About Husch Blackwell

Founded in 1916, Husch Blackwell is an AM Law 100 firm with 700+ attorneys, 1500+ employees, and 20 offices nationwide. Setting themselves apart with exceptional client service, the firm goes above and beyond to truly understand the challenges and intricacies of each client’s industry. In 2018, the Firm traded its longstanding on-site servers for a partnership with NetDocuments to enhance its information governance, maximize efficiency, and provide greater flexibility to its employees.

Searching for Better Information Governance

Prior to partnering with NetDocuments, Husch Blackwell was utilizing a popular on-site server provider to store its important documents in a system that was “far from perfect,” according to Chief Administration Officer, Bret Chapman. “Collaboration and access to documents were big challenges for us,” said Chapman. “And it was a client server environment so there was also a lot of human capital necessary to support and maintain that environment.” More importantly, with dozens of servers scattered across the country, information governance was becoming an increasingly large challenge. The Firm was lacking a solution to manage the necessary document life cycles across multiple locations, as well as a cloud-based solution that would eliminate the need for constant system updates and on-site storage. After looking into several platforms, it quickly became apparent that the ideal solution was NetDocuments. “[The NetDocuments] platform was the only one that gave us the true cloud environment,” Chapman said. And, there were other benefits that made the choice easy, too—according to Chapman, NetDocuments provided security features that no other competitor could match, and a team of people that felt like family.

“The product was easier to launch and to get up-to-speed on from our user community’s perspective than we could have even hoped for.”

Bret Chapman, Chief Administration Officer, Husch Blackwell

A Prepared Approach

To prepare the Firm for their switch to NetDocuments, the team at Husch Blackwell brought in reinforcements for the first few weeks after implementation. Employees had a wealth of resources readily available, including on-site coaches and 24/7 help over the telephone.

Now, just over one year after implementation, the Firm has a platform adoption rate of over 90% throughout their organization. “Our high adoption is due to a combination of the intuitive user interface from NetDocuments and maximizing training and support internally,” Chapman said. “The product was easier to launch and to get up-to-speed on from our user community’s perspective than we could have even hoped for.”

Tools to Maximize Efficiency

For Chapman, one of the most essential benefits of NetDocuments is its ability to allow teams to work wherever, whenever, and however they want. “It gives [our user teams] a more matter-centric approach to looking at client files than we ever had before,” he said. “It really gives the ability to see as much of the physical and digital file as we can actually show them.” According to Chapman, strong integrations are a large part of what makes NetDocuments so essential. Husch Blackwell has had particular success with ChatLink, an integration that connects NetDocuments to Microsoft Teams, and PacerPro, a platform that provides access to data from the federal court system and mines it for insights. Chapman says that these tools have allowed the company to save time and money while reducing overall errors.

A Pillar of Technology in Changing Times

In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Husch Blackwell has found a new reason to be thankful for NetDocuments: its ability to enable every employee to work remotely. When the firm made the decision to have all employees work from home, they were able to transition to working from home in just three days. Most of the Firm’s non-exempt staff previously had no experience working outside of an office setting, but Chapman considers NetDocuments to be a key asset in making the quick transition possible and seamless. “I think ND was one of the technology pillars that helped us make that move in three days, and it was a very smooth transition to the work from home environment,” Chapman said.

“We do understand as a firm that there are going to be some lasting changes here, and some of those are going to be in the realm of continuing to provide more flexibility in how people work, where people work, when people work and I think NetDocuments really helps play right into that.”

Bret Chapman, Chief Administration Officer, Husch Blackwell

Now, the Firm is faced with an even greater task—strategizing the return of its employees in a city-dependent, multi-phased approach. However, Chapman feels confident in the firm’s ability to manage this massive undertaking as a result of the flexibility offered by NetDocuments.

Referring to the industry landscapes that are rapidly changing as a result of the pandemic, Chapman said, “We do understand as a firm that there are going to be some lasting changes here, and some of those are going to be in the realm of continuing to provide more flexibility in how people work, where people work, when people work and I think NetDocuments really helps play right into that…it just helps us provide our firm the flexibility that we need to pivot in times like this.”

Propelling the Firm to New Heights

When considering the future of Husch Blackwell, Chapman is optimistic about the potential for transformative opportunities on the horizon, and he considers NetDocuments to be an instrumental partner.

“NetDocuments technology has helped our firm continue to focus on our clients’ needs during the challenging times that the pandemic has brought about.”

Bret Chapman, Chief Administration Officer, Husch Blackwell

“NetDocuments technology has helped our firm continue to focus on our clients’ needs during the challenging times that the pandemic has brought about,” Chapman said. He predicts the firm will continue to cultivate its legacy of innovation, actively looking for ways to flourish by utilizing progressive technology.

To learn more about NetDocuments and how you can work smarter with an intelligent document management system, click here to request a personalized demo.