Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers cloud practice management software with a growing library of forms and templates, and built-in document assembly and e-filing (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of an Outlook add-in that addresses attachment headaches and reduces the risk of career-threatening errors, a due diligence and business intelligence research service with a new approach to presenting data from public filings, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.
Once a luxury, document automation has become essential in law firms. Consumers of legal services want to pay for your expertise, not for you to noodle around in Microsoft Word formatting a scanned form and manually entering data.
LEAP … in One Sentence
LEAP is a cloud practice management system with built-in document assembly and a growing library of forms and document templates.
The Killer Feature
The creators of LEAP identified an unmet need in the legal industry several years ago. Law firms store client and matter information in a practice management system, but cannot use this data to create documents without a significant investment in document assembly software. And even after such an investment, law firms still need to download forms from various courts and agencies, and buy templates from various providers.
LEAP provides all three of these components in one product — practice management, forms and templates ("forms"), and document assembly. LEAP currently contains more than 2,000 forms in more than a dozen practice areas ranging from bankruptcy to estate planning to family to real estate. "Since the start of 2017, LEAP Content has added over 600 new forms across the various states and areas of law," says Kelly Clifford, President of Content. The LEAP Forms Blog, to which you can subscribe, keeps you apprised of new additions by practice area and by jurisdiction.
In addition, LEAP recently unveiled built-in e-filing. You enter your court login credentials, choose the case file, and select the documents you want to e-file. LEAP currently supports e-filing in bankruptcy courts, USCIS (immigration), and New York and New Jersey state courts.
Other Notable Features
You can search LEAP for a form or browse by jurisdiction and practice area. Forms run in Microsoft Word, both the Windows and Online versions. Fields within forms auto-populate with data from LEAP. The form wizard identifies missing data. Once you add missing data to a case file, you can rerun the form with one click.
Customize LEAP's forms and create your own document templates using more than 25,000 fields. LEAP stores your custom templates so that you need not reinvent the wheel in the future. Without any programming, your templates can include questionnaires, calculations, Ask/Result (multiple-choice answers), and If/Then/Else statements (e.g., if a female, use female pronouns throughout the document). LEAP's content team can assist you in creating your first five templates at no charge.
You can save completed documents in Word or PDF format. If you're creating several documents, LEAP can combine them into a single PDF file. LEAP saves all versions of the documents you generate in the corresponding matter. The History of Changes provides an audit trail, while the Compare tool generates a redline of two versions.
LEAP automatically captures the time you spend creating a document for billing purposes. As we've reported previously, LEAP includes billing, document management, and practice management in addition to the document automation tools discussed above. LEAP also includes a modern, mobile-friendly website and blog for your firm.
What Else Should You Know?
LEAP runs in a dedicated native app for Windows, iOS, and Android, as well as in a web browser. The monthly subscription includes technical support and software updates. Learn more about LEAP.
How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
