Thornquill Law

1. Data reviewed

• Practice-management exportAbout 400 matters with practice area, lead lawyer, status and deadlines.
• Time and billing systemAbout 13,000 time entries, 1,400 invoices and their payments, from January 2024.
• Intake inboxNew-client enquiries and engagement letters, re-keyed by hand into the practice system.

2. Workflows reviewed

• New-client intakeA paralegal re-keys each enquiry from email into the practice system, then runs the conflict search by hand.
• The monthly partner reportThe office manager exports three reports, joins them in a spreadsheet and emails the partners.
• Following up unpaid invoicesThe office manager opens the aging report when there is time and works out who to call.

4. Data-quality findings

• One client has paid nothing on invoices issued since May. Nothing in the current reports shows it until someone opens the aging report.
• One matter has had its time held unbilled for months. Unbilled work is not reported anywhere, so it was invisible.
• Intake details are typed twice, from the email into the practice system, which is where spelling differences in client names come from. That weakens the conflict search.

5. Automation opportunities, ranked

Ranked by estimated hours saved against the effort to build.

1. 1The monthly partner reportAbout 6 hours a month · Low effortThe data is already reliable, so this is the quickest to build.
2. 2A weekly list of who to call about money owedAbout 3 hours a month · Low effortIt uses the same data as the report, so it adds little work.
3. 3New-client intakeAbout 12 hours a month · Medium effortThe most hours, but it needs fixed rules and a lawyer’s review of every possible conflict.
4. 4Matching vendor invoices to mattersAbout 8 hours a month · Medium effortWorth doing later, and it may not need a custom build.

6. Build or buy

• Build: Monthly partner report and call list. The practice system’s reports do not compare with a year earlier or show aged unbilled work.
• Build: New-client intake. It has to follow the firm’s own rules and conflict process. Any AI step needs written approval first.
• Buy: Matching vendor invoices. Try the bill-pay features in the firm’s accounting tool before paying for a build.

7. Three next steps, in order

1. 1Send the partners a monthly briefBilling, collections, unbilled work and deadlines, compared with a year earlier, with the items above flagged automatically.How: An automation build · See what it looks like
2. 2A weekly list of who to call about money owedEvery client past 60 days, sorted by amount, sent to the office manager each Monday.How: Part of the brief workflow
3. 3Automate intakeEnquiries and engagement letters read into a fixed form, screened for possible conflicts, with every match sent to a lawyer to clear, and logged once.How: An automation build, with an AI step only if approved in writing · Try the inbox demo