How a Leading IP Firm Streamlined Automated Processes and Boosted Efficiency with NetDocuments

How a Leading IP Firm Streamlined Automated Processes and Boosted Efficiency with NetDocuments

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP shares how they save time and resources with an intelligent document management system and related automation tools.

When Gavin O'Keefe was elected to serve as the managing partner of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP (MBHB) in 2020, he made it his mission to identify and implement technology to help enhance productivity and deliver exceptional client service.

Patent law, with its data- and document-heavy processes, workflow-driven demands, and administrative complexity, provided the perfect opportunity to streamline operations. MBHB was seeking a solution that could enhance productivity while meeting their rigorous standards. After a thorough review of their tech stack, the firm selected NetDocuments as their end-to-end cloud platform for document management. NetDocuments stood out for its award-winning automation and AI capabilities, robust security features, and seamless integrations with the tools legal professionals use every day. Unlike other out-of-the box solutions, NetDocuments’ customizable platform allowed MBHB to tailor workflows and automate processes to meet their specific needs. The platform also enabled deep integrations with Microsoft and other key applications, making it an ideal fit for the firm’s vision of efficiency and cutting edge technology.

For a firm dedicated to helping clients secure and enforce their intellectual property rights, maintaining impeccable data integrity is essential – particularly for patent applications that involve a vast number of dates, tasks, emails, and documents. Ensuring accuracy and efficiency in managing these processes requires significant infrastructure and support.

“We’ve found cloud applications like NetDocuments not only enhance our efficiency but also provide the robust data protection and governance requirements that our clients expect and demand,” O’Keefe explained. “And on top of that all, the automations we are building – leveraging our internal IT expertise and collaborating with Legal IT experts at Element Technologies LLC– are delivering meaningful real-world benefits to our legal practitioners and clients.”

Shortly after the firm completed its full implementation of NetDocuments, O’Keefe and the team – including Director of Applications & Software Development Dan O’Leary, Director of Prosecution Systems Mike Poulakos, and partner Colin Wright – worked with Element to identify foundational automation opportunities. These initial tasks were designed to deliver immediate efficiency gains while laying the groundwork for more sophisticated workflows and future AI-driven capabilities.

First Success: Automating Email Filing and Routing

With the rollout of NetDocuments as MBHB’s new document management system, MBHB turned to designing and implementing a new email filing process that automated the saving of emails to NetDocuments based on subject line references, such as matter numbers. Together, MBHB and Element engineered the system to parse the subject line, validate matter IDs through an SQL search, and save the emails directly into NetDocuments while archiving them in Outlook. The tool also extracts email recipient data, compares the data against a database identifying current responsible practitioners for a given matter, and automatically routes emails to the current responsible practitioner if left off the recipient list.

This streamlined automation accelerates the triaging, filing, and distribution of tens of thousands of emails, avoiding time that might otherwise be required by support staff. The results were striking: over 50+ hours per week in time savings, translating to an anticipated 2,500+ hours saved annually.

Dan O’Leary reflected on the impact of this automation: “These time savings pay dividends, allowing our support and professional staff to focus on new projects that better serve our practitioners. The positive response from users underscores the value of our efforts and sets the stage for additional automated processes.”

Gavin O’Keefe echoed this sentiment, highlighting the broader value of automation: “When you can save time on administrative tasks and enable users to focus on higher-value work, the technology brings real value. We’re excited to build on the momentum of our email filing and routing automation and continue leveraging NetDocuments, our internal expertise, and Element’s support to drive more innovation.”

Continued Innovation

On the heels of successfully automating email filing and routing, the firm has moved on to over a dozen additional tasks for automation including automated task notifications, a custom application for USPTO-compliant document printing, and a NetDocuments “Send to Application” macro that organizes and locks filed documents.

According to Chris Dunsford, Element’s Vice President, Applications, their ultimate goal is to help firms like MBHB harness the power of automation to drive efficiency and accuracy. “By leveraging NetDocuments and our legal tech expertise, we’ve been able to streamline critical workflows, saving valuable time and allowing legal professionals to focus on higher-value work. We’re excited to continue supporting MBHB in their journey towards more automated processes and boosted efficiency.”

The firm will continue to explore ways in which they can leverage the NetDocuments intelligent DMS to automate workflows and better serve their clients.