Law firm automation: intake, document drafts and deadline reminders
Law firm automation is a set of rule-based workflows that run a firm's repeated administrative work. It covers enquiry intake, document drafts from the firm's own templates, hearing and deadline reminders, client updates and a searchable document archive. ALTAI Digital builds these flows on the firm's own rules and templates. The system gives no legal advice; signature and decisions stay with the lawyer. Client data stays in the firm's own accounts and is not used to train models. The first live flow opens within four to eight weeks.
Law firm automation is not a website project. It puts the firm's repeated administrative work on rules. A new enquiry arrives through the web form while the fee earner is in court. A client emails to ask whether a document has arrived. A trainee opens last month's contract to reuse its layout and misses an old date. None of this needs legal judgement. It needs a rule: who owns the enquiry, which template to use, when a reminder goes.
Enquiries arrive by web form, email, phone and WhatsApp. They land in one queue and go to the lawyer responsible for that practice area. Everyone can see how long each one has waited. Earlier correspondence with the same person opens beside the record. On the document side, the firm's own Word or Drive templates are used as they are: letters, contracts, powers of attorney. Fields are filled from the matter record. A missing field is left blank and flagged, never guessed. The system does not sign. A lawyer reads, amends and signs.
Two duties shape every flow. The first is confidentiality. Client data stays in the firm's own accounts and on its own server. Where data must not leave the firm, flows run on n8n on that server. Correspondence and documents are not used to train models. The second is professional conduct. Solicitors in England and Wales work under SRA rules, and Dutch advocates under their own professional rules. So client updates stay factual: a hearing date, a document request, the next step on the file. GDPR applies to every client record, with a privacy notice at intake.
Below are the scope, the four steps and the questions firms ask most. We work from Rotterdam and Istanbul, for firms in the UK and the Netherlands. Set-up starts with a discovery week, and the first live flow opens within four to eight weeks. Hearing dates and deadlines are entered by the firm; the system does not calculate them. Pricing follows the discovery call, in pounds sterling or euros, once the number of flows and templates is clear.
What goes wrong today
- 01
New enquiries have no owner
Enquiries come in by phone, email and WhatsApp, each on its own. Reception takes a note while the lawyer is in a hearing. Nobody knows who will call back, so the reply slips by days. The prospective client rings another firm, and the lost enquiry is never counted.
- 02
The same letter is rewritten every time
The firm has good templates, yet each matter starts from an old document typed over. A party name, a reference or a date survives from the previous file. Only a careful read catches it. Lawyer time goes on formatting rather than on the substance of the document.
- 03
Deadlines live in one person's diary
Hearing dates and time limits sit in a paper diary, a spreadsheet or one colleague's memory. When that colleague is on leave, tracking weakens. As long as reminders depend on someone remembering, the risk of a missed deadline stays with the firm.
- 04
Clients chase for updates
Clients ask about the hearing date, whether a document arrived and what happens next. These questions come by phone and WhatsApp all day. A lawyer or an assistant answers each one separately. Without regular updates, the client keeps calling.
- 05
Documents are hard to find
Documents are scattered across email attachments, desktop folders and a shared drive. Finding the latest version of one contract means looking in three places. Which version went to the client, and who approved it, is not recorded. Two versions of the same document sit in two folders.
- 06
Nobody is sure where client data sits
Messages sit on personal phones and documents in personal accounts. A colleague pastes a draft into a general AI tool to save time. Where that text is stored, and how it is used, is unknown. The duty of confidentiality belongs to the firm, yet the firm cannot see this picture.
Scope of the build
Enquiry intake and routing to the responsible lawyer
Web form, email, phone and WhatsApp enquiries land in one queue. A rule assigns each by practice area to the responsible lawyer. Enquiries waiting past the firm's limit move to the top, and their owner is notified. Drafts cover meeting times and documents to bring; legal questions go straight to a lawyer.
Document drafts from the firm's own templates
Letter, contract and power of attorney templates come from Word or Drive unchanged. Party names, references and dates are read from the matter record, not retyped. A missing field is left blank and flagged. Each draft waits for approval, with a version and approval log. A lawyer signs.
Hearing and deadline reminders
The firm enters each hearing date and deadline on the matter record. The date is written to the firm's calendar, and reminders go to the responsible lawyer on days the firm chooses. The system does not calculate time limits or pull dates from any outside source. Every reminder sent appears in the log.
Client updates
An update is drafted for a hearing date, a document request or the next step on the file. It waits in the approval queue and goes only when a lawyer, or someone they authorise, sends it. The wording is factual. It makes no promise of outcome and no comparison with other firms.
A searchable document archive
Every document produced is attached to the matter record and saved in Drive under one naming rule. It can be found by client name, matter number, document type and date. The record shows which version of a contract went to the client and who approved it. The archive structure follows the firm's own file plan.
One client and matter record
Client, matter, correspondence and documents sit on the same record. Required fields are defined, and incomplete records stay flagged. Duplicates merge by a matching rule with history kept. The record runs on HubSpot or on the firm's own infrastructure, and existing spreadsheets are imported. A link to your case management system is assessed at discovery.
Confidentiality, GDPR and a flow log
Client data stays in the firm's own accounts and on its server; correspondence and documents are not used to train models. The intake form carries a GDPR privacy notice. Every flow run is written to a log. A failed step is queued, reported and retried. Flows are handed over in the firm's account, with documentation.
How the set-up runs
- 01
Discovery (1 week)
We map intake channels, practice areas, the templates in use and where deadlines are kept. Together with the firm we decide which account and server will hold client data.
- 02
Build
Template fields are matched to the matter record, and the intake queue and routing rules are written. Each flow is documented with its trigger, steps and error handling.
- 03
Trial
Flows are tested on sample matters first. Lawyers read the drafts. Missing-field alerts, reminder days and message wording are corrected with the firm's approval.
- 04
Launch and measurement
The first live flow opens within four to eight weeks. At the end of month one we report enquiry reply times, flow success rate and pending errors.
Law firm back-office automation
- Enquiries in one queue, assigned to the responsible lawyer
- Letter, contract and power of attorney drafts from the firm's templates
- Hearing and deadline reminders from dates the firm enters
- Client updates through an approval queue
- Searchable archive attached to each matter record
- Client and matter record with a GDPR privacy notice
- Monthly flow report: success rate, average run time, pending errors
Pricing is given after the discovery call, once the scope is clear.
Zeren Hukuk is a website case, not an automation case. We built the firm's sixteen-page site, with nine practice areas and six guides, as an information tool within bar advertising rules. Automation follows the same line: every client message informs and promises nothing.
Read the caseProducts used in this build
Document and report generation
Proposals, contracts, listing copy and monthly reports are produced from your template, with your data.
Request handling
Requests from five channels collect in one list, the draft reply arrives ready, and the decision to send stays with you.
Workflow automation
Repeating processes run in the background; the process picks the tool, and a failure does not stay quiet.
CRM and customer management
The customer record gathers in one place: duplicates merge, required fields are defined, the report comes out on its own.
Terms used on this page
- Law firm automation
- Law firm automation is a set of rule-based workflows for a firm's repeated intake, drafting, reminder and filing work. It gives no legal advice.
- Document draft
- A document draft is the firm's own template filled from the matter record. It is not used until a lawyer has read and signed it.
- Approval queue
- An approval queue is the list where drafts wait before they are sent. The person who approves each one is recorded.
- Deadline diary
- A deadline diary is the calendar that holds the hearing dates and time limits the firm enters on each matter. Reminders are sent from it.
- Client confidentiality
- Client confidentiality is the lawyer's duty to protect what a client discloses. In an automation project it is the first test of where data is kept.
law firm automationFrequently asked questions
No. The system gives no legal advice, writes no opinion on a matter and calculates no deadlines. It runs the firm's rules: log the enquiry, fill the template from the record, remind on the date entered. A legal question goes to a lawyer, not into a draft. Signature and decisions stay with the lawyer.
The firm's Word or Drive templates are used as they are, and their fields are matched to the matter record. Party names, references and dates come from the record, not from retyping. A missing field is left blank and flagged, never guessed. Each draft waits in an approval queue with a version and approval log.
Client data stays in the firm's own accounts and on its own server. Where data must not leave the firm, flows run on n8n on that server. Correspondence and documents are not used to train models. The handover document lists which data sits in which system, for checking against confidentiality duties.
Updates are factual: a hearing date, a document request, the next step on the file. They make no promise of outcome and no comparison with other firms. The firm approves every template during set-up. Each update waits in the approval queue and goes only when a lawyer, or someone they authorise, sends it.
The firm enters each hearing date and deadline on the matter record; the system does not calculate them. Once entered, the date is written to the firm's calendar. Reminders go to the responsible lawyer and the team on the days the firm sets. The log shows which reminder went to whom, and when.
Every document produced is attached to the matter record and saved in Drive under one naming rule. Search works by client name, matter number, document type and date. The record shows which version of a contract went to the client and who approved it. Moving older documents across is planned separately at discovery.
Not necessarily. The client and matter record runs on HubSpot or on the firm's own infrastructure, and existing spreadsheets are imported. Word and Drive templates are used as they are. A connection to your case management system is assessed at discovery. The reason for each tool choice is handed over in writing.
Set-up starts with a discovery week, and the first live flow opens within four to eight weeks. The number of flows, the number of templates and the channels to connect set both time and price. Pricing is given in writing after the discovery call, in pounds sterling or euros.
The process first, the proposal after
In a short discovery call we map the process together and tell you plainly whether it is worth automating. If it is not, we say that too.
30 minutes · no preparation needed
