Imagine having a solution to writing out the same forms, again and again. For lawyers manually inputting information, legal document software may be a new way forward.
Legal document software provides lawyers with the ability to accurately and quickly create legal paperwork. Automation in the legal world may seem like a frightening future. However, when you can save time on redundant tasks, greater opportunities for the firm can be found.
What is Legal Document Software
Legal document software is a modern approach to improving efficiency and workflow at the office. By reducing the workload, lawyers can focus on reducing costs, saving time, and keeping their clients happy. Don’t be confused with legal management software, as this focused primarily on creating important legal materials.
Legal document software provides lawyers with a variety of templates that can be branded, designed, and customized for every client’s need. Templates allow lawyer’s and their assistants to complete tasks in much less time.
Functions of Legal Document Software
Aside from the obvious time-saving benefits of having ready-to-use documents, legal document software provides the following functions:
Document Scanner Tools. If you have to scan your documents, you can easily upload into the program and convert them into PDFs and images to send to clients.
PDF Tools. Since PDFs are a common document format lawyers send to clients, the PDF Tools allow editing, modifying, and adding signatures to legal documents.
Automation Tools. There are certain parts of documents that must be added to every document. By creating a template in advance, these elements can be added to a legal document to save time.
Data Control. Saving and organizing files are easily managed. You can also ensure that newer versions and updates never override previous versions to reuse them again if needed.
Integration Tools. If you have a CRM service or want to send documents directly to your client’s emails, the integration tools allow you to connect your accounts.
Legal Signature Integration. Some legal document software can be used with digital signature tools to create legally binding documents for computers or mobile devices.
Legal Document SoftwarePrecautions
Just as you secure your legal documents in locked cabinets and safe locations, you must consider the safety and security of your digital documents. Failing to keep your legal documents safe can lead to some serious legal consequences. Protecting your digital documents from hackers and theft must be a top priority.
To combat comprised data, legal document software offers a range of solutions to ensure you legal documents remain safe. Some may use a two-step authentication (i.e. providing a password and a pin code on your phone) or require a direct portal through a secure channel.
Storage Options
When deciding on which legal document software to purchase, you’ll want to consider whether to have a cloud-based storage or on-premise storage.
Cloud-based storage offers a secure server from the service provider to save and access data. Going back to the previous point, you should check with the service provider to ensure that your data is encrypted, has back-ups, and high-grade security.
These cloud-based products are offered via subscription license. You will be expected to pay a recurring monthly fee, or if available, a reduced annual rate. This may seem like an appealing choice as the fees are much less in the beginning.
On-premise storage allows you to manage and store documents directly on your devices. You own the software, instead of subscribing month-to-month, and you may require your own IT support. Keeping your data on private servers and away from your own laptop can prevent a situation where your computer malfunction and all data is lost.
Examples of Legal Document Software
MyCase offers cloud-based document solutions to improve communications with clients and minimize daily legal tasks. It features an intuitive form filling tool with task automation. They also provide solutions for organizing case documents, sending encrypted messages to clients, the one-click firm generated reports, billing solutions (i.e. invoicing and payment collection), and calendaring.
Pricing is just $39 per month for their cloud-based subscription. You can also try MyCase free for 30 days.
Abacus Law provides case management and document automation software. This is a cloud-based service with AES 256-bit encryption. With applications for androids and iOs, you can even access documents from your smartphone. In addition to their automation services, Abacus Law offers a full suite of useful tools such as email management, analytics software, and accounting software.
You’ll have to contact their sales department for a quote or schedule a time to see a demo.
TimeSolv has not only document management solutions and automation but also other tools to manage many aspects of your firm. Their document automation software allows you to create custom files unique to each customer while reducing the workload with custom templates.
They have a sliding pricing scale, depending on the size of your firm, with the starting price being $34.95 per month/timekeeper. You can also try it free for 30 days.
PracticePanther offer legal document solutions for small sized law firms. Their focus is to cut costs and save time for lawyers. They also offer a suite of services such as 1-click invoicing, email integrations, CRM, chat applications, and trust accounting. They offer a secure cloud service following HIPAA compliance.
Their monthly plan starts at $59 per month with a 7-day free trial.
If you plan on using search engines to lead new clients to your legal services you’ll want to know the latest trends. Having all the latest data and information about what people are searching for on the internet is the key factor for any business offering their services online. Luckily, Google Trends offers a tool that does that.
Understanding the data surrounding search data allows for an effective marketing strategy to emerge. The behaviors of consumers are constantly changing and adapting. Search data reveals new insights about your clients, competitors, and industry.
Google Trends reveals the frequency (or popularity) of a search-term being entered compared to the total search volume across various regions of the world. Using this tool, you will be able to see the trend of a search term across time. You can also look at search data for in real-time, too.
Science Direct studied the usage of big data and found that notable search queries were performed for statistics, policy and law. This big data can be used to make informed marketing decisions for your law firm.
In addition to marketing, Google trends can:
Analyze the interest of search users related to your area of practice
Forecast legal issues that require immediate attention
Acquire a diverse set of information from various sources
Access raw search data related to your area of law
Having a better understanding of how people are using Google, especially in terms of people dealing with their legal questions, puts your law firm in a position where it can solve their problems.
How to Use Google Trends
Getting started with Google Trends is simple and the best part is it’s free to use. On the main page, you can browse trending stories or explore topics using the search bar.
To start your own research and analysis of big search data go to Explore and enter your search term or topic.
Before hitting enter, you may want to adjust a few of the settings to obtain search trends related to your practice and your area. You can make adjustments to:
Choose your country or anywhere else in the world.
Choose from past hour, 4 days, 7 day, 30 days, 90 day, 12 months, 5 years, or from 2008.
Choose a category based on your area of practice (i.e. an personal injury lawyer may choose Autos & Vehicles).
Search type. Choose from News, Web, Image, Google Shopping, or YouTube.
How Lawyers Can Use Google Trends
If you’re wondering why traffic to your attorney website is declining, Google trends can help you reveal why keywords which ranked well before may no longer bring in new visitors.
However, SEO experts can spend hours creating a strategy from a deep analysis of Google trends. Here’s a few ways your law firm can use Google Trends:
1. You can use the search bar to explore general topics like “practice area + lawyer” or “law related search term” keywords (i.e. divorce lawyer or divorce in New York).The first screen you’ll see is Interest Over Time which shows the popularity of those keywords over a certain period of time.
When you add additional search terms you can better understand the overall search demands related to your area of practice. The peaks and dips show trends throughout the year which can guide you toward when and what you publish on your blog.
2. Next, you can see where each search words and being used throughout the country. When you browse over each state and you will see the interest based on each search query.
After selecting one of the states, you can get more detailed results of trends based on metro locations.
3. At the state level, you can start to see some specific search queries being made throughout the state. This feature is useful to make decisions about opening an office in a location where law-related terms are being searched the most.
You can see that the search term Divorce has high interest in Bakersfield. This could be an ideal location to open an office because of the high search demand.
From the state level, you can go even deeper to see where and how popular a search term is being made. However, if there is not enough data you will see a notification. You can try using a more general search term to obtain more information.
4. Try searching YouTube trends. Not everyone is using Google’s search engine to find answers to their problems. YouTube is another great source to analyze trends and perhaps find ideas for your own advice or news related video channel.
5. Use Trending Search to find the latest news and searches trending right now. You can find this by navigating to the menu bar on the left. Trending searches is a great way to get ideas for your content. If there’s a popular news item or topic that’s related to your law firm, consider writing an opinion piece or offer your perspective on the situation. Doing so can put your law firm’s website into by spinning current events toward your legal services.
If you want to get notifications to your inbox as-it-happens, each day, or each month, you can click the “+” button to subscribe. When you regularly update your blog with fresh content, this sends a signal to Google and other search engines that your website is active and providing value. Knowing the trends can help you adjust your blog content toward an audience with a specific search demand.
Ready to Use Google Trends?
Remember, Google Trends is showing you what is or has been popular on their networks. Lawyers can use this information to:
Discover which keywords (or search queries) are most popular
Find related keywords that are becoming popular
Compare law related keywords that are gaining or decreasing in popularity
Identify geographic locations where keywords are used
While you can use this to create your content and social media posts, there are better and more accurate tools you can use for SEO.
In order to run a successful law practice, you’re going to need a website. Your website is the place for potential clients to discover your legal services, get to know you, and schedule a consultation.
However, before you or hired help creates your website, you’ll want to pick the best domain name for your law firm.
A website and a domain name are not the same, although they are closely connected. The website contains all your content, information, and images. Whereas the domain name is the address that people type in their browsers that bring them to your website.
There are many types of domain names available and there’s a few important guidelines to follow when choosing the best one for your law firm:
Top Level Domain for Lawyers
Top Level Domains (TLDs) are the little part of the domain name found after the DOT. These include, .COM, .ORG, .NET, and .GOV. There is even a specially created TLD for lawyers called .LAW.
The kind of TLD you decide will play a role in your ability to being found online. The universal TLDs are those listed above. There are also country specific TLDs such as .CA (Canada), .CN (China), .EU (European Union). Using these domains are restricted to those residing in that country and may not have as large a global reach as a .COM.
Most domains can be registered by anyone, however, the .LAW specific TLD requires proof of license before it can be issued.
Consider your domain name as a very important keyword that aides in your website getting found. People looking for a lawyer may search the following in Google: Florida Divorce Lawyers.
Those words, are considered keywords and they play an important part in how your website is found online.
One thing to keep in mind is that keyword stuffing your domain name could lead to penalties by search engines and prevent your site from ever being noticed.
For example,
“childcustodydivorcelawyers.com”
While a name like this appears to be congruent with your services, there are a variety of reasons to not use this kind of name.
Best Domain Names For Lawyers
Creating a domain name that is memorable and brandable is the best approach to take. This is important. Your domain name will serve as a banner that not only catches people’s attention but prepares people for what they’ll find on your website.
So, consider the following: what is the overall message you’re trying to say? Can people remember it easily? Can they type it into their browser without difficulty? Are there other websites with domain names similar to yours?
In addition, here are a few points to help you pick the best domain:
Keep it short and simple (KISS). Shorter names are easier to remember and simpler to type into the browser. Just imagine, if your name was Bernie, you could have this: bernietheattorney.com!
Be consistent. Your domain name should be a reflection of the services being offered and/or the location you provide them. Having a name like nyccourtconsultations.com (implying that you offer court consultations in NYC) would be more powerful than worldoflaw.com (potentially implying this site is about a world of flaws?).
Don’t use unpopular TLDs. There are many different domain names available that may seem ideal for branding purposes but have less effect as a common TLD like .COM. Many people are familiar with .COM as a domain name.
Avoid using hyphens. Search engines sometimes consider websites using hyphens as spammy and trying to stuff too many keywords. For example, best-lawyers-in-san-francisco.com may signal to search engines that this website is spam. While hyphens can be used without receiving penalties.
Lawyers Starting A Blog
Having a website allows your to showcase your practice, services, past clients, and contact information to the entire world. As well, another useful thing to do on your website is starting a blog.
As mentioned before, keywords play an important part in getting your site noticed online. While the domain name plays a significant roles in directing people to the website, the content is the most valuable.
The best way to make your website stand out online is by providing expert advice and quality content. Blogs allow you to build your reputation online as well as discover new, potential clients.
Domain Name Overview:
Do
Don’t
● Do use your personal or business name(s). Remember to keep it short and simple. Use a domain name like, smithlawassociates.com, instead of smithandtullylawassociates.com
● Do use your area of practice. If you’re a divorce lawyer, legal advisor, or criminal lawyer, feature that (i.e. smithdivorcelawyers.com)
● Do use something memorable. Especially for blogs, having a domain like, fortheloveoflaw.com or leagueoflawyers.com could serve as a great platform to express your legal work as well as for branding purposes.
● Do use a common TLD (such as .COM or even .LAW).
● Do consider the ethical code. Making claims that cannot be proven, or misleading (i.e. always-win-lawyers.com) may be a violation of your local jurisdiction’s ethical rules.
● Don’t use names that may change in the future (i.e. if an associate leaves your law firm)
● Don’t use abbreviations of your legal service that could create a negative reputation (i.e. Austin, Stevens, and Smith Lawyers Group: asslawyers.com)
● Don’t use spammy words like, best, top, greatest, etc. While you may feel that your law firm is #1 in your area, the search engines may flag your site as spam.
● Don’t make it too personal. Whatever you are interested in and passionate about should not be used for your domain name, unless, it is relevant to your area of law.
● Don’t use hard to remember or difficult to spell words.
● Don’t copy another domain name. If serveandprotect.com is taken, avoid taking serveandprotect.net (or any other TLD). This can confuse your potential clients.
Choosing the best domain name for your law practice is not going to be easy. Remember that search engines like Google do provide benefits when a keyword is matched in your domain name. And you need to register domains from a trusted global domain registration company. However, try to avoid coming off as spammy and use a name that is broad but to the point. For branding purposes, short and catchy would be the better approach.
You might think the purpose of your lawyer website is to provide information about your law firm’s legal services or a place where people can request a consultation. While these may be the primary objectives, there are a few things you must do before the phones start ringing.
From a digital marketing point of view, lead generation is a popular term you should understand. When you’re looking for potential clients for your firm, driving the right traffic to your website is the first step then turning those visitors into clients is the next.
If you’ve been wondering how to get more leads at your law firm, perhaps this will help you out.
What is Lead Generation?
Perhaps you’re new to owning a website and you’re just getting into all the technical language that comes along. Here’s a quick overview of common words used in online marketing:
Traffic refers to the number of visitors to your website which can either be real people or bots. You can see this if your website connected to a tool like Google Analytics. Once installed, you’ll be able to track both web visitors and the number of page visits.
Lead Generation is the process of curating or collecting prospective client’s contact information and taking them as clients.
Landing/Squeeze Page can be used to send web traffic to a specific web page to offer valuable content in exchange for their contact information. Alternatively, you can offer a special promotion (i.e. free consultation) which can only be found on this page.
Sales Funnel is a series of steps that takes leads through the process of becoming a new client at your firm. From a lawyer’s perspective, you use various strategies to market and bring in new clients (i.e. drip marketing).
Conversion Optimization is a process of increasing the percentage of visitors to your website and converting them into a new client.
Perhaps you can start to see that there are various angles you can take when it comes to marketing your law firm’s website. The essentials include web traffic to generate leads and a landing page to collect them. As well, you’ll have to perform ongoing site analysis to find new ways to turn more visitors into clients at your firm (maybe changing some of the colors on your website will work).
This will likely be an ongoing process for your online marketing strategy. In the meantime, let’s explore how you can improve you lead generation at your law firm.
More Leads. More Clients.
When you’re considering a lead generation strategy for your law firm, you want to ask yourself these kinds of questions:
By addressing these questions, you can start to develop your own methods to finding clients that you prefer to work with. Remember, this is your business which means you ultimately decide which types of clients you choose to work with or not.
What Kind of Clients Do You Want?
Let’s start here. Do you even know what kind of clients you prefer working with?
You probably don’t enjoy taking on clients that add more stress and more work than is needed. Perhaps if you’re in a desperate situation, you may accept these clients because you need the cash. But, you know if you continue doing so, you’re going to burn out.
Instead, take a moment to determine who you enjoy working with and what specific cases you handle best.
If you’re depending on the internet to find almost all of your clients, you have to be prepared that people are going to be “shopping around” for the lowest rates. Nonetheless, that’s not to say you can’t find quality clients online, it’ll just take a bit of effort and testing to find.
Now, before you keep reading, ask yourself this: was there ever a client you would rather not work with?
Where Will You Find Your Clients?
Your prospective clients are likely a few clicks away from stepping into your office to get their legal struggles solved.
You should be aware that search engines receive a lot of queries from people looking for solutions to their legal problems. Some common search entries may be:
[Lawyer Type] + [Location]
[Lawyer Type] + Fees
Cheap/Affordable Lawyers + [Location]
Often, you can design your website in a way to attract these searcher to your website. This is the process of SEO and you can find more information about that kind of strategy for your law firm here.
Knowing where your clients are spending much of their time online can be difficult if you’re not familiar with the web. However, social media (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), are great places to start targeting specific groups of people who may be in need of your legal expertise.
For the solo lawyer doing all the marketing yourself, you may want to consider these marketing ideas coming next (these ideas also apply to lawyers and law firms of any size).
How Will You Attract Those Clients?
Are you familiar with the term bounce rate? It wasn’t defined above however it refers to the amount of people who visit your website then leave right away.
This happens because the content or information on your website and landing pages aren’t fulfilling the need that people were looking for.
In order to attract more clients to your firm, you’ll have to test a few different strategies to see what works and discard what doesn’t work from your marketing methods. Here’s a few strategies you can consider to start generating more leads:
Strategy #1: Compelling Landing Pages
If you’re running a PPC campaign, you’ll want to make sure your marketing dollars are getting you the biggest return possible.
The best way to ensure you don’t waste all your money is making sure the keywords you use in your ads is congruent with the message on your landing page.
If you think of your website in terms of a sales funnel, consider offering a free consultation. As you run your ads, target the immediate needs of people thinking about divorce, those recently in a car accident, or a new business in need of copyright protection.
You should understand the fundamentals of keyword research to know which words people are using to serve better ads. As well, you should create ads that not only look good but remain consistent to the overall message.
Then, when people start are arriving to your landing page, use a strong and compelling message that gets them to sign up to an email list, send a message to your firm, or to call you right away.
Strategy #2: Helpful Videos
Are you Camera Shy? Hopefully, not.
Offering a helpful video, especially with your expertise in your area of practice, can allow you to make stronger connections and build better trust online.
Let’s face it, a few words on a screen may not be the icing on the cake when it comes to choosing a person who’s going to help a dire situation or prevent someone from going to jail.
Instead, videos allow you to reveal your personality and send a direct message to those considering a lawyer in their community. Take a look at this lawyer who takes a camera to his office and capturing his entire day:
Strategy #3: Offer Free Information
You’ll see this strategy used a lot of online services. They create a free piece of valuable content, host it on their website, then give it away for free in exchange for someone’s contact information.
As a lawyer, you know there’s all kind of questions people have about their legal situations. For example:
Those going through divorce want to know what rights they have, the risks involved, and the possible outcomes to their situation if they and their spouse can’t come to an agreement.
In the business world, copyright infringement can ruin a business. People want to know how they can protect their creative intelligence and what kind of legal action they can take if their ideas are stolen.
Some people experiencing a traumatic event may not know what actions to take in their situation.
You can then follow the same idea from above where you use the emails collected to send more content, offers, and information about your legal services.
Quick Warning About Lead Generation
If you ever consider hiring someone to help with your lead generation, there are a few things you should consider before you do. These services may offer pay-per-lead or pay-per-click vendors. However, you have to watch out because you can get a lot of leads (i.e. emails, phone numbers, etc.) but they may not be interested in your business.
In case you want to go ahead and use these services, consider these lawyer specific pay-per-lead services:
Please do your own due diligence before using any of these services. We do not endorse nor receive payment from these services. These are just a few of the available PPC and PPL services you can use for your firm. Results will very and should always be measured for cost effectiveness.
If you enter a finely furnished office or go inside a courtroom, these are the typical places where lawyers work. However, aside from the actual places that lawyers perform their legal services, where do lawyers work?
Let’s explore a few of the places where lawyers can get hired after graduating law school.
Government
Lawyers can work at one of the following three levels of government:
Local government
State government
Federal government
Depending on where the lawyer works, there will be varying roles and responsibilities. Government lawyers may be one of the following:
Prosecutors
District attorneys
State attorney generals
Public defenders
Lawyers working for the government can work for almost every government agency that exists. From Homeland Security to the Environmental Protection Agency to the IRS, lawyers have plenty of career opportunities with the various government agencies.
After working at the firm for a number of years, an associate may be considered for partnership. Becoming a partner comes with considerable more responsibility while becoming a partial owner of intellectual property within the firm.
Average Salary for Lawyers: $135,830
In-House Attorneys
In-house attorneys are those that are employed by a single client. The clients are typically large corporations requiring a go-to lawyer to be available for various in-house legal requirements. Many companies have their own legal department handling various other legal issues and situations the company faces. These in-house lawyers may be responsible for the following:
Addressing any of the company’s employment issues
Handling litigations with another law firm if the company is sued
Acting as a lobbyist to influence legislation in favor of the company
Working for a company or large corporation typically offers a higher salary and more flexibility with their time than other lawyers who work for themselves or at a firm they practice law for. Find an in-house lawyer position may occur when a company continues to hire a lawyer from a firm and after building a relationship they offer a permanent position.
Average Salary for Legal Services in the Alcohol Industry: $179,950
Private Practice (Solo Practitioners)
Some lawyers may choose to start their own business after being law school graduates obtaining a few years of experience. Instead of becoming a partner at a firm, they start their own or become a solo practitioner.
Private practice is where many lawyers work and those who become solo practitioners tend to have significantly greater job responsibilities. In order for a solo lawyer to survive, they must perform their own marketing of their legal services and advise clients. To find clients, some lawyers may get a website, start a blog, or use paid advertising methods.
Lawyers often bill their clients at an hourly rate or in increments of minutes (i.e. 10 minutes at a time). It is the lawyer’s responsibility to accurately track the time they provide to their clients in order to invoice them correctly.
Average Hourly Rate for Lawyers: $56.81
Public Interest Lawyers
Legal-aid groups, which tend to be private, nonprofit agencies, offer legal services to disadvantaged people. Lawyers and law firms found here aim to help poor people and other minorities with limited access to legal services.
The civil and criminal cases that public interest lawyers (PBLs) focus on include:
Illegal discrimination
Environmental protection
Child welfare
Domestic violence
Occasionally, these lawyers may represent clients who seek to change laws to improve society as a whole. While public interest lawyers are a vital resource to help people, the salary for these lawyers is minimal. Nonprofit organizations often struggle to maintain funding to assist people in need. This is why these organizations provide internships to students and those who recently graduated law school to offer hands-on legal experiences.
Median Entry-level Salaries for PBLs: less than $43,000
These lawyers (and also experienced lawyers seeking a break from their profession) can teach at law schools, colleges, and other educational institutions. Alternatively, lawyers who are practicing can pick up a side job as a teacher and publish their own personal research related to law and legal ethics.
Estimated Number of Lawyers (2016): 619,530
Judicial Clerkship
Here’s another common place you’ll find fresh graduates from law school. Judicial clerkships provide aspiring lawyers with a 1- or 2-year experience working with a judge. Each judge can have up to 4 clerks working with them. A clerk’s core responsibilities include:
Legal research
Document drafting
Developing opinions
Attend hearings and trials
Prepare trial memoranda
And many more legal tasks
Judicial clerkships provide law graduates with a chance to receive valuable experience which can help them find a position at a higher-paying firm. In some places, permanent positions may be available for clerks.
Lawyers have to determine the legal responsibilities of their clients. Generally speaking, the client will look at the scenario he narrates and identify facts to be cited in legal documents. The legal department then assesses and analyzes the current laws, rulings, and regulations for clients. Those companies inform the client of their rights and the right of redress for breaches. In certain cases, a lawyer may look through evidence to determine liability to the client and determine the right action.
How does one decide what type of lawyer to become?
How do people attract lawyers? Why are you doing so much work? How are people represented? Can we create societal impact through this work? How can we get involved? How would you describe the ideal professional life? How are job prospects compared to other law types? Tell us about your favorite class at law school? Usually lawyers enter law school admission test the legal field in private reasons.
Public Interest Lawyers
Legal-aid organizations generally are nonprofit organizations that provide assistance to the privileged. The lawyers listed in this section aim to provide assistance to minorities who do not have a legal system. Occasionally these lawyers seek changes in law to improve societal conditions. Although public interests lawyers are vital for helping people, their wages are small. Non-profit organizations struggle with maintaining the necessary funds to help those in need. Hence these institutions provide internships for students completing law studies in a safe environment.
Trending everywhere is an increase of the technology tools being used at the workplace. These changes occur swiftly and are meant to make jobs easier or more efficient.
In the world of law, there’s no exception. Even lawyers are gaining access to more clever tech tools to make their lives better. However, you won’t have to worry about upgrading your phone or downloading hundreds of new features and struggle to try to figure things out.
If you’re like most lawyers, technology has a few standard features and that’s all you need. Well, wouldn’t you like to discover the true potential that technology can provide you and your legal services?
Let’s take a look at a few of the best tech tools for lawyers which will help your legal practice in the 21st century.
1. Research Tools
If you’re spending endless hours researching the old way (i.e. in a law library), you may want to try these advanced research tools. If you want to try powerful but affordable research, check out Ravel Law or Casetext:
Ravel Law is a resourceful legal search tool that allows lawyers to search legal data, analyze results, and create understandable visualizations. Ravel Law obtains all their data from Harvard Law Library. Use Ravel Law to put new information into practice.
Casetext is another provider of legal information and offers free services to law students and pro bono lawyers only, otherwise, it’s a subscription-based service. Casetext’s unique contextual legal research technology, CARA AI, automates key legal research, arming lawyers with the highest quality research possible, ultimately allowing firms to spend time on higher-value, billable work — and avoid missing key precedents or decisions. Consider CARA as you’re very own, digital assistant.
Lawyers with a website can really benefit by implementing a live chat system on their websites. This useful tech development is becoming increasingly popular in legal industry as it allows owners of a website to engage directly with visitors.
If you’re thinking about putting together a powerful Facebook Ads campaign, having live chat ready to go can potentially boost client intake.
One thing to keep in mind with using this technology on a lawyer’s website is the American Bar Association’s Ethics and Regulations regarding online marketing.
3. Accounting Software
Accounting software is a great tech choice for lawyers. There is a wide range of service providers available and they’re focused on providing the tech solutions just for lawyers. Here are a few of the things your accounting software can do for you and your firm:
This accounting software lawyer tools provider typically provides a free trial which allows you to test out their features. For a comprehensive review of these this lawyer tech tool, see best accounting software for lawyers.
4. Cloud Storage
Although some accounting software programs offer additional storage, you may want a dedicated cloud provider to store your data. Cloud storage allows for data to be stored on servers away from your computer.
This can provide you access to important files and information while you’re on the go and your mobile device, even on your cell phone. Dropbox and Google Drive are two common and easy to use save files and documents.
However, you may be concerned about the security of your client’s data. One thing to consider is that as a lawyer, putting all your client intake forms and sensitive information on cloud storage could lead to it getting hacked. It is a lawyer’s responsibility to safeguard their client’s personal and sensitive information.
If you do decide to use a cloud storage to save your legal documents off your computer, try setting up two-step authentication.
5. Virtual Office
While this may be not a dedicate tech tool for lawyers, it has become a go-to solution for many solo and small-sized law firms. Setting up a virtual office allows lawyers to save time and focus more on the success of their law firm’s own.
Getting a virtual office for each client portal your law firm is an effective use of technology for your practice. Depending on the area you specialize, you can receive a team of dedicated receptionists who can understand and use appropriate legal language.
What software do law firms use for practice management?
The software integrates with countless software applications to make law practice management easier. Compare software management platforms and prioritize software that is relevant for your practice. For PI plaintiffs, it is necessary to have personal injury practice management software like CloudLex which allows you to quickly include personal injury information. CloudLex also offers a variety of interesting features including the following:
Communication Tools
Lack of internal communications cost business owners $420,000 in annual losses. Communication tools help employees communicate with customers.
Time-Tracking Software
61% of attorneys say capturing bills on their time is a difficult job for the law firm. Sometimes invoice minutes can be lost in a hurry when switching between matters and a phone call. If an application is attempting to track logged hours using email or calendar events retroactively, it may result in an incorrect schedule. In an attempt for resolution this problem attorneys have turned to software for timekeeping. 80% of legal professionals have legal time-tracking and productivity tools that can reduce the burden of work.
Online file storage
When working on a remote basis online file storage is essential for a legal practice and is easy to find. It’s even incredibly common for attorneys to use cloud computing as their primary storage solution for their business data. Check for online storage that can be accessed easily from anywhere in the world. Dropbox is probably the most common document storage application on the market today.
Internal Communication
Law firms are likely to receive free and cheap communications services. Many business communication software developers designed their business tools mostly for immediate use. Slack’s features are popular, like chat, task manager and reminders. It is also easy to understand for beginners. Microsoft Teams offers lawyers another opportunity within the Microsoft ecosystem.
Automated Billing and Invoicing Software
The ability of law firms to generate invoices is key to their financial success. Sadly, these tasks can become incredibly expensive. According to the study, 73 percent of attorneys said that their firms struggle with pay. 80% said firm profit was a major problem. Legal Invoice Software automates legal invoice processing, including time-tracking and flat fee entry. Sending Bills to clients is simple using a single click. Afterwards, it will be shown if a user has viewed or done something on an invoice.
Case Management Software
In a safe environment you will have a higher probability of success. It is time for the lost paperwork, it’s a waste. The Case Manager is an easy to learn tool. Developed for a centralised system, it provides a real-time data base with proactive information analysis. You still use chat functions to keep in touch with the team and customers. Many of these tools have backups and customer help for those who have concerns. The best case management application is PracticePanther. It streamlined everything to suit you.
Legal Payments Software
Law offices accepting online payments are paid a third of the time if they are not. Learn the best ways to make your legal practice pay. It sounds complicated, but it does not for me. Efficient payment processing tools simplify payment. How should we evaluate our lawyer pay bill software?
Legal Citation Generator
You must use legal sources to give evidence and present legal papers in court. Legal Citation Generator is reliable and easy to use for finding references to legal documents. It helps you save time by obtaining references and making them more accessible. This tool provides links to government websites. The links to this document are easy. Law students and law professionals alike benefit from it. Pros at Law may examine codes and regulations for a legal matter and add citations to documents submitted for trial.
Virtual receptionist service
When someone misses an emailed phone call, it means that they’ll lose their business. Virtual reception services like Ruby eliminate calls that are not answered by the user. It helps customers receive better services and reduces the time spent on contacting employees in-house.
Mobile apps
Mobile apps can increase your productivity by giving you the freedom to work anywhere—a requirement in 2022. How are mobile apps used in legal practice?
Time tracking and billing solutions
A timely tracking and billing system is vital to maximizing the profits. Using software that monitors time manually and handles billing isn’t going anywhere. If you don’t have the tools you need to manage time and bills, you should look into your legal software. Clio Manage includes time and task management, expense monitoring and billing functionality. If you don’t currently own any practice management software then please see our review list.
Document Scanning
The process and processing of documents are vital components for success at an established law firm profitability. Document scanning technology can save time by simply taking a few steps. Many scanners are not physically scanners but they can take pictures directly off your smartphone. This software also allows you to save and upload documents in a central place. Do you have a hard time with moving materials and programs? Let’s discuss this. The software was created with the aim of reducing the workload of law offices. This program uses cloud storage for sharing, updating, and organizing material. The automatic indexing system is very useful for finding important data within the constraints of time.
E-signature tools
Electronic signatures can be easily coordinated allowing less time for human mistakes. It makes the law process faster and easier for lawyers to handle, and reduces paper costs. Although electronic signing does not always work, electronic signing is legally binding as long as it meets the correct criteria. In other cases, certain countries require the signature of the documents such as wills. Tech helps in simplify e-signatures.
Integration With Legal Practice Management Software
It can help you streamline the billing and collection of your business software. Law Payments enables law firms to integrate easily into MyCase, reducing administrative burdens potential clients. After completing tracking and creating an invoice in Mycase, clients pay bills using LawPay payment processing software. The bill is reflected as paid on mycase’s dashboard and ensures smooth, consistent oversight.
Legal research tools
High-quality law studies are vital to the success of your business. The new legal library provides easy-to-use legal information for you. It will enable you to stay up to date and do legal research quickly. Fastcase has among the largest law databases on the Internet. With fastcase integrated into Clio, you can easily get documents like statutes, laws, or constitutions. Effective research in law is not necessarily expensive. These articles cover some of the best legal research tools available online.
Secure Video Conferencing Software
More lawyers offer remote or hybrid options to their employees. Video programs improve access to information by making clients work wherever they need it. In addition, you can contact lawyers via phone or chat. You may even write the call for further analysis or obtain transcriptions to refer to later. High-quality software helps reduce the chance that a call may be lost. Those who like the possibility of having more people to share their experiences with video conferences should use Zoom. Many business owners consider this platform an ideal platform for quick meeting conveniences. The total number of callers will vary from 1200. Lawyerer is an online service for legal practitioners looking for encrypted, end to end encryption back-to-end documents.
Client intake and CRM
CRM solutions like Clio Grow assist companies with the coordination and communication processes of client portals, which are performed before clients are introduced. The new service allows firms to offer new clients the ability to make their first online appointment easier via the online form. The 2020 legal trend report demonstrated that Client Orientation – CRM – Software is beneficial even in the remote office.
Cloud-Based Document Management
COVID-19 altered legal practice forever. Many team members have adopted collaborative software tools to improve productivity across varying teams based on their remote work. Almost half of the legal workforce today uses software to manage their firms’ files. MyCase provides an efficient legal and document management software platform. It is updated instantly on desktop and laptop computers so that everybody is always aware of the latest version.
If you are considering a website or a blog to showcase your legal services and expertise, there are many different Top Level Domains (TLD) to choose from:
.com
.gov
.org
.law
This article will examine whether lawyers should buy .law domain and briefly review a few methods to succeed online.
What are Top Level Domains (TLD)?
Without going too in depth about the concept of domain names, here’s a simplified version of what domain names are.
Domain names are the important piece of information that provides a readable internet address of your website. The ending of the domain name is what is known as a Top Level Domain with the most common being .com, .org, and .net.
Overall, there are more than 1000 TLDs available.
Is There Any Significance In Having A .law Domain Name?
Having a TLD can be useful in marketing, search engines, and website optimization. When you consider the most common TLDs like .com, .edu, and .gov, these are recognizable, popular, and rank well courtesy of their authority.
They is some speculation that having these TLDs do not provide measurable proof that you will get ranked higher (such as with .edu and .gov domains).
“Sorry, but that’s just not true, and as an engineer in the search quality team at Google, I feel the need to debunk this misconception. Google has a lot of experience in returning relevant web pages, regardless of the top-level domain (TLD). Google will attempt to rank new TLDs appropriately, but I don’t expect a new TLD to get any kind of initial preference over .com, and I wouldn’t bet on that happening in the long-term either. If you want to register an entirely new TLD for other reasons, that’s your choice, but you shouldn’t register a TLD in the mistaken belief that you’ll get some sort of boost in search engine rankings.”
While Google may not rank a .law domain higher, from a personal point of view, there is significant value to be considered.
What Are The Benefits Of A .law Domain Name?
From a branding point of view, having a .law domain allows you to position yourself as a professional and a figure of authority.
Anyone who registers a new .law domain, must provide a phone number from the licensing of your agency or firm.
Having to go through this additional step during the registration process creates a trust factor for those searching for you.
Buying a .law domain name will provide an additional layer of credibility courtesy of the verification process required.
This is a summary of some the benefits you’ll receive when you buy a .law domain:
Brandable & Authority. Using this TLD allows you to create a strong and memorable brand. A .law domain can be descriptive and capture the core of your practice. When deciding on your domain name, consider using your own name, area of practice, or your target market.
Verified & Trusted. When you register your .law domain, you become verified and trusted by those seeking your services online. Only qualified lawyers can apply for this domain. Once approved, you will have a branded and trustworthy domain surrounding your legal profession.
If You Already Have Another Domain Name, Should You Transfer To A .law Domain?
As mentioned before, there may not be any considerable boost to your rankings in the search engines. If you already using a domain and it is working well, you may not want to transfer your website to the .law domain.
Consider .law as an investment in your practice but only if you don’t have a domain name already. When you transfer a website over to a new domain, you may lose traffic and potential clients.
Getting a new .law domain is an ideal choice for those starting a new website.
A domain name is only one of many factors to consider when putting your law practice online.
One of the most critical areas of getting noticed and finding new clients comes from the content you provide.
Here’s a few things you may want to keep in mind:
Offer meaningful, relevant and original content. Most search engines approve of original content. However, they should be written in a way that’s natural and connects with your target audience.
Create backlinks on authority sites. When you have published quality content, try to get your site linked with .edu or .gov sites as these have authority. Read law firm SEO Tips here. Note: Never buy backlinks — you could be penalized.
As an authority on the web and a professional of law, you have a responsibility to provide quality content that is relevant and informative to your visitors.
This update from John Mueller on Google’s Webmaster Central makes it clear that content is crucial and the domain name is not given “artificial advantage in search.”
So, Should Lawyers Buy A .law Domain?
Getting a .law domain could be the strategic edge you need to have a competitive advantage online.
However, while a TLD like .law adds a professional touch your online service, providing good content that follows Google’s recommended practices will be much more powerful.
Choosing the best live chat for your law firm’s website may come down to pricing, support, and functionality. Before reviewing a few live chats you can use for your website, let’s look at a few key features to help in your decision making.
The first thing to understand is what you can do with live:
Pre-chat Message: provide a pop-up to a visitor to prompt them toward clicking the button and starting the live chat session.
Pre-chat script: provide a series of questions the visitor must answer before the live chat session begins.
Proactive Live Chat: offering a live chat session to a visitor upon arrival.
Reactive Chat: waiting for a visitor to initiate the live chat button.
Unavailable Chat: when live agents are not available, an optional form is sent to the visitor to provide their email.
Next, in the marketing world, turning a website visitor into a paying customer (or client) is known as a conversion. Live chats are a great tool to increase conversions if you know how to use them.
Who Will Be Responding to Chat Requests?Will you be handling the chat notifications or an assistant? There is also the option of hiring a virtual receptionist and outsourcing. Are you aware of the ethical implications to answer legal related questions?
How Are Chats Being Answered? If you understand the ABA’s ethics rules for lawyers, you’ll know what kind of information you can or cannot collect during a live chat. If you have chosen a live chat with outsourced assistance, will they be given a script? Are they proficient in English? How should they handle sensitive information?
What Are Your Costs? There are many live chat solutions available and prices range from completely free to high hourly rates for active chat agents. You may also find the option to pay per lead or to pay per chat.
Now that you have an idea what to look for in a live chat software for your website, let’s look at a few options.
Overview: Legal 24/7 is a live chat provider dedicated exclusively to lawyers. They offer a team of trained operators capable of using legal language. They can also assist in designing custom chat scripts that suit your law firm’s style.
Installation: N/A
Features:
Legal training operators with focus on conversion
Live phone call transfer
Live chat 24/7/365
Branded chat boxes
Analytics
CRM integration
Lead notification (email, phone call, etc.)
Languages: Available in English and Spanish
Pricing: Pay per lead. Contact the company for more details.
Overview: Apex Chat offers both live chat software and professional agents 24/7/365. They have agents specialized in personal injury, criminal defense, bankruptcy, family law, immigration, estate planning, and other legal areas. Apex Chat is a leading provider of live chat solutions for lawyers.
Installation: N/A
Features:
Multiple chat agents available 24/7
Live phone call transfer
Practice area trained operators
Pre-defined scripts
Customizable messenger (for branding)
CRM Integration
Geo-mapping and routing
Detailed reporting
Language: Available in English and Spanish
Pricing: Pay per lead, with the ability to cap billing. For more information, contact their sales team.
The following live chat providers are not specific for legal services.
Overview: Chat.io offers a highly functional live chat messenger for your website. You’ll see a simple chat messenger in the bottom right corner of your website with the option to add the chat agent’s image and personalized message. They also offer 14-day free trial.
Installation: After you sign up for your account, you’ll receive an HTML code to place on your attorney website. They offer easy-to-understand instructions for this task.
Features:
Create canned messages
Check chat status
Share files
Create smart or manual chat (for offline)
Use on multiple websites and integrate into Facebook
Receive chat ratings
Access to agent profiles and transparency
Only $10 per teammate/month
Please note, this chat service only offers access to their live chat software. If you need agents, you may have to outsource.
Other live chat software similar to Chat.io include:
These live chat services offer manual live chat solutions. If you don’t have the staff to manage your live chats, you can outsource and provide scripts or set up an autoresponder requesting contact information.
Overall, the benefits of using non-legal focused live chats would be their affordability. However, the inability to hire staff available 24/7 can lead to missed leads and prospective clients.
In contrast, the live chat services devoted to the legal industry include operators who can speak both Spanish and English. In addition, with pricing being pay-per-lead from talented operators focused on conversions, you’ll get exactly what you pay for.
Lawyers depend on advertisements to build an awareness of their legal services and attract new clients to their firm. While traditional methods are still in use, online marketing (via hiring the best Facebook Ads agency and the best Google Adwords marketing agency) are becoming the common trend for advertising.
If you’re considering to use advertisements for your law firm, here are some of the biggest mistakes lawyers make and what you can do to avoid them.
Unfocused Marketing Campaigns
You may have a large budget to spend on marketing your law firm, but if you don’t have a focal point you’ll be spending your money on nothing. You can create a generic “contact for a free consultation” marketing message and take anything that comes in the door.
Or, you can segment your marketing message and target the specific legal services you offer. Invest your time and money creating marketing messages related to the specific cases your law firm handles.
Once you concentrate your marketing efforts you can find the right prospects for your firm.
Poorly Written Content
The content you publish on your website is a representation of you and your law firm. The internet is filled with spammy websites and people know when they’re being sold to.
Your content should be informative, error-free, and relatable to the people you think will read it.
Also, to improve the effectiveness of your content, add logical and emotional reasons to hire you. People are searching for someone who can truly help them with their problems.
Use your content to tell people you understand what they are dealing with and that your legal services are here to help.
Asking For Too Much
Your advertising efforts may be effective and delivering high traffic to your website. However, you may find that no one is contacting you for more information or to start a consultation.
If you’re asking prospective clients too much information in your contact boxes, many prospects are likely to turn away. People are constantly concerned about their privacy and with the rise of identity theft, there is a hesitancy to sharing personal information online.
Nonetheless, lawyers require some information to begin evaluating their case and being able to respond to it. Only ask for as much as you need and after receiving their contact information you can begin to ask the questions needed to get their case started.
Complex Web Design
There’s nothing more frustrating for a visitor to a website than a complex and confusing web design. This is known as your bounce rate, which is the number of visitors that come to your website then leave right away.
When you’re putting your legal services online, consider your visitors. Ask yourself these questions:
What is the most useful information my visitors need?
Does my law firm web design have a clear call to action (i.e. call for a free consultation)?
Is my contact information easy to access or will a visitor have difficulty finding it?
Does my website invite visitors to join my social?
Would adding a pop-up lead capture improve my conversions from visitors to clients?
If you’re struggling to come up with an effective web design for your law firm, consider these best law firm websites from 2017.
Also, if you have analytics set up on your website (i.e. to monitor where visitors are coming from and where they are frequently visiting) find your best content and feature them in the sidebar of your content pages.
Spending Your Entire Marketing Budget
Whether you’re using Facebook Ads, Google Adwords or and Instagram advertising agency, you have complete control over the duration and style of your marketing campaign. If you spend your entire budget without testing different ideas, you may end up with a lower return than you hoped for.
Start by setting your budget low and creating a series of tests to see which messages make the most impact on your target audience. The analytics offered in Facebook Ads and your Google account can help you determine which campaign is effective and could use more of your marketing budget.
Incongruent Landing Pages
In the world of advertising, having a congruent message is crucial. You’re marketing message and your landing pages should live up to the promise you’re making.
Advertising something like, “Steps to take after getting in a car accident,” then sending them to a landing page with a promotion to your service may not deliver the best results.
The purpose of proving valuable content online is to establish yourself as an authority in law as well as trustworthy.
Use your landing pages to capture leads in exchange for content that people are looking for.
Not Focused On Converting Visitors
You can spend thousands of dollars on advertising to get traffic to your website. However, if your website is not developed to turn those visitors into clients, you’ll be wasting your marketing budget.
The purpose of any website, especially a lawyer’s website, is to convert visitors into clients. There are many ways to do this. You can send visitors clicking on your Facebook Ads to a landing page requesting their email in exchange for valuable content.
Or, perhaps the most effective method of converting traffic, is by adding live chat to your website. Having the ability to communicate with visitors while they are live on your site allows you to address any questions they may have and arrange a consultation immediately.
The alternative would be to hope they find your contact page and send you an inquiry.
Not Having A Unique Selling Point
Having a distinct call to action is an important feature for any lawyer’s website. In addition to that, your website should have a unique selling point which differentiates your legal services from others online.
What makes you different from other law firms? How can you help more than other law firms with the same legal services?
Having case studies and client referrals on your homepage are one way of showcasing your legal abilities to prospective clients. However, you should take a moment and ask yourself what can you offer that differentiates you from your competitors.
Now that you know some of the mistakes lawyers are making with their advertisements, you may want to review advertising regulations from the State Bar.
For lawyers who are starting their own law firm having the right office supplies with help with staying organized and improving productivity. An additional purpose that office supplies should provide lawyers is to set a strong first impression whenever clients enter the office.
Whether you’re changing directions in your career or just getting started practicing law, having the right supplies and best website design will be determined by your budget and personal preference. However, one thing to consider is that purchasing the supplies for your lawyer’s office is one of your first business decisions. Purchasing a beautiful mahogany wood desk then experiencing budget cuts, later on, could result in an office environment that’s less than ideal.
Furniture Set First Impressions
Although legal services aim to help people in various situations, lawyer’s must consider their practice with business in mind. Setting a good first impression begins the moment prospective clients steps foot in your office, takes a look at your suit, and scans the conditions of your office.
Desks: This will be your workstation. Having a spacious and large desk can help with productivity and reducing the feeling of working in a cramped space. You should consider the height of your desk in relation to your body size. If you have a computer, will you place it on your desk or have an additional side table to use it?
Chairs: While your desk is vital for your workflow, having the right chair requires careful consideration. Consider this the throne of your working world. You’ll want to invest in something that is comfortable for the days you’ll spend hours working on your cases. Depending on whether you purchase a chair with wheels or four wooden legs, you may want to purchase a plastic floor covering to improve mobility and reduce damage to the office floor.
Bookshelves: these are a necessity for a lawyer’s office. Bookshelves allow you to organize all your law books, keep them in place, and show them off to those browsing around the room. It’s best to choose a bookshelf that matches your office furniture to avoid clashing.
Writing Supplies: this one may seem obvious, but it is important to have a bulk supply of writing instruments to work with your clients. In addition, your clients may be required to fill out forms and provide their signature so it is important to have extras at hand. As your practice grows, you can invest in branding your law firm, you can get pens with your logo, law firm name, and contact number.
Envelopes: here’s an office supply lawyer’s don’t want to run out. Law offices send out letters to clients and other attorneys on a daily basis. Buying envelopes in bulk is a simple and affordable solution which allows you to have envelopes available whenever you need them.
Lighting: most offices are built with good lights to keep the office bright and functional. However, you may find that some parts of the office may feel darker than others, especially if you’re stuck working after hours. Investing in a lamp to provide additional light in the office can help make it more inviting.
A few more fundamental supplies lawyers should have in their office include trash cans, recycling cans, magazine and coat racks.
Lawyer Office Supplies: Quick Checklist
In addition to the items above, you probably need the following items below. You can cut costs if you buy in bulk and keep extras in a storage space. Also, creating a partnership with a supplier can provide you with additional benefits and discounts.
As you prepare your office it can be easy to forget all things you need for your office. Here’s a checklist to ensure you have everything you need:
This list should serve as a starting point to getting the supplies you need at your office. You will be able to find most of these supplies at your local stores or you can shop online to find more variety and style. While it may be tempting to cut corners to save some money in the start, remember that the environment of your lawyer’s office can shape the overall impression of your legal practice. If you’re not too concerned about your office space because you often meet clients somewhere in the community, here are some things you’ll find in a lawyer’s briefcase.
PracticePanther offer legal document solutions for small sized law firms. Their focus is to cut costs and save time for lawyers. They also offer a suite of services such as 1-click invoicing, email integrations, CRM, chat applications, and trust accounting. They offer a secure cloud service following HIPAA compliance.
