In recent months, Epiq, a global company providing technology-enabled legal services, has announced new artificial intelligence and analytics features built using the AI capabilities of Amazon Web Services. These new features include a framework for building, training and deploying bespoke machine learning models as secure APIs for customers; integration of Amazon Bedrock for custom copilot […]

A first-of-its-kind product launching today aims to “revolutionize how attorneys interact with transcripts” by using artificial intelligence to allow them to semantically search across libraries of transcripts and then dynamically interact with and interrogate individual transcripts to find relevant information. Called Transcript Genius, it was developed by Steno, a tech-enabled provider of legal support and […]

After being away last Friday, we are back live today at 3 p.m. ET with our weekly Legaltech Week roundtable panel — where we offer our expert and sometimes irreverent takes on the week’s legal tech news. If you haven’t already, you can sign up free here to attend. Register once and you are signed up […]

When the American Bar Association’s ethics panel finally got around to issuing an opinion on lawyer blogging in 2018 — a full two decades after lawyers had started blogging — it conjured for me the image of Rip Van Winkle, who fell asleep in 1769 and awoke 20 years later, having slept through the Revolution. […]

As this episode is released, Aderant, a technology company that provides business and practice management software for mid- to large-sized law firms worldwide, is in the midst of its Global Momentum user conference, taking place in Nashville. At the conference, the company made a major news announcement – the launch of Stridyn, a new cloud […]

When Chris Cartrett took over two years ago as CEO of Aderant, a provider of business management software to larger law firms, he promised to “take aggressive steps to further the company’s cloud-first strategy throughout its broad suite of solutions.” At Aderant’s Global Momentum user conference today in Nashville, he announced a major step in […]

Mishandling client money is among the top client complaints about attorneys. When we think of mishandling, we often think first of misappropriation—taking client funds to spend on oneself. But such actions, however sensational, represent a distinct minority of trust account problems. More commonly, problems with law firm trust accounts, also known as IOLTA (“interest on lawyer trust accounts”), arise from errors of expediency and neglect rather than nefarious intent. Still, such errors may prove a serious threat to your firm, your reputation, and even your law license.

Fortunately, legal technology has advanced well beyond ledger books. Today, approachable, feature-rich, web-centric programs make managing law firm trust accounting simpler. CosmoLex, a leader in online law practice management software, includes robust tools that help attorneys address potential trust accounting pitfalls. Furthermore, since these capabilities are built into CosmoLex, you have access to all matter facts and finances in a single, integrated experience.

Guard Against Trust Account Mishaps

Prevent Commingled Funds

Ethical rules require law firms to separate trust account money from operating account money. Money you receive but have not earned, for example, a retainer from Client 1 or a settlement check for Client 2, must go into the trust account. You can move that money from the trust account to your operating account as you earn it, such as working hours on the matter (Client 1) or paying yourself the 30% contingency fee (Client 2). You must also document such movement appropriately.

Each client’s money in trust must be separately accounted for. Using the example above, Client 1’s retainer and Client 2’s settlement amount are not a single pool of money, although they could reside in the same bank account. If your work for Client 1 exhausts the retainer, you cannot continue to withdraw money from the trust account even if there is money in the account from the settlement check. The settlement check money belongs to Client 2. If you continued paying yourself, you’d overdraft Client 1 and misappropriate money owned by Client 2.

Proper trust accounting necessitates coordinating client, matter, and money data. CosmoLex holds all three and automates individual client ledger management to prevent commingling and overdrafting.

Ensure Proper Payments and Timely Disbursements

Building on our example above, when Client 1 signs an engagement agreement and pays your retainer, that payment must be paid into and reside in your trust account until you earn it. Assuming they’re like most Americans, Client 1 may want to pay with plastic.

Your credit card infrastructure must understand the unique complications of trust accounts. CosmoLex’s credit card processing handles tricky situations like chargebacks and disputes, and allocates money, fees, and service charges appropriately for an IOLTA setting.

Similarly, you must timely disburse funds. For some situations, the desire for timeliness is obvious—Client 2 would like his settlement money. In other cases, the need for timeliness is less stark, but no less true. With Client 1, you should move money from the trust account to the operating account as you earn it.

In both cases, you must document the transactions. CosmoLex makes it easy to record disbursements as they are made. Documentation’s value for Client 2 is obvious. But it’s also important for Client 1 because:

• you have an obligation to separate the firm’s money from client money;
• regular, timely transfer of earned money to the operating account smooths firm cash flow; and
• transferring earned money from Client 1’s trust to the operating account promptly informs you when you have exhausted the retainer. It’s then time to send a replenishment request or begin billing Client 1.

Examples of other CosmoLex features that streamline trust account management include:

• Automatic trust-to-operating account transfers;
• Tracking and disbursement of third-party lien claims; and
• Importing of electronic bank statements.

Many of the activities described above affect both the trust account and operating, or general business, account. One of CosmoLex’s great advantages is the ability to present a holistic picture of your billing system (e.g., invoices sent to clients), your trust account (e.g., money you hold on behalf of a client), and your operating account (e.g., your general business ledger). Your view of the business benefits from a compressive portrait possible only with an integrated solution.

Integrated Data Produces Powerful Reports

CosmoLex’s reporting tools make both the tracking of and reporting on trust account activity easy and intuitive. Additionally, CosmoLex provides simplified reporting for recordkeeping and auditing. With CosmoLex, you can run bank reconciliations, including the critically important three-way reconciliation, in just a few clicks, and archive financial data reports for safe-keeping and later review.

Complete trust financial reports include:

• Account balance reports
• Ledger activity summary reports; and
• Ledger transaction reports.

CosmoLex’s effortless trust reconciliations and audit-ready tools ease mandatory trust accounting obligations. Having these trust reports on hand ensures attorneys are prepared in case of an audit.

Avoid Errors and Alleviate Trust Account Burdens with CosmoLex

With comprehensive trust accounting baked into its law practice management software, CosmoLex provides a complete picture of your firm’s matters and activities, helping to:

• Preventing common trust account errors;
• Simplify precise online payments;
• Facilitate prompt distributions;
• Properly record transactions; and
• Effortlessly produce the reports you and your accountant require.

To learn more about using CosmoLex’s legal-specific accounting tools to stay ethically compliant with client money, visit their website.

The post Avoiding Trust Account Errors with CosmoLex appeared first on Lawyerist.

It has been a whirlwind year for the Open AI-backed, generative AI legal tech startup Harvey, which went from a $5 million seed round in November 2022 to a $21 million Series A in April 2023 to an $80 million Series B in December 2023 at a valuation of $715 million. It was a year […]

A new award announced today is intended to recognize and celebrate the visionary contributions shaping the future of knowledge management and innovation in the legal profession. Called the LexPrize Innovation Award, it will be presented at the Knowledge Management & Innovation for Legal (KM&I) conference taking place in New York City in October. Conference organizer […]

Courtroom Insight today launched Matter Connector, a product that delivers normalized docket data from multiple sources to the knowledge management platform Litera Foundation and to other law firm systems. Matter Connector enables law firms to centralize docket data from major providers, such as LexisNexis, Lex Machina and vLex Docket Alarm, through one unified connector. Using […]

According to Upsolve, a nonprofit company whose technology helps low-income individuals file for bankruptcy for free, Americans owe $1.77 trillion in student loan debt — 93% of it to the federal government. Since 2017, Upsolve’s debt relief tools have helped more than 13,000 individuals erase more than $750 million in debt. But, due to the […]

In a pair of AI announcements this week, LexisNexis said that it has significantly enhanced the speed and capabilities of its Lexis+ AI legal AI Assistant, and also that it has launched the commercial preview of Nexis+ AI within its Nexis news and business information research service. LexisNexis first released Lexis+ AI for general availability […]

You may have noticed of late that many of your video meetings have an unfamiliar attendee — a meeting bot, invited by one of the human participants, that produces a recording or transcript when the meeting is over. But while there are several such products on the market, none have been developed to meet the […]

Almost exactly one year ago, a new legal tech startup, The Contract Network, came out of stealth, with a mission to “radically accelerate the time for contract negotiations” through an AI-powered contract collaboration platform where all parties to a deal engage in a secure and neutral environment. The company’s cofounder and CEO, Jim Wagner, is a legal […]

Live today on Legaltech Week, the panel will be joined by special guest Jake Heller, cofounder of Casetext and now head of product, CoCounsel, at Thomson Reuters, to discuss the news announced earlier this week that Thomson Reuters will deploy the CoCounsel AI assistant as a single app across its entire portfolio of products spanning […]

ShareFile is well known for secure document sharing and external collaboration capabilities. It provides an easy and secure way to send and receive client or third-party files. Built on that strong foundation, the newest ShareFile for legal innovations give law firms the power to create unparalleled document and client-centric efficiencies.

ShareFile for legal builds on the core features you’re familiar with, adding capabilities that expedite client onboarding, ease document workflows, and better protect business and client information without the need of complex, IT-managed security protocols.

Built Specifically for Legal Professionals

Many legal professionals (75%) spend more than 20 hours a week on non-client-facing work. Reclaim some of those hours with the powerful features of ShareFile for legal.

Share Files Securely

When we think of exchanging documents over email, we often think of file size, but not always file security. ShareFile for legal handles both easily. There is no file size limit like email has for attachments. The Outlook or Gmail plugin makes attaching documents and entire folders to an email easier and more secure. The attached documents are uploaded to and are secure in ShareFile, and you can send links to only download the file. You can monitor the downloads, password protect them, and limit the number of times and how long the download links work. Receiving files works similarly. Provide the client with a secure link and they can upload documents via a web portal. ShareFile notifies you of newly received documents.

• Projects: When you and the client collaborate on files, ShareFile for legal offers a centralized client management space for each case or matter that helps simplify, organize, and secure common document workflows. This helps give more visibility and control on who has access to what and when they last accessed files, all in one spot.
• Document Requests Lists: For a list of documents you collect frequently (e.g., the same five documents for each deed you prepare), ShareFile for legal includes digital document collection to create and send requests to clients, explicitly listing each document and the date you want to receive it by. A blanket “upload everything here” link often works, but for specific or discrete items, document requests tell the client what you need. You can review what the client uploaded, comment, and even reject a given document, state why, and request the correct files (e.g., if the client uploaded two years of tax returns but not the most recent two years).

Keep Track of Tasks

Even when you tell clients exactly which documents you need from them to proceed, you or someone at the firm often has to follow up repeatedly. You may be able to bill for the time, but it’s neither effective nor rewarding. ShareFile for legal provides two helpful tools.

• Task Tracking: You can configure ShareFile for legal to track matter-related tasks. Statuses include “yet to start,” “in progress,” “overdue,” and “completed.” You can create tasks for individual documents (as in estate plan drafting), or entire classes of documents (as in discovery or due diligence work).
• Keep the Client Informed: As part of task tracking, you can easily share task access with clients. When granted access, which is discretionary, clients can receive prompt status updates that detail all work for their matters.

Security First

Although document scanning and safety have improved in recent years, they can still be a vector for malware and infection. This fact is even more pronounced among lawyers, where 2023 statistics reveal that 69% of attorneys rely on email, often unencrypted, for client communication and document exchange. ShareFile for legal proactively scans document contents and provides suggested actions or automated actions for mitigating threats.

ShareFile’s security capabilities include alerting you to unusual sign-in and authentication attempts and monitoring file uploads for malware.

Works within Your Tech Stack

ShareFile knows that firms rely on multiple programs to perform different functions. That’s why ShareFile for legal integrates with key tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and more to reduce tech complexity and help your firm boost efficiency.

ShareFile for Legal Simplifies and Secures Your Document Workflow

Digital documents workflows can help improve your firm’s speed, accuracy, and security. ShareFile for legal makes transmitting and collaborating on documents easy and secure. Whether your clients upload dozens of discovery documents, a discrete list of enumerated files, or a collaboration space for ongoing engagement between the client and the firm, ShareFile has you covered. Learn more about ShareFile for legal by visiting their website.

The post Efficiency, Security Made Easy with ShareFile for Legal appeared first on Lawyerist.

Four years. No institutional capital. An incredible co-founder. Tenacious execution. Lucky timing. And a belief that what we were doing was important. Simply put, it was as rollercoaster. Dashboard Legal was born from a need I remember sitting on the 45th floor of Bank of America Tower, 7 years into a corporate biglaw career, and […]

Debuting today is a new product, KLapper, that is a DIY legal virtual assistant builder, powered by generative AI, and designed specifically for law firm knowledge management and innovation teams. Developed by KLoBot Inc., a company that develops knowledge management technology for the legal industry, KLapper was developed to enable users to easily design, train […]

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ClaimScore, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to help detect fraudulent claims in class action lawsuits, has closed a $3.15 million seed funding round led by ROC Venture Group, a private investment firm based in Naples, Fla. Founded in 2022, ClaimScore says it is the only software product dedicated to resolving the problem of claims […]