Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners, Technology

This Week In Legal Tech: 10 Reasons You Should Use Practice Management Software

Greater productivity isn't the only reason to use a PM application, according to tech columnist Robert Ambrogi.

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law technology legal tech computer laptopSomeone said to me recently something to the effect of, “I use a popular practice management application, but I’m not sure it makes me any more productive.” The assumption underlying that statement was that greater productivity is the primary reason to use a PM application. In fact, there are a number of good reasons. Here are 10 that come readily to mind.

  1. Bill more hours. A 2014 study by Blue Hill Research, Building A Business Case for Law Practice Management, looked at the use of PM software at 45 law firms of 50 or fewer attorneys. It found that lawyers using PM software reduced the time they spent on administrative and non-billable tasks by four to eight hours a month. Lawyers did not necessarily convert all of that time to billable hours. But at smaller firms – particularly firms of fewer than five attorneys – they did, converting nearly 100 percent of that non-billable time to billable.
  1. Generate more revenue. That same Blue Hill study looked at how the increase in billable time would impact revenue. Assuming the cost of the PM software to be $45 a month and the average hourly rate to be $233.70, the report found that lawyers who use PM software could increase their annual revenue by $2,264 to $21,895. The low end would be lawyers who convert just 25 percent of saved hours to billable hours, while the high end would be those who convert 100 percent of the saved hours. At the high end, that is a return on investment of 4,055 percent.
  1. Reduce salaries and overhead. The Blue Hill study also looked at the impact of PM software on staffing. It found a median per-user reduction in staff of 40 percent. Assuming a median support staff salary of $59,969, that is an annual reduction in salary of $42,835 for a five-lawyer firm and of $428,350 for a 50-lawyer firm. That number does not include savings in overhead and corollary employee costs.

  1. Clio’s new iPhone app.

    Be fully mobile. A major advantage of all of the cloud-based PM platforms over older, locally installed programs is that you can access them from anywhere on any device. No matter where you, whether or not you have your laptop with you, you can have full access to your matters. Some PM platforms have their own native apps, such as Clio (whose new app I just reviewed) and Rocket Matter. Others use mobile-optimized web apps, such as Thomson Reuters Firm Central.

  1. Capture more time. PM platforms help you capture more time in several ways. All of them include timers for recording your time. Some, such as Cosmolex and Rocket Matter, let you run multiple timers so you can switch easily among tasks without losing track of a second. Mobile apps let you record time on the road, rather than try to reconstruct it later at the office. LexisNexis Firm Manager touts a Money Finder feature that flags activity you haven’t billed.
  1. Get paid faster. PM systems help you get paid faster in two ways. First, they streamline the process of generating invoices, allowing you to create invoices with literally the click (or two) of a button. Second, several of them enable you to accept credit card payments – either through integrations with companies such as LawPay or directly within the platform, as MyCase does – making it easy for clients to pay your invoices. Some platforms even embed a credit-card payment button directly in the invoice. Clio says that its users who accept credit card payments get paid 35 percent faster than those who do not.

    Cosmolex lets you run multiple timers as you switch among tasks.

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  1. Avoid malpractice. Among the most common causes of legal malpractice claims are administrative errors such as a failure to calendar a deadline or event or to use a tickler, according to a 2010 Law Practice magazine article by Dan Pinnington. Conflicts of interest are also a leading cause of malpractice claims, said a 2015 Law.com article. A PM system with integrated calendaring, reminders and conflicts checking reduces your exposure for both these types of claims. Some further reduce your exposure by integrating with court deadline calculators such as LawToolBox.com.
  1. Be more secure. When you use a PM system from an established, reputable PM company, you can be confident that your data is secure, both when you are using it and in its storage on the company’s servers. On top of that, your data is typically backed up on a regular basis and in redundant locations. For a solo or small firm, the data security and storage you get from a PM company will generally far exceed your own internal protections.
  1. Stay better organized. The key word in a practice management system is “management.” With a PM system, everything is in one place. All of your contacts, calendars, matters, documents, tasks and billing are available within a single interface. Some, such as Zola Suite, even have their own email client. And for each matter, everything associated with that matter is kept together. Notes you make of phone calls, documents you draft, emails you send or receive, are all associated with the matter to which they relate, so you always know where to find what you need.
  1. Eliminate IT hassles and costs. A major benefit of a cloud-based PM system is that it eliminates IT headaches. Everything runs in the cloud, so all you need is a browser. That means no expensive hardware or upgrades. No late-night calls to your IT support person. No downtime to deploy upgrades or perform system maintenance. All of that is the PM company’s problem.

So there are 10 reasons. No doubt you have others. I’d love to hear them. Send them to me by email or on Twitter.

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Robert Ambrogi is a Massachusetts lawyer and journalist who has been covering legal technology and the web for more than 20 years, primarily through his blog LawSites.com. Former editor-in-chief of several legal newspapers, he is a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and an inaugural Fastcase 50 honoree. He can be reached by email at ambrogi@gmail.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@BobAmbrogi).

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