The COVID-19 pandemic forced droves of change-resistant lawyers to embrace mobile technology as necessary to provide continuity of service—a sort of involuntary re-engineering of fundamental tasks. Many lawyers discovered an unexpected benefit—their clients were happier with the streamlined, technology-powered service they received. There is a lesson here for all lawyers, but especially for those of us on the transactional side.

Notwithstanding the recent widespread, rapid success in remote lawyering, we are barely scratching the surface by running video calls and marking up invoices on our tablets, initiating electronic signature packets from our laptops, or using cellphone apps for real-time notetaking and collaboration with our teams. While commendable, fostering a continuous improvement environment in law firms must involve something more than adopting “low-hanging fruit” technological solutions just because the office is temporarily closed. It has to involve a commitment to exploring and using better processes, including leveraging innovative legal technology, to do better for clients.