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Introduction

To escape the tyranny of the billable hour, lawyers are discovering more and more ways to automate parts of their work. Though opportunities vary from specialty to specialty, document automation holds the greatest promise for increasing profits or productivity while actually enhancing the practice of law.

The business world learned long before automation crossed lawyers' minds that, while a market for custom-made goods exists, consumers flock to buy mass-produced, lower cost products. A 16/34 shirt may not fit me perfectly, but well enough that I don't go to a tailor for my shirts.

With today's technology, we can offer the public mass-customized legal services for at least part of what we do for clients. Just as it is more cost effective for me to buy a 42-long suit and have the pants hemmed, so too can we create some of our work product from automated documents. A little extra time at the word processor can deliver the extra customization that the practice of law often demands.

Document automation offers a win-win opportunity. You can serve your clients and yourself in this way:

·	Sharply reduce the time it takes to create selected, often used documents
·	Moderately reduce the cost of these documents from what clients would have paid for custom creation
·	Make up for the slight reduction in revenue per document either by increasing volume or devoting time freed up to other billable work

Your profitability increases when you do more for your clients in less time using technology.

These materials give you an up-close look at how three document automation products actually work. For each software package, you can see:

·	How it assembles a new client document from an automated document
·	How you can create an automated document using your existing word processing files
·	How easy or difficult it is to add text to an automated document

   (This task is crucial. Most lawyers will want to keep fine-tuning their new electronic form file.)

·	Requirements, Contact Info, Pricing, and Pros and Cons

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