New trends in automation: an interview with Josef legal technologists

Building on Josef can sometimes feel like starting with a blank canvas. The opportunities are endless. Where do you start?

Many of our bot builders want to learn from each other and be inspired by what automations others have built. Accessing that information however isn’t all that easy, so we’re bringing it to you!

We decided to chat with the people in the know: our very own legal technologists (LTs). For those who don’t know… our LTs work alongside our clients around the world to build automations every day. From workshopping new ways to improve workflows to building beautiful client intake experiences, our LTs have seen it all. 

So we want to give you a glimpse into the trends, insights, and experiences of Josef’s builders from around the world and perhaps even put a little inspiration in your legal heart.

Agreements and Estate Planning

As a legal technologist in Josef’s Legal and Operations Department, Talia Gokyildirim uses her background in law and computer science to help clients streamline their workflows through automation. 

According to Talia, agreements of all kinds can be easily automated using bots, and are a great starting point for legal teams new to automation. This can include things like employment agreements and NDAs.

She shared some additional insights during our interview, including some unexpected ways Josef can be used to optimise projects.

“Automation helps take some of the work off the lawyers. For in-house especially, I think a pain point is having people across all departments ask for legal help. Automation tools can be used as a starting point for people to use rather than seek answers from lawyers themselves, saving time and resources.”

While most people initially think of simple tasks like contracts when considering how to use bots, many are surprised to learn that bots can be used for a wide variety of other functions. Larger workflows can be automated to save more time and free up the team to focus on high-value tasks. 

“I think the most revolutionary bot I worked on was for filling out a VISA application. This is pretty cool because it’s about automating a bulk of work rather than small little tasks like contract automation which is typically the most common.”

Estate planning is another unexpected way legal professionals can leverage automation. Even complex problems that normally require expert guidance can be simplified through no-code bots.

“We made a whole Estate Planning package which follows on from what I was saying before about automating an entire complex process – automating a will was really cool. Also using maths and matrices I once built an alimony calculator so you can definitely get really complicated.”

Ready-to-use templates

Julie Tran, a Legal Engineer on Josef’s Product Engineering team, draws on her background in law to show clients what’s possible with legal automation. 

“I’ve built a diverse range of bots since joining Josef.  Bots related to work visa determination, union right of entry, dawn raid bots, trustee removal, and even an appointment document generating bot,” said Julie.

However, in her experience automating simple tasks is a popular place to start for legal teams as a way to get back valuable time.

“Responding to FAQs via a bot rather than email and generating standard legal documents like NDAs are some really quick wins,” she said.

Client intake process

Nihar Vasa is Josef’s Customer Experience Lead. He frequently collaborates with the LTs to ensure clients are getting the most value out of Josef tools. Nihar pointed out that bots are especially suited for automating the client intake process since they can be easily customised for in-house legal teams and law firms. 

In addition, he noted that bots are increasingly being used throughout the entire journey of a project, rather than just a certain point.       

“End to end automation bots that assist incoming and outgoing integrations are becoming key,” he said.

For those new to the automation world, Nihar offered some advice on what it takes to create a successful legal bot: 

“Building the bot is straightforward. It’s the workflow planning before and the engagement and integration work after that is the challenging part.” 

It’s important to have a clear idea of what your goals are before getting started with automation. Luckily, the awesome LTs at Josef are happy to be your guide every step of the way!