
Much of legal processing is about working on documents, be it agreements or other legal case documentation. Most people use existing industry standard word processing and document managing software for this, like MS365 or Google Docs/drive, and are happy with their capabilities. But these general-purpose authoring tools often don't offer legal processing-specific context or document workflow management tools. Having context and workflow awareness as a layer on top of general word processing and document management significantly enhances document generation, collaboration, navigation, and automation. That is Legal Plant's approach, to enhance existing document tools.

Legal Plant automatically manages the document server's proper folder structures for clients and cases. It can also pre-populate these folders with documents that can be full or semi-automatically generated based on information present on the Legal Plant platform. This saves the legal staff from doing unnecessary manual and repetitive work and go right to enhancing and adding value to these pre-generated documents. It also enables the legal team to easily find and navigate documents in the context of specific clients and cases using LegalPlant as a central client & case hub.

!['Google Drive'](/images/google-drive-1.png)

### Clear structure

Organized and structured folders are created on the integrated cloud drive (integration with Google Drive is available at the moment, while integration with MS 365 will be available soon). Each entity (i.e., a company or an individual) has an automatically created root folder when entered into the Legal Plant app register. Both the structure and content of a case folder are available in the 'Case details' view in Legal Plant. It is also worth paying attention to the actions available from this view. Thus, we can upload documents (to the main directory using the icon in the upper right corner of the screen or to a specific subfolder using the icon in the line of a given subfolder. It is also possible to go to Google Drive by clicking on 'Open in GDrive.'

!['Google Drive'](/images/google-drive-2.png)

### Safety first

Legal Plant also gives you the option to quickly preview each document by clicking on the eye icon on the right. In the preview window, in addition to opening the document in Google Drive, the user can download to his local drive.

All documents created and collected in the context of a given case are available to case team members. This solution provides convenience and easy access for those interested on the one hand, and on the other hand, guarantees security and protects it against unauthorized persons.

A clear structure of documents is only part of what Legal Plant has to offer. Essential and handy functionality is also document templates that can be defined as part of the needs of a given law firm. Preparing such templates is easy, and one cannot overestimate their usefulness. All standard contracts, statements, and other such documents need only be prepared once. After that, they literally take a few moments to prepare - and an intern can easily do it.

### Legal Plant makes things easier

Legal Plant is designed precisely to take the burden of monotonous, repetitive activities off the shoulders of a law firm and, at the same time, ensure that each legal team member knows the context and workflow of the documents they work with. In this way, work can deliver more value with less effort.


The work of a law firm is to a large extent  related to processing of documents. This means that the quality of the workflow, ease of use of management tools, and legal team context awareness are the key factors that affect the organization's work.
  Legal Plant addresses these challenges. The application offers the proper structure, convenient workflow, and the ability to generate repetitive documents from previously prepared templates.

Adding value to your standard workflows.


A practical and high-quality work process starts with an overview and structure. The information about the client and the case details lies at the core of any legal process, which is why this is the core module of Legal Plant. By having all case information in one central place, the legal staff can avoid repetitive work and friction, as well as efficiently keep their client up to date on the progress of their case - in other words, achieve more with less effort. That makes happier clients and more healthy businesses.

Today's digital world is full of specialized digital tools, which we use as our toolchain. This generates the problem that processes and data get fragmented across all these tools, preventing optimal workflows. That is why LegalPlant ties all this into a unified user experience where functionality and data can be accessed from one central hub. Legal Plant doesn't replace the specialized tools, but ensures an overview and end-to-end perspective on workflow and data. This unleashes the power of the cloud, analytics, and automation, which can improve effectiveness and quality immensely!

### Inconspicuous but powerful features

Legal Plant's functionalities that facilitate and speed up legal work may look inconspicuous. Still, their power stems from something other than impressive features. The key to the value brought by Legal Plant is the storage, linking, and access to all necessary information from one place. The first central register maintained with our solution is the case registry. After clicking on the 'Cases' tab on the sidebar, you can see a list of cases your organization handles. In this view, you can check the current status of the case, its title (which can immediately indicate the type of legal issue you need to deal with), as well as the name (or name and surname) of the client, name, and surname of the contact person(s) on behalf of the company (if the company is the client), as well as the data of the person assigned to the case.

!['Registry'](/images/registry.png)

However, this is only some information in the case register. After clicking on the case title, the case details view opens, containing all the information needed at all stages of work. The data collected in this view is structured within the submenu on the left side of the screen. In the beginning, all the details of the case - who is the client, who is the counterpart, status, details of contact persons, the person assigned to the case, and avatars of people from the case team.

Below, in the submenu on the left, there is the 'Similar cases' tab, in which the system displays other cases grouped in the same category along with the data of the people who handle them. This makes it possible to take advantage of the collective knowledge gathered by a given law firm - for example, document templates or the specificity of workflow organization.

The next item is 'Case team' - there, you can see who (in addition to the person assigned to the case) deals with its processing. Again, there is data on law firm employees assigned to tasks as part of the case workflow.

The name of the following tab speaks for itself. 'Documents' contains all documents related to the case, divided into documents stored in the application database and those on an integrated external drive.

!['Workflow'](/images/workflow.png)

The next item is 'Workflow,' which is worth dwelling on for a while. There you will find a list of milestones with their tasks, as well as their status and due date. From this view, it is also easy to check the people responsible for individual tasks and manage the entire workflow. [The article devoted to this issue](/articles/workflow-management/truly-end-to-end-digital-workflow) provides a detailed description of the workflow functionality.

The next item in the case details submenu is the timesheet. This convenient tool allows you to register and check the time employees have spent on a given case. Thanks to this data, it is easy to manage the time of lawyers and the delegation of individual tasks within the scope of competence of each of them.

The last tab is logs, thanks to which you can view the activities performed in a given case by the case team, such as changing the status of a task, adding documents, and the like, as well as the current status of case synchronization with external business systems.

### Clients and counterparts

Moving down the sidebar, you will find the 'Clients' and 'Counterparts' tabs. Their names speak for themselves - they are registers of parties in cases conducted by the law firm. Before we move on to a detailed description of the functionality of these registers, it must be emphasized that the content of both of these tabs is not simply an address book of companies and individuals whose paths, in one way or another, crossed with the paths of a law firm. Instead, these registers concern only and exclusively entities involved in currently pending cases. This means that both of these tabs are free of unnecessary and accidental information - we see here only those companies and people who are affected by the real work of your legal company's lawyers.

!['Counterparts'](/images/Counterparts.png)

The other two tabs, grouped under the common label 'Contacts,' are the office's address book. For convenience, it is divided into individuals and companies. Their data is shown in a handy table, and clicking on any entry shows the details of the entry and application logs related to it.

As you can see, Legal Plant supports the correct, published process of conducting affairs in law firms. This is done by grouping all the necessary data in one place and giving them a healthy, transparent and logical structure. This way, work can be carried out more efficiently, faster and easier.


Legal work can can be substantially improved by solving problems related to fragmented, unstructured data. Legal Plant allows you to give your data a transparent structure that will enable you to optimize the workflow of a law firm.

All case and client information in one place


Most modern businesses are already operating a digital toolchain of specialized business tools covering the different aspects of their business, e.g., an ERP system to manage financials and accounting and a document management system to manage documentation and communications. Unfortunately, the toolchain can easily consist of five to ten such systems or even more for most businesses. This makes processes and data fragmented and less optimal for supporting the business. Legal Plant is, truth to be told, yet another tool in this toolchain. Still, unlike most other digital tools, it ties all these individual systems together and remote control them when needed to enable end-to-end workflows and a single point of truth. This approach can supercharge your business!

!['API Key'](/images/ApiKey.png)

Most of today's advanced digital tools are weaponized with powerful APIs (Application Provider Interface) that makes it possible to operate all their features machine-to-machine, which is used to do integrations between systems. This is how Legal Plant can fully or partially remote control other business tools to defragment and unify business processes. This means users of Legal Plant can use functionality and change data in different systems right from within relevant context inside the Legal Plant user interface, e.g., log hours on the case in Legal Plant, but simultaneously automatically filling this out remotely into the ERP system available for the invoicing and accounting workflows.

There are quite a lot of integrations implemented at the moment. Probably the first one the user will come into contact with is the integration with Brønnøysundregistrene, thanks to which Legal Plant users have seamless access to a reliable directory of economic entities registered in Norway. This integration not only facilitates the search for companies, but also eliminates the risk of entering incorrect data, which could have serious consequences.

### The power of integrations

A more weighty solution is integration with Google Drive and Google Mail. The former allows you to store documents related to the case in one place, available to all members of the case team. Importantly - obtaining access does not require complicated administrative activities such as assigning a password and the like. It is enough to add the user to the case team (for example, by delegating a task to him in the case workflow), and the rest will be done by Legal Plant. Speaking of integration with Google Drive, this kind of integration with MS365 will be ready in the near future.

!['Variant'](/images/Variant5.png)

As for Google Mail, this integration consists of grouping all emails related to a given case in one place, regardless of which specific case team member is the addressee or sender of the email. It's about more than just the convenience, transparency, and easy access to case information in emails - although these are important factors, of course. Such integration enables, above all, the achievement of an appropriate level of compliance. Gathering all emails related to the case in one place also makes it possible to manage the information contained therein - for example, removing them from all email boxes at the client's request.

### Accounting system integration

A relatively extensive and potentially very beneficial integration is the one with the accounting system. It allows law firm employees to log hours spent working on specific cases without leaving the application's context, logging into another system, and other inconveniences.

The user can log the hours in two places. The first one is the 'My work' view, which is the personal control panel of each Legal Plant user. In the 'Timesheet' tab, there is a preview of all matters in which a given user is involved, regardless of whether he is responsible for the entire procedure or only for one of the tasks in the workflow. In this view, it is also possible to log hours not related to any specific case. Logged hours are visible in weekly intervals, and billable and non-billable hours are clearly separated.

!['Timesheet'](/images/Timesheet.png)

The second place where the user can log hours is the context of a specific case. Here, it is only possible to log the hours spent on a given case, thanks to which we avoid clutter and mistakes.

All logged hours appear in integrated accounting systems, which makes the work registration process convenient (the user does not have to leave the context in which he works) and free from the consequences of possible mistakes (thanks to eliminating the user's interaction with the often complicated accounting system).

The integration of Legal Plant with PowerOffice Go is currently available. Still, integration of the application with Tripletex is a matter weeks. We also plan integrations with other industry-standard accounting systems.


The modern digital toolchain consists of many specialized solutions that could be better connected with each other. This creates a threat to both business processes and collected data fragmentation. That is why Legal Plant is a solution focused on seamless integrations by implementing software that allows applications to communicate with each other

Legal Plant ties your business systems and data together


Good legal practice depends on integrity and trust. Documenting the arm-length distance principle in all dealings to ensure that the parties are independent, on equal footing, and that transactions are fair is the way to uphold this. Transparency and openness about assessments of potential conflict situations are complex matters in today's interconnected international business world. Transparency is both about compliance and building long-lasting valuable customer relations, which means that keeping control over this is crucial for safe and profitable business operations.

Proper conflict of interest monitoring depends hugely on having sufficient data available at any given point. By having a counterpart registry, where your clients' counterparts in each case are registered, Legal Plant can monitor and notify about potential conflict of interest situations. Based on these notifications, the case manager can assess the specific instance, and evaluation and possible measures can be recorded to document the resolution of these conflict situations. This is a much safer and more efficient way to handle conflict searches than manual processes and searches in various alternative business systems across the legal practice.

### Make it clear

Each register must be clear and legible so that it can be used comfortably. The Legal Plant's counterparts register is no exception here. It is available as a clear table in which the names of companies and individuals appearing in cases conducted by the law firm as a counterpart are collected. Clicking on the selected entry shows the details view, where, in addition to the matters in which the given counterparty is involved, we can also see the details of this entity and contact persons.

In this way, each Legal Plant user can easily and quickly find out about the network of connections between entities within a given law firm.

!['Counterparts'](/images/Counterparts.png)

When it comes to adding counterparts, it is an easy and effortless operation. This can be done in two ways.

The first, most often used, is to add a counterpart when creating a new case. The adding cases wizard allows you to attach one or many counterparts, and integration with [brreg.no](http://brreg.no) is a great help here, which allows you to quickly find and connect a company if it is registered in Norway. Naturally, adding a natural person as a counterpart is also possible. It is worth mentioning that Legal Plant allows you to add several entities as counterparts.

The second way is to add a counterpart in the case detail view. Just click in the upper right corner of the appropriate tab and follow the uncomplicated instructions.

As you can see, using the counterparts register is convenient, and its editing is straightforward. These factors increase transparency and eliminate conflicts of interest within a law firm.


Transparency and trust are crucial in any business activity. Still, in the work of a law firm, these factors are of particular importance. That's why Legal Plant has built-in functionality to detect potential conflicts of interest quickly.

Out-of-the-box conflict search


Analytics and automation can significantly support legal work processes to make them better and more effective. This requires case data to be structured and well classified to enable computer algorithms to identify similar cases, suggest templates, and preprocess documents and case planning, thereby removing unnecessary repetitive work and efforts. This frees up time for real legal analytical work where human brain power and experience is central. As a result, the lawyer's day becomes more interesting and pleasant, which is good for the business and the bill to the client - it's a win-win situation.

### Four dimensions

Legal Plant has three main mechanisms for case classification:

1.  industry domain or vertical,
2.  general topic,
3.  category of case

The fourth dimension, which is applicable law, will be implemented shortly.

!['Case details'](/images/CaseDetails.png)

Based on these dimensions, the Legal Plant engine can get a pretty good understanding of the anatomy of a case and power up a whole lot of smartness! Legal Plant is a process-oriented system where the user and the system in an interactive workflow enrich the case information for each new data entry in a structured way. As much as possible, the system suggests relevant data and choices, and the user accepts and approves to make it an effortless and intuitive process that seems friction-free and seamless to the users.

### How it works

When it comes to general topic and case categories, we assign these parameters to each case when creating it. The «add new case» wizard is designed in such a way that the categorization of issues is as easy as possible. Thanks to the fact that the user assigns the general topic and case category in the first step, we can be sure that no new case will be added to the database without these parameters.

The existing pool of topics and categories is an effect of the practical, everyday work of experienced lawyers, resulting from their knowledge and experience.

When we talk about the first dimension, i.e. industry domain or vertical, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. This data is in the company registry [brreg.no](http://brreg.no), which is integrated with Legal Plant. When, in the second step of the adding case wizard, we select a client using the search engine in the Brønnøysundregistrene directory, the information regarding the industry domain of a given company is attached automatically.

The last dimension of the data structure that is yet to be implemented is the applicable law. We plan to implement this functionality in the coming months.

!['Success'](/images/Success.png)

### Easy to do means well done

Structuring the data collected in Legal Plant is easy to carry out, seamless, and intuitive. It is an easy process that guarantees that all data will be entered correctly - the appropriate user experience of the process ensures that the user will be willing and able to carry it out well. Furthermore, data structured in this way is susceptible to processing with artificial intelligence, which can significantly reduce the hassle associated with the mechanical performance of repetitive activities and help reduce the effort and costs related to legal work.


Would everyday work without tedious, repetitive tasks be more pleasant and efficient?
 The answer is obvious. That is why maintaining the correct data structure is critical because only structured data allows various automation.
 Legal Plant has built-in mechanisms to support such data structuring. Moreover, they are intuitive and easy to use, making it much more likely to keep things in order.

Setting up legal cases as structured data


We are in the age of digital transformation. In most business areas, this has been about digitizing the specific business tools used to produce the business output for lawyers, e.g., a digital word processor rather than a typewriter. But in many areas, much is still to be done to digitize the process and workflow itself.

For most businesses, many efficiency and quality gains can be made from carefully and thoroughly mapping and digitizing the whole value generation flow from demand to delivery. Legal Plant is doing precisely that for law practices. This makes it possible to unleash powerful analytics support, automation, and proper resource utilization and quality control, making the business better and more profitable.

### Three levels

There are three levels of workflow support in LegalPlant:

1. for many processes, e.g., establishing a case, there are step-by-step guides or wizards for entering the needed data in an optimal order

2. LegalPlant features an entire to-do list system deeply integrated into the whole system so that work packages and task delegation can be captured and planned on the fly well integrated into the daily use of the system in a logical and intuitive context

3. as extra support Legal Plant has a well-designed and powerful notification system that nudges and updates the users dynamically to ensure optimal transparency and efficiency.

!['Meeting wizard'](/images/metting-wizard.png)

### Proper data structuring

Let's stop at the first level, i.e., establishing a case. It is a simple process in which the user is led by the hand of a wizard. The entire wizard is divided into four steps, and a summary of the data entered in each stage is always visible in the panel on the right side of the screen. The wizard is constructed in such a way that, on the one hand, it ensures the correct structure of the entered data, and on the other, it prevents the user from overlooking something or forgetting some vital information.

In the first step, you should provide basic information about the case, i.e., the title and short description, and the topic and category to which the case belongs. In this step, you also provide the planned date of completion of the proceedings and assign a person responsible for further work on the case. You can also choose a workflow template that best suits the nature of a given case.

!['New company'](/images/NewCompany.png)

The next step is customer details. This operation is as simple as can be - enter the name or organizational number, and [brreg.no](http://brreg.no) will do the rest. If the customer is a natural person, it is enough to enter their data.

The next step is to provide the details of the contact person (or people). Again, you can choose between entries existing in the application database or adding new people to the register.

Finally, in the last step (likewise, you can choose from existing ones or add a new one), you enter the counterpart in a given case - if such an entity exists in the Legal Plant register. It is worth remembering that you can add more than one counterpart.

You can see a summary of all entered data at the end and a 'Save and add' button. After clicking it, our new case appears in the register with the status 'New.' Note - if, for some reason, you interrupt the procedure of creating a new case before going through all the steps of the wizard, the entered information will be saved, and the case will be visible on the list with the 'draft' status.

!['Registry](/images/registry.png)

### Efficient workflow

The second level, i.e., the to-do list system deeply integrated into the whole system, is intuitive and easy to use. It enables quick and straightforward delegation of individual tasks to case team members.

The work management system consists of milestones and tasks. Milestones are larger stages to be completed within a given case, which is divided into individual, specific tasks. Both milestones and tasks can have a unique title, description, and due date. Still, only tasks can be assigned to a particular person. They also have their statuses - changing the status to 'Completed' results in updating the milestone progress bar in which the task is included. After closing all milestone tasks, the last one is marked as completed.

!['Workflow](/images/workflow.png)

Both milestones and tasks can be added and ordered in any way by the user. However, for convenience, we have introduced templates that make it much easier to use the workflow. The templates correspond to the most common cases in practice, and the ordering of milestones and tasks corresponds to the order of actions appropriate for these cases.

This allows you to organize work very efficiently with minimum time spent writing down individual tasks.

### Never miss anything

And finally, the third level of workflow support in Legal Plant is the notification system. In this case, the user experience is very similar to other solutions of this kind, so there are no difficulties in using this functionality. Notifications appear in the upper right corner of the screen in the form of a bell icon. Their complete list - including already clicked notifications, can also be found in the appropriate tab in the 'My work' panel. They concern only matters and tasks directly related to a given user, thanks to which they bring significant value instead of increasing information chaos.

As you can see, Legal Plant supports a smooth workflow from the stage of setting up a case through preparing a list of specific activities to be performed to handling notifications regarding tasks related to the case. All these functionalities are transparent, intuitive, and very easy to use. As a result, legal Plant is a convenient tool for everyday use in every law firm.


The dynamics of digital transformation are such that you can no longer think about change in the context of individual tools, but you have to consider it concerning the entire business process within the organization.
 The result of such thinking in legal practice is Legal Plant, which supports end-to-end digital workflow through appropriate data structuring, division of projects into specific tasks to be performed, and easy delegation of them to individual team members. Digitization of the process also means the possibility of detailed analytics and automation.

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