TechnoLawyer: Practice Management/Calendars

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

John Hightower, The Evils of the Comma Splice

Donald Coker, The Difference Between CRM and Practice Management

Pam Rolph, Review: Acrobat Pro v. Power PDF for PDF-Word Conversions

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Serendipity
Our most serendipitous offering (hence its name), TL Serendipity consists of contributions by TechnoLawyer members who have important information to share. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The TL Serendipity newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a practice management system that offers a desktop experience in your web browser (see article below), an online backup service with Dropbox-like functionality, a NetDocuments add-on for electronic signatures, and an iOS app for tracking packages. Don't miss the next issue.

Practice management software resides at the center of your practice. However, your practice is not always centered at your office. Therefore, it has become essential for practice management software to travel with you — but without you giving up any functionality.

Amicus Attorney Premium 2016 … in One Sentence

Launched recently, Gavel & Gown Software's Amicus Attorney Premium 2016 is a popular practice management system with a new focus on remote access.

The Killer Feature

The new version of Amicus Premium offers full access from any web browser, including on Windows, Mac, and iPad. Your firm's data remains on-premise at your firm.

Amicus Premium in the browser offers the same features as the core Windows program with an optimized user experience. For example, on an iPad interaction elements are sized for fingers rather than a mouse pointer. When you login, the main dashboard displays appointments, telephone messages, unbilled activity and unposted time entries, tasks and deadlines, and a tip.

Other Notable Features

During a demo, Gavel & Gown president Ron Collins said that law firms want to reduce the number of products they need to buy and manage. To this end, Amicus Premium offers significantly enhanced document management. New features include versioning so that you never lose any work, preview and zoom for viewing documents in hundreds of formats, and check-in/out for preventing changes while you work on a document.

Searches list the current version of documents by default, but you can also search prior versions. With Amicus Premium's famous "Do" button, you can now launch Word, time your work, and save the document to the appropriate matter. Integrations with Microsoft Office further enable you to capture all email and documents in Amicus Premium.

Gavel & Gown also lavished a lot of attention on communications. Amicus Premium now groups calls, email, and internal messages. Related features include rules-based auto-filing, and a filter for finding messages by date, matter, to/from, etc. Integration with Office 365 and Exchange powers the email functionality.

A new Client Portal with your firm's logo and letterhead enables you to exchange secure messages with clients, have clients complete forms for documents, and share documents.

Other new features include improved mass billing, support for LEDES billing formats, client receipts, an Apple-like installer, and automatic updates. In all, you'll find more than 35 new features plus of course the core practice management functions — contacts, calendars, matters, billing, notes, research, etc.

"Amicus Premium 2016 is packed with features and enhancements to help legal professionals stay ahead of the ever evolving demands being placed on them," says Collins. "We focused on simplifying workflows, saving our users valuable time while equipping them with the necessary tools to beat the competition."

What Else Should You Know?

Amicus Premium supports Office 2016 and Windows 10 as well as earlier versions. Pricing starts at $849 with upgrades at $649. Learn more about Amicus Attorney Premium 2016.

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.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 41 articles from the past week worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week.

Firm Central Offers Exclusive Integrations and New Billing Features

CosmoLex and Casemaker Integrate

Our iPad Pro Case Picks

Texting While Walking Isn't Funny Anymore

Congratulations to Susan Harkins of TechRepublic on winning our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award: How to Use Word Templates Effectively

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of both legal technology and mainstream technology of interest to the legal profession (e.g., monitors, smartphones, scanners, the iPad, and more). But not the only coverage. BlawgWorld enables you to stay on top of all the noteworthy legal and mainstream technology articles (and podcasts and videos) published elsewhere without having to hire a research assistant. Even when you're busy, you won't want to miss each issue's Pick of the Week. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Annie Williams, How I Use Two Monitors; Reviews Of Power PDF, Varidesk; Sitting V. Standing

Richard Marx, Clio V. Time Matters From A Consultant For Both

Mary Kay Cassidy, Review: Affinity Consulting For Microsoft Word Training

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Serendipity
Our most serendipitous offering (hence its name), TL Serendipity consists of contributions by TechnoLawyer members who have important information to share. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The TL Serendipity newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a practice management app with a new billing component and deep integrations (see article below), an app for tracking referral fees vis-a-vis other lawyers, a cloud dashboard for New York lawyers, and a business book summaries service. Don't miss the next issue.

One of the underappreciated benefits of cloud applications is their ability to integrate. This becomes especially powerful when the integrations are among first-party applications.

Firm Central … in One Sentence

Thomson Reuters' Firm Central is a cloud practice management application with a new billing component.

The Killer Feature

Firm Central integrates with a growing number of Thomson Reuters services. These exclusive integrations give Firm Central bragging rights as a one-stop practice management system for small law firms.

For example, you can search Westlaw from Firm Central, and access recent research. When using Westlaw, you can save research to a matter in Firm Central. Citations in documents stored in Firm Central contain live KeyCite flags.

Other key integrations include Deadline Assistant, Doc & Form Builder, Case Notebook, CaseLogistix, and Practical Law. Deadline Assistant calculates court deadlines and enters them into Firm Central calendars. With Doc & Form Builder, you can auto-populate forms with client data from Firm Central.

Third-party integrations also exist, chief among them Microsoft Office. You can save Word documents to Firm Central, and move email directly from Outlook into integrated Firm Central matters and folders. The email messages you move into these folders become accessible in Firm Central.

"Many of the features we've added in recent months came as recommendations directly from our customers," Managing Director, Small Law Firm Segment Karl Florida tells us. "The result is a highly intuitive, customizable, and affordable product that offers integration with Westlaw, Practical Law, and much more — all wrapped within the utmost security for our customers and their clients."

Other Notable Features

When you first log into Firm Central, a customizable Home dashboard displays your calendar, tasks, notifications, and recent activity. You can pin integrated services such as Westlaw and Practical Law along the side. Universal search and buttons for adding contacts and documents reside on all screens.

New in Firm Central is Time & Billing. A timer facilitates contemporaneous time entries. You can use the timesheet for multiple entries. Firm Central includes standard ABA billing codes (you can create your own custom codes). A dashboard displays all matters and their status such as outstanding balances. Settings enable you to customize billing parameters.

The Pre-Bills workflow enables you to apply discounts, write-offs, and other adjustments. QuickBooks Online integration eliminates double entry when invoicing and applying payments. Firm Central's trust accounting, including three-way reconciliation and reporting, gives you the ability to track retainer deductions and balances.

A secure client portal enables you to share documents, deliver invoices, and even assign tasks. Before accepting a new client, Firm Central's conflict checker searches all contacts, matter information and the full text of documents (including stored legal research). The resulting conflicts report features live links to relevant documents.

What Else Should You Know?

Firm Central offers three plans — Core ($40 per user per month), Essential ($65 per user per month), and Premier ($105 per user per month). Essential adds the new Time & Billing component, while Premier adds Deadline Assistant. All plans include KeyCite. Learn more about Firm Central.

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.

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Chet Lustgarten, Why Solos Should Not Practice Solo Plus Review of BigHand

Joe Bahgat, Desktop Search Options on Mac; Review: Path Finder

Blair Clark, Review: Perfect Authority

Nathan Davis, Old ScanSnap Models With Windows 7, 8, and 10

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Serendipity
Our most serendipitous offering (hence its name), TL Serendipity consists of contributions by TechnoLawyer members who have important information to share. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The TL Serendipity newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Jeffrey Schoen, Review: RingCentral (VoIP Telephone Service)

David Gossom, AbacusLaw v. MyCase; Abacus Private Cloud

Edward Zohn, FileCenter Versus FileConvert for Converting PDF Scans Into DOCX or WPD Format

Roy Greenberg, Review: Novastor Backup

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Serendipity
Our most serendipitous offering (hence its name), TL Serendipity consists of contributions by TechnoLawyer members who have important information to share. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The TL Serendipity newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a practice management system that can also power your law firm's website (see article below), an iOS app for capturing and organizing your handwritten notes, and two apps for discovery document processing and review. Don't miss the next issue.

The fewer moving parts in a small law firm, the better. More complexity tends to increase administrative costs. In the technology realm, the more your practice management system can handle, the more you can dispense with single-function products.

LEAP … in One Sentence

LEAP is a legal accounting and practice management system that encompasses both front and back office tasks.

The Killer Feature

For your front office, LEAP offers document assembly and management of contacts, calendars, documents, and email. For your back office, LEAP offers billing and IOLTA-compliant trust accounting. It integrates with QuickBooks Online for your general ledger.

LEAP is a hybrid cloud solution — you access it from a Windows desktop app but the data is securely hosted on U.S.-based servers. The LEAP mobile app for iOS and Android take advantage of your smartphone's capabilities. For example, you can capture telephone calls with clients for time entries, and scan a document into LEAP using the camera.

"LEAP is for small law firms wishing to become more efficient, more flexible, and make more money," CEO of LEAP Chris Stock tells us. "LEAP's integrated system enables small law firms to do more work with the same number of people."

Other Notable Features

Because LEAP is a Windows app, it offers deep integration with Microsoft Outlook and Word. You can start new documents and email messages from LEAP, and automatically record the billable time you spend on them. LEAP can convert documents into PDF format when you email them. The Outlook integration also extends to your calendars.

LEAP can manage all of your firm's information. For example, it captures and automatically files inbound email, and integrates with scanners. You'll want to start new documents in LEAP because of its forms and templates. The company continually adds templates in many practice areas plus you can create your own.

Other document management features include audit trails, versioning, document viewer, document comparison, and combination of PDF files. Perhaps best of all, rather than email a document to colleagues, you can email them a link to the document so that the final version remains in LEAP.

LEAP's electronic timesheet with autocomplete enables timekeepers to enter their time. LEAP also handles cost recovery and expenses with the ability to group disbursements into a single line item. You can output bills in Word or PDF format, and email them from LEAP so that they get filed in the corresponding matter. Trust accounting enables you to manage retainers and apply payments.

What Else Should You Know?

LEAP includes LEAP Websites at no extra charge. This service includes mobile-friendly templates from which you can choose, a WordPress blog, email newsletters, and search engine optimization. Some LEAP customers that already have a website use LEAP Websites for a second website around a practice area. LEAP starts at $129 per user per month with a 12-month money-back guarantee. The company reinvests $6 million per year into new features for LEAP. 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.

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Mark Werner, Solo On My Own Terms And Not Far From The Cutting Edge

Jerry Gonzalez, Cloud Storage Concerns Overblown; Review Of AxCrypt, AESCrypt

Philip Franckel, Why Dragon NaturallySpeaking Beats Typing And Transcriptionists

Steven Finell, What Starts Digital Stays Digital

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Serendipity
Our most serendipitous offering (hence its name), TL Serendipity consists of contributions by TechnoLawyer members who have important information to share. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The TL Serendipity newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a case and matter management system that can automate your practice and integrate with the products you already use (see article below), speech recognition software for legal teams, an add-in for Word that enhances Track Changes and fixes common formatting problems, and an online meeting service. Don't miss the next issue.

Lawyers tend to specialize as this gives you deep insight into a given area of law and thus a competitive advantage. Your case and matter management software should go just as deep so that it can track every aspect of your work, and keep your team informed and on the right track.

LawBase 12.5 … in One Sentence

Launching this week, LawBase 12.5 is a popular case and matter management system known for its depth and integrations, the newest of which involves automated court rules.

The Killer Feature

LawBase CEO Phil Homburger describes LawBase as "adaptable and configurable." The distinction lies in LawBase's architecture — a sandboxed database that holds all your firm's data and each user's settings.

Instead of adding just a few custom fields here and there, LawBase enables you to design automated workflows that interact with other products and online services when necessary. Think of it as a hub for all the work performed by your firm.

LawBase includes a number of templates for practice areas such as general practice, insurance defense, mortgage refinancing, mass tort, personal injury, government agencies, corporate legal departments, etc. You can work with the company to build a custom implementation if needed.

"We have provided case and matter management software to the legal industry for more than three decades," Homburger tells us. "In this time, we have found that the flexibility offered in LawBase adds tremendous value to our clients. This flexibility extends to the integration with a myriad of other products which has proven the benefit of our best-of-breed approach."

Other Notable Features

Contacts, calendars, matters, and whatever other data types you track each reside in a Cabinet. Each Cabinet contains nested Smartfolders that contain all the data. The "smart" in Smartfolders refers to tools such as searching and filtering, user access controls, notifications, and statuses. Cross-referencing enables you to access the contents of one Smartfolder from another.

Workflows and integrations also reside in Smartfolders. The newest integration is with Calendar Rules. Just about any other software product can integrate with LawBase according to Homburger. Popular integrations include Microsoft Outlook, iTimeKeep, Carpe Diem, HotDocs, iManage, NetDocuments, Tabs3, Juris, Timeslips, and Worldox.

As an example, a LawBase workflow could generate a Word document using a HotDocs questionnaire, store the final version in Worldox, email it through Outlook to a client, efile it with an agency, and post a time entry to Tabs3 — all without leaving LawBase.

What Else Should You Know?

The Report Generator within LawBase enables you to create every imaginable report without the need for a separate product. You can host LawBase in your firm or through virtual desktop providers such as LegalWorkspace, mindSHIFT, and Uptime Legal Systems. Learn more about LawBase 12.5.

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.