Has the feedback you’ve received from your client surveys been lackluster? We aren’t talking about unhappy clients or low scores. We’re talking about feedback that is beneficial to help your small law firm grow, evolve, and better serve your clients. 

According to Ashley Steckler, Lawyerist Product Director, if you’re finding yourself in this position, you may not be asking the right questions. She outlines five tips to adjust and improve your feedback surveys and enhance client feedback.

Ask Yourself What You Want to Learn and How to Approach It

The first step in designing a feedback survey is establishing what you want to learn from your clients. Ashley suggests being very clear about what’s the most important information you need and what sort of data you want as a result. “Start by asking yourself: what do I really want to learn and what’s the simplest way that I can ask?” she said. 

Mirror your regular communication method when sending your survey. If you regularly use a client portal that facilitates texting between client and attorney, stick with that. But, if you’ve never sent a text to your client, don’t send them a survey via text. Whichever communication method you opt for, make accessing your survey an easy, one-click step. 

Keep it Short, But Don’t Keep it Too Simple 

According to Ashley, questions like “tell us how we did” and “how was your experience” are counterproductive to useful answers. These open-ended, general questions are often unclear and make it unlikely you’ll receive the responses you want.

Start with easy questions, like “Rate your experience with our firm on a scale of one to five,” or “How likely are you to refer us to someone?” Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to, like contact or demographic information. This will help avoid survey fatigue before getting to more important questions. 

Clients shouldn’t spend more than three to five minutes completing a survey. Remember, they are doing you a favor by taking the time to offer feedback. Think about how much time you want them to invest. “Anything that extends beyond five minutes is too much—too thoughtful, too time-consuming, too many examples, too much writing,” she said.

Set your expectations upfront in summary language and establish that you’re looking for top-of-mind responses, not paragraph-long responses. “Train of thought answers are the most authentic. We don’t want people to try to wordsmith what they want to most perfectly let us know,” said Ashley. So, you might ask: “Briefly, what comes to mind when you think about your experience with our firm?” You’ll likely get what’s top of mind.

Stay Away from Internal Jargon

Part of being a client-centered firm means making sure clients have a solid understanding of what they can expect. You want to do the same when soliciting feedback. Use plain and simple language that your clients are familiar with and avoid using internal jargon. “You want to use the language clients have already come to expect in your communication,” said Ashley. 

For example, clients may not know what an estate plan is, but they probably know the purpose of a will. Don’t confuse clients with industry lingo and keep your questions simple and easily digestible.

Scale Your Survey from One to Five (Not Beyond)

Use a scale of one to five to capture data. “People don’t know what seven and eight mean,” Ashley said. “But they can think: one, horrible, five, fantastic.” The first question can set the tone for further questions and allow you to capture the client’s thoughts and expectations.

Identify this scale for the client. For example, if you’re asking them to rate if their expectations were met during their consultation, identify the scale as: yes, mostly, somewhat, not really, or no. Simple and easy-to-answer questions like these will help you get a sense of how your current processes are working and where improvements should be made.

Always Keep Your Client In Mind

At its root, the purpose of client feedback helps you better serve your clients. Center your feedback requests around how their response will benefit their experience. 

“The request for feedback shouldn’t be framed as a favor to you,” said Ashley. “It should show what is the value and why it’s helpful to others from the perspective of service. Even if you’re asking for client feedback in the way of a Google review.”

Don’t pigeonhole your clients into answering every single thing by making every question mandatory. Allow them to answer the questions they want to answer. 

Ensure your request is inclusive and allow for other ways for clients to respond. “Maybe they don’t like filling out forms, but they would be happy to answer questions on a call or do an easy-entry video,” said Ashley. Options always offer more incentives.  

For a more in-depth look at perfecting your client feedback experience, listen to Episode 424 of The Lawyerist Podcast. For even more help, look for Ashley’s workshops and coaching schedule in Lawyerist Lab. 

The post Ask The Right Questions to Get Better Client Feedback   appeared first on Lawyerist.

I’ve spoken with a lot of lawyers who want to make their own software. In fact, as a creditor’s rights attorney, I knew quite a few who developed platforms for their own use. Many of them entertain the idea of selling these platforms to others. Yet, few of them try, and still fewer of them are successful.

What is it, then, that allows some lawyers to tap into this alternative income stream? And why are others left simply dreaming of what they could do? Software development for lawyers is about selling processes. The firms that have good processes to sell will find success. Others will not.

Impetus for Building Software

Lawyers often find themselves wishing that a platform would do something more. Nothing ever works perfectly for the systems they have in place. Which makes sense. There are countless ways to practice law within the practice of law. So, unless a lawyer is willing to adjust their processes to fit the system, the system will never be enough.

Commonly, this leads a firm to build their own product based around their own systems If a firm has the need and the means, it’s not a bad idea to build something bespoke that fits their firm perfectly.

Although this is a great reason to build a product internally, it’s not a great reason to sell the product externally. 

Selling Processes Rather than Software

As stated earlier, no product will be perfect for a firm unless the firm is willing to adjust its practices and procedures to fit the product. This is true for any software. Yes, some tools fit well into a firm’s procedures, but they don’t generally fit everything. 

This was true for Greg Siskind, a Lawyerist Community member and renowned immigration attorney. With his team from Siskind & Susser, he has designed an immigration-specific practice management platform. They are co-developing it with FastCase, using the NextChapter software.

From his perspective, this platform is a natural extension of a book that his team has published for decades. They refer to it as the Immigration Cookbook, and it helps other attorneys learn proper practices and procedures for immigration cases.

With this new software, practicing immigration attorneys won’t need to adjust their systems and procedures just to use it. They’ve already done that when buying into the Cookbook. Here, Greg and his team have already sold the processes. The software is simply a way to use current technology to implement those processes.

Developing Software as an Attorney

Software development for attorneys, then, is not really about building software. It’s about building processes. And, frankly, it’s about building better processes than the next attorney. Then, and only then, can a firm develop a successful application. Future users will have to see a need to use the system upon which the software is built. Otherwise, they may just develop something on their own.

Further Reading

Check out our Healthy Systems resources to learn more about developing processes and procedures for your firm. There, you’ll see how to build processes, document them, and implement them into your particular practice.

The post Monetizing Your Firm’s Internal Processes appeared first on Lawyerist.

Great brands produce an immediate, visceral feeling. If you see the Apple, Coke, McDonald’s, or Nike logo, you know what it is and have an instantaneous association with it. Apple makes high-end digital devices. Coke makes soda. McDonald’s is fast food. Nike is athletic performance. You can dispute those descriptions, but there’s a shared understanding of what the company makes and who its target market is. That’s branding.

Most law firm branding is vague. With 1.3 million attorneys in America, it’s difficult for a firm to stand out in a saturated market. Postali helps your firm get noticed by the right clients.

Law Firm Branding Guide

Postali is a digital marketing agency working exclusively with law firms. Unlike many digital marketers, Postali doesn’t start the conversation with a sales pitch about SEO or website design, although they offer both.

Postali begins by working with the firm to define its brand. That process culminates in a branding guide, whose principles and specifications govern how the firm presents itself internally and externally. Postali’s branding guide engagement distills the amorphous concept of branding into two concrete products: written assets and visual assets.

Written Assets

While logos, colors, and fonts—visual assets—are obvious public expressions of a brand, those visual assets draw inspiration from something. FedEx’s logo has an arrow between “E” and “x” because FedEx believes its mission is to ship packages that absolutely, positively have to be there overnight. The “smiley arrow” on Amazon boxes reinforces its mission as a store selling everything from A to Z. Visual assets flow from an understanding of the business.

That’s why Postali starts by fashioning five written assets. These serve as the firm’s compass for decision-making and the lodestar for creating visual assets. Written assets include:

1) Target Audience: Define the firm’s ideal clients by demographics and behaviors. Knowing this target group affects the “where,” “when,” and “how” of marketing. It also helps with client intake and identifying who would be a good client once they first “touch” the firm. Understand who the firm aims to attract.

Sam Ballinger, Postali’s design director, offered an example: “Our ideal clients are well-informed and typically do their own research before making the decision to hire us.” The demographic is “well-informed,” and the key behavior is “do their own research.” 

So, what does that mean? If they do their own research, the firm’s materials should emphasize substance and details. They should downplay background explanations or “fluff” because well-informed people have already researched the basics.

2) Position Statement: A good position statement contains three elements: (a) it tells what the product is, (b) who the product is for, and (c) why one should use the product. Sam’s example: “We are pioneers in the field of nonprofit law…[for] cause conscious clients…[to] support, guide and execute their realization.”

The product is the firm’s services, but uniquely presented—the attorneys are not simply “attorneys” or “nonprofit attorneys,” but “pioneers in the field.” The product isn’t for every nonprofit, but for “cause-conscious clients.” The firm doesn’t merely meet a need, but “support(s), guide(s), and execute(s)” the client’s vision.

Sam encourages active, vibrant language that resonates with the firm internally and clients externally.

3) Mission Statement: This is an easily communicated and easily understood expression of the firm’s purpose. Sam’s example: “To use the law to stand up for our clients, be the voice for their children, and offer families a brighter future.”

A mission statement serves as the firm’s North Star. Every business decision should support, or at least not impinge on the mission. Does a prospective hire impress in the interview that bettering children and families motivates them? What sponsorship or community service opportunities introduce the firm to its target audience while improving families?

4) Core Values: These should not enumerate all the firm’s favorable characteristics. Instead, core values should examine what is foundational and fundamental. Core values should feel cohesive with the other written assets. What values are shared by the team and, ideally, with clients? Core values could be simple virtues like honesty and teamwork. The firm’s personality or mission may warrant pithy, action-oriented values like “be heroic.”

5) Value Proposition: A firm’s value proposition is the above-the-fold headline or news story lede. Why should the buyer pick this firm? Brevity is key. Spark enough interest in the prospect for them to take the next step.

Sam’s example is a personal injury firm advertising “a painless way to get legal help.” The proposition’s flexibility allows the sufferer to imagine many forms of painlessness, such as a painless intake process or a painless customer experience. A powerful proposition says a lot in a few words.

Visual Assets

Postali’s branding guide comprises three visual assets: a logo, color palette, and font families.

While the logo is inherently individualistic, Sam offers guidance on colors and fonts. A firm’s color palette consists of four to six colors. Each serves a primary or secondary role (e.g., title versus headings or body text). Font choices may be traditional or modern, depending on the firm’s personality and target market. Sometimes, Postali mixes traditional and modern fonts to reflect a long-established firm offering novel solutions.

The Process

Postali divides the creative process into four stages. First, clients complete a questionnaire to help Postali understand the firm’s personality and the “why now” of wanting to brand. Second, Postali’s creative team and the firm hold a discovery call, with the questionnaire guiding the discussion. Third, Postali refines agreed themes. Fourth, Postali produces draft is written and visual assets, which undergo client consultations and revisions before culminating in a finished branding guide.

The Take-Away

The branding guide is the firm’s to keep. Postali provides the whole panoply of digital marketing services, but there’s no obligation to contract for those services as part of producing a branding guide. Once created, a firm can use its branding guide internally to create its own website, messaging, and marketing content.

Lawyerist Interview with Postali

The post Postali Distinguishes Law Firms Through Branding appeared first on Lawyerist.

TimeSolv is a web-based legal billing solution, backed by 20 years of experience, focused on doing it right. As CEO Raza Hasan explains, TimeSolv is “selling a solution for a law firm to get paid more, to get paid faster, and make it easy for them to get this done.”

TimeSolv approaches invoicing with three specific goals, and the technology and automation to make them happen. TimeSolv defines success as maximizing the “three pillars of profitability”:

1. Increased revenue to the firm;
2. The firm getting paid faster; and
3. Easy-to-use software, making 1 and 2 possible.

Increased Revenue

Increasing revenue need not mean working more hours. TimeSolv equips firm leaders with tools to motivate employees under five principles:

Awareness

Managers can set goals and targets for each employee and track those targets daily, weekly, and monthly. Targets include measures like total hours worked, billable hours worked, and average hourly rate.

Controls are highly granular. For example, a team member could see the number of hours he’s entered, but not the total billable value of the hours, because he has permission to see hours but not the billing rate.

Incentives

TimeSolv possesses robust incentive management, a godsend feature for firms with complex origination and crediting structures. Its fee allocation and commission calculation are second-to-none. One can credit an originating attorney, responsible attorney, supervisors, and working attorneys.

Such capable incentive management, like split origination, is rare. It’s a hefty feature for a web-based program to offer. “You don’t have to do anything extra in Excel.,” Hasan promises.

Accountability

Accountability is built into TimeSolv and is driven by something lawyers generally hate to contemplate: time entry. But, as Hasan reiterates, it’s best for firms to have a time-tracking policy and to use technology to enforce it.

Every business has an expense tracking policy. Unless it’s a solo practice, a firm member can’t spend company money without accountability. Hasan says in a law firm, time is more valuable than money “because you can never get it back.”

Have a firm-wide time entry policy and enforce it. For example, all time must be entered before leaving for the day. Or all time for the prior week must be in by 9:00 a.m. the following Monday. The firm administrator can enforce the policy and report on compliance via TimeSolv’s Missing Time report, one of many reports and dashboards available.

Happy Clients

Hasan says, “You can’t exceed expectations if you don’t set expectations.” The best way to properly set client expectations is to tell them what will happen, in what order, when, and for how much.

TimeSolv provides a powerful planning tool called Legal Project Management to set out the actions or events in a matter, their order, the responsible individual, and a budget for each action. It’s connected to the matter billing and, if desired, to TimeSolv’s client portal, so the client can view case progress in real-time.

Permitted users see what tasks or stages are complete and whether, down to individual tasks, things are on budget.

Knowing Your Strengths (or Flat Fee Billing)

After a few months of using TimeSolv’s features and reporting, the firm can see results. Robust reporting presents a unified picture of what work the firm completes most profitably. Knowing those strengths can inform marketing strategies. Firms gain abundant clarity through project management and tracking over time.

Get Paid Faster

TimeSolv’s Zero AR eliminates the tedium and aggravation of invoicing with three simple steps.

Automatic Payment Authorization

When signing a client to a new engagement, TimeSolv sends the client a letter (or email) offering to set the client up on automatic payments via a credit card or bank account.

Automatic Emails

Then, when the firm creates an invoice for a client who authorized automatic payments, the client is emailed the invoice. That email also says that the “on-file” payment method will be billed automatically within five days unless the client objects. The client receives another email when the automatic payment is charged.

Review

The system above quickly tells the firm which matters or clients have a dispute or something to discuss.

With many other invoicing systems, there’s often a three-month delay between attorney work and receiving payment.

TimeSolv’s Zero AR reduces the process to five weeks. The attorney records work in month one. That work is invoiced in the early days of month two and paid within five days of invoicing. Zero AR removes a minimum of a month from the invoicing cycle, eliminates payment receipt and recordation headaches. It makes it easy for clients to pay, and alerts firms early to possible “problem” clients.

Efficient Software

Collecting good data to make informed decisions requires the firm to have systems and software that make things like time entry compliance, budgeting, and reporting easy and efficient. TimeSolv lives at this nexus. And, while TimeSolv began life in 1999 as a desktop-based time tracking and invoicing program, it was rebuilt as a web-based app seven years ago, adding many practice management features to its arsenal, such as:

• Microsoft 365 connectivity;
• Document storage, both natively and via integrations;
• eSignature capabilities;
• CRM features via a partner company in the ProfitSolv family;
• Document automation;
• Conflict checking; and
• Task management.

Experience and Nimbleness

TimeSolv is a fast and feature-rich web application well-served by a 20-year heritage in the legal market. It addresses complex feature needs like split-billing and split-origination that many programs lack. In addition, TimeSolv is the only online product that automatically converts data from TimeSlips, PCLaw, and Tab3, giving users complete access to historical billing information.TimeSolv remains focused on helping lawyers make themselves more profitable. Start a free trial today at timesolv.com/start-now.

TimeSolv Product Demo

Check out Zack’s demo with TimeSolv’s CEO Raza Hasan to learn more about how TimeSolv can increase profitability.

The post TimeSolv Enhances Profitability with Advanced Features in the Cloud appeared first on Lawyerist.

It’s easy to assume that a company we’ve known for years does only that thing we first knew them for. Attorneys know LawPay as the preeminent payment processor for law firms. LawPay is expanding its offerings to include invoicing, trust accounting, time tracking, and expense tracking.

These new LawPay Pro features will “round out your billing management,” according to Leiasa Horanic, senior product manager at AffiniPay. LawPay continues to offer the features you know and love. The added tools of LawPay Pro put more relevant information and actions in one place.

Invoicing

LawPay Pro expands on the existing “Quick Bill” feature with the ability to create invoices with individual line items in five easy steps:

1. Select a contact to receive the bill or create a new contact directly from the invoicing screen.
2. Optionally, select a case to attach to the invoice. You can invoice without adding cases.
3. Select the bank account you want the funds deposited into.
4. Set the payment terms and due date.
5. Add line items to the invoice. Each line item has seven fields:
   • a) type of entry, which can be a time entry, expense, or flat fee amount;
   • b) the date for that item;
   • c) activity type, chosen from a customizable list;
   • d) note or description;
   • e) the hourly or flat rate;
   • f) the quantity, such as the number of hours; and
   • g) whether the item is non-billable.

Saving the invoice creates a draft for the user to preview and then send to the contact. The invoice includes payment options the firm makes available in LawPay. The firm can set the default text for the message accompanying the invoice, which users can edit on a per-message basis.

The contact receives the invoice via email, with a PDF version attached, and can click a “pay now” button or pay by scanning a QR code. Clicking the email link or scanning the QR code takes the contact to the payment page for that specific invoice rather than the firm’s “generic” LawPay page, saving the firm additional tracking and reconciliation work.

Finally, LawPay Pro allows firms to record payments on behalf of contacts, like when a client calls with a credit card to pay an invoice. LawPay notes how each invoice is paid, so the firm can look back and see which clients pay by which method. And, of course, invoices can be paid from a trust account.

Trust Requests

With LawPay Pro, the firm can issue new trust requests and trust replenishment requests. When making a trust request, the user answers six questions:

1. Select a contact to receive the trust request.
2. Enter the amount requested.
3. Enter a due date.
4. Select a trust account to receive the deposited funds.
5. Optionally, allocate the received funds to a particular case.
6. Enter the email text to accompany the request. The firm can set default text.

From the client’s perspective, the experience upon receiving the trust request is similar to receiving an invoice.

The Billing tab is the central place to track the statuses of invoices and trust requests. Users can see whether the recipient has viewed the invoice or trust request email. Each invoice and trust request has a complete history of when it was created, sent to the client, paid, and by what method.

Time and Expense Tracking

Entering the Time and Expenses

LawPay Pro includes time and expense tracking, so users can enter events and record expenses as they occur. At month’s end, the firm can generate an itemized invoice for the contact.

Expense entry is handled similarly to time entry, except users can attach receipts to expenses. At any point, one can go to the Billing tab and select Time Entries or Expenses to see all open and invoiced time entries or expenses.

Invoicing from Recorded Time and Expense Entries

At billing time, go to the Billing tab, then Invoices, and click Create Invoice. LawPay Pro prompts the user to select a contact and then a case. Once the user selects a case, all non-invoiced entries, both for time and expenses, associated with that case appear as “pre-filled” line items. The user can change any line item or add items not previously entered. Finally, the user can include a discount, either by dollars or percent, off the invoice.

More “It’d Be Great If” Features

For current LawPay firms, Pro is a superset of the existing product. In addition to the new billing tools, LawPay Pro enhanced the payments, contacts, and reporting features.

Payments

LawPay Pro’s Payments tab contains a running list of all transactions. Users can filter by bank account, both operating and trust accounts, see open invoices and trust requests on a per-client basis, and collect payments from clients who phone in credit cards or who use offline payments.

Contacts

The Contacts tab benefits from the added invoicing features of LawPay Pro. Contacts can link to cases for basic tracking cases associated with a given contact. Time tracking also benefits from this linkage since most lawyers think of entering time for a case rather than a contact, especially for any having two or more cases. The contact’s billing tab is the gem. It displays a contact’s entire trust history, trust requests, invoices, trust allocations, and scheduled automatic payments in one place.

Reports

LawPay Pro builds on LawPay’s current reporting infrastructure. New or improved reports for Pro include:

• an aging invoice report showing overdue invoices;
• an accounts receivable report;
• a monthly transactions summary;
• a trust account summary;
• a trust account activity report; and
• a user time entry report.

See It All on the Dashboard

LawPay Pro’s dashboard, available on the Home tab, pulls everything together and gives users an overview of the firm. This one-stop-show shows key firm metrics regarding invoices, transactions, and time entries. To learn more about LawPay Pro, visit lawpay.com/introducing-lawpay-pro.

LawPay Pro Demo

The post Track and Bill Time with New LawPay Pro appeared first on Lawyerist.

CloudLex targets personal injury firms with handy features necessary for that practice area. Its focused tools set it apart in a generalist practice management market. 

Unique Tools for Unique Attorneys 

Specialty tools attract people who appreciate their focused nature, solving a finite set of problems exquisitely well. CloudLex’s distinctive approach shows in a testimonial highlighting one of its client firms. Rather than a traditional case study, Chad Sands, vice president of marketing, worked with customer Dan Schneiderman on something different. They prepared a video highlighting Dan’s personality, love of woodworking, and how he busied himself during COVID. 

Chad’s video showcases Dan in a non-traditional way, revealing two interests of his: woodworking and 3D printing. Similarly, CloudLex isn’t playing “follow the leader,” adding “kitchen sink” features, trying to be all things to all people. Instead, as Chad put it, they’ve “doubled down and are going deep in personal injury,” squarely “focused on plaintiff PI” enhancements. 

Needs of Personal Injury Firms 

Ease of use and quick access to information form the foundation of good PI firms. 

Ease-of-Use 

No one wants to spend weeks transitioning from one software product to another, building out matter-specific fields, and training staff on the new system. Thankfully, CloudLex fits the PI niche like a glove: 

• It focuses on out-of-the-box usability. No firm employee needs weeks of training to be productive or spends hours customizing the software. 
• CloudLex handles the firm’s onboarding and data migration. There’s no handoff to third-party consultants or burdening the customer with additional obligations. 
• There’s no complex billing or accounting component to learn because those features are unnecessary in PI work. 
• A timeline appears across the top of each matter page, mapping the case’s lifecycle. For example, users see essential information like the total number of days since case opening, incident date, intake date, the statute of limitations date, and other dates the firm deems valuable. 
• The Expense Manager helps track internal costs and track client expenditures. 
• The Settlement Calculator manages demands and offers in one place, showing attorney and plaintiff recovery for each offer and counteroffer. 
• Quick Links allow users to move swiftly between events, tasks, contacts, notes, and photos. 
• The global sidebar offers speedy access to searching, text messaging-like connections to clients and staff, notes, and emails. It also houses CloudLex’s newest tool, Uber for Attorneys. 

Uber for Attorneys: Adding a New Tool to the Repertoire 

Being “100% dedicated to plaintiff PI” means solving problems that don’t arise in firms focused on other practice areas. 

Sudden and unexpected mobility impairments are a client experience uniquely tied to personal injury. For example, an automobile accident might eliminate a person’s mode of transportation. An injury could prevent one from safely operating a motor vehicle or comfortably navigating public transit, if available. Clients still have appointments with doctors, attorneys, courts, and others. 

CloudLex built a tight integration with Uber into its practice management product for that reason, to help personal injury attorneys serve a need particular to their clients. 

The Firm-side Experience 

Without leaving CloudLex, an attorney can order an Uber ride for a client, with all the options one expects from Uber. Opening Uber for Attorneys reveals three tabs: 

• Address Book: The address book holds Uber pickup and drop-off locations, including user-saved, frequently used addresses. 
• My Trips: This tab tracks past, ongoing, and upcoming Uber rides. 
• Book a Trip: This tab contains the heart of the new functionality. Here a user can: 
  • Tie a ride to a matter or an intake; 
  • Enter a party or contact for pickup; 
  • Enter the reason for the ride, which later appears on invoices and trip history; 
  • Enter a pickup address manually (which can be saved to the address book), select one from the address book, or from frequently used prior locations; 
  • Select a ride type; and 
  • Request a ride either immediately or scheduled for later. 

Once the ride is requested and accepted, the firm receives a notification in CloudLex and can follow the ride’s progress under My Trips, including complete driver information as in native Uber apps. 

The Client-side Experience 

After the firm requests a ride, the client receives a web link via text message. Clicking that link opens the native Uber app on the client’s smartphone, allowing the client to track the ride as if they’d ordered it themselves. When completed, the ride is saved in the history section of the client’s Uber app with a $0.00 charge. 

A Complete Integration for a Complete Experience 

When Chad says, “Everything we do is catered to [personal injury-]specific areas of practice,” he means delivering these robust experiences to solve problems that PI attorneys face. With Uber for Attorneys, the firm maintains one place to request and track rides, view receipts, and record expenses against matters. Clients get seamless access to needed transportation in the familiar Uber app, with their costs covered. Uber for Attorneys brings technology and automation to serve attorney and client needs simultaneously. 

Watch Chad and Zack discuss CloudLex’s PI-focused tools, and Uber for Attorneys in particular, in the video below. 

A Unique View of PI Attorneys 

Additionally, CloudLex is creating a new publication highlighting personal injury attorneys. This periodical, The Trial Lawyer’s Journal, is dedicated to the “idea of celebrating justice.” It focuses on the lives and day-to-day business of attorneys working on personal injury cases. TLJ will examine work-life balance and give readers a glimpse into the community of PI attorneys. 

CloudLex plans to release the first volume this summer, with over 130 pages, featuring incredible artists, photographers, and in-depth interviews. Grab a preview edition today on their website at https://www.cloudlex.com/tlj. 

The post Manage Client Travel Expenses with Uber for Attorneys in CloudLex  appeared first on Lawyerist.

PracticePanther, the comprehensive law practice management solution focused on small to medium-sized law firms, spends a lot of time listening to its users. This ongoing conversation helps it refine and expand its features to serve its growing customer base better. Recently, Jonathan Prosperi, product manager at PracticePanther, sat down with Lawyerist’s Zack Glaser to talk about their approach to product development and some of the changes rolling out to customers in the latest updates.

PracticePanther’s Approach 

PracticePanther works with clients and partners to ensure it’s building the best, newest, and most thoughtful features to empower law firms and help customers have a better, more complete experience. All the changes Jonathan highlighted emerged from his team’s conversations with end users. 

Product managers meet with users to know on-the-ground needs—no guesswork or ivory tower theorizing. Any PracticePanther client can request a meeting with Jonathan directly within the application. These meetings help people feel connected to the platform, be heard by the company, and know their ideas are going somewhere. 

The result? PracticePanther frequently updates their platform to enhance their user experience. In this instance, they implemented ways to make current workflows faster and increase control of matters and financials. Here, the team made simple but effective user enhancements that illuminate existing powerful tools. 

User Input Drives Feature Enhancements

PracticePanther’s workflow and interface improvements focus on activities, intake, matters, billing, and system performance.

Increased Visibility of Firm Activities 

With a new firm Activities screen, leadership can keep a watchful eye on their processes and efficiency with ease. PracticePanther’s Activities screen shows all tasks and events within the system. Previously users could set task due dates and mark them completed. Activities now show the completed date alongside the due date, making it easier to see firm productivity. Users can separate these two data points in the Activities window and view them side-by-side in columns.

Default Intake Form 

PracticePanther provides a new default intake form with “most requested” questions, so it’s immediately usable by new firms. Rather than leaving it up to the attorney to make a form, the platform lets users hit the ground running. When prospects complete the intake questionnaire, that information flows directly into PracticePanther. 

Flexibility is essential too. PracticePanther makes it simple to add and remove questions to fully customize the form to meet each firm’s needs.

Enhanced Matter Visibility 

PracticePanther has also added the ability to see the corresponding rate in the matters list. Each matter could, and still can, have its rate set by matter type or user. Customers can now see the rate in the matter list and the report tables. They can also quickly sort or filter by rate. 

Additionally, users can now archive matters. If a potential new client doesn’t convert or a matter is paid out the firm doesn’t completely lose the data. Previously, the only option was to delete matters. Now, users can easily look back at previous case information without cluttering their working dashboard. Archiving matters removes them from the active list without eliminating them from the system. It speeds up searches, removes unnecessary information from reports and filters, and declutters the user’s view.

Greater Billing Flexibility 

Daily or monthly billing rituals have been made easier with the updates to financial tracking and contact-level invoices in PracticePanther. 

For any matter, the unapplied dollar amount is money the firm holds in its operating account. This is cash it has received from a client for a matter, but not yet applied against that matter’s balance. With a recent change to the matter list, users can now see the unapplied amounts in the default view. Additionally, users can quickly determine which matters have earned and paid money that merely needs to be applied against an invoice. 

A second change to billing concerns contact-level invoices. When one client has multiple matters with the firm, is it preferable for the invoice to list matters by name or by matter number? PracticePanther employees and users hotly debated the topic, with about 50% on each side. So, developers did the sensible thing and allowed users to organize matters either way on invoices. 

Small changes like these permit users to work quicker in ways they want to work. 

Accelerated System Performance 

The final focus area for recent revisions is general system performance. PracticePanther sped up lots of little things. Each second saved may seem inconsequential in isolation. But you’ll notice the benefit with bulk operations like generating invoices—particularly during “rush hour” at the beginning of the month. Similarly, PracticePanther improved global search speed and the display and refreshing of data tables. For example, the data just snaps in when generating a report housing dozens or hundreds of clients. Snappy and seamless performance is one of those things that never makes the “cool feature” checklist, but users appreciate it every day. 

As Jonathan said, the folks at PracticePanther want to “make sure people feel good about using our software.” 

Check Out PracticePanther 

Our video conversation and the five items above highlight only a few of PracticePanther’s ongoing enhancements. If you’re a current user, visit their release notes section to learn what’s new and upcoming.

If you’re not already a user, learn more by visiting www.practicepanther.com or contacting Jonathan at [email protected], who’d be delighted to hear from you. The ethos of PracticePanther comes through in listening to customers, continually improving the product in big and small ways that make a daily difference, and the words Jonathan closed with: “I take a lot of pride in connecting with people who care about our product. I want to know what they’re thinking about, what they want to see in the future, so I make myself available.”

The post PracticePanther Promotes Process Productivity with New Features  appeared first on Lawyerist.

The phrase “digital marketing” encompasses many things and has changed over the last decade. 

Digital Marketing for Attorneys Evolves 

Marketing for legal services has a short history compared to other products and services. Before the 1970s, rules prohibited attorney advertising. And once permitted, many people saw things like TV ads and billboards as crass, even desperate. But public opinion changes, as do the methods for attracting its attention. While an ever-diminishing number of attorneys buy ads in the Yellow Pages, digital marketing spending grows by leaps and bounds. Every new or growing law firm needs a website to attract and inform potential clients. 

Fred Cohen, Founder and CEO of Omnizant, recalls that, a decade ago, when attorneys thought of their website, they imagined an online business card. More recently, they noticed that their firm website could be a powerful tool for client generation. But, in some ways, firms have now over-corrected, seeing all marketing as digital and neglecting traditional tools. 

Omnizant’s approach balances the traditional and digital functions of a marketing agency. Omnizant helps with positioning, messaging, and differentiation—traditional marketing functions, while blending in powerful digital capabilities for maximum visibility. As Fred puts it, “[Attorneys] have gotten past the idea that lawyers shouldn’t market or have an active web presence seeking clients.” 

Goals of a Law Firm Website 

When working with a firm on its website, Fred and his team aim to build a site that answers three foundational questions: 

1. What unique value proposition and experience does the firm offer prospective clients? 

2. How does the firm view its relationship with the client? 

3. What is the firm’s approach to a matter? 

In answering each of these questions, the firm, with Omnizant’s help, tells a compelling story. The goal is to create a website that serves as a learning experience. Potential clients can then determine whether the firm is a good fit. 

In addition to a robust and purposeful website, Omnizant works with the firm to determine its target client and how to identify those prospects. As Fred says, a marketing agency should help drive relevant traffic to your website, not sheer numbers. Success is more than a high search engine optimization (SEO) rank. Law firms need a holistic approach to get your message in front of the right people to let them know you can help them. 

People shopping for legal services today are sophisticated consumers and know they have many options. When they select an attorney, it’s both an overt assessment (e.g., does the firm meet my stated needs) and subliminal, a practical and emotional decision. Communicate a cohesive branding message with words, imagery, and color to reach both sides. 

The Future of Legal Marketing 

Automation is coming for marketing. This alarms some, given the rudimentary state of firms’ marketing efforts. While artificial intelligence (AI) grabs the headlines, many firms don’t have sound marketing fundamentals. Too few firms use customer relations management (CRM) software, pipeline tracking, or lead attribution software. These long-standing technologies are nascent, even in mid-sized firms. 

Once your firm has the basics in place, Fred says, then it’s time to think about marketing automation. The purpose of automated marketing efforts, such as “drip” campaigns specialized for a persona or client profile, is to keep the law firm “top of mind.”  

It’s hard enough to be a good lawyer without worrying about the minutia of what good marketing entails. Omnizant is a great partner for growth-minded firms, which it defines not as simply “more clients,” but rather “better clients” or “specific clients.” Their approach harkens back to tailoring the firm’s website and overall branding to attract clients that match its value proposition. 

Where to Start 

Holistic firm marketing may seem overwhelming, but Fred offered advice to get started even before you engage Omnizant or another agency. 

1. Know what you are good at and passionate about. 

2. Figure out what information you have available to share with prospects. 

3. Don’t become obsessed with search engine ranking scores. Ranking improvements come with high-quality content. Long-form content, in the range of 4,000 to 6,000 words, generates more traffic. This is especially true with the advent of AI, which can flood search engines with short content. 

4. Although long-form writing is advantageous, one should give finite responses to finite questions where possible. Be concise where appropriate. 

5. Attribute website content to a specific author whenever possible. Search engines value authorship, proof that a human wrote the piece because it adds credibility and defends against a flood of AI-written dreck. Bylines add to the “authority of authorship” and improve the firm’s visibility in search results. 

Learn more from Zack’s chat with Fred by watching our video and visiting Omnizant’s website to grab their guide on search engine optimization for lawyers, or go ahead and get an SEO Audit.

The post Thoughtful Attorney Marketing with Omnizant  appeared first on Lawyerist.

Every business needs a website. Unfortunately, many law firms lack one, or if they have one, it serves no purpose beyond being a digital business card. Most firms want more, but time and other commitments preclude it. Fortunately, CosmoLex Websites makes creating and updating a powerful business website simple. 

It’s “Done for You” 

CosmoLex Websites operates on the “done for you” model. Your firm works with experts at CosmoLex to design and implement a modern, feature-rich website. There’s no need to hire or be a web developer, marketing strategist, or WordPress administrator. 

As Erica Birstler, VP of Product Communications & Support at CosmoLex, puts it, CosmoLex Websites, “take[s website development] off your plate and [you] have a great end result that can impact the growth of your business.” 

Watch the video below to see Erica walk Zack through a beautiful sample site demonstrating valuable website features and tight integration between the CosmoLex LPMS and a CosmoLex-created website. 

The Three Cs of a CosmoLex Website 

The value proposition of having an LPMS vendor build and maintain your website becomes apparent when you remember that the LPMS is a core source of contact information. Good customer relationship management is integral to effective legal marketing. Good marketing naturally involves the web. Having a website that feeds prospects into your LPMS is advantageous. 

CosmoLex Websites rests on the fundamental principles of clean design, credible content, and convenient features. 

Clean Design 

Say goodbye to bland, cookie-cutter law firm websites featuring people in suits and icons of courthouses and gavels. CosmoLex Websites ditches those stereotypes in favor of a clean, modern design that the firm selects to fit its image. 

CosmoLex employees work with your firm to distill your desires into a fresh business website with top-notch features like: 

1. Mobile-responsive webpage layouts; 
2. Easily found and click-friendly links for phone numbers and emails; and 
3. Inclusive, accessibility-focused widgets for text size and spacing, tooltips, color, saturation, and on-the-fly language translation. 

Credible Content 

Your firm’s website is where potential clients learn about you without ever speaking to you. As prospects peruse your site, they form judgments about whether your firm fits their needs. CosmoLex Websites offers a library of website content, like blogs, articles, and explanatory pages, for you to choose from. 

You work with CosmoLex to select and customize content relevant to your target audience. CosmoLex makes available easily modifiable templates and sources of information. They have fine-tuned their curated content for heightened visibility through keyword and search engine optimization, improving your site’s placement in search results. 

Finally, no matter how perfect a firm’s website is on launch, all firms face the challenge of keeping their website current and relevant. CosmoLex addresses this issue with quarterly content update meetings to address site changes. 

Convenient Features 

A firm’s website is not only a marketing tool.  It can also help you serve existing clients. Because your website links directly to your CosmoLex LPMS, you can offer client convenience features: 

1. Contacts: Create a web form that feeds information directly into CosmoLex. 
2. Consultation: Set up a consultation button on your site so clients or prospects can schedule appointments via integrations with Calendly and Microsoft Bookings. 
3. Pay Now: Offer clients the ability to pay via credit cards. Payments feed directly into CosmoLex.  You can classify the payment type (e.g., retainer or invoice) and link them to the appropriate client and matter. 
4. Client Portal: Make available matter information you choose to clients, who can log in and review it when convenient. Sharable information includes invoices, documents, and calendar information. 

A Better Law Firm Website with Less Burden 

CosmoLex Websites alleviates the burden of designing, building, and maintaining a website. Its streamlined integration with a top LPMS vendor keeps vital information handy. Erica said her biggest passion is “to help lawyers run a better business.” As attorneys, you want to practice law and serve clients, not bury yourself in HTML, APIs, or SEO. 

Visit cosmolex.com for a demo and free trial to see how a CosmoLex-based website helps your firm reach prospects, boost profitability, and focus on being a competitive player in the legal field. 

The post CosmoLex Extends its All-in-one with CosmoLex Websites  appeared first on Lawyerist.

Scott Kelly, product manager at NetDocuments, sat down with Zack to discuss how PatternBuilder integrates with NetDocuments and to demonstrate a new customizable database feature called data tables. 

Scott emphasized that PatternBuilder is a toolkit for building and automating your firm’s needs. Traditionally, automation meant creating documents. Of course, PatternBuilder can do that. But it can do much more, such as collecting, storing, and manipulating data via data tables. It’s a toolkit your firm can leverage to create solutions that might otherwise require a separate product and fee. 

Watch the video below to see how PatternBuilder helps organize the data at the heart of your law firm. 

Workflow and Document Automation with PatternBuilder 

Scott gave the example of hiring an employee. When a company wants to hire a new employee, the law firm creates three documents: an employment offer, an I-9 immigration form, and a proprietary inventions agreement. Instead of doing each document manually, with a PatternBuilder app, a user walks through a custom workflow (a series of questions) and the app produces those three finished documents. 

PatternBuilder leverages its integration with NetDocuments to go beyond just offering to download final documents to your desktop. As part of the app’s workflow, PatternBuilder both creates the documents and files them within the appropriate client and matter in NetDocuments. As a result, you save time and all firm users can quickly access documents. 

Building a PatternBuilder App 

You can build workflow apps with PatternBuilder’s “no code” editor, create the questions you want, and place those fields in document templates. Question types include: 

PatternBuilder permits dynamic logic in its workflows too. This means workflow questions and the resulting final document include only relevant information. Scott’s example was the employment agreement. If a prospect were offered stock options, you would select that option in the guided interview. Only then does the app prompt the user to enter stock options information. Similarly, if the company doesn’t offer the prospect stock options, those provisions are absent from the final employment agreement. 

Use Loops to Collect Repeating Data 

Another powerful feature is loops. Think about collecting information from your clients. Sometimes you know the “maximum” amount of data there will be. For example, a person will have only one social security number. Other times, you have no idea of the maximum. How many children does a client have? How many properties does a business own? Loops exist for situations where the maximum is unknown. Scott’s example is the proprietary inventions agreement. The prospective hire may have no prior inventions, a few, or dozens. You can set up the PatternBuilder app to collect unlimited inventions. All inventions entered appear in the document. If there are no inventions, the app removes that entire section from the document. 

Additionally, all NetDocuments’ management, permissions, and version tools integrate seamlessly with PatternBuilder. Upon creating and filing the documents, the app applies the proper NetDocuments metadata and security to each. These new documents appear in relevant searches and filters without manual data entry. 

Sample Data Collection with Data Tables in PatternBuilder 

While documents are at the heart of PatternBuilder, the program isn’t limited to them. Data tables make collecting, storing, and using data effortless. 

Scott’s example is completing a “new real estate client” form via a PatternBuilder app. The app asks questions like in his document example above. The difference is that rather than producing documents, finishing the workflow creates both a new client and new matter in NetDocuments. 

Furthermore, collected data, like company name and address, and loops, like the client’s real properties, are stored in data tables. That information is then available for automating documents. You can create as many data tables as you like. You can edit them directly instead of through a form or interview. They hold the same question types as workflow apps described above. Finally, data tables are accessible via an open API to receive data from your law practice management system, Salesforce, and elsewhere. 

Get Started with Workflows and Apps 

Find out how PatternBuilder can replicate and automate your firm’s unique templates and processes, resulting in faster, higher-value client service by seeing a personalized demo. Book here: https://www.netdocuments.com/products/patternbuilder.  

The post Data Tables Make PatternBuilder Even More Versatile  appeared first on Lawyerist.

Amy Reynolds, senior training specialist, walked Zack through CARET Legal’s new and improved features. Aimed squarely at helping smaller and mid-sized firms be productive, these features include an enhanced user interface, robust tools, and the latest in client communications.

Designed for Quick Access to Critical Information

Dashboard Views

The homepage shows user-customizable views of the day’s most important information alongside quick-access tools for frequently used commands. By default, users see their calendar, tasks, and email “above the fold.”

Global Searching

Click the magnifying glass in the header to begin a program-wide search. Type search terms and the program combs through everything, even Word and OCRed PDF documents.

Quick Add

The plus button in the header quickly creates new contacts, events, file notes, time entries, and more. With a pop-up-style window, you don’t have to leave what you’re doing when memory strikes. Instead, just click the plus, capture the information, and return to work.

Ubiquitous Time Capture

Attorneys know the importance of good timekeeping. All firms benefit from measuring how long it takes to complete a matter. CARET Legal helps by:

• Letting users run up to ten timers for easy task switching;
• Being able to start and stop timers from any device; and
• Permitting the firm to set standard, user-selectable billing narratives for consistency.

Watch this portion of our conversation with Amy to learn about CARET Legal’s powerful user interface.

An End-to-End Solution

A robust user interface must be backed by capable, approachable features. The product delivers an end-to-end solution providing valuable calendar and email, task, and matter management tools.

Calendar and Email

All calendar and email functionality throughout the program integrates bi-directionally with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

CARET Legal’s calendar lets users:

• Categorize and color-code appointments based on customizable event types;
• Calculate dates, like statutes of limitation, forward and backward with simple math, accounting for weekends and holidays; and
• Create suggested meeting attendees based on matter contacts.

With email, the integration is no mere “save to file” add-in for Gmail or Outlook. Instead, users directly connect their Google or Microsoft email, allowing full access to their inboxes and folders. Users can forward, reply to, and file emails, and attach and save documents. No flipping back and forth between an email app and CARET Legal required.

Tasks

Task creation requires only a name. Everything else is optional, and the program auto-fills where possible. For example, if a user creates a new “quick task” with only a name, CARET Legal automatically assigns the task to that user and sets a deadline of 5 PM the same day.

Other helpful task-centric features include:

• Task description fields permitting formatted text, hyperlinks, and multiple attachments;
• The ability to customize statuses between “start” and “finish”;
• Configurable alerts to the task assignee and others about overdue and completed tasks; and
• Sub-tasks and task templates.

Matters

Matters are “home base” in CARET Legal. Each matter contains every CARET Legal feature in miniature, pre-filtered to the selected matter.

Within a matter, users can:

• View financial information, including time entries;
• View and edit contacts, custom fields, emails, events, and tasks;
• Save and edit file notes, with support for formatting features like lists, pictures, tables, and hyperlinks;
• Create, review, and edit documents with a web-based editor, zDrive, or the Microsoft Word plugin; and
• Share those documents with clients via a client portal secured with multi-factor authentication.

Watch this portion of our conversation with Amy to learn about CARET Legal’s end-to-end toolkit.

Built for Modern Communication

CARET Legal furnishes two popular, client-facing, time-saving features: text messaging and intake forms.

Text Messaging

CARET Legal establishes a single virtual phone number for the firm. That one phone number applies to all matters in the system. To open a matter for texting, a firm user sends an outgoing message to the client and links that message to a matter. The system automatically ties the client’s texts to that initiating matter. Once begun, the text conversation is bidirectional, like regular texting.

Intake Forms

Intake forms are customizable questionnaires. For example, internally, call screeners might use them for leads. Externally, clients could supply matter-related information securely. Creating and completing forms feels familiar and approachable, like a web-based survey. When used externally, the client and firm can add information to the same intake. They could even walk through it together on the phone.

Watch this portion of our conversation with Amy to learn about CARET Legal’s communication tools.

Get Started

Learn more about CARET Legal and start a free trial at https://caretlegal.com. 

The post Create Space in Your Day with CARET Legal Practice Management appeared first on Lawyerist.

Clients have many options for contacting their attorney: phone, email, text, client portal, and more. This situation creates more places to check, eating time and delaying responses for the firm. 

Case Status solves this problem with tools to channel client communication through a focused mobile app. How does this differ from a practice management client portal? Immensely successful client adoption. While most portals go unvisited by clients (30% usage), Cases Status firms see 80% adoption of their mobile app. 

Six Benefits of an App-Based Client Communication Tool 

Paul Bamert and Jose Figueroa outlined six challenges facing law firms and how Case Status addresses them. 

Client Portals 

Most web-based practice management systems offer a client portal, but most are web-based. In contrast, Case Status provides a native mobile app for iOS and Android, which earned a 4.9 out of 5 rating from thousands of user reviews. With a mobile app, firms meet clients where they are; 93% of the five hours a day the average person spends on a smartphone, they spend in apps. 

Offering a client portal that clients use reduces scattershot client interaction and prevents time-consuming “case update” phone calls. Additionally, Case Status integrates with many practice management vendors, providing a single source of truth for information. 

Time 

With Case Status, a firm can automate repetitive tasks and communications. Jose demonstrated how a customizable in-app experience walks clients through their matter stages. With automated triggers, the firm provides client updates in-app. This includes scheduled “no-update updates” telling the client that the matter is in process, but nothing changed recently. Background updates boost firm efficiency, with one mid-size firm saving 366 hours in nine months and decreasing related inbound phone calls by 51%. 

Client Communication 

Clients choose their preferred approach—phone, email, text, or portal—causing craziness. The average firm takes 48 to 72 hours to respond to a client’s outreach. With Cases Status, the delay drops to 6.5 hours. How? Case Status firms channel all client communication to the mobile app. Funneling allows the firm to respond faster to client requests, improve its client communications, and exceed client expectations. 

All employees can read and respond to in-app client messages and send the client files and do this in a way that syncs with the firm’s existing practice management system while providing better security than email or SMS offers. 

Language Barriers 

8-9% of people needing legal services don’t speak English. In some client communities, the number exceeds 40%. Case Status uses Google’s Neural Machine Translation (GNMT) system to translate in-app messages in 138 languages. This works in both 1-to-1 messages, between a client and a firm employee, and 1-to-many, such as a templated message sent to many clients. GNMT allows an English-only attorney to read foreign language messages translated in real-time. GNMT translates both inbound and outbound messages. 

Client Satisfaction 

Law firms often guess what the client thinks. One-half of legal services providers fail to measure client satisfaction at all—the other half measure only at a matter’s conclusion. Systematizing client feedback, especially early in the representation, brings big wins in client referrals and reviews. 

With Case Status’ tools, the firm can ask the client to rate the representation on a scale of 1 to 10. Think of a bad rating as a “check engine light” for the matter. Learning of an unhappy client early gives the firm time to fix the problem. By analyzing client surveys, the firm discovers where its processes or communications failed and revises procedures to create a response playbook. For clients who rate the firm a nine or ten, that list tells the firm whom to solicit for online endorsements. 

Sustainable Growth 

A great reputation flows from providing great service. Case Status helps firms build sustainable growth by identifying happy clients, being front-of-mind with clients, and asking satisfied clients to write reviews or refer friends. Efficient communication leads to good client surveys that the firm can ask for reviews on Avvo and Google. The app also contains a referral button to send the lawyer’s electronic business card to friends and family. 

Getting Started 

If your firm wants to transform client engagement and meet clients where they are, visit www.casestatus.com to schedule a demo. 

The post Keep Clients Plugged-in with the Case Status App appeared first on Lawyerist.

You aced your law exams, mastered the intricacies of legal practice, and can argue a case with finesse. But nobody told you that running a law firm would feel like navigating a maze without a map. You didn’t go to business school, and now, the complexities of managing a firm, from financial planning to marketing, leave you feeling overwhelmed and lost along the way.  

While your legal prowess is undeniable, the business side of law is a different beast altogether. This is where the transformative power of business coaching steps in, and Lawyerist has an exclusive opportunity for ClioCon 2023 attendees to experience it firsthand. 

The Power of Coaching for Business Owners

At its core, coaching is a collaborative process. It’s a partnership between the coach and the coachee, aimed at unlocking potential and driving growth.  

For law firm owners, this can translate into a multitude of benefits:

1. Clarity: As a business owner, you are inside the bottle. And it’s hard to see the label on the bottle from inside. A coach can help you see the bigger picture, potential blind spots, and identify what is holding you back.    
2. Plan: Coaches help owners create a plan with actionable strategies. This allows businesses to work smarter and achieve goals faster and with less friction.  
3. Accountability: While a coach can’t do the hard work for you, they are there to help you stay on track and maintain momentum. When you veer off the path, a coach can help you quickly course correct.  
4. Resources: Sometimes you simply lack the information or tools you need to move forward. A coach can help fill in the blanks or streamline the learning curve—no need to get bogged down researching or trying to become an expert in all parts of your business.  
5. Confidence: As the owner, you are making decisions every day that impact your team and your business. It can be unnerving and uncertain. Too many business owners get stuck in a cycle of second guessing themselves. Working with a coach to process business decisions allows you to make better decisions and feel confident you are on the right path. 

A business coach is not just an advisor but a strategic partner in your journey towards sustained growth and success. 

Common Misconceptions About Business Coaching

As with many transformative tools, however, business coaching is often shrouded in misconceptions.

• “It’s Just for Struggling Businesses” or “It’s Only for Startups”: Coaching isn’t a remedy for failure or just for new businesses. Businesses at all stages—including many thriving law firms—engage coaches to scale, innovate, and stay ahead of the curve. 
• “It’s a Sign of Weakness”: Some believe that seeking a business coach implies they can’t handle their business on their own. Even the most successful entrepreneurs often have coaches to help them reach new heights. 
• “It’s Like Therapy”: While coaching can be introspective, it’s not therapy. Business coaching is focused on actionable strategies and goal attainment rather than emotional healing. 
• “I Don’t Have Time for Coaching”: Busy professionals might feel they can’t fit coaching into their schedules. Yet, the time spent with a coach often leads to greater overall time savings through enhanced productivity and streamlined processes. 
• “I Can Just Read a Book Instead”: While books offer valuable insights, a business coach provides personalized guidance, accountability, and feedback that a book cannot. 
• “It’s Too Expensive”: Think of coaching as an investment, not an expense. The ROI, in terms of growth, efficiency, and personal well-being, often far outweighs the cost. (And Lawyerist Lab is intentionally priced to be accessible to more businesses.)

If you’ve had these thoughts (or others) about business coaching in the past, maybe it’s time to give it a fresh look.

An Exclusive Opportunity at ClioCon 2023

Lawyers attending ClioCon 2023 in Nashville, TN will have a chance to experience the transformative power of coaching and engage in a complimentary coaching session with one of our amazing Lawyerist Lab business coaches. It’s not just about getting a taste of coaching; it’s about experiencing firsthand the potential shifts in perspective, strategy, and growth. 

Whether you’re a solo practitioner looking to expand, a partner in a growing firm, or simply curious about the benefits of coaching, this is an opportunity you won’t want to miss. See you in Nashville!

Sign up for your free business coaching session at ClioCon! 

The post Lawyerist Lab Brings Coaching Sessions to ClioCon 2023 Attendees appeared first on Lawyerist.

Legal websites run the gamut from simple “electronic business cards” to richly interactive sites. However, building the site is not enough. A website is not a Field of Dreams; it’s not enough to build it and they will come. Success means site visitors ultimately become clients.

A Website to Meet Your Goals

Building and promoting a website often seems complex, expensive, and unnecessary to firms that earn most of their business from referrals. Understandably, if the firm derives over 90% of its business from referrals, leadership hesitates to spend $1,500 per month, or more, on a website, digital marketing, or search engine optimization (SEO).

Victoria Silecchia, chief marketing officer at Omnizant, sat down with Zack to explain why all firms need a professional website and how to create one affordably. OneFirst Legal, a new division launched by Omnizant on September 1, is the key to an affordable, modern website.

Fundamentally, a firm without a website or one that puts no effort into SEO finds itself at the mercy of chance and competitors. Attorneys running referral-based practices still need a professional web presence. It need not be elaborate, but it must exist. Nor does the site and its essential marketing need to cost thousands to create or maintain.

Prospects Do Research

Even referral-based practices must consider what information prospects find online when searching for a firm or attorney. Having a website means the firm controls its image, its first touchpoint with would-be clients.

Referrals will research the firm. The question is who controls the information they see. The firm may not care about its Google Business profile or reviews, but others will.

Affordable SEO Marketing Achieves Defined Goals

In addition to the website, OneFirst Legal collaborates with the firm on what Victoria termed “branded visibility,” a targeted form of SEO.

In this context, “good SEO” is not optimizing for better Google rankings for highly desirable and expensive keyword combinations like “car accident” and “New York City.” Instead, OneFirst Legal’s branded visibility concentrates on simpler and more meaningful goals, like ensuring the firm’s site is the top hit when someone searches specifically for the firm or attorney’s name.

Without a website and absent branded visibility, the top hit for a firm or attorney is often an aggregated attorney directory showing both the firm and its competitors side-by-side. In some cases, unscrupulous law firms may bid for their competitors’ names, paying web search engines to show the result “Smith Law Firm” higher in the list than “Jones Law Firm,” even when would-be clients expressly search for “Jones Law Firm.”

OneFirst Legal Quickly Creates a Customized Web Presence

While Omnizant has helped law firms with full-service digital marketing capabilities since 2006, OneFirst Legal delivers the essential website tools a firm needs at a budget-friendly price.

OneFirst Legal creates and hosts solutions for solos and small firms wanting a modern, secure, and accessibility-friendly web presence. For firms of five attorneys or fewer, OneFirst Legal charges a one-time $199 setup fee and $199 per month after that.

OneFirst Legal designs its WordPress-based templates with flexibility and modularity in mind. Victoria likens their templates to prefabricated home blueprints. The design is tested, perfected, and quickly deployable. Website “floorplans” may be similar, but customization remains key. Continuing the analogy, each firm’s site has unique paint colors, siding, landscape, and furnishings.

OneFirst Legal’s Creation Process

OneFirst Legal understands that attorneys desire speedy results with minimal meetings. A firm can go from zero to launch in under three weeks, in five simple steps:

1. Use the self-scheduling tool on OneFirst Legal’s website to grab 15 minutes. Learn if the OneFirst Legal approach suits your firm.
2. Complete a single enrollment form to sign up.
3. At the kickoff call and design meeting, 3-to-5 business days after enrollment, you select the site blueprint, practice areas, colors, and images.
4. OneFirst Legal professionals customize your chosen blueprint with layered colors, retina image-grade photos, moving elements, and text.
5. You review the website’s first draft 3-5 business days after the kickoff meeting, make any changes, and launch.

Creating Visibility for Your Modern Site

Once launched, OneFirst Legal handles monthly updates. They continually refine Google Business Profile optimization and branded visibility SEO. They work with the firm on review generation, ongoing postings, and site maintenance. OneFirst Legal does not limit support or update time.

Getting Started

Visit http://onefirstlegal.com/getstarted to see how affordable, vibrant layouts bring legal websites to life and how versatile templates work for different practice areas.

The post Omnizant Makes Quality Websites Affordable with OneFirst Legal appeared first on Lawyerist.

The American Legal Technology Awards return to Nashville, Tennessee on October 8 to honor those spearheading advances in the legal field. After receiving 190 submissions in ten categories, the 28 judges have chosen 30 finalists to celebrate at this year’s conference.

Expanded Categories Allow More Space for Industry Accolades

This year, the founders of The American Legal Technology Awards, Cat Moon, Patrick Palace, and Tom Martin, made three improvements to give the legal community the merit they deserve:

First, to honor university educators who are transforming legal instruction, organizers introduced a new “Education” category. Nominees in this category are Jonathan Askin from the Brooklyn Law School, David Colarusso from Suffolk University Law School, and Carla Reyes from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.

Second, because of the volume of outstanding nominees in the Access to Justice (A2J) category last year, leaders divided this category into three subcategories: (1) Individual, (2) LegalTech, and (3) Legal Aid. This division allows more individuals to receive the accolades they deserve; each subcategory will have a winner and runner-up.

The last noteworthy change is the addition of a “Lifetime Achievement” award. Judges will bestow this award on an individual who has demonstrated a lifetime of dedication to advancing the legal field.

The complete list of finalists and categories appears below:

Embodying the Mission of Belonging

The theme of this year’s conference embodies the mission of The American Legal Technology Awards: belonging. This theme captures the spirit of the legal technology community. Founder Tom Martin encapsulates this theme by describing the event as “three friends coming together to throw a party.” He continues, “What sets us apart is our heart. There is something inspiring and rejuvenating about coming together as a community and belonging. When we did come together last year, it inspired me to see everyone and their energy.”

Mitch Jackson and the founders of The American Legal Technology Awards will host the “Oscars” of the legal tech field. Event sponsors include Clio, ARAG Legal Insurance, MyCase, LawPay, and GNGF.

Find more information about the Gala and purchase tickets at https://americanlegaltechnology.com/.

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While ChatGPT and other “consumer grade” generative AI tools fail to meet the needs of legal users, AI still plays a powerful time-saving role in law firm workflows. AI represents a tremendous opportunity for legal professionals to scale up their work. 

Scott Kelly, senior manager at NetDocuments, spoke with Zack about PatternBuilder MAX, NetDocuments’ first product in its ndMAX suite of generative AI tools. According to Scott, the purpose of PatternBuilder MAX is to take generative AI and build a “fit to purpose tool for legal.” 

Secure AI for Law Firms 

Hosted on Microsoft’s Azure platform, PatternBuilder MAX respects data privacy and meets compliance requirements like data sovereignty and GDPR. PatternBuilder MAX then builds upon this “standard issue” NetDocuments security with AI-specific protections. 

• No company uses data entered into PatternBuilder MAX to train an AI model; 
• Microsoft employees do not monitor and cannot access PatternBuilder MAX data; and 
• PatternBuilder MAX enforces a zero-day retention policy on any information entered into it. 

For these AI actions, no data enters the public sphere. The team designed PatternBuilder MAX to put the needs of legal professionals first. 

Time-Saving AI for Law Firms 

Having established PatternBuilder MAX’s security bona fides, Scott walked Zack through a real-world scenario where PatternBuilder MAX saves a legal user an impressive amount of time. Even simple use cases bring tremendous value when pairing generative AI with your documents. 

AI summarizes a deposition. 

Scott played the role of a firm associate who called to prepare a deposition summary memo. Traditionally, this task required reading hundreds of pages and manually extracting key data points and facts. The process could take weeks. 

PatternBuilder MAX’s Deposition Summarizer Studio App cuts weeks to minutes. The app replaces hours of slogging with three simple steps: 

1. Upload the deposition from your computer or select it from within NetDocuments. 

2. Pick how long you’d like the summary to be from a list of options. 

3. The Deposition Summarizer app produces a summary for your review. It notes facts like the deponent and deposition date. Most importantly, and more impressively, it summarizes the deponent’s actual statements, complete with citations to the source text (e.g., page 72, lines 1-4). 

Scott demoed one deposition document, but he said you could upload an entire folder of files from your computer or point the app at a folder in NetDocuments. The Deposition Summarizer would do each deposition in the folder. 

PatternBuilder MAX is more than a solution for a fixed set of problems.

The software market, even narrowed to legal software, overflows with vendors proclaiming new AI products and solutions. That’s part of the problem. As Scott stated, so much AI technology in legal is “just a solution.” A company creates it to meet a single identified need or a set of needs, and any customization or enhancement happens at the developer’s whim. 

PatternBuilder MAX provides pre-built apps to address common use cases, but also makes the full set of tools available to firms and departments to customize those apps to meet their specific needs and even create powerful applications of their own, all in a no-code environment.

Scott built the Deposition Summarizer app in 30 minutes. The build process is simple, much of it point-and-click. The “magic” lies in the prompt one gives the AI. Think of the prompt, in Scott’s words, “as like a set of instructions to a smart intern.” 

The tools Scott used to create his app are available to all PatternBuilder MAX customers. PatternBuilder MAX provides templates and templated apps, like the Deposition Summarizer, that you can use and modify out of the box. 

Approachable AI for Law Firms 

One of the key benefits of PatternBuilder MAX is that it enables you to securely and responsibly leverage documents your firm or department already stores in NetDocuments. If you have templates, samples, or model documents, PatternBuilder MAX can use those as guidelines for what a new document it creates should look like. This is critical to driving accuracy and ensuring outputs from AI are valuable.

Scott’s example starts with a new commercial lease agreement and asks PatternBuilder MAX to create a lease summary that follows the firm’s model lease summary. One can state the prompt PatternBuilder MAX relies upon as “do this to that.” Take the summary sample and summarize this new commercial lease, filling in the data requested in the summary with data from the new lease received. 

Much of what you’d like to automate with traditional document automation is fact-intensive, making predetermined logic extremely difficult. But you can predetermine the instructions you would give a smart human: “Here are examples from the past. Here are the new facts.” 

PatternBuilder MAX, the first of NetDocuments’ suite of ndMAX tools, lets you do “this” to “that” in every area of law. 

Getting Started with AI for Law Firms 

Visit www.netdocuments.com to learn more about ndMAX and PatternBuilder MAX – plus see nine studio apps (pre-built apps included with PatternBuilder MAX) by requesting a demo. Some of the world’s largest law firms are utilizing PatternBuilder MAX and seeing incredible results. PatternBuilder MAX is now available globally.

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Google launched Local Services Ads (LSA) in 2015, starting with home services-type businesses. Google made LSAs available to attorneys in 2021. Jim Christy, President of Postali, spoke with Zack Glaser, Legal Tech Advisor, about how law firms can use LSAs and their potential rewards and risks. 

LSA Primer 

LSAs differ from Google’s primary advertising tool, pay-per-click (PPC), in two ways. First, instead of displaying in line with organic search results, LSAs display above the traditional results list. LSAs are prominently set apart. Second, Google prices LSAs on a “pay-per-lead” model. 

Under a PPC model, which Google still offers and should have a place in firm advertising budgets, clicking the ad costs money, irrespective of what the user does afterward. Clicking the ad and closing the browser tab costs the same as a user clicking the link, spending an hour on the attorney’s landing page, and completing a contact form. 

The LSA model is different. Google does not charge the advertising attorney merely because a user clicked on the LSA. The user must contact the law firm. Only a successful connection costs money. 

Making LSAs Successful for Your Firm 

The LSA algorithm also differs from PPC in how Google chooses which LSA to display for a search. With PPC advertising, prominence flows from spending. Paying more puts the firm’s ad higher. In contrast, Google selects LSAs based on many factors, including user (i.e., star) ratings. A firm must have a particular number of Google reviews to be eligible for LSA inclusion (Google requires up to 5 reviews depending on profession & practice area). Beyond that, location, business hours, responsiveness, profile quality, and, of course, marketing budget, play a roll in an individual firm’s LSA ranking.

Pay Only for Leads, Not Clicks 

Google charges firms for contacts, not clicks. When configuring its LSA profile, the firm sets practice areas and geographies. If a user reaches out through the LSA but doesn’t match your practice area and geography, the firm can dispute the charge with Google and seek a refund. 

Unlike PPC ads, Google offers limited specificity concerning practice areas and keyword matching. Jim gave the example of a personal injury firm that only represents wrongful death matters. While PPC ads could tightly target this niche, LSAs could run too broadly (e.g., all personal injury searches). 

With LSAs, a firm may get calls that aren’t disputable but not a great fit, so they might pay the higher LSA cost. With PPC, Google charges the firm for every click, but the ad may get more desired exposure because of the additional specificity and targeting tools PPC has. 

Costs of LSAs 

When LSAs initially launched for attorneys, ad prices were relatively inexpensive and predictable. Both benefits are fading. For example, some specific personal injury locations, LSA prices have climbed 300% since 2021. In some categories, the return-on-investment of PPC ads may now exceed that of LSAs, even though LSAs promise higher quality leads. 

Using LSAs as a DIYer 

While Jim encourages firms to engage professional assistance when running PPC ad campaigns, LSAs are something a solo or small firm can experiment with on their own. For the inspired DIYers, Google’s LSA profile provides three tools. 

• Category: The firm tells Google its areas of practice. Family law is a category, for example. The firm must have at least one category and can have more than one. Google also permits excluding categories, mediation, for example. That’s about the extent of LSA granularity. An attorney could seek auto accident injuries, but if the firm specialized in auto accident head injuries, LSAs could not be that specific. 
• Budget: The firm must set its LSA budget weekly; that’s the only option. Google presents two options: Maximize Leads and Manually Set a Max Bid. Setting the budget to Maximize means the campaign uses the current market rate for that LSA placement to serve the LSA to the most viable users at the most viable time to optimize for getting leads. Setting the budget to Manual means that the firm controls the amount they are willing to spend per week, the price is still as variable as with Maximize, but fewer or no users may see it due to the price cap. 
• Geography: This option controls who sees the ad based on a user’s state, county, city, or ZIP code. Users see LSAs based on their location when searching, so it’s possible firms may receive “out of area” contacts (e.g., if someone searches while at work versus home). 

Getting Started 

Jim advises that LSAs involve some strategy, and he’s happy to discuss strategy with you. Once the firm decides on a direction, “pulling the levers” is much simpler than Google’s PPC tools. The LSA area of Google search results is prime real estate. If you have not set up Local Services Ads yet, Jim encourages you to do so, even if you don’t intend to run ads immediately. 

To learn more about Postali and why you should use LSAs, visit their blog. 

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If you have engaged a “law firm marketing agency,” you know that phrase can encompass everything from defining your firm vision and ideal client, to font and logos, to the technical mechanics of website building and ad buying. Maybe you’ve felt that the end goal—more prospects and, ultimately, more clients and more revenue, gets lost in the shuffle.

FirmPilot understands that feeling and has “flipped the script” on law firm digital marketing. They start with data instead of design.  By synthesizing data and marketing, FirmPilot provides law firms two benefits: hard numbers that give you a framework for decision-making and the ability to  turn reams of facts and figures into actionable marketing intelligence.

FirmPilot’s AI and Marketing

One AI strength lies in data analysis and summary. FirmPilot takes advantage of AI’s data audit and summary capabilities to analyze your competitors and automatically improve your firm’s marketing to attract clients. Traditional marketing firms rely on basic tactics, gut feelings, and many “manual adjustments” to tweak marketing campaigns. In contrast , FirmPilot uses cutting-edge AI to automate law firm marketing.

FirmPilot’s decision engine, which can modify search engine optimization (SEO) keywords, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, social media ads, and more, synthesizes two valuable data sources. FirmPilot not only looks at your own marketing data, it also looks at your top competitors’ data. The combined sources drive FirmPilot’s software to predict and deploy effective marketing to reach your ideal client. That data-driven, predictive algorithm is FirmPilot’s “secret sauce.” Instead of simply writing a website post, publishing it, and hoping for the best, FirmPilot precisely targets prospective clients with the highest conversion likelihood.

How FirmPilot Produces Results

Your existing client data powers FirmPilot’s AI. Think about what you know about your past and present client population. You know where they live, what concern brought them to you, the resolution they sought, and the resolution they got. Depending on the practice area, you may have insightful demographic data—married or single, number of children, financial well-being, etc. FirmPilot relies on this sort of data to profile and identify ideal, high-value clients.

Once FirmPilot’s software knows who it’s trying to find, the AI then reverse engineers where these lucrative prospects are searching online by studying the content and keywords of competitor law firms already attracting them. FirmPilot algorithms then suggest website edits, content optimization, and other steps you can take so that your firm appears prominently in search results when these would-be clients perform a web search.

These three legs of the stool—your data, FirmPilot’s intelligent recommendations, and the results they produce, work as a continuously improving system. The client-result data from your first set of changes informs future changes and so on. The AI makes ever-better recommendations by learning which content and tactics performed best. As you use it, FirmPilot constantly refines as retargets so that, over time, its lead generation delivers for your most profitable segments. Ultimately, FirmPilot’s AI-powered marketing engine starts with your existing client data and, through a series of finely-tuned iterations, attracts and converts prospects that drive law firm growth.

A New Marketing Approach to Law Firms

Many people think that marketing is all hunches and instinct, and there’s certainly some of that, particularly with visuals and word choice. But there’s plenty of data too, more now than ever before. Data tells marketers to air commercials for “product A” during evening news programs and “product B” during college football games. Data ties your web search for a product to the subsequent ads you see for that product, its accessories, and its competitors. FirmPilot’s technology marries sophisticated, AI-powered analysis to the needs of your firm’s marketing.

FirmPilot’s AI creates and optimizes marketing assets to achieve profitable results. Furthermore, its performance tracking mechanism, powered by continuous results analysis, gives unmatched visibility into the return on investment that FirmPilot brings to your firm.

Visit FirmPilot’s website to learn how modern, data-driven AI marketing benefits your firm.

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Nominations are now open for the 2024 Lawyerist Best Law Firm Website Contest!

This annual contest showcases small and solo law firms that demonstrate excellence in legal website design. Past winners have gone above and beyond with their websites, creating an exceptional user experience and attracting new clients. They also serve as a valuable platform to educate and inspire, communicate with current clients, and grow their brand.

So, how does it work?

We encourage our community to nominate eye-catching, innovative legal websites that stand out amongst the crowd. Multiple submissions from the same person are welcome. We just ask that you nominate your website only once. Nominations will close on Friday, February 9, 2024.

Websites are assessed based on four main categories:

Judges will use these categories as they fill out the grading rubric. Websites with the highest average score win.

Contest Rules

Read these rules before submitting your nominations:

1. The website must reflect a small or solo law firm (firms of 15 lawyers or fewer).
2. Past Lawyerist Best Law Firm Website winners are ineligible to win.
3. Websites that don’t align with the above grading categories will be omitted.
4. If you submit your website multiple times, we have the right to omit your submission.
5. If the website has a low GTmetrix score, it will automatically be omitted from the competition.

Are you looking to spruce up your website?

Are you looking to spruce up your website? Take a look at the 2023 Best Law Firm Website winners to find inspiration. Or, check out our Guide to Law Firm Website Design to learn how to enhance your website and drive traffic to your page.

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