Have you already worked for a law firm or legal department?

We do not currently list a completed legal project. Our experience comes from document management with approval workflows and from regulated reporting with deadlines and audit trails — domains with the same mechanics as file management and deadline control. In the initial talk we show what transfers and what does not.

What does a legal engineer do — and which part of that do you take on?

A legal engineer models legal requirements and law firm processes as digital workflows and supports firms from requirements gathering to go-live. We take on the process and UX side of that role: process mapping, workflow design, usability testing, training and rollout concept. Legal assessment and technical implementation stay with lawyers and developers.

How do you test usability with lawyers who have no time?

With sessions of about 45 minutes, remote or at the firm, and with scenarios from real, anonymised matters — recording a deadline, filing an incoming beA message, approving a payout. Five to eight participants per role are enough to find the serious problems.

Do you configure RA-MICRO, Advoware, DATEV Anwalt or other law firm software?

No. We work vendor-neutral and do not sell licences.

How does a rollout in a law firm work, and how long does it take?

Current-state analysis, functional concept with target workflows, configuration by the vendor or IT, usability test and UAT, pilot firm or pilot team with key users, training, go-live, hypercare. Analysis and concept typically take four to six weeks; the whole rollout a few months depending on size.

How do you handle attorney-client privilege and confidentiality?

We work under NDA, test with anonymised or synthetic files and make no screen recordings with real client data. The firm decides which data we may see. We are not a law or tax advisory firm.

Can we engage you through a staffing agency or a consultancy?

Yes. A large share of our projects comes through intermediaries and consultancies that sold a project without a UX or rollout specialist. Matching role titles are UX consultant, legal tech specialist (workflow automation), legal operations expert or product manager legal tech. A profile for forwarding is available on request.

Legal tech · software for law firms and legal departments

Turning law firm processes into digital workflows that lawyers actually use.

For law firms, legal departments and legal-tech vendors: we map processes from client intake to billing, test file and deadline workflows with the people who work in them every day, and support the rollout from the functional concept through hypercare. So that deadlines are visible in the system, approvals do not run through email, and the software is adopted after go-live.

Book an initial talk How we work

In short

Beabstracto is a UX studio in Munich for complex expert systems. In the legal field we take on the UX and process side of legal-tech projects: we model law firm and legal department processes as digital workflows, test file management, deadline control and approvals with lawyers, paralegals and in-house counsel, and support the rollout of practice management, DMS and legal operations software from the functional concept through pilot and training to hypercare. We help vendors of law firm software with configuration, workflow designers and onboarding. A current-state analysis with a workflow concept typically takes a few weeks; a supported rollout takes a few months.

Our experience comes from adjacent, equally regulated domains: document management with approval workflows and the four-eyes principle, and regulated reporting with deadlines, validation logic and audit trails. We do not list a completed project for a law firm or legal department here — what we claim, we can back up.

At a glance

Role: UX consultant / UX lead for legal tech; on the process side in the role of a legal engineer or legal operations expert — as a freelancer or small studio
Services: Process mapping and workflow design, usability testing with lawyers, UX for law firm and legal operations software, rollout support (functional concept, key users, training, go-live, hypercare)
Sectors: Law firms, legal departments (legal operations), vendors of law firm and legal-tech software, notaries and compliance teams
Systems: RA-MICRO, Advoware, DATEV Anwalt]]
Location: Remote, Munich, on site by arrangement
Languages: German, English, Portuguese

Why does legal-tech software fail in everyday law firm work?

Rarely because of missing features. Usually because the workflow in the system does not match the process the firm actually lives — and the team goes back to email, the deadline book and Excel.

Deadlines live next to the system
The practice management software knows the deadline, yet the deadline calendar is still kept in Outlook or on paper. Statutory deadline, pre-deadline and follow-up are three things, but one line in the system. The second check happens by shouting across the office — the liability case is a matter of time.
The file exists three times
The electronic file, the paper file and the paralegal's inbox each hold part of the truth. Briefs from the beA mailbox land in the inbox instead of the file; drafts circulate as attachments. Nobody knows for sure which version applies.
Configuration overwhelms
Reviews of law firm and document software keep repeating the same sentence: "setup effort higher than expected." Only the vendor or an IT specialist can adapt workflows. The firm stays dependent and would rather change the process than the system.
Training happened, enablement did not
Before go-live there were two afternoons of training; afterwards the key user was left on their own. Six weeks later deadlines are back in Excel and time entries are filled in at month end. The software has been rolled out but not adopted.
Legal department without intake
Requests from the business arrive by email, Teams and hallway. There is no matter overview; termination deadlines sit in a contract list only one person understands. The new CLM software is not used because the intake form has too many mandatory fields.

What is backed by evidence — and what is not

We only quote figures with a source. The often-cited "70 % of rollouts fail" is not one of them.

about 1/4
of companies with 20+ employees still work mostly on paper: about 1/3
of surveyed executives report a fully successful transformation: 2019 · 2024 · 2025
GoBD: new version and two amendments, most recently on the retention of e-invoices: May 2020
Founding of the Legal Tech Verband Deutschland e.V. in Berlin

What we deliver

Four services, individually or as a package — for law firms, legal departments and legal-tech vendors.

Translating law firm processes into digital workflows

We map the process from client intake to billing as it actually runs: conflict check, file opening, inbound and outbound mail via beA and paper, deadlines and follow-ups, approvals, time recording, billing under the RVG fee schedule or a fee agreement, file closure. From this we derive target workflows with roles, permissions and four-eyes steps that the vendor or IT can configure. Media breaks and shadow processes are named rather than digitised along with everything else.

Current-state process map from observation at the desk, not from the manual
Target workflows in BPMN 2.0, readable for the firm, the vendor and IT
Roles and permissions concept (RACI) including four-eyes steps
Requirements documentation as the basis for the functional concept and the procedural documentation

Translating law firm processes into digital workflows

Current-state process map from observation at the desk, not from the manual
Target workflows in BPMN 2.0, readable for the firm, the vendor and IT
Roles and permissions concept (RACI) including four-eyes steps
Requirements documentation as the basis for the functional concept and the procedural documentation

Testing files, deadlines and approvals with real users

We test the critical workflows — file management, deadline control, follow-ups, inbound mail, approvals — with lawyers, paralegals and in-house counsel on realistic, anonymised matters. Experts have little time, so we plan 45-minute sessions, remote or on site, and measure with established questionnaires (UEQ, SUS) so that before and after are comparable.

Test plan with scenarios from real matters and clear success criteria
Recruiting and moderation with expert users, remote or on site
Findings report with severity, frequency and video evidence
Prioritised list of measures and a UX benchmark before and after the change

From requirements gathering to go-live — and beyond

We support the rollout of practice management, DMS or legal operations software on the side of the law firm or legal department: functional concept, pilot firm or pilot team, key user concept, training and enablement concept, go-live checklist and hypercare. We do not implement software and we do not sell licences; we make sure the configured workflow matches the process and the team carries it. Works council and co-determination are planned in early.

Functional concept with target processes, roles and acceptance criteria (UAT)
Pilot plan and key user concept: selection, tasks, time budget, escalation paths
Training and enablement concept by role rather than by menu item
Go-live checklist, hypercare plan and ticket triage for the first weeks

Law firm software that can be set up without a specialist

For vendors of law firm and legal operations software we work on the areas most criticised in reviews: configuration, workflow designers, onboarding and the clarity of status and deadlines. We bring experience from product design on a mature document management platform and translate it to files, deadlines and matters.

UX audit along Nielsen's heuristics and the interaction principles of ISO 9241-110
Concepts for configuration screens and workflow designers
Clickable prototypes for file view, deadline overview and inbound mail
Design system foundations plus discovery interviews and usability tests with law firms

Domain language

We speak the language of the file, the deadline and the mandate — and the language of product teams and recruiters.

File management / electronic file (E-Akte)
Deadline control (Notfrist, Vorfrist)
Follow-up (Wiedervorlage)
Four-eyes principle
Client intake and conflict check
beA (special electronic lawyer's mailbox)
Billing (RVG, fee agreement)
Client funds and escrow account (Anderkonto)
Legal operations
Contract lifecycle management (CLM)
Matter management and intake
Document automation
Procedural documentation (GoBD)
Legal design

Deadline control (Fristenkontrolle): Recording, calculating and monitoring statutory and contractual deadlines. Good software distinguishes statutory deadline, pre-deadline and follow-up, shows the status visibly and requires a second check before a deadline counts as done.
Follow-up (Wiedervorlage): A self-set date on which a file comes back to the desk. Not a deadline in the legal sense, but in daily practice often just as critical, because follow-ups are silent tasks.
Four-eyes principle: An action only counts once two people have checked it — such as recording a deadline or paying out client funds. In the system this means: visible status, clear responsibility, no detour via email.
beA: The special electronic lawyer's mailbox (besonderes elektronisches Anwaltspostfach) of the German Federal Bar for correspondence with courts and colleagues. For law firm software this means: inbound and outbound mail must flow into the file, not into a separate mailbox.
Legal operations: The operational side of a legal department: intake of requests, matter management, contract lifecycle, vendor management, metrics and tools. The legal operations expert role connects law, process and technology.
Legal design: Human-centred design applied to legal services, documents and systems; shaped by the Stanford Legal Design Lab around Margaret Hagan. The goal is clarity and usability for the people who apply and experience the law.

How we work

Process first, then the system, then the interface. Six steps that we shorten or combine depending on the project.

1
Current-state analysis at the desk
We observe how files, deadlines and mail are actually handled today — with paralegals, lawyers and firm management. Result: a current-state process map with media breaks, shadow processes and the moments where mistakes become expensive.
1–2 weeks
2
Process modelling and functional concept
Together with the firm or legal department we model the target workflows in BPMN 2.0 and write the functional concept: roles, permissions, four-eyes steps, deadline logic, interfaces to beA, DMS and accounting. It is the basis for configuration, UAT and procedural documentation.
2–4 weeks
3
Concept and prototype
Where interfaces are created or adapted, we design the information architecture, file view, deadline overview and approval steps as a clickable prototype. For vendors this includes the configuration and onboarding side of the product.
4
Usability testing with lawyers
We test the prototype or the configured system with the people who will work in it, on anonymised real matters. Result: findings by severity, prioritised measures and a UX benchmark before go-live.
5
Pilot, key users and training
A pilot firm, one office or a pilot team works in the new workflow first. Key users are selected, enabled and given a time budget; the training concept follows roles and matters, not menu items.
6
Go-live and hypercare
We plan the cutover and go-live checklist, triage tickets together with the key users in the first weeks, and separate software bugs from configuration gaps and training needs. It ends with a handover after which the firm moves on without us.
4–8 weeks after go-live

What we have learned

From projects in document management and regulated reporting — domains with approvals, deadlines and audit obligations that transfer directly to law firms and legal departments.

01
Approvals fail on the detour, not on the rule
Nobody rejects the four-eyes principle. It gets bypassed when the second look costs three clicks in the system but ten seconds by email. The checking step must be faster than the workaround, the status visible without asking, and the reason for a rejection belongs in the file.
02
Visible status beats new features
In regulated reporting, expert users had to find, check and approve large volumes of cases under deadline pressure. The most effective improvement was not a new feature but the question: what must be visible so that nobody misses a deadline? Deadline overview, follow-ups and open approvals belong on the first screen.
03
Configuration is part of the UX
In product design for a document management platform, the workflow designer was where customers got stuck — not search, not filing. If only specialists can change workflows, the firm adapts to the system instead of the other way round. Configuration screens belong in the usability test just as much as end-user interfaces.
04
Fix the process first, then digitise
Michael Hammer put it plainly in 1990: automating a bad process only makes it faster. In document processes we have watched duplicate entries and paper approvals migrate one-to-one into the system — and keep causing trouble there. That is why every rollout with us starts with the current-state analysis, not with the product demo.
05
Prototypes that feel real produce real decisions
In UX consulting for the vendor of a withholding-tax reclaim software, stakeholders took a high-fidelity prototype for a real product — and responded with matching precision. For law firms this means: better to test a clickable prototype with anonymised files than to debate a requirements document.

Experience

Our legal work builds on projects with the same mechanics: files, approvals, deadlines, audit obligations. What is missing, we mark.

Document management platform (DocuWare)

Product design for workflow designer and enterprise configuration

Product design on a mature B2B SaaS platform for document management and workflow automation: workflow designer, configuration screens, design system foundations and UX quality as a measurable quantity. This is where we learned why approvals, classification and configuration decide adoption.

UX consulting for the vendor of a withholding-tax reclaim software

Regulated reporting with deadlines, validation and audit trail

UX leadership for a new reporting module and the modernisation of an established platform: glossary, personas, process mapping, information architecture and a prototype that stakeholders treated like a real product. Deadline pressure, four-eyes approvals and traceability were the defining requirements.

→

Professional references

We orient our work on these sources; we claim no certification and no institutional affiliation.

Margaret Hagan, Stanford Legal Design Lab · 2017 (continuously updated)

Frequently asked questions

Have you already worked for a law firm or legal department?: We do not currently list a completed legal project. Our experience comes from document management with approval workflows and from regulated reporting with deadlines and audit trails — domains with the same mechanics as file management and deadline control. In the initial talk we show what transfers and what does not.
What does a legal engineer do — and which part of that do you take on?: A legal engineer models legal requirements and law firm processes as digital workflows and supports firms from requirements gathering to go-live. We take on the process and UX side of that role: process mapping, workflow design, usability testing, training and rollout concept. Legal assessment and technical implementation stay with lawyers and developers.
How do you test usability with lawyers who have no time?: With sessions of about 45 minutes, remote or at the firm, and with scenarios from real, anonymised matters — recording a deadline, filing an incoming beA message, approving a payout. Five to eight participants per role are enough to find the serious problems.
Do you configure RA-MICRO, Advoware, DATEV Anwalt or other law firm software?: No. We work vendor-neutral and do not sell licences.
How does a rollout in a law firm work, and how long does it take?: Current-state analysis, functional concept with target workflows, configuration by the vendor or IT, usability test and UAT, pilot firm or pilot team with key users, training, go-live, hypercare. Analysis and concept typically take four to six weeks; the whole rollout a few months depending on size.
How do you handle attorney-client privilege and confidentiality?: We work under NDA, test with anonymised or synthetic files and make no screen recordings with real client data. The firm decides which data we may see. We are not a law or tax advisory firm.
Can we engage you through a staffing agency or a consultancy?: Yes. A large share of our projects comes through intermediaries and consultancies that sold a project without a UX or rollout specialist. Matching role titles are UX consultant, legal tech specialist (workflow automation), legal operations expert or product manager legal tech. A profile for forwarding is available on request.

Read on

Case

Deadlines in the system, files in one place, workflows the team carries?

Tell us where your law firm or legal department improvises today — or where your legal-tech software gets criticised in reviews. We will say openly what we can contribute and what we cannot.

Book an initial talk