Buying legal technology can go one of two ways: your firm ends up with great software that fits your needs or a week after go-live you come to find that you’ve made a huge mistake. 

In, How to Begin Evaluating New Technology, we discussed how to collect and categorize your firm’s feedback. The next step your firm should take is to create a requirements list.

When you begin this process, one thing that is very important to note is that you should not commoditize your practice management system. Making an exhaustive requirements list can sometimes move you in that direction, but the real goal of your list is to make sure you’re not missing any features you need. The purpose of this list is to use what you have created as a guideline for what your firm must have (versus pitting staff with opposing opinions against one another).

Avoid the Trap

If you carry a mindset that every feature is equal and all practice management systems are the same, you’re going to be really disappointed.

Avoid the feature comparison trap by thinking about the direction your firm is going. Ask yourself: What do I want my practice to look like in 5–10 years? How do I want my interpersonal relationships with my staff to be?

Building Your List

The easiest way to start building your requirements list is to bullet out every possible feature that a practice management software could have and then begin crossing off the things you don’t need.

Additionally, you should be visiting sites like Capterra to evaluate the customer reviews for the software options you’re considering. Reviews can provide you with a snapshot of customers’ sentiment, but don’t look to them as a shortcut to making a final decision; rather, use reviews to find ideas or read comments about topics or problems that you haven’t thought of already. They are a great knowledge bank for you to tap into in order to form your own opinions.

Many reviews at sites like Capterra will talk about specific shortcomings (e.g., “It didn’t bring our history over so we can’t do compensation reports.”). Feedback from third parties who have already used the software can often prove to be just as useful as feedback from your team.

Additionally, if you’re part of the Association of Legal Administrators or any other professional communities, take advantage of their forums by asking questions like, "What is something you wish you had asked or knew ahead of time prior to buying new legal Software?"

Based on what you learn, adjust your requirements list accordingly.

What You Should and Should Not Do with Your List

Be aware that one of the worst things you could do for yourself is to ask a vendor to fill out the requirements list for you.

Instead, you need to have that list readily available and in front of you before a live demo. What happens if you pass your list off to a vendor is two-fold. First, you’ve commoditized the software and, second, you’re letting them check things off for you. When you get on a demo, you want to be shown the features that are important to you and you want to see how they work so that you can determine whether or not the software will align with your process.

For example, a vendor may say its software includes origination tracking functionality, but that does not mean its origination tracking feature will match your firm’s needs.

It is crucial that you go through the checklist yourself and mark what you deem as sufficient versus allowing someone else to mark what they think you need. No one knows your firm or your processes better than you do, so don’t overlook these details!

Of course, it is fine to send your vendors your list ahead of time in order to alert them to the features you want; after all, you want to make sure the demo is a good use of your time – but you don’t want them to check those boxes for you.

The Takeaway

The worst thing you can do for yourself is to come into this process blind. After having spoken with your team, build out a list of features or capabilities you already know you need. If you have are drawing blanks, that's okay! Read through review sites, do some homework, and take a deep breath! There are no wrong answers, this step is simply to help you stay as organized and on top of the process as possible. You can't predict everything, but preparedness is the best way to avoid miscommunication and hurt expectations.

Many firms, upon deciding it’s time to evaluate new technology, make the mistake of immediately sprinting toward a solution, especially when they have been forced into addressing a sudden problem.

They dive headfirst into the search for new practice management software and completely forget a huge step – arguably the most important step: meeting with the people who are going to use it the most.

Meet with Your Team Internally

As soon as you realize your practice needs new technology, the first thing you need to do is take the discussion internal. Too often, the decision to buy software is made by a handful of people within the organization, which makes firm-wide adoption more challenging. It leads to greater conflict and pushback, and makes training on the new system considerably harder. Without team buy-in, implementation of new technology could even make the team’s job harder.

You might be wondering how introducing new technology could make your team’s job harder. Let’s go over some examples:

• Calendaring – Some programs make entering related deadlines, and deadlines in general, very laborious. Not every system is set up the same way. Some require more manual leg work, while others make the process more automatic. If you make the executive decision to go with a program that contradicts the way your staff uses this feature, you will not only be making their day-to-day harder, but you’ll also be leaving room for mistakes to be made.
• Old-School Sentiment – Let’s face it: Some people are just set in their ways and will push back on adopting new technology, period. If you have staff who have been using one system or are used to one method for completing their work, they may be way more reluctant to switch to a completely new way of doing things.
• A Lack of Practice-Area-Specific Features – Don’t get fooled into investing in software that gives you cookie-cutter capabilities. If, for instance, you need to track medical records or doctors’ bills, you need software that is able to do that. Make sure you hone in on what your staff needs because a lot of off-the-shelf software aims for a one-size-fits-all approach and won’t have the features your team needs to do their jobs efficiently and effectively.

The takeaway here: Don’t call an audible and buy software on your own without speaking to the people who have the most skin in the game!

How to Meet with Your Team

If you’ll be the one organizing and collecting all of this internal data, start by putting out some feelers to people in order to get a grasp on the politics of your firm. Plant the seeds to gauge how they would feel about adopting new software. It will be more helpful than you think to know exactly what people’s gut reactions were prior to processing any feedback.

When you do reach out to speak with your team formally, lead off with the following two steps to get the best results:

1. Send your team an email saying you’re shopping for new software. Within the email, make it clear that you are looking for internal feedback.
2. Set in-person meetings to discuss their feedback and thoughts.

Conducting the actual discussions in person as opposed to over email encourages open dialogue and ensures your team feels like part of the process.

If you’re a small team, you may talk to everyone in the firm; if you’re a midsize firm, you want to speak with at least one person from every department. On the administrative side, it is advisable to speak with everyone regardless of firm size because they will be such heavy users of the software. Consider speaking to:

• Partners
• Associates
• Paralegals
• Legal Assistants

Additionally, you want to speak directly with both the more technology-adept team members and those who don’t love using technology. If you don’t diversify your sample, you will end up with vastly different responses and reactions when it comes time to go live.

Avoid asking leading questions when you do speak with the team. Don’t come into this with an agenda. Ask open-ended questions that allow your staff to freely express their raw opinions and thoughts. The best software you can buy is the one that your staff will like and actually use.

Categorize Your Feedback

Once you have spoken to everyone you need to, compile a list of all the feedback you received and categorize it into buckets. These buckets can be whatever you want, but if you need a kickstart, use Billing, Accounting, and Practice Management as a guide. From there, you could break each category down further. Consider the following breakdowns:

Billing:

• Timekeeping
• Client Billing Requirements
• Process Requirements Accounting:

Accounting:

• Accounts Payable
• Reporting Requirements
• Production and Origination

Practice Management:

• Calendaring
• Document Management
• Case Information Tracking

In the end, you want to create your own categories based on what your staff is telling you they need.

Addressing Concerns

Oftentimes, the two parties that push back the most when presented with new software are the Billing team, who don’t want to change their processes, and the Shareholders, who may not feel the expense is justified.

To address Finance concerns, the first thing you should do is ask them to identify any major pain points or complaints they foresee with moving to a new system. Listen to them, make sure they feel heard, and point out the key benefits and shortcuts that the new system offers. In most cases, the initial change is the biggest hurdle to get past. If you can get them excited about the long-term benefits of the technology and emphasize that the road to get there isn’t as cumbersome as it sounds, you’ll be more likely to get them on board

For the Shareholders, it’s all about the value proposition – show them the money! Highlight some of the ways that new technology stands to make your firm money, both in the long and short term: It will enable you to capture more billable hours, increase client satisfaction and referral rates, and attract top talent for a long-term competitive advantage.

The Takeaway

It is easy to jump into a process you're excited about, but there are many intricacies and considerations that go into buying new legal software. Rushing this process can result in either miscommunication, wrong expectations, and an unhappy team. Take your time and do your internal due diligence before you start knocking on vendor's doors.

Timing is everything, right? The old adage holds true when thinking about upgrading technology. 

Maybe you’ve been on legacy software for years. Maybe you work entirely on paper. Perhaps you’re still dipping a fountain pen into an inkwell (by the way, if that’s the case – cool). Wherever you’re at, how do you know when it’s time to start evaluating new technology? Is there ever a bad time? And why do you need to make a change anyway? If you can’t give sound answers to these questions, then figuring out where to begin is going to be considerably more difficult. 

When firms begin to think about evaluating new software, two distinct mindsets come into play: reactive and proactive. Which one your firm holds will set the stage for how you kick off this process. 

Reactive Mindset 

For firms with a reactive mindset, one of five primary motivations tends to drive them to reevaluate their legal technology. 

1. A Dying Server 

Just like car batteries, servers don’t last forever and eventually need to be replaced. 

Picture this: Your server is on the fritz but still operational. The IT guy says it’s got six months to a year. You hold off on any major moves and it dies unexpectedly three months later. Now you’re looking at anywhere between $1,000–$30,000 to replace it (depending on server size, payment plan, configuration, and duration of use). Maybe you’re a midsize firm and you need an even bigger server to replace the old one, maybe you even need two. So not only do you have to buy a server or two, you also have to get all the required software and networking – and you have to have someone or some way to monitor it for security and performance. We won’t go down the dark hole of law firm data breaches, but that is not something to take lightly. 

A reactive firm will wait until their server is at the end of its life, which forces them into making a sudden choice to either buy a new one or move everything to the cloud. Since buying and maintaining a server is such a big capital expenditure, the firm often realizes at this point that the costs associated with replacing the server do not outweigh the benefits of going with cloud-based technology. 

2. A Struggling VPN 

Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are common in most legacy software; without them, users wouldn’t be able to access their data remotely. 

Traditionally, most firms set up a VPN only for those individuals who may work from outside of the office. In these cases, its capacity is only set to be operationally functional for about 20–25% of the firm’s workforce. The more people who need to rely on the VPN to work from different locations, the more the functionality of the private network will suffer. VPNs were not made to host 100% of your workforce. 

A VPN is dated technology, especially when looked at alongside cloud computing. In some ways, you can think of it as the first version of the cloud. With teams all over the world shifting toward remote or hybrid models, the timing has never been worse for you to feel the burden of a struggling VPN’s impact on productivity. A reactive firm will wait until sluggish functionality forces them to consider other options. 

3. SaaS Deficiencies 

Many firms already use some form of cloud-based technology, but that doesn’t automatically mean they’re happy with the software they chose. There are a number of reasons that may cause a firm to think about making a sudden switch from one cloud-based technology to another. The most predominant reason is that the current system lacks features that the firm needs. This is the unfortunate result of either poor communication from the vendor or the firm not being explicit enough about their needs during the initial discussions with the sales team. 

Another pain point that often leads firms to switch software is how their data is distributed. If their current software doesn’t have the necessary integrations they need to manage their day-to-day operations (think document management, court deadline scheduling, etc.), they have to rely on additional third-party programs. At first, firms may not feel that this is an issue. However, as time goes by, they realize how inefficient their operations are becoming as a result of their data being spread across several programs. Working out of multiple systems makes it significantly harder to utilize the data effectively enough to make sound business decisions. Firms end up having to train their staff on each new program, all while dealing with the human errors that commonly arise from working piecemeal with large quantities of information. 

Think about a software program that only has billing features and lacks accounting functionality. In this case, firms have to rely on outside technology for all of their accounting needs, which leads to copious manual work and, subsequently, more chances for human error (because let’s face it, none of us are perfect). If you’ve ever had to enter information into multiple systems like this before, you know very well the pain we are talking about here. Firms also sometimes overlook the importance of a mobile app. In the fast-paced, on the-go environment of today, a mobile app is essential. And just because a vendor offers cloud-based software, it doesn’t mean they also have a mobile app, leaving some firms with buyers’ remorse as they remain glued to their desktops unless they switch to new software. 

4. Annual Maintenance Plans 

Another reason firms consider making the switch to cloud-based software is that they’re late on their annual maintenance plan (AMP) fees. 

Many legacy software programs have this annual maintenance fee to provide users with an annual software update. Sometimes it may get you additional help from the support team, but you’re really paying this fee to get the latest software update. 

When firms purchased software 20 years ago, it meant they were also getting the latest and greatest features and fixes every year. Nowadays, the model is to shell out for the software, watch as new bugs and performance issues emerge, and then, come the end of your year (whether that is calendar-based or not), pay for those bugs to get fixed. Naturally, many firms have found themselves asking, “Why would I pay thousands of dollars every year for fixes to problems I didn’t create?” 

After about five minutes of soul-searching, firms typically respond by refusing to pay the AMP. And then what happens? Firms fall so far behind on their payments that they are left with outdated and bug-ridden software until they pay back everything they owe for their years of update neglect. 

Once again, a reactive firm will find itself forced into a decision. Paying the AMP certainly isn’t appealing at this point since they won’t even get better software. When they look at the burden of paying all that money back, they start to wonder if it would be a better use of their money to ditch the software entirely and go with something new. 

5. Malware and Security Breaches 

Did you know that one out of every four law firms has been a victim of data breach? In 2020, there were 3,932 publicly reported data breaches, comprising over 37 billion records. If your jaw didn’t just drop, it should have. 

At one point in time, cloud technology was viewed as a security hazard compared to on-premise servers. Today, however, that reality has changed. On-premise servers are at significantly greater risk for breaches because they are exposed to way more physical elements. If you have on-premise hardware, think about where it is. Who has access to it? How securely locked up is it? What would happen if there were a natural disaster? Unfortunately, at the end of the day, if a firm has on-premise hardware, it’s the firm’s job to manage and protect that technology. The simple truth is if a firm is hacked even once, it needs to react quickly and decisively to make a change. 

The easiest way to take server security off your plate is by working with a cloud-based provider. Ask yourself what you can do better to protect your firm and your clients and how you would react to a breach. The data you handle is sensitive and hackers today9 use sophisticated techniques to gain access to it. If you aren’t relying on companies who protect data for a living to keep yours secure, you are exposing your firm to significant risk. As soon as a security breach happens – a very real risk when you look at the numbers – a reactive firm is pushed to evaluate new cloud-based software. 

If any of those scenarios resonated with you, it is time to start looking at new legal technology while you have the leisure to do so. 

Proactive Mindset 

Now, firms with a proactive mindset are intent on staying ahead of any problems and motivated by a desire to improve. Instead of waiting for issues to occur, these firms pursue action-driven solutions to maximize their operations. This road often leads them to consider cloud-based software much earlier than a reactive firm. 

Any number of areas of improvement may serve as motivation for a proactive firm. Here are five of the most common ones. 

1. New Goals 

Proactive firms are motivated to meet the current state of technology. They take active steps to adopt modern solutions that may not have existed five years ago, taking note of their current pain points and strategically planning how they can alleviate them. Generally, they set out to improve current processes, become more efficient, and implement software that allows them to be agile, grow, and develop. 

2. Talent Recruitment 

Younger attorneys view technology as a means to push themselves ahead. They see the modernization of old practices as a way for them to do a better job. 

When younger attorneys evaluate firms, they are also evaluating the tech stack each firm has in place. Proactive firms realize that buying that new technology allows them to more easily recruit top talent. Think of your tech stack as part of your benefits, right alongside the number of PTO days you provide and the strength of your healthcare plan. The technology you offer can be a deciding factor for whether an up-and-coming attorney wants to work for your firm, just like those traditional factors. The difference it makes might be the competitive edge you need. And if you have yet to notice that difference, you will soon. 

Many of the more established attorneys do not see the importance and value of legal software. They see it as an unneeded change to a successful career they’ve managed without digitization and automation tools. However, you shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the younger generations because one day they will be the dominant force within your firm. 

3. Better Client Services 

Your clients are expecting three basic things from you:

1. Their information is locked up and secure. 
2. They are able to access that information at any time without having to jump through hoops. 
3. They are able to reach you. 

We call the need for immediacy the ‘‘Amazon Effect,” where people need things yesterday. Obviously, that type of speed is not feasible in the legal industry, but proactive firms look for ways to emulate that type of service. 

To start, your firm needs to be available. No one hits a panic button faster than a client who either doesn’t feel heard or can’t quickly get the information they need. And you have no idea when your client may or may not need something from their files. On a related note, your staff does not have time to be on the phone constantly. Utilizing software with advantages like a client portal not only helps reduce the number of client calls, it also helps your firm stand out by getting your clients what they need faster. You should always be striving for transparency, not just because it is good for your clients but because it also frees up your time. Today, your clients and potential new clients (PNCs) are looking for that white-glove service. If you cannot offer that, another firm can. 

And if you don’t believe us, a study by BTI Consulting Group showed that 80% of participating clients expected immediate responses to texts and emails. But don’t worry, “immediate” in this study was defined as between 1–2 hours. Unfortunately, when firms were evaluated, attorneys considered “immediate” to be between 4–8 hours. With that big of a time discrepancy between attorney and client expectations, clients can get anxious, grow impatient, and become less likely to refer service post-matter. Although you may be juggling many clients at once, the goal is to treat each client like they’re your only client. A client portal helps you achieve that by giving clients autonomous accessibility, which has the added perk of reducing the time you spend answering their questions. 

This responsiveness can be translated into how successful your business is as well. When people are searching for representation, oftentimes it is the firm that responds to their call or email first that wins the business. Not only are these firms setting the tone right off the bat, they are also making the client feel prioritized – a huge factor when it comes to converting potential new clients into billable clients. 

An ABA Benchmark study on intake process found that 42% of the time law firms took three or more days to reply to a voicemail or web-generated form from a prospective client. That’s a long time! Firms spend time and money to collect new leads, yet are slow to capitalize when new leads come due to responding inefficiently. Your availability, response rate, and transparency all contribute to the client experience. Legal software is the best place to start if you want to improve these aspects. 

4. Revenue Goals 

If a firm’s goal is to increase revenue, the initial reflex for many is to try to hire more attorneys. But if you leverage technology, you can increase that revenue by capitalizing on features that allow you to capture more billable time. 

This can be as simple as entering time on the go, whether it’s on the train, at a dinner event, or in line at a grocery store – or it can be complex like being able to instantly track and create billable events for text messages, calls, and emails as the conversations occur. On average, attorneys only capture 2.3 billable hours a day, so automatically capturing your time as it happens is the easiest way to grow your business without hiring more staff. 

5. Remote Work 

If your firm has plans to move to a more distributed workspace, it has a huge reason to invest in technology. Leveraging the connectivity that legal tech provides minimizes the negative aspects of working remotely (such as communication problems, connection issues, organization lapses, etc.). On top of that, it improves overall productivity by giving everyone access to resources that were built to enable agility and efficiency away from the office. 

It shouldn’t matter where your staff or attorneys are. They need to have access to their work and your firm is going to lose money if they don’t. Firms that are proactively seeking flexibility inevitably pursue legal software because that is exactly what it gives them.

The Takeaway

There are many reasons why your firm may need to evaluate new technology and depending on that reason, your journey into the buying process could look very different. Knowing why your team is evaluating new technology will help you stay prepared and give you better insight into what you ultimately need.

Because of its prevalence, most people already know what this is, but put simply, the cloud allows an internet user to access a third-party computing resource located in almost an endless network of interconnected servers that allow you to run your computer’s applications over the internet without having to buy, install or manage your own servers. 

What this means is you could run your firm’s IT operations with nothing more than a browser and internet connection. By using the cloud, firms of all sizes can reduce IT costs, manage data storage needs more effectively, and improve staff flexibility. In a short amount of time, the cloud has emerged as one of the most meaningful innovations in technology.   

The cloud symbol was first used to represent the public telephone systems on our dial-ups and since the original basis of the internet was through dial-up modems, that symbol has been used and now represents what we know of today as “the cloud.” Before we go on, it is important to note that when we say “client-server,” the word “client” does not refer to your customer. Depending on your role, this word means two different things (depending on if you’re on the IT team or an attorney.) The word “client” to an IT person means a device used by one person at a time to access the internet. Essentially it is just an access point, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, PC, you name it. These access points (or clients), and central servers which supply applications and data, are shared amongst several clients and can be accessed at any one time. So when you sign in to Gmail, or anywhere on the internet, you’re not the only person at that exact moment who can gain access. Thousands, if not millions of people could access their Gmail account at the same time through their own client-server. 

Characteristics of the Cloud

Let’s take a look at the five essential characteristics of the cloud:

1. On-demand self-service
2. Broad network access
3. Resource pooling
4. Rapid elasticity
5. Measured service 

On-demand self-service

On-demand service essentially means you order what you want when you want it. You can unilaterally make such provisions either regarding server settings or network storage without the need for any interaction from the provider’s IT administrator. Further examples of such resources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.

Broad network access

Broad network access means you have access to your data over the standard network through client platforms such as your smartphone, PC, or laptop. 

Resource pooling

Resource pooling simply means that providers serve multiple customers, with provisional and scalable services. These services can be adjusted to suit each customer’s needs without any changes being apparent to the customer or end-user. When you access a server on the internet, it’s not only your information on that server, there is other people’s information as well. Sometimes there may just be one server for 50 different people and sometimes it could even be located overseas. As attorneys, this is incredibly important to be aware of. Many firms will just sign up or pay for cloud services and have no idea where their actual data is being stored, or who it’s being stored with. Sometimes it’s because they don’t care, and other times it’s because they don’t know to ask. So make sure you ask your vendor this question! 

Rapid elasticity

Rapid elasticity allows users to automatically request additional space in the cloud or other types of services. ... In a sense, cloud resources appear to be infinite or automatically available. That's very different from older systems, where the limits of storage or memory were immediately visible to a user. Compared to on-premise servers, this process is significantly easier and more convenient. 

Measured service 

Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported. This provides transparency for both the provider and the consumer of the service. Your firm can actually get insight into the performance of your network with statistics that monitor your usage. 

Will the Cloud Save my Firm Money?

The first question that many firms ask cloud providers is, “how much will it cost?” This is a logical question, but the price range varies so drastically, that it makes more sense to narrow down specific goals and aspects of your firm. Let’s take a look.

Take a look at the chart below. The first thing you need to consider is the upfront expenditure. Let’s look at the on-premise category first. A good quality single server with no redundancy can run anywhere from $3,500-$8,000 if you’re going low end. A decent, middle-of-the-road server will land you north of $10,000. With that, you will need a backup system, which incorporates both software and hardware which could easily tack on another $2,000+. Next, you will want a quality APC battery or locate your system in a colo-data center to protect all of this valuable equipment. Following that line item is your server licensing. This is not per physical server, but per virtual server which typically runs inside of one box. Traditionally, you will be running an active directory, a file server, and a database server. Best practices dictate you separate these roles into multiple servers, but you could combine some of these roles into two servers, which is where you get the $1,900. Next are your user licenses or your client access licenses. This is required for each person who needs access to the server. If they run slightly over $40, and you have 15 people at your firm, you’re looking at about $840. Another expense is your Microsoft SQL licenses which almost every on-premise case management system requires. You can pay for this by the processing core, or by the user, but either way, it comes out to about the same. Finally, There will definitely be implementation fees to get this all together and have your firm up and running. With the going IT rate, you’re looking at about $5,000 of total labor.  

The next two columns are much more simplistic. All the listed services are either included in a private cloud or are not applicable. With the cloud, you will still have a labor fee that will either be due upfront or spread out with payments over a designated period of time. For web applications, if you’re considering a change, this will oftentimes require the assistance of a third-party consulting firm.             

Expenses	On-Premise Servers	Cloud	Web Applications
Server(s) Hardware	$5,500	Included	N/A
Backup Solution	$2,000	Included	N/A
APC Battery	$1,500	Included	N/A
Microsoft Server Licensing ($950/ea.)	$1,900	Included	N/A
Microsoft User Licenses ($42/ea.)	$840	Included	N/A
Microsoft SQL Licenses ($209/ea.)	$4,180	Included	N/A
Terminal Server Licenses ($133/ea.)	N/A	Included	N/A
Setup Fee	$5,000	$4,425	$7,500
Total Up-Front Cost	$20,920	$4,425	$7,500

Now that we have talked about the upfront costs, let’s look at some of the common monthly expenditures:

Expenses	On-Premise Servers	Cloud	Web Applications
Server Maintenance ($200-$350/ea.)	$5,500	Included	N/A
User Support + Anti-Virus ($49/user)	$735	Included	$735
Offsite Backup (25-75 cents/gig)	$100	Included	N/A
Remote Access (GoToMyPC: $30/user)	$450	N/A	N/A
Cloud Storage ($0-$50/user)	N/A	Included	$105
Total Monthly Costs	$6,785	$2,085	$840

The first line item is your server maintenance. If you have a server, you will want to make sure that it is properly maintained, monitored, secured, and audited on a routine basis. This is especially critical with the security threats we face today. Assuming you’re running 2-3 virtual servers, you’re looking at about $500. 

User support entails the support for each computer, anti-virus work, print capabilities, and general network support. The average spend for this is about $49 per user, per month. Some firms will have an in-house IT team, others will outsource the help. The former is quite costly as you’re salarying these additional team members, but outsourcing your support can be tricky if you need immediate assistance. For web applications, keep in mind that if you can eliminate all of your servers, this cost will remain, and in some cases, this cost may increase as computer management becomes increasingly difficult with no server to help automate management. 

Next is the offsite backup category, this is native to almost all cloud solutions, whereas on-premise servers need to be backed up nightly. Be warned that if you are not backing up your data, you risk losing it in a crash. Paying for such solutions varies drastically in price, if you’re looking for a full backup and disaster recovery solution, you could be looking at thousands per month. For the sake of our example, we took the very basic backup system which typically charges between 25-75 cents/gig.

Now, looking at remote access, this also runs natively to any cloud-based solution. If you have an on-premise option, you can get a dedicated terminal or Citrix server. This would add significant spending to the upfront and server maintenance columns. Since we’re considering a 15-user law office, chances are, they’re using RDP over VPN directly to their desktop, or more commonly, a GoToMyPC or log me in a type of solution.        

For storage, most firms with on-premise servers are using their file server which could be your S drive or your T drive (for example). Additional costs here come from when your file server runs out of space or there’s a server malfunction or breach.    

Everything we just mentioned encompasses the average base cost for each solution. Each service provider is different, and fees will vary depending on what your firm chooses to adopt vs. waive.   

Ready to see how cloud-based Centerbase cuts costs and raises your revenues?

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The Takeaway 

The chart below looks at some features that cannot be quantified mathematically, but they hold immense value. 

Each firm has to evaluate which of these intangible assets are most critical, and which are considered to be more of a luxury. Consider things like mobile access and liability. Do you have plans to geographically expand your firm? Do you want your staff to be connected with centralized access to the same data? Do your due diligence before signing on the dotted line.

Ultimately, all of these intangibles should help you evaluate whether your firm should pursue cloud, on-prem, or web application services, so don’t take them lightly! 

Intangibles	On-Premise Servers	Cloud	Web Applications
Mobile	Limited	Robust	Medium-Robust
Security	Low-Medium	Robust	Robust
Reliability	Low-Medium	Robust	Robust
Scalability	Limited	Flexible	Flexible
Centralization	Centralized	Centralized	Fragmented
Liability	Risky	Limited	Limited
Software Robustness	Robust	Robust	Limited
Support	General	Legal-Centric	Fragmented

When it comes to legal research tools, the internet is the most widespread resource everyone uses, almost without question. Having the savviness to find and use the best free and/or budget-friendly tools gives attorneys an edge – especially at smaller or mid-size practicing firms. As we’ve seen, these tools continue to evolve, providing legal researchers (no matter their role) the agility to find the right information needed for the case. Complete with alerts and filters that prevent endless scrolling and frustrating hours lost sifting through everything but the statute you’re looking for, it’s clear legal research has made life easier – if you know how to access the right tools, that is. 

Having hands-on resources for your law firm’s needs will undoubtedly create more meaningful research that drives cases forward. This has been a game-changer for smaller firms who once had to shell out huge expenses for legal research software. Gone are those days; and good riddance, too. Simplifying research will also open up more time for other things, such as organized calendaring and day-to-day operations.

We’ll be covering the following questions:

• What are the top legal research tools?
• What are some major obstacles and difficult aspects of legal research?
• Name some additional tips to make the most of these tools?

What Are Some Online Legal Research Tools?

Although nothing can quite replace a powerful paid tool depending on your needs and area of law, there are some free and more affordable tools available that make top-level research quite easy:

Google Scholar

• Why we like it: Instant search information around legal journals and publications 
• Why it works: A convenient tool for quick searches around legal and scholarly literature, Google Scholar lets you browse legal patents and related articles. The best part? It’s free to use. Under the search bar, simply select the bubble that says “Case law” and you’re well on your way to finding legal opinions and relevant data for your case in no time. 

FindLaw

• Why we like it: Free case summaries, statutes, and Supreme Court decisions dating back to the 1760s. 
• Why it works: FindLaw’s practice management database lets you search for cases, contracts, and articles in an effort to make legal information easily accessible. Perfect for smaller firms, it’s a great tool for free research – especially if you’re just starting out and needing to be conscientious about financials. You can easily refine your searches to include codes by state, and it provides relative terms so you can easily go from one topic to another. 

Fastcase

• Why we like it: Many local bar associations provide Fastcase as a fee subscription, plus you can search state statutes and case law with a Boolean search like other more expensive options such as Lexis. You can check here if you’re in an area and qualify! There’s also a free mobile app available so you can browse whenever, wherever.
• Why it works: With a convenient ability to save documents to a “library” of sorts, Fastcase makes it really easy to keep track of documents. There’s also an option to look at your recent search history and search keywords within publications. Just go in with what area you’re looking for – and don’t count on it to keep track of expired or inapplicable laws. In terms of raw data, it’s quite useful and is one of the largest legal libraries available. 

Casetext

• Why we like it: Crowdsourced by the legal community, this tool only costs $65 a year per license, and has a powerful case analysis research assistant, or CARA A.I. research ability to save time on searching for related cases. For legal research and writing, it’s a useful tool to pool relevant case law together in a shorter amount of time.
• Why it works: Modeling itself as an all-inclusive research tool, Casetext’s A.I. is able to extrapolate information from uploading documents directly that relate to your matter, rather than using filters or advanced search queries. Able to gather this information for you automatically can save considerable time and be well worth the yearly fee for Casetext when comparing it to other bigger research tools such as Lexis. 

Read more on how to avoid getting a Practice Management “Lite” Software not catered to your firm’s needs

What are the Most Difficult Aspects of Doing Legal Research?

Even the best attorney doesn’t always have all the answers. The best offense in any matter is having a good defense – including knowledge on opposing counsel, and the relevant authorities and cases they’ll be relying on. It can be difficult to navigate strategy when you’re too busy trying to search for the opposite counsel’s angle as well. These obstacles can mount, especially when you’re fighting or are getting blocked and limited on your research attempts. If the research comes easy, so, too, will the brainstorming. 

As a smaller firm, the cost analysis could also prove problematic if you’re billing clients for extensive research conducted. It’s important to weigh these options before going into a case that you anticipate will require ample research time, especially for newer attorneys not as well-versed or equipped with as many resources at a smaller firm or solo practice. This is all part of mapping out features that will be user-friendly for you, this time and the next – so clients stay happy, too.

Here Are Some Useful Tips for Improving Your Legal Research

• Always diversify resources: There’s no one leader when it comes to legal research databases – it’s important that you diversify your approach, and find multiple avenues to find the necessary information you need based on the area of law and matter with your client. Otherwise, you’ll get stuck doing things the same way, without adapting to new opportunities and research channels.
• Organize, organize, organize: For hearings, mediations, trials, and any other discussions for your matter should be compiled digitally and in paper form. Use tabs, the highlight – anything to keep your necessary talking points top-of-mind. This will help make the most of your research and streamline everything going in. 
• Group related cases together: Although many tools lack the ability to group related cases that are labeled undercurrent “good law,” over time you’ll inevitably start to create your own reference points for cases that have certain outcomes, including negative and positive treatment to related matters. With your many legal research tools in your arsenal now, you can search those cases and find relative case law by date, type, and citations. You can then compare based on authority and clout in reference to the current case.
• Ask a peer: Having a mentor to go to for help is so important during the entirety of an attorney’s career. Many have had to navigate much more manual waters and can provide shortcuts they’ve learned over the years to you. If you’re hitting a wall, walking away, and simply sending a note to chat with someone for a few minutes about why you’re feeling blocked could be just the thing to help you think differently about a case. Never underestimate the power of collaborative thinking.
• Stay up-to-date on federal appellate courts and 50 state Supreme Courts: There are many law firm digests (Justia being a good one) that can help send you updates, summaries, and relevant opinions that can be customized by practice area. Like many jobs requiring ongoing knowledge, it’s important to stay abreast on recent decisions in your area of law so you’ll know if you should research something else further that affects current matters.

Practice Management to Help Online Legal Research

As we mentioned before, organization begets organization – so adding these online legal research sites and databases to your toolkit is only going to further empower your firm to drive business and spend time brainstorming rather than doing mindless research. The very same can be said about your case management software that’s used day-to-day.

Ideal Billing Workflow

The purpose of a billing workflow is two-fold: save your firm time and drive the collections process. There is a lot going on in the world and for your firm, if you can save time on non-billable tasks, stay organized, and increase client satisfaction, wouldn’t you want to? Sure it isn’t always easy to adopt new change and break old habits, but if it means increasing your profitability wouldn’t you want to try? 

It’s this simple, technology can help you bill while you work, get your invoices out much faster, and reduce your bottom-line. We’ll show you how.   

Invoice template

The first thing you should do is set up your invoice template. Your template needs to be consistent, clean, on-brand for your firm, and easily digestible for your client. It is important that everyone at the firm is trained on how everything is documented so that there is a level of uniformity that is maintained. Additionally, you should ensure your invoice templates account for all of the critical information that your clients want to see, like who worked on a particular item, what they’ve paid you recently, any money in Trust, ledger details, etc. This is an essential piece of communication for your clients, so it is imperative that you give an adequate amount of detail. Your invoice also contributes to your professional appearance, so make sure that it accurately represents who you are.   

Electronic invoice sharing

First, you need to ask your client for approval to email your invoice rather than sending it via snail mail. It is strongly recommended that clients opt into this agreement in a written way. This will help combat those individuals who claim they never got your bill in the mail. 

The beauty of an electronic invoice is that it will eliminate the time spent on printing, folding, stuffing, and then mailing every invoice you have each month. This is will also help you keep an electronic repository with documentation on who has paid what and who hasn’t, and depending on what platform you use, some systems will give you the ability to track whether the email with the bill was opened by the recipient or if it went unread. 

Legal technology is really opening the door to so many possibilities when it comes to your billing practices. For example, there are some software that will allow you to take advantage of a billing portal where you can provide your clients access to view and pay bills or to access a complete history of bills. Your clients want visibility, and with a portal like this, they're given the autonomy to review what they owe, on their time.

Set-up and apply taxes, interest, and discount rules 

Taxes need to be accounted for in jurisdictions where taxes apply to legal services rendered. Whether this is applied based on where your client lives, or where you’re performing the services, these rates can automatically be applied when you’re creating your invoices. The goal here is to prevent any kind of bottleneck at the end of the month when you’re trying to send your bills out. You could also consider assessing interest on past due invoices to help drive the speed of collections. This will need to be discussed with your client beforehand, it should be drafted up in writing, and something that they can expect if they’re late on a payment. Additionally, some states have found this to not be usury, so please take note of that and do your research as you’re making decisions. Lastly, you can incentivize early payments with discounts. If a client pays within the first 5-7 days of receiving the bill, you could consider offering a loyalty discount. Especially for clients with multiple matters, this will not only get you paid quicker, but it will build trust and establish a stronger partnership.   

Even if your firm chooses to pursue only one of these options, you will still be contributing to the reduction of bottlenecks and ultimately speed up your collections process!

Capture Time as Your Work

Do you want to hear something shocking? According to studies compiled in an ABA blog, if you don’t get your time in by the end of the day, you’re likely to lose 10% of your billable hours. If you don’t get your time recorded the next day, you’ll lose 25%! If you don’t get it in by the end of the week, you’ll lose a full 50%. 

So at this point, you’re either thinking, wow, I have lost my firm a lot of money or wow, I need to figure out more efficient ways to track my time.

If you’re thinking the latter, we’ve got you covered. There are services that address the pain points of being a timekeeper. With today’s technology, you have the ability to bill directly from tasks, phone and text conversations, email, and word documents. You can use multiple timers, you can set time to bill in advance and then adjust the figure accordingly in the pre-bill process. All of these solutions aim to remove the inaccuracies that come from waiting until the end of the month to record all your time. 

Schedule A Billing Cutoff Date 

As you are creating your ideal billing workflow, consider setting a hard billing due date. The most well-run law firms bill on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. When you’re ready to bill, you need to identify a cut-off date. Utilize a firm-wide calendar or practice management system to schedule these dates, so any work that was done between that designated time frame needs to be recorded before that billing cut-off date. This does not mean that the billing stops for any work moving forward, but any work that has happened previously needs to be submitted to allow the person in charge of billing time to run those pre-bills.

Set-Up Automated Payment Emails

The next thing your firm should do is set-up automated payment emails. This communication is a reflection of your firm and should motivate your clients to take action and to pay those bills. The email should not be abrasive, but rather warm and include their invoice and clear descriptions for how payment is accepted. If you have it set-up in your system to pay securely online, then this would be an opportunity to include that link. It should also include contact information if questions arise on the bill. The objective here is to make it as seamless as possible for your clients to pay you.

Run Pre-Bills, Then Batch Billing 

Running pre-bills and batch billing is the ideal, most efficient process. You get all of your information into the system regarding the work and services you’ve performed by that billing cut-off date, then pre-bills are run. Pre-bills allow you to see a preview of your invoices so that you can check for formatting, errors, or omissions without changing matter ledgers. The best part about pre-bills is that they can now be done electronically. Gone are the days where firm administrators have to give their timekeepers different colored pencils to mark up a pre-bill by hand. And did you know that by electronically reviewing and sending your bills, you will speed up your billing by 30%! That is a lot of time!

If you use batch billing, this will allow you to generate all of your invoices at once, in whatever format you designate, in just a few minutes. A lot of powerful billing systems have this feature for you to capitalize on to increase your billing and collections processes. 

Managing Alternative Fees 

In, 8 Tips to Improve Your Firm’s Collection Process Right Now, we talked about alternative fees and why you should set those up on your retainer or fee agreement with your client. If you have a situation for example, where you have a monthly retainer agreement, you can set this up to bill automatically. This is one less thing you would have to take care of. If you have matters that you’re billing hourly and then collecting on or deducting from Trusts and you have a monthly retainer agreement, you can set all these permissions up to draw directly from the bank account, or to automatically charge the credit card on a specified day. For payment plans, this is useful to accommodate your past-due clients or flat fees that cannot be paid all upfront. Sometimes clients do need a little flexibility and this fee arrangement is a great way to show them that your firm can be. If your firm chooses to use a reduced rate as an alternative fee, you want to ensure that you document the rate that deviates from your standard hourly to save you time when you bill and ensure you’re not inaccurately billing your clients. Taking care of these things up front will make running your bills at the end of the month much easier.  

Conclusion

All these steps can help you deliver an exceptional customer experience while also driving your firm’s profitability. If done correctly, billing doesn’t have to be dreadful! Centerbase offers countless tools to serve your law firm, take a free product tour today, and see how!

One of the biggest takeaways from 2020 as a whole has been adjusting to the entirely remote atmosphere of day-to-day operations. Although 77 percent of attorneys regularly work from home according to an American Bar Association survey, there’s no doubt this rapid change of in-office vs. a remote environment has affected the ways things are done at law firms. Specifically, how communication happens. Now, moving forward, it’s time to take charge and find ways to use law firm communication tools that prioritize security and efficiency for everyone involved – including clients.

This operational efficiency will serve everyone better in fostering a client-centered firm that maintains clear, iterative communication, positioning your firm’s reputation better than the competition.

How Remote Work is Changing Internal and Client Communication

Both internal communication and client communication are forever changed. While the outskirts of remote work and the digital age have been creeping in the periphery for a while, it’s the coronavirus that’s ushered in the necessity for fully digital communication and remote work. This has changed mainly for in-office workers such as paralegals and legal assistants. Instead of a quick walk over to your coworker’s desk for a question, you're now forced to send a message or phone call. This extra effort leads to more barriers that can prevent alignment across the team.

For clients, without a central office phone number to call, it’s going to create extra worry about how to get updates on their case. Without clear communication and guidance, your firm’s reputation could suffer. After all, poor communication is among the top reason clients end relationships with law firms. When comparing one bad experience to more than one in terms of communication, the percentage of a client switching to a competitor jumps from 50 to 80 percent.

You really can’t afford to let clients leave on the basis of bad communication – especially since there are so many solutions that can help remedy this prevalent communication problem.

Important Law Firm Communication Tools for Optimizing Efficiency

Stay on task and on schedule with frequent communication tools that ease the burden of sifting through multiple windows and programs. One prominent example, which fans of kanban project management will rejoice at, is Centerbase’s TaskFrame™ inclusion. It’s a convenient visual board that lets you drag and drop important tasks and notify people in real-time.

There are plenty of other law firm communication tools that simplify and prioritize what needs to be done in a secure way. Let’s review them based on category:

Video Conferencing Tools

 

• Zoom: The boon of Zoom is everywhere this year – and for good reason. With a free option for 40-minute calls at a time, you can manage meetings effectively while also creating a private space for you and your clients to talk. Some security concerns have emerged to take into account, but their 5.0 update supports end-to-end encryption as of May 2020. It’s a great platform widely understood and accessible, so it’s a good place to start.
• Skype: If you’ve ever video chatted before, chances are, you’ve heard of Skype. Another free option for video, the backing from Microsoft provides features such as unlimited video calls and unlimited users able to join meetings. However, Skype does not offer end to end encryption, so if ensuring client privacy is a concern, Microsoft Teams may be a better option (albeit, more expensive).
• Legaler: A newer video chat software specifically geared toward law firms, Legaler is definitely worth mentioning if you haven’t heard of it. Its in-browser video feature prioritizes security without any annoying download requirements for your participants. Plus, all your videos can be archived and connected to your matters for easy retrieval later. The best part? They have a starter version that’s free to use, with a more premium version for storage at $19 a month.

Instant Messaging Tools

Creating one spot to facilitate quick communication helps drive efficiency in the digital, remote world we’re now in. It’s easy to keep a tab open as your staff are checking their inboxes or reading a matter to reply back to a quick inquiry.

In terms of messaging, here are some convenient options that can boost your team’s communication:

• Microsoft Teams: Good for firms with a Microsoft 365 subscription, Teams is the beefier, more secure version of Skype. More costly per user versus the other free options, you get a bevy of features such as instant messaging, recording meetings, and screen sharing. This functions more effectively when you already use all Microsoft products, and works to flesh out your existing 365 system, so if you’re not using it, this cost may not be worthwhile.
• Slack: Great for those wanting a browser-based solution for IMing, Slack has convenient customization options, including notifications and the ability to sync with Google Drive and other common file-sharing software. Divided between threads and conversations with teammates, you can easily add channels and compartmentalize so only the people needed on certain channels are included and notified. Plus, it now offers video calls if you’re looking for a way to connect with teammates face to face. For small and medium-sized businesses, it’s priced at $6.67 per user a year, and $8 per user a month.
• Centerbase Mobile App: While Teams and Slack both offer apps, our Centerbase mobile app is all-inclusive with our client portal, letting you communicate directly with clients in accordance with their matters. Not only that, but all interactions are tracked through the native software and attributed to the matter history, so anyone looking at the file in the future will be caught up on what’s been said. The convenience that keeps you caught up – without extra, duplicative work. And not to mention, Centerbase's Automatic Time Capture feature that allows attorneys to send and receive texts and calls to a separate, private number. Whether you’re texting a client about an upcoming meeting, sending documents over email, or answering a call after hours, every second is automatically captured and converted into a time entry.

Secure Client Portal

Whether you need to send matter deadlines or an update via text message, having a simple client portal where it’s all laid out gives considerable peace of mind to clients. This as a law firm communication tool has value when it comes to tracking and divvying direct communication that helps reassure them you’re on top of status updates and important dates to be mindful of.

24/7 Client Portals Improve Communication

A 24/7 portal fosters an open door policy and can help clients maintain trust with you during the entirety of their case. Plus, instead of calling, clients can send a message instead about any questions they have – alerting you, and empowering staff to get them answers quicker than playing phone tag.

Client Intake Management

Onboarding is always a pain point for firms – to get all the paperwork loaded into the system quickly and accurately is timely and takes away from other revenue-generating tasks. Rather than manually entering all a client’s information once they fill out a form, with Centerbase, their information is automatically populated the instant the form is completed. These intake features boost productivity and efficiency on matters.

Why Client Communication is Important for Your Practice

The better your communication, the more alignment your team will have to stay efficient and keep clients happy. As mentioned earlier, one bad interaction can be the difference between a client going to another firm – so it’s a matter of maintaining a good reputation in order to retain clients. You can have a stellar team of attorneys, but without proper client communication, it will create uncertainty and a lack of trust in the client-attorney relationship. With the advent of digitized and remote teams, your firm must adapt, or you may suffer from a lack of client retention.

How to Improve Adoption of New Communication Technology

So you know the importance of law firm communication tools; now is the implementation step that can feel daunting and overwhelming. Take time to research and plan which of the above services will best suit your firm’s needs, and work on a plan to put it into action if you haven’t already. This will require a virtual or in-person meeting with your team to emphasize the requirements, and why it’s needed. Such a transition can be the difference between your firm flourishing and simply skating by.

• Offer incentives for your team to communicate such as once a month early release to let them know you’re noticing the initiative and commitment
• Actively listen. Provide a space for your team to reflect on what their difficulties are with using messaging and video chat software. Where can you help alleviate some of their anxieties and concerns?
• Reward anyone who takes initiative to help others learn and let them know they’re appreciated for helping drive efficiency

What Law Firm Communication Tools Will You Use?

Remote work efficiency is going to take a different form when it comes to office communication. Be sure to be mindful of roadblocks – as this transitionary period from a fully staffed office to a hybrid or even fully remote environment can take time to get used to long-term. These video and instant messaging tools can help bridge the gap and get answers and efficiency better than constant calls or text messages on personal devices. Division between work and home is going to be pivotal to helping your team not feel overwhelmed.

What tools jumped out at you? Be sure to let us know what’s best for your team in the comments. If you have any questions about how a mobile app can help your firm and sync with software securely, send us a message, and let’s chat about how Centerbase can simplify everyday tasks and put more time back in your billing and day-to-day operations.

 

Thanks for tuning in! If you have some time, check out our blog on Everything You Need to Know About Communicating With Your Clients Via Text: The Good and the Bad

Like many industries, the legal profession isn’t immune to the rapid changes in technology. Constant developments in legal automation have made scanning documents, finding case matters, and handling client communication a whole lot more efficient – but at what cost, really? How is the legal industry rising to these new challenges in automation, and what ways can you stay ahead of the curve?

We’re glad you asked. In this blog, we’re going to discuss the ways legal automation tools help bolster operational efficiency in a way that benefits your firm, and doesn’t add unnecessary steps or complications.

What is Legal Automation?

For context, legal automation is the process of using software to help organize and manage all tasks in a firm.

What does that mean, exactly? Things that attorneys and other firm employees used to do via a physical paper trail are now all (or mostly) accomplished digitally. Many common tasks attorneys performed twenty years ago are now automated – a whopping 23%, according to McKinsey – which has undoubtedly raised new disruption challenges throughout firms. Ensuring these legal tech systems are secure, adopted by everyone, and made for efficiency are essential. For many firms, adopting new technology while maintaining a profitable level of operations feels incredibly daunting, which is why resistance may occur.

From employees touting the age-old “I’ve always done it this way,” to partners feeling reluctant to invest in a technology they may not feel comfortable in, there’s plenty of worries about stepping into the nascent world of automation. But when you dive in, there are double the amount of benefits to doubts if implemented correctly. Not only does it help mitigate human error, but it also saves considerable time, which is the biggest benefit where automation is concerned. The very definition of efficiency denotes organization and orderliness – two things legal automation is primed to accomplish for you.

The above are just a few reasons as to why it’s essential to choose software that ticks all the boxes on efficiency, and gets everyone onboarded in a way that rewards adoption, not rejection.

4 Ways Legal Automation Increases Efficiency

The nice – not to mention extra efficient – thing about practice management software is you can customize these actions to your firm’s needs. That admin work of endless data entry is greatly reduced with the proper set of rules established while onboarding your software.

Whether it’s generating a monthly report on case matter stats and what stage they’re all in, these workflows are a huge time saver that we’ll expand on more later. Or if you're very intrigued, you can check out the blog, Everything You Need to Know About Legal Workflow Automation and Why You Should Have It.

The biggest takeaway here: workflows are both customizable and easy to use, which yield themselves to increasing efficiency in any firm.

2. Auto Triggers and Task Automation Boosts Accuracy

We’ve all been there – moving too quickly between tasks, trying to check off as many things on our to-dos as possible. It’s unfortunately the prime opportunity for mistakes to occur, and we all know mistakes are costly in time and money, not to mention inefficient.

Auto triggers are a form of workflow, and fire off whenever you create or modify a record or when a given set of criteria is true (usually taking the form of a query). This lets you automatically transfer information from Centerbase into your matters, which is extra convenient if you’re trying to send correspondence or follow an exact timeline for litigation. Legal automation makes everyday data entry and updates simpler than ever before.

Want to see how Centerbase does it?

Here’s a use case where we assign a client email address to their matter that generates if the query is blank.

3. Reduce Time Spent Generating Documents for Clients

Templated documents for clients is a tale as old as time, but legal automation takes it one step further with merging queries and data en masse. The ability to create document templates by merging information stored in your legal software cuts down on data entry and the chance to make mistakes.

Even better – you can easily open and save client documents from Microsoft Word in Centerbase, making it easy to work within the programs you and your employees are comfortable in. The idea of bolstering efficiency is not reinventing the wheel and having software that doesn’t overcomplicate, but empowers people to work efficiently. Integration with Microsoft and NetDocuments is one of the many ways Centerbase strives to take the curve off learning something entirely new.

4. Automate Client Emails

Client reminder emails become effortless with legal automation. You can kiss goodbye the days of sticky notes and harsh dings on your calendar reminding you to send update emails. With the proper legal tech, an automatic email notification can be sent every time a case matter moves to a different stage, meaning everyone stays informed and up-to-date on the case in real-time.

Less manual project management means more time back in everyone’s day to focus on staying profitable and delivering above and beyond customer service that creates rapport, referrals, and client retention.

How Automation will Change Legal Jobs

Technology is changing the legal landscape for everyone involved, and now’s the time to put plans in motion for boosting efficiency. In order to adapt, great software and great people are going to be your best resources for saving time. The automation features discussed are among the few benefits that encompass legal software – there are many more. These powerful additions will help improve day-to-day processes and ensure your staff get things done faster and more effectively.

Due to this technology, everyone’s jobs are going to change in ways that require more people interaction. Technology will become a bridge toward helping us interact without a computer screen being a barrier. If nothing else, it will be an invitation to ensure communication and relationships get built, and that everyone at your firm can be ready to adapt – attorneys, accountants, legal assistants, and all working together toward a common goal. It’s this ideal we strive for with legal technology and software.

Still wondering how to save time and increase efficiency in the form of billable hours and extra time back in your days, weeks, and months? (That’s another benefit of legal automation – you’ll continue to see the time saved compared to when you didn’t have it.)

Our mission is to help you serve your clients better – whatever that looks like. Every area of law and its requirements are different, after all, but the right software system adapts seamlessly to what you need. At Centerbase, our technology adapts to fit your needs, not the other way around. Feel free to schedule a free, no-obligation demo with Centerbase to see how we can boost efficiency in your everyday processes with legal automation.

Throughout the course of history, technology has been a disruptive force that has completely changed the landscape of many industries. Technology continues to reshape the way the world works and that is no exception for the legal space. The emergence of the technologies we’re seeing today, such as A.I., virtual law, and integration tools are a few of the disruptors that will most likely change the trajectory of the next generation.

The bad news is, if your firm can’t keep up with technology, you will quickly lose your competitive edge. But don’t worry, there is good news. Adopting this technology is not as dreadful as it sounds, in fact, once you get over the mental hurdle, the actual implementation and utilization will have you regretting that you didn’t make the jump sooner.

We are in an era where the shift to mobile and cloud computing for small to medium firms is as far-reaching as the shift to adopting computers was over 30 years ago. At the end of the day, the technology that is available now will allow you to provide better client services and attain higher revenue-driven results. Additionally, you will begin to notice that technology becomes an integral part of attracting new clients. Technology has the power to improve an organization’s efficiency if used appropriately. Most traditional law firms are gradually losing ground due to increased competition put on by the digitally advanced firms.

If that made you start to sweat, don't worry! The simple answer to this is to be open to new technology and avoid resistance to change. The return on your investment will be far more impressive from an operational and financial standpoint than the risks associated with pursuing the technology needed to remain competitive. As the adage goes, work smarter, not harder. Implementing legal technology at your firm will allow you to focus on your clients and generate more revenue without increasing your workload. If you think that sounds too good to be true, you better believe that in 2020 it’s an attainable reality.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways firms can successfully operate in this new world and meet the pace of demand that the younger, tech-savvy consumer base is expecting.

Prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation

With the introduction of AI and automation systems, law processes are being simplified. Today, legal documents are being recorded, physical paperwork is being organized and converted into digital files, search and discover features are increasing efficiency, automated workflow engines are assigning tasks for team members, and much more.

AI has not made a huge splash in the marketplace just yet, as rigorous testing and experimentation is still being conducted. However, let’s take a look at some of the features this type of advanced technology could offer your firm in the future. Currently, what many researchers are talking about is AI’s ability to assist in the discovery phase of a lawsuit. AI’s ability to rapidly confirm facts expedites the process of finding background information, which can accelerate arbitration and litigation proceedings. According to an article from Forbes, AI “can review documents and flag them as particular to a case. Once a certain type of document is denoted as relevant, machine learning algorithms can get to work to find other documents that are similarly relevant.” This type of AI and automation can often help sort out problems faster with fewer mistakes that are often overlooked by the human eye. In general, automation enhances consistency in contract and document creation and streamlines your client intake process.

As research and development continue, AI and automation will become increasingly more prevalent with many more functions than the ones just listed. Artificial Intelligence can’t take the place of a lawyer, but law firms today can choose more tech-savvy professionals over others. Doing so will significantly decrease the learning curve and informed pessimism of technology adoption in the future. For now, this type of technology may not be widely used, but one day it will be.

Virtual law practice

In The Disadvantages of Working Remotely: How Legal Professionals Can Overcome Them, we discuss the challenges of working outside of the office and the solutions to mitigate some of those pain points. Our new normal includes this transition between working at the office and at home, and there are a variety of drivers, such as work-life integration, travel requirements, and cost-of-living management that all come into play. Working remotely, however, means that technology needs to be used to facilitate business activity in an effective and professional manner.

Some firms are starting to support their teams bringing their own electronics and devices, like personal tablets and laptops. This requires implementing controls to configure and protect noncorporate devices and reimbursement protocols. This also implicates document sharing technology to discourage local storage and encourage central document management.

The younger generations are contributing to this trend as they strongly identify with specific tools and technology, and prefer to continue using tools familiar to them when joining a new company.

Corporate cultural norms are also changing. For example, remote employees are encouraged to turn on their cameras in video meetings so that others on the call may personally interact with them. Because of this, anyone who works in an office must still adapt to virtual practices when working with outside counsel or business partners. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, there will be a mix of remote versus in-office staff, and technology is the only link between them.

Norms also include the prevalence of instant messaging or chat capability, which fosters less stringent communication protocols — which as a result may lead to increase council involvement in potential risk situations stemming from hostile work environments, generally inappropriate discussions, or communication surrounding IP.

With all this being said, the virtual work environment is a tremendous advantage to business continuity and emergency activities. With technology, firms can easily manage workload while remote, stay abreast of litigation matters, and sign documents — without these capabilities, moving forward through the future would be much tougher.

Life integration tools

Given the prevalence of virtual workstyles, globalization, and scope of work, lawyers seem to never be away from work. Newer generations of lawyers — digital natives — grew up managing communication channels. Their integration of tech into their workflow is more natural than for those who are just learning to maximize technology.

Many mobile devices and apps now include virtual assistants that can add tasks and calendar slots based on email or oral statements. At times, this may seem intrusive, but the convenience is real. Smart homes that integrate with your car, phone, and emails can truly simplify everyday items, such as displaying the security wait line time for your flight or order groceries to be delivered right as you arrive home. These same luxuries can be put into context for your firm. With a click of a button, you can deliver anything you want to your front door. With that same click, you can seamlessly send your clients their bills, and everything related to their matters are now in one easy to access place. View deadlines, parties, documents, emails, and outstanding bills from one screen with your deadlines automatically generating and populating your calendar.

It is also common for people to have two or more email accounts on their phones that allow easy navigation between work and personal messages. Unfortunately, apps also make it easy to save documents to an online service for anywhere-access. This makes it too easy to commingle work and personal documents, so firms should remember that convenience comes with a cost.

Managing your work-life balance is crucial. Cloud-based practice management technology is the best way to keep you organized and connected. And best of all, it will always be available when you need it, where you need it. As we look to the future and how the world is developing, having a cloud-based practice management software is a simple advantage you can’t afford to look past.

Law industry falling behind the curve – why it matters

Technology is so advanced these days, almost everyone has a smartphone, most corporate offices are tech-savvy, and even children are given more technical educations.

In a world that breeds competition, clients only continue to lean towards the tech-savvy law firms who meet their needs in the most modern and advanced ways possible. Because of this, there is an undeniable threat to the existence of the law firms who choose not to take advantage of what technology offers them.

At the end of the day, all the legal processes become very time consuming when technology is not used. Introducing automation can help in various small to large scale problems and cloud-based technology provides users secure access to their data whenever and wherever they are.

The bottom line

Change is the only constant in the world, and technology, in large part, is what drives that. Emerging digital technologies like AI are uniquely positioned to disrupt how law firms conduct their businesses today. This, coupled with the fact that client’s needs are changing and the younger generation is inherently more immersed in tech means that Law firms need to be constantly innovating and should invest in technologically driven infrastructure to keep up with the pace of the economy and these customers.

The nonstop progress in technology is changing how many lawyers work and how firms operate as a whole. Between changes in their working style and enhancements that improve efficiency, the field is evolving. The legal industry and all its parts must advance along with the rest of the world because the innovation and change we are seeing right now is only the beginning, and it won’t stop for anyone.

If you’ve ever braved the cold winter in Chicago to attend the ABA TECHSHOW or if you plan to attend in the future, you’ll quickly notice that over half the vendors tout themselves as ‘Practice Management Software.’ But, as hot as the practice management space is in legal tech, less than 60% of small-to-midsize law firms actually have practice management software. The vast majority of firms primarily still rely on their billing software to store client information, Outlook to archive emails/calendar/store contact information, and a folder on their firm’s 'x drive' to manage all case documents.

Change can be hard, that’s not a new fact. But what could be even harder is getting partner buy-in to pursue and adopt that change. Over the years, we have compiled some tips and tricks on how our clients have successfully pitched purchasing practice management software to their law firms. We found that the firms who have adopted new technology look for the best ways, venues, and times to voice their ideas and concerns—using rhetorical skill, driven data, and interpersonal connections to move the right leaders to action. These internal change-drivers are seen to employ specific tactics significantly more often than individuals who don’t succeed in gaining firm buy-in.

Evaluate Your Current State

Before you even begin thinking about shopping for software, you need to clearly understand the pain points your firm is experiencing. Are you having a hard time managing your matters? Do you have a slower intake process? Poor internal and external communication channels? Identifying your weaknesses and eliminating waste should be your first step. Take time to do your research. Speak with multiple people from different departments, different positions, and different tenures at the firm. Try to be open-minded and listen to all the issues your staff is having, even if they don't directly affect the decision to purchase new software. The more pain points you can find, the more open ears you’ll have in the room eager to hear a new solution.

Involve Others

Building a task force generates organizational buy-in more quickly and on a larger scale as more people contribute energy and resources. Negotiation experts would tell you to mobilize your allies, persuade your blockers to support the software or at least back-off, and show the fence-sitters why they should care about what you’re presenting.

If you are a small firm, it might only be one or two people, but having a few people on your side is always helpful. Creating a task force also offers you multiple perspectives when you are meeting with software vendors.

Frame the Issue

A problem’s place on your firm’s list of priorities depends heavily on how you package the idea. A new software might seem like techie trivia until you explain how it supports a strategic goal. For example, if your team is losing notable time manually sending out bills, legal software can completely eliminate that wasted time by allowing you to email bills out to your clients in one click. Now, that problem is a priority to solve. Once people in your firm see how your initiative fits into the big picture, they’ll be more willing to devote resources to it.

Similarly, if you’re a firm administrator presenting a use case to your partners on the benefits of financial reporting software, you can describe how transitioning to the new software will enable you to quickly generate the reports they need. It will allow you to understand what receivables are due to be collected, pinpoint who the high revenue clients are, quickly build general ledger budgets to identify trends, timekeeper budgets to hit more targets, and matter budgets to keep clients satisfied. By highlighting specifically what would be gained from the software, you create a sense of urgency for partners.

Although focusing on business benefits is often safer, also consider presenting the software as an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed. Present what your firm stands to gain from your ideas and emphasize the positives. This will work to inspire optimism and buy-in. Additionally, highlighting a threat—a consequence of not adopting your idea—can also create pressure to act. But take note that it can also backfire: The person who created or currently implements the method of operation may be sensitive to your critiques and proposal for change. It may be hard to predict whether it will spur action—the classic “fight” response—or result in “flight.”

Manage Emotions on Both Sides

Because selling your firm on a new software is an interpersonal activity, often involving financial and cultural change, it will inevitably stir up some emotions. Passion, if appropriately expressed, will improve your chances of gaining attention and triggering action. There’s a fine line, however, between passion and anger. You may be proposing a new cloud software because your hard drives are simply not cutting it, or you’re just fed up with existing inefficiencies. And as you encounter roadblocks to your selling efforts, your frustrations may intensify.

Though strong emotions can be channeled into a rousing appeal for action, when unregulated, they’re more likely to diminish your influence. Unfortunately, managing partners who detect negative emotions from associates offering input may tend to perceive those employees as complainers, not as change agents.

Time the Pitch Appropriately

It’s critical to find the right moment to pitch the new software. That moment might be when organizational priorities shift, when certain players leave or join the firm, or when a partner’s preoccupations change. Take notice of when more and more people are beginning to care about a larger topic or trend that’s related to the issue they face. For example, if you notice that your attorneys are becoming increasingly annoyed with having to repeatedly print pre-bills to make corrections, that could be a good time to bring up features like electronic pre-bill approval that will help streamline your billing process and improve cash flow.

In addition to keeping a close eye on larger trends and events, it’s important to be mindful of deadlines and initiatives too. If your firm is looking to improve its client intake process and focus on client conversion rates by a certain time, then that would be an optimal moment to highlight the benefits of a software that includes custom contact forms, automated intake processes, and comprehensive conflict checks. Conversely, when a deadline is far away and partners are still in exploration mode, open-ended inquiry can be more effective than proposing a specific solution.

Gear Your Pitch to the People in the Room

Tailor your findings to the people who you’re pitching to. At the end of the day, everyone’s end goal at the firm should be the same, but every team has their own day-to-day objectives and priorities. For example, a partner is most likely concerned with growing top-line revenue, while a paralegal may be more wrapped up in client and matter onboarding. If you’re pitching a new software to your firms managing partners, frame the obstacles in a context that would most pique their interest. If you know they are worried about ensuring costs get billed back to clients, bring up features where integrated credit card feeds and account payable modules are available to make it easier to bill expenses back to clients as they’re being entered. Or if you know management's top priority is automating non-billable activities, show them workflow engines that make it easy to automate non-billable, administrative work such as sending follow-up emails, updating client information, or calendaring tasks. You will have greater success if you familiarize yourself with your audience’s unique blend of goals, values, and knowledge and to allow that insight to shape your pitch.

The Take-Aways

There are many types of legal software to choose from. Evaluating where your firm is will be critical in not only selecting one, but then proving to your management team why the firm needs it. Your pitch will fall flat if you can't articulate what is needed and what is not. Locate your pain points, assemble a task force, and identify the right time and emotional setting to present your findings and solutions to your partners.

There are no set prescriptions that can capture the nuances of every environment or remove the risks and potential difficulties of pitching a software. If you can give actual ROI numbers, you have a better chance of selling partners that aren't totally sold. Bring literature from the practice management software providers you've chosen, include pricing quotes, and have some success stories in your back pocket. Arming yourself with as much information as possible will greatly assist you in selling the adoption of the software you want.