How a law firm brought a digital employee onto its team

The starting point

The firm advises companies on employment law, and they write to it every day: a dismissal to prepare, holidays to fit into the calendar, a question about a contract. Each email had to be read to work out which company and which employee it was about, find or open their file, gather the contract details, ask for whatever was missing and prepare the relevant calculation and document.

It was necessary work, but it hardly ever needed a lawyer's judgement. And since it depended on someone being free to read the email, requests waited in the inbox until there was time.

What the digital employee does now

1. 01

   It receives and sorts each request

   It identifies who is writing, which client company they're from and which employee they mean, and decides whether the email opens a new matter or continues one already under way in their file.

2. 02

   It gathers the data

   It checks the employee's case file, the history with that company and the client's HR software, and asks by email for anything missing.

3. 03

   It prepares the work

   It calculates with programmed rules whatever needs calculating (a severance amount, a holiday balance with the work calendar's public holidays) and leaves the letter or reply as a draft.

4. 04

   It waits for the lawyer's approval

   Nothing leaves the firm without a lawyer having reviewed it. Every step is logged in the case file with its author.

Objective dismissals

When a client company reports an objective dismissal, the digital employee gathers the employee's contract details, calculates the severance with the rules of the Spanish Workers' Statute and prepares the dismissal letter. The lawyer reviews it, adjusts it if needed and approves it.

Holidays and absences

Holiday requests are checked against each company's work calendar, public holidays and collective agreement. The digital employee calculates the days each period uses, shows the remaining balance and, once approved, records it in the company's HR software.

One case file per employee

Everything that happens with each employee (emails from the company, documents, calculations and decisions) goes into their file, together with who did what: the client company, a lawyer at the firm, the digital employee or the system. If someone asks months later why something was done, the answer is written down.

What the team still does

Lawyers still decide strategy, review every document and talk to clients. What has changed is that they reach each matter with the data gathered and the work prepared.

What changed

• Requests from client companies no longer wait in the inbox until someone has time to read them.
• Lawyers review prepared work instead of preparing it from scratch.
• Calculations come from tested rules, not from a different spreadsheet in each case.
• Every case file has its complete, auditable history.

If you run a law firm, automation and AI for law firms explains what else a digital employee can do, and what is a digital employee explains how it works under the hood.