Legal Technology: Small Is Beautiful
What are the advantages offered by smaller legal-technology providers? Kevin O'Keefe presents the case study of Clio.
Big used to matter in companies providing legal support, research, and services solutions to law firms.
Lots of money, broad distribution networks, seasoned executives, big conference booths, and fancy branding collateral.
Big was the safe choice. You didn’t get fired for buying from the big company from which every other law firm was buying.
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No longer. Small startups are becoming the providers of choice for law firms across the country — and the world.
First, larger legal companies are struggling. They are laying off people. They’re have trouble bringing innovation to the market. Will they be around for the long haul?
Second, law firms like small, for a lot of reasons:
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- Founders and company leaders interact directly with customers.
- Founders are close to decisions that matter for customers, and make those decisions quickly.
- Founders and team members personally know the pain and struggles of building businesses, just like lawyers are doing.
- Founders know customers by name and have a sincere desire to get to know their customers as people.
Clio is one of these upstarts.
The legal case management platform was created just six years ago, coded by two childhood friends who’d quit their day jobs because they wanted to start a business together. They actually had before, and failed. In the battle for the future of the legal profession, this much-discussed effort to reinvent law, Clio is an underdog.
It didn’t look like it on Monday.
Music blared and bright lights flashed as co-founder and CEO Jack Newton kicked off the annual Clio Cloud Conference — a celebration of what they’ve accomplished, a look ahead at what Clio plans to do next, and an opportunity to bring together those who share a similar passion for doing better in a profession that desperately needs it.
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“More of a tech conference vibe here than a stale legal conference,” tweeted Omar Ha-Redeye. “Loving it.”
“#ClioCloud9 is a breath of fresh air for legal events,” typed Jabez Labret. “This is how it’s done!”
I’ve been to a number of these “stale legal conferences.” Admittedly, clearing the bar that is the standard for such events may not be difficult. Still, Clio soared over it. We may be seeing the beginnings of a huge legal conference a la Salesforce’s Dreamforce.
Clio is soaring on the cloud-based legal practice management software front as well. While still dwarfed by the big boys with billions of dollars, Clio is bringing innovation and grabbing market share. From 10 users in 2008, Clio has grown to 35,000 users in 50 countries today — from small and solo firms to developing for firms with 50 to 100 lawyers.
Forty members of team Clio and nearly 500 lawyers and other legal professionals were on hand this week in Chicago — and they’re not the only ones who think there’s clearly something here. Earlier this year, Clio raised $17.9 million in venture capital from Bessemer Venture Partners, an early-stage investor in Skype, LinkedIn, Yelp, Pinterest, and others.
This funding puts Clio among not just the most well-funded legal startups, but all startups. Bessemer’s Trevor Oelschig said they “see SaaS companies strike gold by providing specialized solutions tailored to a specific vertical rather than going for a ‘one-size-fits-all’ enterprise software” and that “Clio has already shown incredible traction in the legal space and demonstrated a deep understanding of how to tangibly improve the day-to-day workflow for lawyers.”
Clio’s value offering isn’t solely focused on money, on turning as many waking moments as possible into another chance to bump law firm profitability. “We offer our customers one of life’s most precious resources,” says Newton. “Time.”
Clio and its lawyer customers have found Clio saves them eight hours a week. In this extra day per week, Newton, the father of three young children, wants lawyers to focus on quality of life, their team, personal matters, and family.
In a profession that ranks among the worst in terms of depression and job satisfaction, Clio’s doing what it can to give lawyers their lives back. And this focus on people, on the day-to-day lives of the clients they work with, is paramount in everything they do. And it expands beyond the existing legal workforce, as Clio’s platform is free to law schools; the company donates $7.3 million in value annually to students at more than 130 schools.
Clio understands that, in an era where everything is Yelpified and social media can spread good news just as quickly as it can bad, lawyers — particularly solos and lawyers at small firms — can’t afford to provide bad user experiences. Or, maybe more appropriately, they can set themselves apart from others by focusing on making it exceptional.
To this point, it’s clear they’ve done it themselves. Like their product does for their clients, Clio is the underdog that’s proving itself every bit as capable as the longstanding giants. And like them, they now have the resources to level the playing field — resources that have enabled them, as announced this week, to launch an Android application and partner with fellow upstart Fastcase.
Clio’s doing something here, something big. Their story is an inspiring one. For every lawyer out there looking to make a name for themselves, aiming to put a dent in the world in their chosen area of expertise, there’s a company that’s doing the same — and thriving.
Where do they go from here? It’s hard to say for sure. But before long, we’re going to see this upstart partner with larger law firms that parallel their own upward trajectory. And when they do, Clio will surge past this underdog status, with a very real opportunity to, if not reinvent law, dramatically reshape it.
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Fastcase Integrates With Clio’s Cloud Practice Management Suite [Fastcase]
Ed. note: Clio is an ATL advertiser (although this post was written by two of ATL’s outside contributors, Kevin and Colin O’Keefe of LexBlog, not at the direction of ATL).
Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) is the CEO and founder of LexBlog, which empowers lawyers to increase their visibility and accelerate business relationships online. With LexBlog’s help, legal professionals use their subject matter expertise to drive powerful business development through blogging and social media. Visit LexBlog.com.
Colin O’Keefe is editorial manager at LexBlog. Drawing on his background as a professionally trained journalist and seasoned sports blogger, he reviews and curates all the commentary produced by LexBlog Network members. Utilizing established best practices and observations of what’s worked, he also counsels lawyers on effective online writing.
LexBlog also hosts LXBN, the world’s largest network of professional blogs. With more than 8,000 authors, LXBN is the only media source featuring the latest lawyer-generated commentary on news and issues from around the globe. Visit lxbn.com now.
