Eight Hours, Two Futures: How Legal Tech Can Redefine Your Law Firm’s Workday

“At some stage, [legal AI] will be delivering outcomes using its strength and its distinctive capabilities rather than replicating what humans do.” [1] — Richard Susskind, legal tech adviser

It’s Monday morning. Across the United States, law firms brace for a long week of client requests, document preparation, and research. In this article, we will follow two law firms that offer the same legal services in the same market. Their difference? Only one firm has embraced legal technology.

Scramble & Stumble LLC prefers sticking with the same practice workflows on which they’ve relied for over a decade. In contrast, Happy & Healthy LLC has integrated a variety of modern legal tech tools and AI-powered systems to support efficiency.

And Happy & Healthy LLC is far from alone. The American Bar Association’s 2024 Legal Technology Survey Report found that 73% of firms utilize cloud-based legal tools, with the highest adoption rates for document and practice management software. Additionally, 67% of attorneys use paid online legal research platforms and are increasingly leveraging AI in their work.[2]

These figures are expected to rise as more firms strive to match the efficiency of their tech-enabled peers. This shift underscores why using technology in law is quickly moving from a competitive advantage to a professional necessity. In fact, international legal technology adviser Richard Susskind warns lawyers who cling to more manual ways of working will be outpaced by those who embrace advanced and intelligent systems.[3]

Let’s follow each team throughout their Monday:

8:00 AM: Morning Manual Mayhem vs. Tech-Powered Productivity

Scramble & Stumble: Staff sift through emails and voicemails, manually following up on missed calls. The office manager delays invoicing as she juggles rescheduling appointments and responding to three new client inquiries. A paralegal spends 45 minutes drafting a notice of probate—and she misplaced a third-cousin’s address that was scribbled on a paper note.

The attorney waiting for the notice is pen-editing three trusts. Another attorney dictates a demand letter to be typed later. The managing partner updates last week’s timesheet in Excel. A paralegal is home with a sick child, leaving the office short-staffed. By 9:00 AM, the team already feels like they’re playing catch-up.

Happy & Healthy: Attorneys and paralegals log in to their synced calendars. Their cloud-based practice management system shares tasks, emails, and documents across the team. Incoming emails are automatically tagged and routed to the correct matter files. One paralegal—working remotely from home with a sick child—responds to client emails, a request from the surrogate, and begins conducting case-related research using an AI legal research assistant.

Overnight, their practice management system sent automated appointment reminders to attorneys and clients. Through their law firm’s website, four new client leads were pre-qualified, scheduled, confirmed, and placed on a shared calendar. Within 30 minutes, the team produces a notice of probate, an estate plan summary, a complex trust, and a demand letter using automated drafting tools. The office manager quickly generates draft invoices, using accurate billable time recorded with an automatic legal time tracker.

Takeaway: Happy & Healthy is already ahead before most firms finish their first coffee. Scramble & Stumble is spending valuable time and energy on manual tasks and basic logistics.

10:00 AM: Tedious Time Drains vs. Automated Efficiency

Scramble & Stumble: An associate spends hours manually combing legal databases, copying and pasting citations into Word. A paralegal retypes a standard contract by pulling clauses from old files. The junior partner pores over hundreds of transcript pages to prepare a summary. The senior partner reviews and edits invoices by hand while the office manager retypes corrections and mails them to clients. Drafts pile up, waiting for signatures.

Happy & Healthy: By leveraging the AI legal research tool, an associate generates a case summary with citations in just a few minutes. She then drafts a more complex legal memo and submits it for attorney verification to help ensure accuracy. The senior partner digitally approves invoices and shares them with the office manager who emails them out. The invoice footer includes a secure online payment link, allowing clients to pay immediately by credit card.

A paralegal uses document automation to draft a special needs trust in fifteen minutes. The junior partner uses legal AI to summarize discovery documents, converting hundreds of pages into digestible, cited bullet points in a click. Workflow automation helps ensure drafts move to the right person without delays.

At 11:00 AM, the team breaks for their Monday Brunch meeting. They have plenty of time to strategize, bond, and negotiate who gets the last chocolate croissant.

Takeaway: By lunch, Scramble & Stumble is already overwhelmed with paperwork and using unreliable document creation methods. Happy & Healthy has completed research, sent invoices, freed up time for client updates, and can now enjoy a few relaxed minutes connecting with their team.

1:00 PM: Frantic and Frustrated vs. Calm and Connected

Scramble & Stumble: The office manager calls clients about unpaid bills. Attorneys reconstruct time from memory and messy notes. One law firm partner drives an hour to attend a 10-minute hearing. Another spends three hours networking at a chamber of commerce event with little to show for it. With both partners now out of the office, pressing questions must wait until their return.

A paralegal spends an hour at the copy machine reproducing client financials, so that the documents can be mailed back to the client overnight. The team grows increasingly stressed out—too much busywork, too little lawyering.

Happy & Healthy: Automated reminders follow up with clients about overdue balances. Instant time tracking tools and legal bookkeeping software run in the background, generating real-time reports offering detailed financial and productivity insights.

An attorney attends a remote hearing via video conference. Her paralegal sends a client intake form through a secure portal. The completed questionnaire and related documents flow directly into the matter file. The senior partner quickly reviews two new leads generated through the firm’s website and leaves for a golf fundraiser. Using the practice management software’s mobile app, he can look deeper into those leads, review documents, and respond to emails from his mobile phone.

With the day’s clerical tasks already completed, the firm uses the afternoon to focus on strategy and client care. An associate leaves the office at 3 PM to see his daughter in a school play.

Takeaway: Happy & Healthy continues to add client value while productivity and morale soars. Scramble & Stumble continues to burn ink, paper, and patience.

4:00 PM: An Overwhelming End vs. A Fantastic Finish

Scramble & Stumble: The office manager enters data into spreadsheets to produce task and time reports. All billing is compiled manually—and invoices must go out tomorrow. Paralegals review case files, update calendars by hand, and create task lists on a standard Word document.

With the paralegal responsible for tracking deadlines out sick and without secure remote access, team members rush to reconstruct a deadline she would have flagged. Attorneys linger past 7:00 PM, filing the forgotten motion at the last minute. Stress follows them home.

Happy & Healthy: The senior partner adds new workflow tasks from his mobile phone—and sends the team a Microsoft Teams message announcing that he finally shot even par on that challenging course! The paralegal at home with a sick child files a motion on time. Team members review the automatically generated daily reports to get insights on time, billables, tasks, and deadlines. Invoice payments are received, and client records are notated electronically. The workflow dashboard helps ensure tomorrow’s to-dos are queued and ready to go for the new day ahead.

By 5:30 PM, everyone heads home and leaves knowing nothing slipped through the cracks. Now, they can spend the evening focused on life outside the law office.

Takeaway: One law firm ends the workday with balance and confidence. The other? Stress and burnout. Where would you rather work?

Build a Law Firm that Embraces Legal Technology

“[Attorneys] will be providers of good counsel and stalwart advocacy — powered by reliable technology...” [4] — Jordan Furlong, Legal Sector Analyst

We all have the same eight hours in a traditional workday—how would you rather spend yours? Like the team at Scramble & Stumble, chasing paperwork and manually retyping endless data? Or like Happy & Healthy, leveraging legal technology to boost efficiency, spending more time with clients, and leaving the office with a clear mind and energy for tomorrow?

The real question is no longer whether legal technology and AI belong in law—they’re already here. The question now is whether you’ll use them to shape a practice that is more sustainable, rewarding, and human by freeing time to focus on client care. These tools will not replace legal professionals, but they will likely give a decisive edge to those who embrace them. Over time, firms that resist adoption risk falling behind their peers.

Ready to see what a connected, tech-powered law firm could look like for you? Schedule a personalized demo of LEAP’s award-winning legal practice management software today. You’ll discover how our tools can help your firm improve productivity, strengthen client service, and reclaim balance in your workday.

About the Writer

Christy A. Schmidt, Esq. serves as the Adoption Manager for AI and estate planning at LEAP. She operated her New Jersey solo law practice for twenty years where she specialized in business formation, funding, and management; estate planning and wealth conservation; real estate; elder law; and tax law.

A Communication professor at Monmouth University since 2003, she has published several textbooks and one novel. She also contributes marketing, business, and tech articles to several publications—lately focused on AI ethics.

Sources

[1] American Arbitration Association. “The Systems Will Change Before the Mindsets Do: Professor Richard Susskind on AI, Law, and the Limits of Tradition.” Podcast, June 6, 2025. https://www.adr.org/news-and-insights/aaai-podcast-blog-episode-12/

[2] “ABA releases new survey on legal tech trends.” American Bar Association, March 3, 2025. https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2025/03/aba-survey-on-legal-tech-trends/

[3] Susskind, Richard. “AI, Work and ‘Outcome-Thinking.’” The British Academy Review, no. 34, Autumn 2018, Nov. 4, 2018. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publishing/review/34/british-academy-review-34-ai-work-and-outcome-thinking/

[4] Furlong, Jordan. “How Generative AI Will Change What Lawyers Do.” Substack, [August 14, 2024]. https://jordanfurlong.substack.com/p/how-generative-ai-will-change-what