Anthony T. Lee

Partner

Underberg & Kessler LLP

Lawyer Tony Lee has only been using Dragon Naturally Speaking software since last fall, but already he says, "It's certainly improved my efficiency…it's allowed me to become much more efficient, produce more work in less time, and get documents out the door  more quickly than in the past."

An estate planning attorney with Underberg & Kessler, Tony has always considered himself to be fairly computer literate, so when he heard about speech recognition software from two other attorneys in the firm, he wanted to try it.

Within a month, Tony found himself approaching client work differently. For example, the software made the process of preparing wills and trusts much faster, he says. Rather than printing out several form documents and cutting and pasting them manually to suit his client's needs, as he formerly did, he discovered that using speech recognition software streamlined the process, enabling him to verbally create a draft document much more quickly.

Similarly, he used to dictate correspondence, hand it off to his secretary to type, review her draft, note changes, and then request a final copy. But since other attorneys also relied on her for assistance, the whole process could sometimes take two to three days just to generate a basic letter or memo-to-file. Now these documents are finalized and mailed or added to the file the same day.

And email takes half the time to deal with – whether to generate a message or respond to someone else's inquiry. Although a fairly proficient typist, Tony now relies on his Dragon software for the bulk of his email correspondence.

Interestingly, the benefits of using speech recognition software have improved his secretary's efficiency, too. Tony's reduced reliance on her now frees her up to do more work for other attorneys at the firm or to attend to administrative tasks, rather than getting bogged down with his routine correspondence and other work.

While the major benefit of converting to speech recognition software has been the increased productivity, it's also more fun, says Tony - "I look forward to finding a task I can use the software on," he says.

Interview by Marcia Layton Turner, Layton & Co.