Speech to text and the hybrid legal workforce
06 September 2022
At the beginning of the global pandemic in 2020, law firms had to adapt quickly to running their businesses remotely and enabling their staff to work from home. We are now seeing a natural extension of that, with many firms implementing a hybrid style of working, enabling staff to continue to work remotely for part of the week whilst also spending a certain amount of time in the office.
Recent research from Thomson Reuters confirms that the appetite for flexible and hybrid working has increased dramatically in the legal profession. 63% now want to work flexible hours, compared to just 22% pre-pandemic. And, on average, they want to work in a hybrid manner, with 2.1 days at home moving forwards – up from 0.6 days previously.
Technology is obviously playing a key role in this recent transition to hybrid working for many law firms. Solutions range from e-signatures and document and contract workflow management, through to video conferencing and other types of collaboration software.
Given the significant volumes of documentation that law firms produce on a day-to-day basis, it’s no surprise to see that cloud-based speech to text software is also playing an important role in supporting the new hybrid approach.
So, let’s take a quick look at some of the main benefits that speech to text systems can bring to the legal sector.
Speedier document production
As mentioned above, document production is absolutely key to the effective working of a law firm. Whether it is client memos, legal briefs, contracts or letters of intent, the focus is increasingly on speed, efficiency and accuracy.
When you consider that we speak around three times faster than we type, it’s easy to see the attraction of using speech to text software. This type of technology enables legal professionals turn their notes and comments into documents far quicker than if they were using a manual transcription approach incorporating the traditional dictate – transcribe – review – edit cycle, thereby substantially shortening document creation times.
And accuracy is enhanced by the availability of legal sector-specific vocabularies in speech to text systems, meaning that it is easier to use complex terms and ensure they are spelt correctly every time.
Streamlined processes
By integrating speech recognition software with workflow and document management software, the entire document creation and management processes can be streamlined. For example, workflow functions can help to identify and remedy bottlenecks in the document production process, or help to reassign work from typists who are busy with specific projects to others who have more capacity.
Enhanced collaboration
Cloud-based speech to text offers a number of significant advantages for legal professionals working remotely, particularly when it comes to collaboration. In particular, it can enable the sharing of documents with other people for collaborative working, updating or editing. For example, a legal professional could dictate a variety of documents and send the resultant digital recordings through to support staff for follow-up work, irrespective of their location. And the working versions of documents can be accessed by the original author and other people whilst on the move to allow for instant updating and editing.
Use any device, from anywhere…
Another significant benefit of the cloud-based approach is that users can access the speech recognition software and follow the document creation process on a range of devices, irrespective of their location. So, for example, a lawyer could draft a letter on their mobile phone whilst at a customer’s site, review the initial draft on their desktop computer later that day and make any appropriate changes, and then view and sign-off the final version on their laptop at home that evening.
Increased customer satisfaction
There is a growing expectation in business that service levels will be enhanced through the effective use of technology and the legal sector is no different. So, providing a more responsive service with faster document turnaround, incorporating high quality documents with fewer errors is becoming a business differentiator. And, of course, a better service results in a boost to the reputation of the firm.
Better use of staff time
Speech to text software can help legal professionals to spend less time on support activities such as document creation and editing, which in turn frees them up to spend more time with clients and have a greater focus on work that is directly billable. And there are also benefits to freeing up time for legal secretaries and support staff, enabling them to spend more time on client-facing or client supporting activities, which can have a positive effect on client service.
Summary
Hybrid working appears to be the way forward for many legal firms. Indeed, figures indicate that lawyers working in large law firms are committed to working remotely from home post-pandemic, with almost half willing to walk away if told they had to attend the office full-time. Consequently, the need to provide supporting technology to ensure that this new approach works successfully has never been more important and cloud-based speech to text solutions can play a critical role in this.
