TechnoLawyer: TL NewsWire

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a service designed to help you expand your practice by providing model forms, practice notes, checklists, etc. (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of software for managing and referencing exhibits, knowledge management software for mining your firm's work product, three practice management apps, a visual tool for identifying relevant case law faster, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

It's amusing when a relative expresses bemusement that you're not an expert in every area of the law. But when clients ask for help, you either figure out how to deliver or leave money on the table.

Lexis Practice Advisor … in One Sentence

Lexis Practice Advisor offers model forms, practice notes, checklists, articles and other materials for lawyers, and integrates with Lexis Advance and Lexis for Microsoft Office.

The Killer Feature

Mindful of the fact that winning the trust of lawyers like you requires high-quality and updated materials, LexisNexis put together a network of more than 500 practicing lawyers from more than 230 law firms. Each lawyer has years of experience with the legal issues that pertain to the documents they contribute. In addition to reviewing the credentials of these authors, you can email LexisNexis' internal author team with questions about their documents.

Other Notable Features

Lexis Practice Advisor groups its materials by practice areas, including bankruptcy, finance, intellectual property, real estate, etc. This coverage includes business and commercial transactions for four states — California, Florida, New York, and Texas — with more in the pipeline.

Browsing these topics reveals subtopics presented in a step format designed to match your tasks. For example, drilling down to Private Mergers presents you with "Structuring and Planning Private Mergers" and "Preliminary Agreements in Private M&A Deals." If you prefer, you can start with a global search and then filter your results by practice area.

Lexis Practice Advisor groups materials by Forms, Articles, Secondary Materials, Cases, and Statutes & Regulations. The primary and secondary legal research come from Lexis Advance while the rest derives from the authors noted above. Some forms are interactive, enabling you to draft documents in Lexis Practice Advisor. Icons alert you to alternate clauses you can review and add with a click. You can also add your own clauses.

If you use Lexis for Microsoft Office, you can access Lexis Practice Advisor from within Microsoft Word, including all forms. "The integration with Lexis for Microsoft Office gives legal practitioners instantaneous access to the full breadth of Lexis Practice Advisor's on-point content and tools inside the Microsoft applications they use every day," said Sean Fitzpatrick, Managing Director of North American Research Solutions at LexisNexis. "This is a crucial step in our overarching strategy to help customers produce higher quality work in less time."

Lexis Practice Advisor offers M&A lawyers a tool called Lexis Market Tracker based on EDGAR and related data. Using Consideration Type, Target Industry, Deal Amount, and other parameters, you can research "What's Market" on more than 450 deal points for credit agreements. Lexis Market Tracker isolates specific provisions such as Collars and Ticking Fees so you can quickly find what you need for the documents you're drafting.

What Else Should You Know?

You can share materials with colleagues by placing them in Shared Folders. These work across Lexis Advance so they can also contain legal research. You can also export blank and completed forms in Word or PDF format. Learn more about Lexis Practice Advisor.

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 NewsWire covers litigation software for organizing exhibits, automating exhibit references in documents, and creating ebriefs (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of software for mining your firm's work product, a practice management app for Android and iOS, a legal research service that makes it faster to find relevant cases, a Word add-in for finding common errors in the contracts you draft, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

Lots of software exists for managing citations and creating a table of authorities. But what about exhibits? In fact-intensive documents, they become just as numerous and therefore tedious to manage. This problem begs for automation.

ExhibitManager … in One Sentence

Launched recently, Causasoft's ExhibitManager 5 is litigation software that integrates with Microsoft Word for organizing, reviewing, and referencing exhibits in briefs and other documents.

The Killer Feature

ExhibitManager provides a spreadsheet-like view of the exhibits you import. With a click, you insert a reference to an exhibit in one or more Word documents as you draft. At any point, another click automatically updates the exhibit numbers across all documents so that they're in numerical or chronological order within each document. You can update exhibit numbering as often as you want.

ExhibitManager can also generate a table of exhibits that likewise gets updated to match the exhibit numbering in the document. You can customize ExhibitManager to display exhibit references to comply with the style requirements of a particular jurisdiction.

"Exhibits often have to be numbered in multiple documents such as with a brief accompanied by witness statements and/or expert reports that all refer to the same exhibits," Managing Director Simone Pestalozzi told me during an online demo. "With ExhibitManager's automation technology, lawyers have more time to concentrate on case strategy instead of time-consuming administrative work."

Other Notable Features

ExhibitManager offers bulk importing of exhibits in many common formats such as PDF, Word, Excel, etc., including OCR processing if necessary. You can also import email messages and attachments. If you know an exhibit exists but you don't have a copy yet, ExhibitManager enables you to create a placeholder that you can reference in the meantime.

The main table in ExhibitManager features sortable columns that each user can move. Columns include metadata such as the exhibit number, type description, ID, date, etc. You can also apply tags to and annotate exhibits, both of which then become visible in their own respective columns. To the right of this table is the Preview area for viewing any exhibit you select.

When you need to use exhibits at a deposition or in court or share them with a client, expert, opposing counsel, etc., ExhibitManager can export a Bundle. The Bundle Assistant walks you through the process, enabling you to select the exhibits to include, apply a stamp with the exhibit number to the first page, apply Bates stamps to every page, add pagination, etc. ExhibitManager outputs all the selected exhibits to a folder, also creates a hyperlinked reference document.

ExhibitManager also automates the creation of ebriefs, obviating the need for a service provider. The eBrief Assistant offers options such as adding hyperlinks from the exhibit references in your brief to the exhibit. If you're sending an ebrief to a client or expert for review, you can include your exhibit annotations. You can efile an ebrief as a ZIP file or submit it on a CD or flash drive depending on your jurisdiction.

What Else Should You Know?

ExhibitManager works with Word 2007 and later and runs on Windows 7 or later. It costs $295 per user per year with volume discounts available. This includes all software updates and telephone support. There's an additional one-time cost for setup. Learn more about ExhibitManager.

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 NewsWire covers software that makes it easier to mine your firm's work product for model documents (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of a new Android and iOS app for a popular practice management system, a virtual desktop service with two factor authentication, a new practice management app that launched after five years in development, case analysis software, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

In the 1990s, document management systems revolutionized law practice. Not only could you collaborate on documents more efficiently, but you could also save time on new documents by leveraging your firm's body of work. Today's faster-paced world demands more sophisticated tools than these brute force searches through your archives. Time for another revolution.

Lexis Search Advantage … in One Sentence

Recently updated, Lexis Search Advantage is an enterprise search add-on that enhances your firm's work product with search, legal research, and drafting tools.

The Killer Feature

Lexis Search Advantage is powered by a combination of proprietary LexisNexis technology and IBM's Watson Explorer, a search platform capable of interpreting large data sets such as your firm's documents. As a result, Lexis Search Advantage can identify specific elements in the documents it searches.

For example, suppose you want to search for a legal issue in a litigation matter. You can use either a natural language search or traditional terms and connectors. And suppose your search results contain several briefs from your firm's archives. Below each brief, you'll find a Shepard's scorecard alerting you to potential problems with one or more citations in the document. These real-time Shepard's signals are always up-to-date thanks to integration with Lexis Advance.

When you open a brief, you'll find a living document. A panel along the left side lists all citations, judges, lawyers, experts, and companies within the document. The same real-time Shepard's signals are here too. Click on a citation to read that case. You can also find other documents created by your firm that cite the same case.

Click on the name of a judge, expert, or lawyer, and thanks to the new integration with LexisNexis Litigation Profile Suite you can learn more about that person and their experience. For example, charts show you how a judge has ruled on motions, the types of cases that comprise their docket, etc.

Other Notable Features

Lexis Search Advantage offers similar tools for transactional lawyers. You can search generally for transactional documents or run special searches for a Clause Title or Defined Term. The contextual snippets in the search results help you zero in on model documents. Within a document, the panel on the left side lists all sections, clause titles, and defined terms, enabling you to quickly navigate lengthy documents. You can copy a clause or defined term to your clipboard to use in the document you're drafting.

Searches often require refinement. Lexis Search Advantage enables you to refine searches. Refinements from your own document management system include authors, clients, date range, document type, and user tags. Lexis Search Advantage provides additional legal-centric refinements such as citations, jurisdictions, governing law, experts, judges, etc. When you perfect a search, you can save it in a public or private folder.

Because your colleagues don't always assign document types consistently, you can use Lexis Search Advantage's algorithm to automatically assign the document type in accordance with your firm's standard nomenclature.

"Lexis Search Advantage is a great example of the LexisNexis strategy of providing lawyers with technologies that help them work more efficiently," LexisNexis North American Research Solutions managing director Sean Fitzpatrick told me.

What Else Should You Know?

Lexis Search Advantage scales to accommodate any size document collection. One large law firm uses it with upwards of 40 million of its documents. Instead of using Watson Explorer as the search engine, you can alternatively use OpenText (formerly Recommind) or SharePoint. Learn more about Lexis Search Advantage.

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 NewsWire covers a new Android and iOS practice management app designed for fast access to information (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of a legal research service that color codes your search terms to help you find relevant cases faster, three practice management apps, client relationship management software that leverages external data, a contract analysis add-in for Microsoft Word, a document management add-on, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

Designing a practice management app for the iPhone poses several challenges. You want to maximize functionality and the amount of information displayed without clutter. You also want to minimize the number of taps required because the whole point of such an app is to use it on the go in environments like airports, courts, taxis, etc.

Clio Mobile App … in One Sentence

Launched recently, the revamped Clio Mobile App enables you to use the Clio practice management platform on your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone.

The Killer Feature

The Clio Mobile App stems from three years of user feedback and data. Clio's lawyer-in-residence Joshua Lenon told me during my demo that the app nearly matches the Clio web app in functionality, and enables you get to all of these functions faster.

For example, the redesigned Home screen lists your next five events, your next five most important tasks, and a list of matters you've most recently accessed. This reduces the need to access multiple screens. When you need to dig deeper, See All buttons list all tasks and all matters. Also, a new Global Search resides at the top right of every screen, taking you to whatever you need.

The bottom of every screen contains three tabs for fast access to the Home screen, Calendar, and Matters (the iPad app offers more of these defined tabs thanks to its larger display). Another tab labeled More brings up a menu for one tap access to all other functions such as bills and tasks.

The last tab displays a + symbol. This is the new Global Create function. Tap it to create a new contact, matter, event, task, document, time entry, expense, etc. Clio prepopulates fields with data where it can to save you time. A banner across the bottom of your screen confirms the creation of this new record and enables you to view it.

Other Notable Features

Lenon pointed out that this focus on user experience permeates the entire app. For example, the Tasks home screen groups your tasks into six categories. At a glance, you can see your total number of tasks as well as the number due today, in the next seven days, overdue, without a due date, and completed. Similarly, each Matter offers a Timeline view that shows all activities in reverse chronological order — a modern day tickler file. Colors connote the type of activity — blue for time entries, red for calendar entries, etc.

Also new in the Clio Mobile App is a document scanner. Tap Global Create to create a new document, and then choose the scanner option. You can also use the scanner function to record video and store it in a matter.

Given the sensitive information in the Clio Mobile App, you can add an extra layer of security by requiring a PIN for access. On iOS devices, you can use Touch ID.

What Else Should You Know?

Clio offers three plans, all of which enable you to use the Clio Mobile App at no additional cost. When billed annually, Starter costs $39 per month, Boutique costs $59 per month, and Elite costs $99 per month (add $10 for monthly billing). Learn more about Clio Mobile App.

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 NewsWire covers a legal research service with a new data visualization tool that makes it faster to assess a case's relevance (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of four practice management systems, CRM software that integrates external data sources, a virtual desktop service, case analysis software, contract management software, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

The initial stage of case law research involves trying to divine the relevance of the cases in your search results as quickly as possible. Lawyers complain so much about this time-consuming process that LexisNexis decided to take action.

Lexis Advance Search Term Maps … in One Sentence

Launched this month, Lexis Advance Search Term Maps uses color mapping to help you process case law search results more efficiently.

The Killer Feature

Search Term Maps stems from scientific studies showing that our brain processes visual information up to 60,000 times faster than text.

When you enter a Boolean or natural language search with up to five terms, Lexis Advance displays the new Graphical View with a Search Term Location Bar above each case in the search results. Using a different color for each search term, this bar shows a summary view of where your search terms reside in the case (searches with six or more terms use one color). You’ll also know whether search terms reside in the summary, headnotes, opinion, dissent, etc. A legend above the Search Term Location Bar lists each search term in its designated color.

The density of colors in the Search Term Location Bar indicates the overall relevance of the case. An asterisk directs you to the location in the case likely to be the most important. Clicking on a colored area in the Search Term Location Bar displays the corresponding document snippet with your search terms highlighted in their respective color. You can turn off less important search terms to focus on those with greater importance. This updates the search terms shown in the Search Term Location Bar.

Other Notable Features

When you’re ready to read a case, you’ll find a similar Search Term Location Bar in the full document view, except this bar displays every hit in the case. You can visually see the density and location of your search terms. Additionally, the Search Term Location Bar has an interactive slider that enables you to scroll through the case faster than using a vertical scroll bar.

Hovering over a color marker displays the corresponding search terms. Click to jump to that location. For more data, the Navigate All Terms menu lists each keyword and the number of hits. From this menu, you can select just one search term to display in the Search Term Location Bar and in the case.

“Our customers’ response to Search Term Maps has been very positive,” said Sean Fitzpatrick, Managing Director of North American Research Solutions at LexisNexis Legal & Professional. “They immediately understand the power of data visualization and the resulting professional productivity gains. The ability to quickly spot term hit density as well as the location and co-occurrence of terms within their search results allows users to easily identify patterns, judge the relevance of their search results and navigate individual documents with unprecedented speed.”

What Else Should You Know?

In both the search results and document views, a search within your original search displays the new search terms in the color teal to distinguish them from your original search terms. Also, you can use only one color for the Search Term Location Bar if you prefer. At anytime, you can switch from the Graphical View with Search Term Maps to traditional Lexis Advance views and back again. You can also choose which view to make the default. Search Term Maps is available for all case law in Lexis Advance. Learn more about Lexis Advance Search Term Maps.

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 NewsWire covers cloud practice management and document assembly software that runs on Windows PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of proofreading software for contracts, four cloud practice management apps, an ebook law library, an add-on for document management systems, litigation case management software, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

Staying on top of your practice during idle time such as air travel, waiting in line, etc. obviates the need to spend time catching up when you return to the office. This level of productivity requires software that works on any device.

LEAP 365 … in One Sentence

Released at an event at Yankee Stadium on September 12, 2016, LEAP 365 is law practice management software designed for a multi-device world.

The Killer Feature

LEAP started in Australia and grew to become the practice management leader there after which it launched in the U.K. and U.S. In 2010, LEAP moved to the cloud in a unique manner, combing the speed of a Windows desktop app with the convenience of the cloud for back-end data storage. This eliminated the need to maintain a local server.

The new LEAP 365 recognizes that lawyers now use multiple devices, and that Macs have made inroads in small firms. The new web app brings LEAP 365 to Macs. The Windows app remains available along with the iOS and Android apps for using LEAP 365 on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

During the Yankee Stadium event (which I attended), four LEAP product specialists respectively operated an iPhone, Windows PC, Mac, and iPad, handing off work to each other "seamlessly."

"We challenge ourselves to make the most innovative legal practice management software on the market, so lawyers have the freedom to work when and where they want," LEAP USA CEO Chris Stock told me.

Other Notable Features

LEAP 365 also offers a first — an integration with Microsoft Word Online for document assembly. The LEAP Windows app has long integrated with the Windows version of Word for document assembly. The company worked with Microsoft to bring this functionality to the new web app. LEAP 365 stores the documents you create in the corresponding matter, and enables you to create a time or fee entry. Documents created in Word Online work with all other versions of Word.

LEAP offers complimentary setup of your firm's templates so that you can take full advantage of its document assembly technology. In addition, LEAP 365 offers a growing library of state and federal forms. Along with document assembly, LEAP 365 includes document management with advanced features such as document comparison and versioning.

The web and iPhone apps mirror the functionality of the other LEAP 365 apps but also offer additional functionality. The web app contains a suite of reports for law firm owners. With the iPhone app, you can initiate a call from a client's contact card, automatically track the length of the call, and then dictate additional details to complete the time entry. The iPhone app also has a document scanner, enabling you to scan documents directly into a matter using the iPhone's camera.

What Else Should You Know?

LEAP announced three other key integrations at its event — QuickBooks Online for accounting, Office 365 for email, and RapidPay (powered by LawPay) for credit card processing. LEAP 365 costs $129 per user per month. This includes setup, training, and technical support. It also includes a modern website for your law firm. Learn more about LEAP 365.

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 NewsWire covers client relationship management (CRM) software that connects to external data sources to help you identify opportunities and gain a competitive edge (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of practice management software that automates trust requests, a virtual desktop service with enhanced security, a Word add-in for analyzing contracts and finding errors, case analysis software for litigation matters, legal project management software, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

A recent study by research firm Gartner found an alarming "data gap" in customer relationship management (CRM) software. For example, a law firm of 500 lawyers has 35,840 contacts with out-of-date information in its CRM software, and fails to capture 76,800 contacts entirely. Even worse, the data in CRM software lacks access to external data sources such as court dockets to provide insights. This data gap results in missed opportunities in an era of slowing law firm growth.

Thomson Reuters Legal Business Development Solutions … in One Sentence

Thomson Reuters Legal Business Development Solutions integrates Business Development Premier and Monitor Suite to automate CRM data capture and provide insights from external data sources such as Westlaw.

The Killer Feature

Business Development Premier's optional integration with Monitor Suite's Intelligence Center demonstrates the benefits of blending internal and external data. For example, you can analyze your firm's litigation matters by jurisdiction. This enables you to see where you've done work for a given client. More importantly, you can identify jurisdictions where you have significant experience and where a client has litigated but not hired you. Similarly, jurisdictions where you've never done work may reveal merger and lateral hiring opportunities.

Another widget shows trends over time — both your matters and those of your competitors. You can view the percentage of a client's litigation matters you handle versus the share your competition gets. Another tool lists all the news coverage of your litigation matters, which may identify friendly journalists to engage with.

Other Notable Features

Business Development Premier uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM for its traditional CRM functions. It collects data automatically from Microsoft Exchange, Elite Time & Billing, Thomson Reuters information services, and other such sources to eliminate the data gap noted above.

For example, it automatically harvests from email, calendars, and address books in Exchange accounts to identify new contacts and update existing contacts. It even parses email signatures. The patented Relationship Classification and Relationship Strength algorithms identify colleagues who have a relationship with a given contact and the strength of each relationship respectively.

The Corporate and Executive Insights accessible from Business Development Premier arm you with information that can persuade prospects and clients. Someone you know may receive a promotion to senior management or become a director of a public company. Or perhaps you want to connect with Prospect A and find through Business Development Premier that Person B who knows Colleague C at your firm serves on the same board as Prospect A. Now you have a path to meet Prospect A.

These connections sometimes occur in your head, but Business Development Premier can significantly amplify them because software is better at crunching so-called "big data" than human memory. In addition to identifying sales and merger opportunities, Business Development Premier can also help fine-tune attorney bios across your firm, unearth cross-selling opportunities, and find colleagues with relevant experience when building a client team.

What Else Should You Know?

Your web browser offers the best way to experience the many charts and tables Business Development Premier provides. However, the free mobile app offers a subset of data designed for what you're likely to need on your tablet or mobile phone when out of the office. With the mobile app, you can record activities, manage contact lists, obtain insights like those described in this article, and access data from Elite applications such as 3E and MatterSphere. Learn more about Thomson Reuters Legal Business Development Solutions.

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 NewsWire covers cloud practice management software with new tools for automating client trust account replenishment and tracking marketing activities (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of a virtual desktop service with two-factor authentication, an ebook law library, case analysis cloud software for litigators, an add-on for document management systems, legal project management software, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

Many law firms require a retainer upfront during the client intake process but these funds often fail to cover the entire cost of a matter. During the twists and turns of a thorny litigation or a complex deal, clients may need to replenish their trust account several times. This process should become more automated to reduce the inherent friction of asking for money.

Clio … in One Sentence

Clio is a popular cloud practice management application that recently beefed up its trust accounting features and added tools for tracking marketing activities.

The Killer Feature

Clio's new Trust Requests feature enables you to ask clients to fund one or more of their matters or their account generally. You can specify a different amount per matter. During the approval process, you can add a note and edit any of the trust requests. Clients receive trust requests the same way they receive invoices — via the Clio Connect portal, email, or postal mail depending on your firm's preferences.

The Bills Dashboard lists all trust requests and their payment status. Clio tracks information for each payment that most jurisdictions require, including check number or wire transfer details. When you apply trust funds to a bill, Clio restricts you to funds available for that matter to prevent accounting errors. You can move funds marked for an inactive matter to a different matter upon receiving client approval. Using Clio's role-based permissions, you can restrict who has authority to move and apply trust funds.

Other Notable Features

Clio's Trust Ledger and Trust Listing reports facilitate compliance with monthly and annual trust accounting reconciliation requirements, including all activity related to trust requests. The Trust Ledger report displays trust information by practice area, clients, matters, etc. You can sort by date range and omit funds held in escrow. The Trust Listing report offers a simpler view by practice area. The reports are interactive, enabling you to drill down to individual transactions. You can export the reports in PDF or CSV formats.

Clio has partnered with LawPay for integrated credit card processing. This eliminates the $20 per month subscription LawPay charges for its highest level of service (you can transfer your existing LawPay account to Clio). When you send bills and trust requests electronically, clients can pay securely using a web browser. Clio also has a virtual terminal for processing credit card payments manually. "Clio users that accept credit cards receive same-day payment 30% of the time," Clio's lawyer-in-residence Joshua Lenon told me. "This improves cash flow and reduces time spent on collections."

Also new in Clio is the Campaigns feature for tracking your marketing efforts. You can generate trackable phone numbers that forward to your firm's number. When you use one of these phone numbers in an advertisement, you can precisely track the number of leads and clients it generates. Similarly, Clio can track the number of leads from landing pages on your website.

What Else Should You Know?

Clio runs in all desktop and mobile web browsers, and in native apps for Android and iOS. You can choose from three plans — Starter ($39 per user per month), Boutique ($59 per user per month), or Elite ($99 per user per month). Trust Requests and integrated credit card billing require the Boutique or Elite plan. Learn more about Clio.

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 NewsWire covers a virtual Windows desktop and network service that recently added two-factor authentication (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of a contract drafting and proofreading tool, three cloud practice management apps, software for capturing the dark data that doesn't make it into your document management system, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

Many lawyers hesitate to store client and firm documents outside their law firm in the so-called "cloud." But the convenience is undeniable. Even more convenient is moving your applications to a virtual desktop environment, which eliminates the need to buy and manage servers. Just as significant differences exist among hardware and software products, the same is true of cloud services. Some focus more on security and client services than others.

Abacus Private Cloud … in One Sentence

Abacus Data Systems' Abacus Private Cloud is a secure, virtual Windows desktop and network service that makes your data and applications accessible from any Mac, Windows PC, iPad, smartphone, etc. using Microsoft Remote Desktop.

The Killer Feature

The "private cloud" in Abacus Private Cloud's name refers to the fact that Abacus Data Systems uses three geographically dispersed U.S.-based datacenters over which it has full control.

The company recently improved access security by offering two-factor authentication as an option at no additional cost. This requires everyone at your firm to use a second form of identity in addition to a password — namely a code sent to a free app available for Android and iOS. During my demo, Chief Solutions Architect Tomas Suros explained that delivery of the code by app is more secure than delivery by text message because of the latter's vulnerability to being hijacked as reported by Wired in June 2016.

Other Notable Features

Additional security measures include encryption of your data at rest and when transmitted, and secure tunnels to your firm's printers and scanners. Administrator tools enable you to control access to applications, documents, printers, etc. Abacus Private Cloud is capable of full HIPAA compliance, enabling you to securely store health-related documents on your virtual network.

Security can tax performance. Suros discussed various means by which Abacus Private Cloud escapes this trap to provide performance similar to local software even when using a 4G cellular connection. For example, all the servers in the three datacenters use solid state drives (SSD), which are much faster than traditional hard drives.

Abacus Private Cloud's Document Service offers virtually unlimited storage for your firm's documents. This acts like a network drive without the hassle of managing a file server. Practice management software Amicus Attorney, now owned by Abacus Data Systems, is among the many popular Windows applications you can run in Abacus Private Cloud. Others include AbacusLaw, Office 365, QuickBooks, and Adobe Acrobat.

AbacusLaw 2016, the new version of the company's other practice management software, has been optimized for Abacus Private Cloud. Many of the new features focus on practice automation, including case handling checklists, standardized workflows, and deadline tracking across your firm.

What Else Should You Know?

The company's Professional Services team sets up your private cloud and software, provides training, and can import legacy data if necessary. Regarding ongoing technical support, everyone has experienced the misery of two or more vendors pointing fingers at each other when you report a problem. Suros refers to this as a "vendor unaccountability loop." By contrast, he notes that Abacus Data Systems is your sole point of contact for any issues that arise. "It's another core advantage of our private cloud over consumer cloud services," he said. Learn more about Abacus Private Cloud.

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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 NewsWire covers a Microsoft Word add-in with tools for analyzing, drafting, and proofreading contracts (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of cloud practice management software five years in the making, a legal ebook reader app, case analysis software, an add-on for document management systems, a project management app for law firms, a virtual desktop service, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

Contracts consist of structured data — sections, subsections, defined terms, etc. This means that software can save you time when drafting and also reduce errors through improved proofreading. Microsoft Word doesn't offer any specialized tools for contracts so you'll need an add-in.

Contract Tools … in One Sentence

Launched this month, Paper Software's Contract Tools is a Microsoft Word add-in with tools for drafting, analyzing, and proofreading agreements.

The Killer Feature

Traditional contract software has fallen into one of two camps — drafting or proofreading. This can result in having to purchase two or more products. By contrast, Contract Tools offers both drafting and proofreading tools, thus providing one-stop shopping.

"It's also fast and flexible," Paper Software co-founder Benjamin Whetsell told me when he visited our office recently. "To analyze contracts, Contract Tools uses a number of patent-pending technologies to analyze, say, 200 pages of dense legalese in a few seconds." Whetsell demonstrated Contract Tools' speed using a number of such agreements. It looked instantaneous.

Other Notable Features

Contract Tools resides in a panel adjacent to your document. A menu at the top enables you to navigate through the various tools. For example, the Provisions tool lists all the sections and subsections in the agreement. Click on any provision to jump there in the document. Similarly, the Defined Terms tool lists all defined terms, and the number of times each appears in the agreement. You can jump to a defined term's initial definition or to anywhere else in the document it resides.

Contract Tools doesn't just analyze your agreements. It also makes them interactive. Double-click a defined term for its definition, double-click a cross reference to view it, etc. The Back button brings you back to where you started. When you scroll through a document, Contract Tools displays the names of sections in large type as you reach them.

Virtually every contract contains sections that refer to other sections. The Related Items tool gives you omniscience beyond the human brain. For example, let's say you're reviewing Section 7. Contract Tools displays all the other sections that Section 7 references, all the sections that reference Section 7, and all the defined terms in Section 7. And of course you can jump to any of these with a click.

It's common practice to add placeholders, bracketed text, highlighted text, and comments to agreements while drafting to avoid losing your train of thought. The To-Dos tool in Contract Tools automatically finds these unfinished items so you won't forget to circle back. Also, Contract Tools' Autocomplete suggests defined terms as you type, reducing the number of placeholders you'll need in the first place.

For proofreading, the Drafting Errors tool lists problems such as undefined and duplicate defined terms, inconsistent formatting, unmatched punctuation, and list order errors. This list updates when you save your work. You can also ignore and hide problems that Contract Tools flags.

Microsoft Word's simplistic search tools don't cut it with lengthy agreements. Contract Tools enables you to search by number, date, time of day, unit of time, and money in addition to word searches. Thus, you can quickly find the termination date, the purchase price, interest rate, etc.

What Else Should You Know?

Contract Tools works with Word 2007 or later on Windows 7 or later. It costs $10 per month per user or $100 per year per user ($8.33 per month). Learn more about Contract Tools.

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.