Building Your First Legal Automation: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Your First Automation in 30 Minutes

Let's build a simple but powerful automation: automatically saving email attachments from clients to organized folders in Google Drive. No coding required!

What You'll Need

• Gmail account (or any email service)
• Google Drive account (free)
• Zapier account (free tier works)
• 30 minutes of focused time

Step 1: Set Up Your Accounts

If you don't have a Zapier account, sign up at zapier.com. The free plan includes 100 tasks/month—plenty for testing.

Step 2: Create Your First Zap

1. Click "Create Zap" in Zapier
2. Search for "Gmail" as your trigger app
3. Select "New Email Matching Search" as trigger
4. Connect your Gmail account when prompted

Step 3: Configure Your Trigger

Set up a search string to identify client emails:

• Use: from:(client@email.com) OR label:clients
• This captures emails from specific addresses or with a "clients" label

Step 4: Add Google Drive Action

1. Click the "+" to add an action
2. Search for "Google Drive"
3. Select "Upload File"
4. Connect your Google Drive account

Step 5: Configure File Upload

Map the email data to Drive:

• Folder: Create a "Client Documents" folder
• File: Select "Attachments" from Gmail data
• File Name: Use "Attachment Filename"

Step 6: Test Your Automation

Click "Test" to run your Zap with recent email data. Check Google Drive to confirm files uploaded correctly.

Step 7: Turn It On!

Once tested, click "Publish" to activate your automation. It will now run automatically for all matching emails.

Next Steps

Congratulations! You've built your first automation. Consider these enhancements:

• Add subfolders organized by client name
• Send confirmation email when files are saved
• Create spreadsheet log of all uploads
• Add virus scanning before saving