During the pandemic of the year 2020, the world was forced to rely on digital archives as a backbone, along with technological features, for remote work. In a sector that historically relied on physical file work, the digital transformation in law firms and the courts was a major challenge.
The experience of remote work accelerated a process that O’Farrell had already decided to undertake: the de-papering of its entire archive, which implied not only hours of work digitizing printed materials, but also a change of paradigm in the exchange of documentation with clients.
This was also accompanied by new ways of presenting documents and other types of procedures before public entities and particularly before the different offices of the judicial power.
What motivated this de-papering was the awareness of the resources that were being dedicated to generate, take care of and maintain this physical file (idle square meters in the office, electric energy costs, maintenance of printers, photocopiers, etc. and waste of paper that would finally be discarded), and the decision that the company should use this resource for other objectives, such as improving the working space of the personnel.
This de-papering allowed us to achieve another long overdue objective: moving to offices that are friendlier to the company’s human capital, where there are collaborative spaces, an outdoor area, a bicycle path and a changing room so that employees can reach their workplace by bicycle, and areas for coworking that allowed an optimization of resources, a healthier work environment for employees, and an awareness at the corporate level of the environmental liability that is O’Farrell’s responsibility as an organization.