Some years ago, I visited the Kennedy Space Centre and learned that our mobile phones have more computing power than the roomful of computers that launched the first spacecraft to the moon. That got me thinking about some people who I know who use these technology powerhouses for nothing more than checking their email, playing games, and laughing at videos about cats.
Now, imagine that these very same techno-peasants are lawyers who work for you, and that 30% of their time is spent doing administrative tasks – a reasonable estimate according to Dr. Google. If this is even somewhat accurate, why are you paying lawyers to do things slowly, if AI can do them quickly? Imagine that with 30% of their time, returned to them, they can bill clients somewhere between $400.00 and $1,500 per hour. That’s a lot of cash venting into space.
Welcome to your own law firm! You pay people big bucks to do a mixture of high-value and low-value tasks. Having lawyers do what AI can do is not the most brilliant financial strategy.
In The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber describes how entrepreneurs should: (i) create an organizational chart for their business; (ii) put their own name in the box for every position; (ii) document how to perform the functions of the most junior position; (iv) fire themselves from that position and hire a replacement; and (v) rinse and repeat until they are alone at the very top of the chart and can work only when they feel like it.
Some things have changed since 1995 when Mr. Gerber’s book was first published, so I would like to suggest a small change to his otherwise brilliant instruction manual on how to build a successful business. I propose that while going through the process that he describes, a business owner should also ask which functions presently handled by humans can be delegated to AI, and then delegate those functions to AI instead of hiring humans to perform them.
Many years in the legal profession have taught me that lawyers are slow to realize that business principles apply to them in much the same manner as they apply to Microsoft, or the neighbourhood pizzeria for that matter. They like to say things like, “that does not apply to law firms,” or “we are different,” or “we cannot afford that,” or anything else that can excuse them from having to learn business principles or embrace change. So, for them I will spell it out in simple words, as follows: AI is here. It is only going to get better. Your tech-savvy competitors are going to leverage it to remove the burden of administrative tasks from their lawyers and have their lawyers increase their profitability. Get on the program!
To see about how you can get on the program with Appara, click here: https://bit.ly/4rPt1iG