Microsoft 365 is a powerful, cost-effective solution for personal injury law firms to stay nimble and grow with confidence, while benefiting from Microsoft’s trusted cloud applications. Leveraging the power of MS 365 for small law firms’ various purposes enables them to streamline their legal processes and improve productivity as well as efficiency. In fact, we believe MS 365 is so important to personal injury attorneys we did a webinar on “MS 365 Tips & Tricks for PI Firms” with attorney and consultant Jared Correia to cover some of the features you might not even know about.
Why should personal injury attorneys use MS 365?
Simply put: when it comes to the tools and programs personal injury attorneys use day-in-and-day-out, there is nothing as versatile and robust out there as Microsoft 365. The MS 365 subscription opens up a cloud-based suite of productivity tools that helps small law firms:
- Manage their documents, emails, calendars, and other data.
- Collaborate in real time on cases.
- Streamline workflows with Power Automate and Power Apps.
- Glean important financial and client insights.
- Make the best decisions based on critical insights and analyses.
This article explains why MS 365 is often the top choice for legal document management software .
How does MS 365 improve law firm document management?
Microsoft 365 for law firms includes all the features and functionality of MS 365, but with added security measures built specifically for legal professionals.
Building atop their MS 365 for regular customers, MS 365 for legal professionals packs on a full stack of bells and whistles like a legal calendaring management system, legal document management, and forms-based e-Discovery.
All of Microsoft’s core products come together on the cloud for lawyers. This means that you can easily find and share documents, calendars, and messages with your team, start cases from anywhere in their MS 365 apps or collaborate on a document without needing to download anything.
Microsoft Office 365 checks all the right boxes for personal injury attorneys in small law firms.
What is included in Microsoft 365 for law firms?
When customizing their platform for lawyers, protecting client data and ensuring privacy is one of the top concerns addressed by Microsoft. It provides all the basic features, such as:
- Word, a word processor with built-in spelling and grammar corrections.
- Excel, a spreadsheet program.
- PowerPoint, an application for creating presentations.
- Microsoft Outlook for lawyers, which provides an added layer of privacy and security to Outlook’s regular email and calendar management program.
However, there are plenty of other features and functionalities that add value to Microsoft 365 for small law firms.
How does Microsoft 365 improve collaboration for personal injury attorneys?
Microsoft 365 for legal allows instant messaging through Microsoft Teams and supports custom retention policies. This lets lawyers continue their work from anywhere, including working remotely, or while on the go.
- Collaboration: Teams Workspaces provide a collaborative, shared work environment for all participants in the legal case. Attorneys can create and share workspaces with members of their office.
- Team Sites: This gives attorneys access to a centralized location for sharing work in their office. Microsoft Teams for legal is a collaboration platform for lawyers and legal teams, enabling communication between attorneys.
- Virtual Meetings: The platforms support online meetings, online conferences, online virtual hearings, and webinars.
What are the security and privacy protocols for Microsoft 365 for law firms?
Protecting client data, case papers, and legal documents are paramount to lawyers, and data theft is a major concern. The program provides a suite of tools that help protect sensitive data and information like client data, case papers, and legal documents from being stolen by hackers.
- Document sharing outside the platform turned off by default: Document collaboration and review can be used to avoid exposing sensitive information. Furthermore, when documents are shared in Microsoft 365, they are automatically uploaded to a designated tenant-specific document library.
- Limits personal file storage to local devices: While Microsoft 365 for small law firms backs up user data in the cloud, it limits personal file storage to local devices. This means OneDrive and SharePoint are disabled by default.
- Robust security and compliance features: Microsoft 365 for law firms brings HIPAA and enterprise-grade security and compliance solutions. It includes robust security features like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Double Key Encryption, and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to help small firms protect their data.
How does Microsoft 365 help PI firms gather case insights?
Microsoft 365 has several insight-gathering tools integrated into the platform. It provides insights to attorneys into how well they manage their time and where they can make improvements. The program takes everything a basic matter management software does and improves it exponentially.
- Microsoft 365 has a dashboard that shows the number of cases and matters that are open or closed. The dashboard also shows the number of hours spent on each case or matter for the past three months.
- You can also see a list of all open cases and matters with their durations, start dates, deadlines, and status. This helps keep track of your workload at any given time.
- You can create reminders for yourself in MS 365 to help you stay on top of your deadlines. These reminders will be sent to you via email or SMS, so you don’t miss anything important.
Wrapping up
Microsoft Office 365 for lawyers is a necessary investment because it provides attorneys with the tools to make their workflows and processes faster and more efficient. The suite also includes a variety of services that allow law firms to collaborate and share documents more efficiently. To see the full benefits of MS 365, schedule a demo of CloudLex and see how MS 365 combined with the right case management software can change your personal injury practice.
