The Burden of Busyness
Legal teams are stretched thin. Between contract reviews, compliance checks, policy updates, internal approvals, and the day-to-day churn of emails and meetings, it’s easy for high-value legal professionals to get buried in low-value tasks. The legal department becomes reactive—processing work instead of guiding decisions. And when legal is stuck in admin mode, the business misses out on something crucial: strategic advice.
The good news is that automation is quietly reshaping how legal work gets done. Not by replacing lawyers, but by giving them room to actually practise law.
Where the Time Actually Goes
Take a look at the average in-house legal team’s week. Hours are lost tracking down the latest version of a contract, manually updating status trackers, writing repetitive emails, or fielding the same questions from different departments. Even small things—like formatting NDAs or sending reminders—add up fast.
None of these tasks are particularly difficult, but they’re persistent. And worse, they pull focus away from deeper, more strategic issues—like identifying regulatory risk, advising on negotiations, or improving governance across the organisation.
Automation Isn’t About Robots, It’s About Relief
The word “automation” tends to conjure images of AI and complicated workflows. But at its core, legal automation is about offloading repeatable, rules-based tasks so that legal professionals can focus on the thinking, not the ticking.
This might mean:
- Auto-generating contracts from pre-approved templates
- Routing documents for approval based on simple conditions
- Notifying stakeholders of upcoming renewals without anyone sending a manual email
- Logging completed tasks automatically into shared systems
These are the kinds of things that drain time but don’t require legal judgment. Automation gives that time back.
What Strategic Legal Work Actually Looks Like
When lawyers aren’t buried in admin, they become more than risk managers—they become business partners. They help sales teams close faster by clarifying redline thresholds. They guide HR through policy updates that protect culture and compliance. They support executives by modelling legal scenarios before decisions are made.
Legal teams that function strategically contribute to growth, not just risk reduction. But that shift only happens when space is created for higher-order work.
Getting Started Doesn’t Require a Tech Overhaul
One of the biggest blockers to legal automation is the fear of complexity. Teams worry they’ll need a huge system, months of onboarding, or an in-house IT expert just to get going. But the most impactful changes often come from simple wins: integrating a document automation tool, setting up shared intake forms, or using a matter tracker that updates itself.
Even something like implementing a basic matter management software can provide a major lift. By centralising documents, tracking tasks, and surfacing deadlines automatically, it removes a large chunk of the manual follow-up that legal teams are constantly navigating.
Shifting the Legal Mindset
Of course, automation isn’t just about tools—it’s also about mindset. Legal has long been taught to be cautious, thorough, and meticulous. But those values can co-exist with efficiency. Automating the mundane doesn’t dilute the integrity of legal work; it strengthens it by allowing lawyers to apply their focus where it matters most.
And in-house teams are increasingly being measured not just on risk avoidance, but on how well they enable the business to move forward. Speed and clarity are just as important as accuracy.
How to Identify What to Automate First
Not everything can or should be automated. The sweet spot lies in tasks that are:
- Repetitive
- Low-risk
- Time-consuming
- High-volume
- Based on set rules or logic
Start by documenting your most common workflows. Where are the bottlenecks? What tasks do you see repeated in every matter? What kinds of requests come in weekly, like NDAs or supplier reviews?
From there, map out what a lighter-touch version might look like. Could a form replace a back-and-forth email? Could a conditional approval workflow replace a manually cc’d chain? Start small, prove value, then scale.
Final Thought: Create Room for Better Work
Legal teams don’t need more hours. They need fewer interruptions. Fewer rabbit holes. Fewer spreadsheets that only one person updates.
With the right automation in place, lawyers can shift from reactive problem-solvers to proactive advisors. From admin-heavy to insight-driven. That transition doesn’t happen all at once—but it starts with the decision to stop accepting inefficiency as inevitable.
Automation isn’t about doing more with less. It’s about doing better with what you already have.