Managing signatures constitutes the largest amount of administrative time for lawyers and their teams when closing a deal. Traditional workflows for creating signature pages and packets and tracking signature pages is long and tedious, and clients expect their law firms to innovate just as their other vendors do.
How big of a difference does the right technology make? We have outlined the steps when managing signatures manually, with an e-signatures solution only, and with Litera Transact so you can see how innovation notably improves the process for law firms and their clients.
Manual Workflow
Many law firms are still using manual, tedious methods for managing the signature process in deals. Most deals require signers to execute multiple documents which must contain the same information about each signer. Associates and paralegals spend a great deal of low-value time creating signature blocks, pages, and packets for each signer. And, after they are sent, each signature page must be tracked to ensure every page is received to avoid legal malpractice. The use of printers and scanners is still required, which makes it even more challenging when access to office equipment is limited or inaccessible. Furthermore, these traditional methods provide an outdated experience for the associates and paralegals managing the process, and for the clients who have to print, sign, scan, and email their signature packets back to their counsel.
These monotonous tasks often lead to write-offs as clients don't want to pay their law firms for managing signatures when they know there are more efficient means available.
E-Signatures Workflow
Leveraging e-signature solutions to improve the signature process enhances the signing experience for the law firms' clients by allowing them to simply receive the packets via email and submit their signature. However, it does not meaningfully improve the workflow for legal teams managing the signature process.
The use of e-signatures in the deal process still requires associates and paralegals to utilize the exact same process described in the manual workflow with the added requirement to place signature tabs on every signature page, and each signature page can require multiple tabs. If there are hundreds of documents that need to be signed'the number of tabs increases significantly as does the time spent on these low-value tasks. Additionally, access to printers and scanners is still required when creating signature packets and final executed versions of the deal documents.
Litera Transact Workflow
With Litera Transact, the process improves dramatically for the clients and the law firm. Each deal document that needs to be signed is matched to pre-formatted signature page templates and can be customized to a firm's specific style. After the signature pages are created, Litera Transact automatically creates the packets for each signer, places all e-signature tabs on every signature page, tracks the status of every signature page, and generates the final execution copies with automatic PDF creation. By automating most of the steps in the signature management process, firms are able to drastically reduce the administrative time spent on managing the signature process by up to 80%.
While an e-signatures solution is a great option for your clients, it significantly benefits the law firm to pair it with a solution like Litera Transact. The benefits of Litera Transact stretch beyond signature workflows by helping law firms manage all aspects of a deal in a secure, collaborative workspace. Schedule a demo to see the product in action.
Posted in Legal,Transaction Management
