Not-Coding the Future of the Legal Industry
You probably heard the words "no-code" or "low-code." If you haven't heard it, get ready to get your mind blown.
No-code is a modern approach to the development of applications. Different solutions allow anyone (including attorneys) to create various software applications through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional computer programming. On the other hand, low-code is a software development approach that requires little coding to build applications and processes. Instead of using complex programming languages, you can employ visual interfaces with basic logic and drag-and-drop capabilities in a low code development platform.
There are thousands (if not millions) of great no-code and low-code solutions. We wanted to provide a short list with some of our top 5 favorite no-code/low-code if you work in a legal aid organization, law firm, or legal department.
Note: This is not a comprehensive list, but just some platforms we recommend based on our experience. There are plenty of great options in the market that you should explore.
Airtable
Needless to say, this is one of the best platforms for the legal industry (as we have explained in the past). You can build complex web applications since Airtable has a robust database component. In the past, we have built case management systems, intake systems, online forms, directories of attorneys, and many other applications only using Airtable. Sometimes, you might need to integrate with other applications, such as Stacker, Softr, or Glide Apps, and Airtable will allow you to do that.
Documate
The legal profession relies heavily on legal documents, judicial forms, and other documents. Partnership agreements, equity incentive plans, non-disclosure agreements, and more are some documents lawyers have to deal with daily. As an attorney, I feel bad about being the bearer of bad news, but news flash: lawyers rarely draft a document from nothing. Often, attorneys re-use the template agreement and make a few adjustments (e.g., civil status, name, address, etc.). Some agreements or documents are more complex and require a more manual approach, for example, in complex litigation, a merger, or a preferred equity financing for a startup. However, 60% to 70% of the time, attorneys re-use template agreements. To make things worse, we often make mistakes. Instead of John, we entered Jihn, or instead of 23 years old, we entered 33 years old. With Documate, attorneys and legal professionals can quickly generate repetitive legal documents without errors and without spending too much time. For example, if you use Simple Agreements for Future Equity (SAFE), look here at what you can build only using Documate.
Tango
Documenting processes, workflows, or the use of technology is challenging. Do you need to explain how a legal assistant quickly uses your case management system? Or do you need to document the process of how to use your document management system? Tango records your step-by-step actions with automatic screenshots and written instructions. For us, this is a beautiful platform to create user guides, documentation, onboarding instructions, and more. To make things better, all of the instructions that are generated automatically can be easily edited and configured. You can add text descriptions. Blur, resize and annotate all your screenshots. This is, by far, one of the best platforms in the market.
Zapier
If you haven't heard of Zapier, this can change your entire practice. Wouldn't it be ideal to integrate your case management system to send automatic emails on Gmail? Wouldn't it be great to automatically change and affect one platform when I do another action on another platform? Zapier is a product that allows end users to integrate the web applications they use and automate workflows. In other words, this tool lets you create connections to push data from one app to another using triggers and actions. With this solution, you can integrate, for example, an intake form with a database or with an automatic email. There are endless possibilities as long as the platforms have an open API to integrate with each other, and Zapier has enabled those integrations.
Twilio
You probably know how phone systems can get if you are a solo practitioner or have a medium practice.Rarely can you re-route people to the correct number, you have a saturated voicemail, or simply you can't seem to return calls? Twilio provides programmable communication tools for making and receiving phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, and performing other communication functions. You can set up intelligent virtual assistants, route your callers to the appropriate extension, or, better yet, communicate with automatic SMS.
Final Thoughts
These 5 no-code platforms that we have suggested are just a few of the options you should consider if you are in the legal tech or legal space. We have worked with these platforms in the past and have seen firsthand the value that no-code and low-code can bring to improve the delivery of legal services and access to justice.
If you want to learn about more tools in the market, contact us. We will be happy and share our insights with no-code and low-code.
