<b><i>Case Study:</i></b> Taking on the Cloud As a Solo Practitioner

As a solo firm practitioner of estate planning and elder law in the Boston area for over five years, I must have both a comprehensive understanding of the law and also a thorough understanding of the business of running a practice. My practice is fairly transactional: Some cases are billed hourly, while others are billed on a project basis.

When the decision to purchase traditional practice management software or subscribe to a Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) provider arose this past January, I didn't have time to become mired in a rigmarole of sales calls and consultants. I simply wanted direct access to a product that would increase my productivity, file sharing and practice cohesiveness. I also wanted something that fit into my hardware preference for Mac products.

Limitations of a Piecemeal, Manual Approach

For the first four years of my practice, I had a virtual office assistant who mainly performed office management duties for me and who did not have access to my files. However, in late summer 2010, I hired an in-office assistant who could not only help with office management, but could also participate in some of the casework aspects and, therefore, needed access to my files.

She and I both quickly recognized that we were experiencing file-sharing issues that were impacting our productivity. I had been operating in a Windows environment on my Mac laptop and desktop. Because of this, for each transaction, I had to go through a lengthy process of logging into Windows to perform the task. If I wanted to do my billing, I logged into Windows. If I wanted to enter notes in for the client, I logged into Windows. As such, each billing entry or client note I created only lived on that one Mac laptop computer; the same with my “to-do” list.

This was a piecemeal approach to practice management, however this workflow style didn't necessarily present any particular problems when there was only me. When I began to work with my assistant, it became increasingly cumbersome to share files and continually update one another on client notes, my to-do list and billing.

My calendaring was performed on a Mac that was smoothly synchronized with the desktop and my assistant's computer; however, if I had to impart a calendar item to someone outside of the network, we had to use a completely different calendar, such as Google, which wasn't always synced with our other calendars.

The file-sharing issues only intensified if one of us couldn't physically get into the office. There would then be a cumbersome process of having to give permission and enter passwords so that one of us could access a file, e-mail the file, return e-mail the file, and double-check that the file had been updated properly on the practice laptop.

Software v. SaaS v. Snow

In January 2011, I met with my assistant to assess my practice. This is something I do annually as I set goals for my firm and make decisions to grow my practice. In this particular annual meeting, I decided to continue working with my assistant; this decision meant we absolutely had to do something about our file-sharing issues and we discussed our practice management options. We considered Daylight project management software for the Mac as well as two cloud-based SaaS products: Clio and Rocket Matter.

January, however, presented yet another hurdle to the practice management question: s-n-o-w. Lots and lots of snow. I'm a New Englander and not afraid of a big, bad snow day, but there were several days in January that both my assistant and I were completely unable to make it into the office. The problem was that all of my documents lived just on that one Mac desktop, and with neither of us physically able to get to it, all productivity was lost on those days.

When I first started my practice, there was already plenty of buzz about “the cloud.” Quite frankly, I didn't really know what the cloud was, as if it might be something unnecessarily complicated for my firm's needs. Or, the term conveyed something ephemeral or possibly less secure than I would need for my law practice. Ultimately, the cloud seemed like something that I didn't need; I felt my systems were working just fine.

Over time, I learned that the cloud is something very simple and essential to me: it basically means “over the Internet.” Still more, I came to realize that I already trusted the security of the Internet for all kinds of sensitive transactions, purchases, banking and health information. And then, of course, the file-sharing issues with my assistant truly brought to the fore the importance of 24/7 file access only the cloud can provide.

After our snow-day experiences in January, I'd had it: The traditional software choice was out. I wanted the cloud. Being tied to my laptop was holding up my practice and negatively impacting my productivity.

Clio in the Cloud

As mentioned earlier, I considered two cloud-based practice management SaaS: Rocket Matter and Clio. Clio was used by two attorneys that I trust, though Rocket Matter also had a good reputation.

Stuck at home on one of those snowy January days and losing all of my productivity, I decided to dive into the deep and went to the Rocket Matter and Clio websites.

The first thing that I noticed was the difference in sales approach. With Rocket Matter, I had to enter my credit card information and was billed immediately. If I was unhappy with the service within a 30-day trial period, Rocket Matter would refund my initial investment. Additionally, I immediately started to receive sales calls from Rocket Matter. I didn't want sales calls; I simply wanted to do a demo on my own time, at
my own pace, and make my own decisions. But with Rocket Matter, I wasn't permitted access to the demo without the salesperson. That was a turnoff.

With Clio, on the other hand, while I also had to enter my credit card information, I would not be billed during the 30-day trial period. If I was pleased with the service at the end of the trial period, then I would be billed. Also, I wasn't contacted by sales reps, but was able to just log in to Clio, access the demo, and get going immediately.

This approach appealed to my every sense. For one, I am impatient (I suspect most entrepreneurs are). I'm the kind of person that just wants to dive in and let my own experience dictate my next move. I didn't want to get bogged down with sales calls, etc. Clio's policy seemed to be in sync with how I like to operate, and the 30-day unbilled trial period conveyed its confidence in the quality of its service. I dove right in to Clio.

Clio at First Tweet

Although I had a 30-day trial period, I knew within a week that I would stick with Clio because it was so easy to use. There was nothing to download, no CDs with the incumbent hope and prayer that the CD worked properly, no consultants with whom I had to schedule demos. All I had to do was log in and enter my firm's information. Done.

I started creating an account just for myself, but soon added my assistant. One of the things I was afraid of was that a new SaaS would catapult me into having to migrate each and every client right away. Then I realized I could enter new and active clients only, while waiting it out with the old clients until their billing cycles closed.

The process was refreshingly simple and straightforward. I was going to migrate all of my documents myself and had prepared myself that migrating to the new system would take about three days ' then I quickly realized it might take an hour because it would sync with my existing contacts, and my assistant could easily upload the documents.

From an installation standpoint, of all of the software I considered, Clio offered the least amount of downtime, with the least amount of hassle and the most benefit. Clio takes care of all updates and IT issues. I never have to worry about my system crashing, or which computer has which files on it. Clio is also extremely responsive to support questions. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to be bothered with tedious instructional guides. With Clio, I find I can tweet or e-mail a question, and receive a response in minutes. At $49/month for me and $25/month for my assistant, it's a bargain.

Conclusion

We have been using Clio since January 2011, and Clio has made major improvements in my productivity, file access and practice cohesiveness. Before Clio, my assistant couldn't help with billing. Now she can. I used to have a 10-step checklist of how to run my bills, which I would spend about an hour performing. Now it's three steps ' and takes 20 minutes. I can send my assistant tasks through Clio and all of our calendaring is completely integrated. I can easily see at a glance my monthly revenue goals, and even run a report in about 30 seconds to see how we are doing. It's easy to stay on top of my cases, know if I'm reaching my goals, and be able to handle client files and communications more efficiently and effectively.

Most importantly, Clio has completely solved our file-sharing issues. My assistant and I both have access to my documents from anywhere at anytime. I can now leave a client meeting, make notes in the client's file from my iPhone, and my assistant can access that information immediately from the updated file. No more bits of paper; no more piecemeal manual busy work. Now that's something to tweet about.

As a solo firm practitioner of estate planning and elder law in the Boston area for over five years, I must have both a comprehensive understanding of the law and also a thorough understanding of the business of running a practice. My practice is fairly transactional: Some cases are billed hourly, while others are billed on a project basis.

When the decision to purchase traditional practice management software or subscribe to a Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) provider arose this past January, I didn't have time to become mired in a rigmarole of sales calls and consultants. I simply wanted direct access to a product that would increase my productivity, file sharing and practice cohesiveness. I also wanted something that fit into my hardware preference for Mac products.

Limitations of a Piecemeal, Manual Approach

For the first four years of my practice, I had a virtual office assistant who mainly performed office management duties for me and who did not have access to my files. However, in late summer 2010, I hired an in-office assistant who could not only help with office management, but could also participate in some of the casework aspects and, therefore, needed access to my files.

She and I both quickly recognized that we were experiencing file-sharing issues that were impacting our productivity. I had been operating in a Windows environment on my Mac laptop and desktop. Because of this, for each transaction, I had to go through a lengthy process of logging into Windows to perform the task. If I wanted to do my billing, I logged into Windows. If I wanted to enter notes in for the client, I logged into Windows. As such, each billing entry or client note I created only lived on that one Mac laptop computer; the same with my “to-do” list.

This was a piecemeal approach to practice management, however this workflow style didn't necessarily present any particular problems when there was only me. When I began to work with my assistant, it became increasingly cumbersome to share files and continually update one another on client notes, my to-do list and billing.

My calendaring was performed on a Mac that was smoothly synchronized with the desktop and my assistant's computer; however, if I had to impart a calendar item to someone outside of the network, we had to use a completely different calendar, such as Google, which wasn't always synced with our other calendars.

The file-sharing issues only intensified if one of us couldn't physically get into the office. There would then be a cumbersome process of having to give permission and enter passwords so that one of us could access a file, e-mail the file, return e-mail the file, and double-check that the file had been updated properly on the practice laptop.

Software v. SaaS v. Snow

In January 2011, I met with my assistant to assess my practice. This is something I do annually as I set goals for my firm and make decisions to grow my practice. In this particular annual meeting, I decided to continue working with my assistant; this decision meant we absolutely had to do something about our file-sharing issues and we discussed our practice management options. We considered Daylight project management software for the Mac as well as two cloud-based SaaS products: Clio and Rocket Matter.

January, however, presented yet another hurdle to the practice management question: s-n-o-w. Lots and lots of snow. I'm a New Englander and not afraid of a big, bad snow day, but there were several days in January that both my assistant and I were completely unable to make it into the office. The problem was that all of my documents lived just on that one Mac desktop, and with neither of us physically able to get to it, all productivity was lost on those days.

When I first started my practice, there was already plenty of buzz about “the cloud.” Quite frankly, I didn't really know what the cloud was, as if it might be something unnecessarily complicated for my firm's needs. Or, the term conveyed something ephemeral or possibly less secure than I would need for my law practice. Ultimately, the cloud seemed like something that I didn't need; I felt my systems were working just fine.

Over time, I learned that the cloud is something very simple and essential to me: it basically means “over the Internet.” Still more, I came to realize that I already trusted the security of the Internet for all kinds of sensitive transactions, purchases, banking and health information. And then, of course, the file-sharing issues with my assistant truly brought to the fore the importance of 24/7 file access only the cloud can provide.

After our snow-day experiences in January, I'd had it: The traditional software choice was out. I wanted the cloud. Being tied to my laptop was holding up my practice and negatively impacting my productivity.

Clio in the Cloud

As mentioned earlier, I considered two cloud-based practice management SaaS: Rocket Matter and Clio. Clio was used by two attorneys that I trust, though Rocket Matter also had a good reputation.

Stuck at home on one of those snowy January days and losing all of my productivity, I decided to dive into the deep and went to the Rocket Matter and Clio websites.

The first thing that I noticed was the difference in sales approach. With Rocket Matter, I had to enter my credit card information and was billed immediately. If I was unhappy with the service within a 30-day trial period, Rocket Matter would refund my initial investment. Additionally, I immediately started to receive sales calls from Rocket Matter. I didn't want sales calls; I simply wanted to do a demo on my own time, at
my own pace, and make my own decisions. But with Rocket Matter, I wasn't permitted access to the demo without the salesperson. That was a turnoff.

With Clio, on the other hand, while I also had to enter my credit card information, I would not be billed during the 30-day trial period. If I was pleased with the service at the end of the trial period, then I would be billed. Also, I wasn't contacted by sales reps, but was able to just log in to Clio, access the demo, and get going immediately.

This approach appealed to my every sense. For one, I am impatient (I suspect most entrepreneurs are). I'm the kind of person that just wants to dive in and let my own experience dictate my next move. I didn't want to get bogged down with sales calls, etc. Clio's policy seemed to be in sync with how I like to operate, and the 30-day unbilled trial period conveyed its confidence in the quality of its service. I dove right in to Clio.

Clio at First Tweet

Although I had a 30-day trial period, I knew within a week that I would stick with Clio because it was so easy to use. There was nothing to download, no CDs with the incumbent hope and prayer that the CD worked properly, no consultants with whom I had to schedule demos. All I had to do was log in and enter my firm's information. Done.

I started creating an account just for myself, but soon added my assistant. One of the things I was afraid of was that a new SaaS would catapult me into having to migrate each and every client right away. Then I realized I could enter new and active clients only, while waiting it out with the old clients until their billing cycles closed.

The process was refreshingly simple and straightforward. I was going to migrate all of my documents myself and had prepared myself that migrating to the new system would take about three days ' then I quickly realized it might take an hour because it would sync with my existing contacts, and my assistant could easily upload the documents.

From an installation standpoint, of all of the software I considered, Clio offered the least amount of downtime, with the least amount of hassle and the most benefit. Clio takes care of all updates and IT issues. I never have to worry about my system crashing, or which computer has which files on it. Clio is also extremely responsive to support questions. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to be bothered with tedious instructional guides. With Clio, I find I can tweet or e-mail a question, and receive a response in minutes. At $49/month for me and $25/month for my assistant, it's a bargain.

Conclusion

We have been using Clio since January 2011, and Clio has made major improvements in my productivity, file access and practice cohesiveness. Before Clio, my assistant couldn't help with billing. Now she can. I used to have a 10-step checklist of how to run my bills, which I would spend about an hour performing. Now it's three steps ' and takes 20 minutes. I can send my assistant tasks through Clio and all of our calendaring is completely integrated. I can easily see at a glance my monthly revenue goals, and even run a report in about 30 seconds to see how we are doing. It's easy to stay on top of my cases, know if I'm reaching my goals, and be able to handle client files and communications more efficiently and effectively.

Most importantly, Clio has completely solved our file-sharing issues. My assistant and I both have access to my documents from anywhere at anytime. I can now leave a client meeting, make notes in the client's file from my iPhone, and my assistant can access that information immediately from the updated file. No more bits of paper; no more piecemeal manual busy work. Now that's something to tweet about.