A process audit that led to an email-triage prototype.
We examined a law firm's day-to-day operations, identified opportunities for automation and built a working example of using AI to help lawyers review incoming client emails.
- Legal services
- Operations diagnostic
The situation
The firm wanted to understand where automation could help with the work surrounding legal matters. The review covered bringing new clients into the firm, following up on unpaid bills and helping colleagues find and share internal knowledge. These activities involved several people and software systems, making it difficult to assess an improvement by looking at one task alone.
The firm needed to understand both the work and the tools supporting it. Where were people repeating a step? What information did they need from another team? Could existing software support a better process, or did the information need a new way to move between systems? Answering those questions would give the firm a practical basis for choosing where to invest.
What we decided
We started with the people doing the work. Interviews with ten stakeholders covered their responsibilities, the information they relied on and the tools they used. Alongside those conversations, we reviewed the firm's software and traced how information passed between systems. This connected proposed improvements to the working conditions they would need to address.
We also included a working demonstration of one selected idea. The firm would receive an assessment of the opportunities, an order in which to pursue them and a concrete example it could examine. That made the engagement useful both for planning investment and for understanding what an AI-assisted process could look like in practice.
What we built
We brought the interviews and software review together in a findings report. It described the operational needs, the tools already available and the places where information did not move between them. The report connected recommendations to specific processes, including new-client administration, billing follow-up and internal knowledge sharing.
For the candidate improvements, we developed a business case with estimates of potential time savings and financial returns. We organized the recommendations into a phased plan that weighed their expected value against the effort needed to put them in place. This gave the firm a way to compare proposals and understand which changes depended on other work.
The audit led to a prototype focused on the time lawyers spend reviewing client communications. We built an email-triage assistant: a working demonstration of using AI to help review and organize incoming client messages. The firm could examine that use of AI alongside the broader recommendations and assess how it fit the work of the lawyers handling those emails.
What changed
The firm received a completed assessment of its operations, a prioritized plan for improvements and a working email-triage demonstration. It could connect each recommendation to the staff needs and software conditions uncovered in the review, then weigh the expected benefit against the work required.
The engagement gave the firm a shared basis for decisions about automation. Its leaders had both the reasoning behind the recommendations and a concrete example of the selected AI application to discuss with the people who would use it.
Impact
- Ten stakeholder interviews covering new-client administration, billing follow-up and knowledge sharing
- Existing software and information gaps assessed against everyday working needs
- ~$2M in potential cost savings identified through the AI and automation roadmap
- A working demonstration of AI-assisted email triage delivered to the firm
More of the work
Two distinct brands, one connected platform.
One website became two distinct brand sites, with a cost calculator and weekly emails that bring new inquiries together for the team.
Read the case studyA shared system for repeat client analysis.
Client information, instructions for recurring AI tasks and a history of completed work brought together for a consultancy's team.
Read the case studyAI strategy and opportunity design
Interviews with the people doing the work, an opportunity map ranked by effort and value, and one funded decision — tested with a prototype before the budget commits.
See the serviceStart withthe businessproblem.
Thirty minutes. You describe what's slow, manual, or opaque today. We tell you honestly whether we're the right firm to fix it.
30 minutes