A Quick Rant about Macros & Law Firms

I can’t tell you how many law firms I find that live on old template, cut-and-paste methods of creating their simple documents. To all these law firms I’d just like to say…you’re wasting a TON time and money. How do I know? Because for most firms, the greatest expense they have is their people. And what do people at law firms spend the most time doing? Creating documents. So it only follows that if a firm can produce more documents with the same staffing resources, the firm will see an increase in productivity. Definitely a good thing. Honestly, I really don’t know why more firms don’t take advantage of the power of automation, but I suppose I’m digressing now. I did say this was a rant, didn’t I? Okay, okay, to the topic at hand. Macros. Whether you use Word or WordPerfect, employing the use of macros is one of the easiest and largest impact steps you can take to automate your documents. Macros can be done by internal staff members (sometimes) or you can find a consultant capable of creating them for you. Basically, macros are a series of memorized instructions within your word processor. Click this button and the macro runs, executing a number of actions. For example, wouldn’t it be nice to add your signature to a letter (especially one you intend to e-mail) with just the click of a button? Or how about putting a caption on your document with just a few clicks of the mouse? Ah yes, all these things are possible through macros. Seriously, if you want to make a significant impact to your firm’s productivity the quickest way possible, consider deploying macros. It will put you a step ahead of many of your cut-and-paste competitors with minimal expense.