The 60-Day System

You have built review habits, created action-based folders, and introduced rules and filters. This week, explore how approved technology could further streamline email work without replacing human judgment. Actual capabilities will depend on the organization’s software, licensing, integrations, permissions, retention requirements, and security policies.

This week, participants will consider tools that can:

• Summarize lengthy emails and conversations

• Create organized digests of unread messages

• Prepare responsive email drafts for review

• Turn emails into trackable tasks

• File attached documents in approved matter or case-management systems

These tools may help legal teams find key information faster, reduce repetitive work, recognize next actions, and devote more time to analysis and client service.

Automation begins the process. Legal professionals must still review original emails, verify facts and deadlines, protect confidentiality, approve communications, confirm document filing, and complete assigned work.

Let technology assist with the process. Let people remain responsible for the judgment and results.

Two Key Objectives for Success

Everything in this challenge flows from two foundational commitments.

Organize your email system by

• Using folders

• Conversation views

• Rules

• Filters, and

• Automation.

This structural change ensures that your inbox is easier to identify and process, so the right messages reach you at the right time.

Set the Inbox Up for Success

Commit to spending no more than one hour a day reviewing email. You can break that time up into four 15 minutes in the morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. During each review, every email receives a 15-second decision: Delete it, Delegate (Forward) it, or Do it. Email review becomes a scheduled activity rather than a constant interruption during your day.

Build a New Email Habit

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Automation can organize information and prepare the next step. The legal professional remains responsible for reviewing accuracy, protecting confidentiality, exercising judgment, and confirming completion.

Let technology assist with the process.

Week Eight: Explore Smarter Email Automation

This Week, Focus On

1. Talking with IT to learn your technology capabilities.

2. Confirm that the technology meets confidentiality requirements.

3. Learn how to set up automation on your system.

Day 51

Explore Email and Conversation Summarization

Today, you should determine whether your law firm’s or legal department’s email platform allows users to summarize individual messages and full email conversations or threads.

Begin by checking with your IT team, software administrator, or approved technology provider. Confirm:

• Whether summarization is available

• Which licenses or settings are required

• Whether it works for individual emails, threads, and attachments

• Whether its use complies with confidentiality, privacy, security, and retention policies

Summarization may help legal professionals:

• Recall the history of lengthy conversations

• Identify key issues, decisions, and next steps

• Reduce time spent rereading repetitive replies

• Prepare for follow-up discussions

• Locate the messages requiring closer review

• Return to an older matter with greater context

Every new email should receive human review, particularly when it contains legal advice, client instructions, deadlines, approvals, settlement discussions, or other substantive information.

For older messages in a conversation, however, a summary can help jog your memory and provide a useful overview before you revisit the original emails.

Treat the summary as a navigation aid, not the official record or a substitute for legal judgment. Review the original messages before relying on dates, instructions, commitments, or substantive details.

DAY 52

Create an Unread Email Digest

Today, you should determine whether your organization’s approved email or automation software can create a digest of unread messages. A digest provides an organized preview of new email before each scheduled review session.

Ask your IT or software administrator whether the system can generate the digest automatically and deliver it immediately before your morning, noon, afternoon, and evening reviews. Available capabilities will depend on the organization’s software, licensing, configurations, and security policies.

When you set up the digest feature, you will indicate how the unread email digest should be organized. The following are some organization options:

• Action Items

• Meeting Updates

• Court Filings by Document Type

• Calendar or Docket Entry Needed

• Client or Business Response Needed

• Approvals and Reviews

• Internal Team Assignments

A useful court filing section might distinguish orders, motions, pleadings, hearing notices, deposition notices, and filing confirmations.

A well-designed digest can help participants:

• See the volume and types of unread email before opening the inbox

• Identify likely priorities and time-sensitive communications

• Group similar messages for more efficient review

• Prepare for the upcoming 15-minute session

• Recognize quick replies that may take two minutes or less

• Reduce time spent repeatedly scanning subject lines

• Identify emails requiring closer legal review

The digest is a planning tool, not a substitute for reading new email. Legal professionals should review every new message, especially communications containing deadlines, client instructions, court activity, approvals, settlement discussions, or substantive legal information.

Use the digest to understand what awaits, identify emails that may qualify for a two-minute response, and plan the order of review. Verify all summaries, classifications, dates, and action items against the original messages.

Action Step:

Create or test one unread-email digest using approved software. Review whether it:

1. Groups messages accurately

2. Identifies likely action items and deadlines

3. Distinguishes court filing types

4. Highlights possible two-minute responses

5. Links participants back to the original emails for human review

Action Step:

If you have any remaining old email in your inbox, review 25 old emails during your scheduled review session and complete, schedule for completion, archive or delete the email.

DAY 53

Use Software to Prepare Draft Responses

Today, you should determine whether your organization’s approved email software can prepare responsive email drafts for human review and manual sending.

Drafting assistance can reduce repetitive writing and help move an email toward its next action. The software may use the incoming message, an approved template, and instructions from the user to prepare a response.

Software might also prepare:

• Notify that there is a specific email for billing or invoices

• Acknowledgments of received client documents

• An acknowledgement that an event is on the calendar and the event will attend.

• Responses directing a sender to the proper department

• Internal assignments with proposed owners and deadlines

Drafting assistance can:

• Provide a useful first draft instead of a blank page

• Apply approved language consistently

• Summarize the context and propose the next communication

• Reduce repetitive typing

• Help employees respond during a two-minute email review

• Allow legal professionals to focus on judgment, accuracy, and strategy

No legal email should be sent merely because software generated it. Before sending, confirm:

• The recipients are correct

• The facts and dates are accurate

• The response reflects the lawyer’s intended strategy

• No privileged or confidential information is improperly disclosed

• The tone is appropriate

• All links, addresses, and attachments are correct

• Sending complies with organizational policies and approval requirements.

Action Step:

Action Step:

Choose one low-risk, recurring email type and test an approved drafting tool or template. Review and revise the draft manually, then evaluate whether it saved time without sacrificing accuracy, confidentiality, or professional judgment.

If you have any remaining old email in your inbox, review 25 old emails during your scheduled review session and complete, schedule for completion, archive or delete the email.

Turn Emails into Trackable Tasks

DAY 54

Today, you should determine whether your organization’s approved email and task-management software can automatically create a task when an email meets defined criteria.

The purpose is to move work out of the inbox and into a system where it has a clear owner, due date, priority, and completion status.

Approved software might suggest or create tasks such as:

• Court order received: Review the order and identify required next steps.

• Client request received: Prepare and send the requested response.

• Contract renewal notice received: Review renewal terms before the notice deadline.

• Regulatory inquiry received: Assign legal review and prepare a response plan.

• Outside counsel invoice received: Review the invoice and route it for approval.

• Discovery request received: Identify response obligations and assign document collection.

• Insurance claim received: Review coverage, reporting requirements, and response deadlines.

• Vendor deliverable received: Verify completion and save it to the approved system.

When supported, the task should include:

• A clear title

• Matter, project, or contract reference

• Responsible person

• Due date and priority

• Required next action

• Link to the original email

• Location of relevant documents

• Completion status

Email-generated tasks can reduce repeated data entry, prevent assignments from remaining buried in the inbox, and make open work easier to prioritize and track. They also help separate communication from execution: the email explains the request, while the task records who must complete it and when.

Automation should not make final decisions about legal responsibility or deadlines. A legal professional must confirm:

• The task accurately reflects the email

• The correct person is assigned

• The due date is accurate and formally docketed when required

• The priority is appropriate

• Privileged or confidential information is handled properly

• Completing the task closes the email workflow

Action Step:

Action Step:

Select one recurring, lower-risk email type and test whether approved software can create a task from it. Review every populated field, correct any errors, and confirm the task appears in the team’s authorized tracking system.

If you have any remaining old email in your inbox, review 25 old emails during your scheduled review session and complete, schedule for completion, archive or delete the email.

DAY 55

Automatically File Email Attachments

Today, you should determine whether your organization’s approved email, document-management, or case-management system can automatically save attachments from incoming emails to the correct matter workspace.

Court filings are a strong example. Approved automation may recognize an electronic filing notice, extract the attached document, and route it to the appropriate matter and document folder. Automated attachment filing can reduce manual downloading, repetitive data entry, and the risk of documents remaining buried in individual inboxes.

Automatic filing can help legal teams:

• Spend less time downloading and renaming attachments

• Make documents available to authorized team members sooner

• Reduce inconsistent naming and filing practices

• Improve document retrieval

• Prevent matter records from remaining isolated in personal inboxes

• Move more quickly from receipt to legal analysis or task completion

Automation should not be assumed accurate. A designated team member must confirm that the document was properly filed and file those documents that result in an error that prevents automated filing.

Action Step:

If you have any remaining old email in your inbox, review 25 old emails during your scheduled review session and complete, schedule for completion, archive or delete the email.

Action Step:

Action Step:

Select one long, nonurgent email conversation and test your organization’s approved summarization feature. Compare the summary with the original messages, then identify:

1. What the summary captured accurately

2. What details still required review

3. Whether the feature could improve your daily email routine

Even with email summarization you must train yourself to effectively use and process the content of the emails.

If you have any remaining old email in your inbox, review 25 old emails during your scheduled review session and complete, schedule for completion, archive or delete the email.

Week Eight Goal

By the end of Week Eight, you should know a little more about your email software and other technological capabilities. Also, you need to know your organization's artificial intelligence governance policies and confirm that the use of the technology complies with confidentiality requirements.

Congratulations on completing Week Eight of this 60-day Challenge!

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