The legal industry faces unique challenges in marketing and client retention. Attorneys need to sell their time in order to make a living, but there are only so many hours in the day. Luckily, there is a universe of software applications out there specialized to help firms manage their practices, stay within the regulations, and make money.
Practice Management Software
The primary innovation in legal software has been the rise of Practice Management software. Practice Management differs from traditional CRM in that it focuses on managing day-to-day firm operations. This includes client communications, case management, billing, and court rules (usually as an add-on service). A firm’s attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries will log into the system to manage cases and update files. In essence, the Practice Management software becomes the firm’s virtual office. This can allow a firm to operate entirely remotely and eliminate the overhead of maintaining a physical office. It also makes it much more efficient for firms to communicate with out-of-state associates and specialists. What’s more, time tracking can be done entirely within the Practice Management interface, making oversight and revenue targeting very simple. This is all tied together with quick access to the firm’s financial information, including accounts and invoices.
Practice Management software as a concept is nothing new,
CLIO vs. PracticePanther
CLIO is perhaps the best-known legal Practice Management platform. They’ve been around for 10 years and have been at the forefront of developing a design language and philosophy that uniquely caters to the legal industry. PracticePanther is a bit newer, but have developed a solid product. Both pieces of software offer all the tools you need to run your firm. In terms of pricing and support, both are at about the same level, with PracticePanther being a little cheaper overall. When it comes to integrations, both systems offer LEDES billing support and access to court rules. However, CLIO comes out ahead in this area, offering integrations with many pieces of billing, legal research, document management, and practice-area specific software. We would recommend either platform to a firm looking to start using Practice Management software.
What About Marketing?
All this may sound great, but what about getting clients into the system in the first place? That’s where CRM comes in. Just like there is specialized Practice Management software for the legal industry, there is special CRM software out there, too. Legal CRM is generally focused on automating the client intake process, but this doesn’t mean getting rid of the human touch. Automation is intended to allow your staff to focus on letting incoming clients know they are being taken care of while intake paperwork processes are automated. Lexicata, Captorra, and Law Ruler are all great options offering some wonderful innovations, but there are many more out there.
Next Steps
Even if you are a small firm or have a solo practice, you probably need some form of Practice Management software. Ask yourself – can you see a record of all communications with a specific client on a moment’s notice? Can you pull up the firm’s current accounts receivable vs monthly overhead with the touch of a button? Is every moment you spend working a particular case immediately attached to billing for that case? All of these things can be done with Practice Management software. If you are already using some form of software for your firm, ask yourself – is my firm actually using it, or do we still do much of our work outside the software so that it must be manually entered or even gets lost? Is it helping us increase billable hours and meet revenue targets? Is our current software more than just another monthly debit decreasing our bottom line? Honest answers here will help you determine if you need new software or help with the software you have!
Let YTA Business Services Help!
That’s where we come in. Aside from being CRM experts, YTA has over 30