Law practice management software is crucial to managing the complexities of any modern law practice. However, traditional law office management software can be expensive, cumbersome to navigate and prone to such frequent glitches that your IT consultant becomes a permanent fixture in your law office.
The good news is that there are other alternatives available, including web-based law practice management systems, a relatively new breed of practice management software.
Advantages include lower costs due to reduced overhead, less hassle related to maintaining and upgrading the case management system and greater flexibility, since the Web-based system can be accessed anywhere, at anytime.
If you decide that a web-based system may be a good fit for your law office, there are a number of good alternatives from which to choose. Each of these systems offers variations of calendar and task management, time tracking and billing and document management.
One of the first online management systems to be offered to lawyers is Clio. One nice feature unique to Clio is Client Connect, which allows attorneys to securely communicate and collaborate with their clients.
Rocket Matter is another well known system that offers users an intuitive interface and a great tagging feature that allows documents to be tagged with keywords. This unique feature allows the documents to be easily located.
Another web-based system well suited for larger law firms is LawRD. A distinguishing feature of this platform is that it helps managing partners review and track associates’ time sheets, expenses and assigned tasks.
Finally, VLOTech is a web-based system that adopts the legal cloud computing model, allowing lawyers to set up a virtual law office and providing them with the opportunity to practice law in the absence of a physical law office. The VLOTech platform can also be used as practice management software that allows lawyers to supplement their brick and mortar practice with a virtual law office alternative.
If you’re considering adopting an online practice management system for your firm, these platforms are a great place to start. But, before making the leap there are a number of important ethical and security issues to consider, which we’ll discuss in subsequent posts.
