Where's the Profit

So why are we investing in document assembly again? There should only be a few possible answers...

We proceeded with document assembly to achieve organisation and quality control in our document production method

Here, the profit is simply quality control. Your staff spend less time amending a document produced from a precedent that has the right content, but always needs additional work. Some streamlining with this approach will occur, but largely, the profit is not monetary, it is in having a defined and organized approach to the creation of every document in your firm. In short, this is smoother document production without any frills.

We have one or more areas of practice that are loss leaders, and we wish to make money from them, or at least, stop losing money on them

The profit is actually in the negation of loss - you wish to stop losing money. Obviously, as some point, your firm decided that having the loss leader was worthwhile, as it was funded by the work gained in a related section. A valid and common practice.

However, most loss leader areas of law are loss leaders for a specific reason: one or more companies has "undercut" the accepted market cost of the service. A perfect example is "regular" conveyancing. Quite often, it is a loss leader - its pretty difficult for a law firm to economically compete with high volume conveyancing shops. But then, the question arises: how did such "undercutters" manage to do it profitably? The answer is almost inevitably expert document assembly systems and case flow management. They invested in technology to handle documentation & tracking at a greatly reduced time cost, therefore allowing less staff to handle more matters with a high quality of work product. The reason an area of practice may be a loss leader for your firm is simply that its a high volume profit line for someone else's firm.

So where's the profit? Retaining the area of practice that brings in referral and related work, without making a loss on it, or perhaps (gasp!) turning a profit.

We have one or more areas of practice where we believe we can yield real profits from document assembly

Profit here is real tangible cash that should display noticeably within a couple of months. It is being able to operate an area of practice with less staff while producing the same (or higher) quality of work product, at the same (or higher!) volume. Perhaps you are seeking to drop document production times on routine documents to a minute or two. Perhaps you are looking at a means to cut 4 hours of lease drafting time down to 20 minutes of Q&A's. It is purely your choice whether

• your section of 4 professional staff and 5 support staff becomes 3 professional staff and 2 support staff, with the same output; or
• your staffing levels remain, but one of the senior staff spends a majority of their time marketing and bringing in new clients, allowing more output with the same staffing overhead

As always, there are two sides to every equation. Your business model and personal preference will dictate which side of the equation you choose to modify.

Can you imagine a system for your firm where this would have a large impact on your bottom line? Some areas of practice that should tip you off that this might be a good idea are:

• Debt recovery, litigation, winding up and bankruptcy
• Specialist litigation - personal injury, mortgagee in possession, WorkCover claims, estate litigation
• Mortgage work
• Estate planning, wills, powers of attorney, medical directives and elder law generally
• Leasing, conveyancing and property
• Anything to do with quotes and tenders