms should understand their routines, seeking to make them as simple, standardized, and safe as possible. In this case, the difference between process, flow, technology, and innovation is a must.
While the process can easily be classified as a series of steps properly organized and set to achieve a certain aim, flows are nothing less than the visual representation of a step in this process.
The following analogy might be of use for Law practitioners: the Civil Procedure as its name says would be the process itself, that is, the organization of several stages that instrumentalize the substantive law (end). On the other hand, the reason "the judgment can be appealed" would be a flow, a part of this process.
In a law firm, there are numerous processes and flows to be implemented, from those of a legal nature, which involve the management of the process from the assessment, acceptance, pricing, assignment, and performance of papers and other activities, to the so-called business processes, such as customer, document, administrative/financial, operational, people, risk, marketing, and branding management, etc.
Thus, the recommendation is that before any implementation of a more robust technological tool, all these steps have already been structured, and the team's adherence and engagement ensured, after all, inefficient processes result in ineffective technologies. In addition, it is important to emphasize that the absence of technology does not imply archaic and bureaucratic flows, hence the importance of innovation.
In this sense, innovative processes and flows are those that, despite the technology, bring value and plainer, more agile, and efficient outcomes. Thus, as soon as processes achieve consistency and adherence, it will be the right time to scale it up, from the automation of repetitive tasks (Robotic Process Automation – RPA), use of process management software, application of API (Application Programming Interface), data management and jurimetrics, remote collaboration, information security, artificial intelligence among countless other technological solutions.
Available in: https://maisquedireito.com.br/inteligencia/inovacao/escritorios-adquiriram-ferramentas-tecnologicas/
Autor: Guilherme da Costa Ferreira Pignaneli • email: guilherme.pignaneli@ernestoborges.com.br
