Clio

In his just-published SmallLaw column “A Law Practice Survival Guide for the Involuntarily Solo“, legal technology expert Mazyar Hedayat identifies his top recommendations for the “suddenly solo” lawyer, ranging from Social Networks to Communications to Legal Research.

We’re honored Clio was selected as a recommendation for three categories, including:

• Software-as-a-Service: “Today you can manage complex recordkeeping, file management, billing, calendaring, task management, communications, and a dozen other vital functions on your iPhone. Ten years ago they said it would never happen, but we proved them wrong! Thanks, Google.”
• Billing: “Sure it takes money to make money. But why so much? Since the days of Red Gorilla (bonus if you remember that .com darling), Web-based billing has been the fevered dream of a madman. Or at least it was until a surge of do-it-yourself timers and time-keeping services hit the market.”
• Collaboration: “Collaboration’ sites let you display information like a Web host, share and exchange documents like Google Docs, and interact with one another like a social network. So why give them a separate category? Because most of the time these sites represent a useful compilation of features perfect for everything from ad hoc bar association groups to teams of lawyers working on a case with national scope.”

Read the rest of Mazyar’s recommendations here.

In the just-published August issue of the ABA Journal, Dennis Kennedy, a leading authority on legal technology, has written an article entitled “Working in the Cloud“. In the article Dennis outlines some of the major advantages of moving your practice into the cloud:

You might be surprised by the long list of benefits of software as a service:

• Because these services are accessed through your browser and an Internet connection, you avoid software, hardware and network infrastructure costs.

• Data centers provide levels of security, backup, redundancy and performance that go far beyond what the typical law firm can imagine.

• The provider takes care of patches, updates and other administration.

• Remote access from anywhere is a given.

• Perhaps best of all, your technology costs become a utility cost; you typically pay a monthly service fee that you can budget for.

It’s no wonder SaaS is popular for startup practices.

The article is very balanced in pointing out that while there are benefits to be derived from using Software-as-a-Service, issues such as data privacy and security should be considered before jumping in head-first. In his discussion of the data, privacy and security implications of Software-as-a-Service, Dennis has an excellent perspective that we think is all too often overlooked: what are you comparing the data, privacy, and security of Software-as-a-Service to? In many cases, a SaaS solution will deliver reliability, security, and privacy levels much higher than on-premises solutions can deliver.

As you’ve undoubtedly guessed, Dennis’ take on the benefits of SaaS mirror our own here at Clio, and we’re happy to hear from the voice of a respected authority on legal softwarer about the benefits many solos and small firms are realizing thanks to SaaS. While we encourage everyone to evaluate all of the options available to them before comitting to a decision on which Practice Management solution to use, we’re confident that, for those users who are seeking a low-cost, reliable and easy-to-use system that provides unprecedented mobility and rigid security, web-based practice management is the ideal solution.

Read the entire article here to hear the rest of Dennis’ insights on the advantages of Software-as-a-Service along with factors that should be considered before moving your practice into the clouds.

One of the comments we’ve often received is that while everyone enjoys reading magazine and blogger’s reviews of Clio, they’d like to see more reviews from our users’ perspective. Blogger and magazine reviews are often based on a necessarily time-limited trial of a given piece of software. While this can be enough time to determine whether a piece of software has any major failings, it’s rarely enough time to truly build a relationship with the software, to get a feel for how it works over the course of weeks and months. A review from a long-time user can provide insights and perspectives that a short, tactical review simply cannot.

Following up Jason Molder’s review of Clio, we today have a user review from Brian Powers of the Law Office of Brian V Powers. Brian is a business attorney who specializes in dealing with startups, with an emphasis on entrepreneurial legal services, startup law, mergers and acquisitions, and internet law / software licensing issues. Brian can provide useful insights into the challenges facing a startup, as prior to becoming an attorney he was an entrepreneur, founding and and operating two different internet start-up companies. Brian’s latest venture, IndianaStartup.com, is an excellent resource for entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses based in Indiana.

Brian’s review begins with an insight into why, as he was setting out to start his solo practice, he chose to move to “the cloud” and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Although Brian is technically proficient and more than capable of installing his own software and performing backups, etc., he viewed it as outside of his core expertise:

I have a good laptop, and a server that backs my laptop up every night, but I don’t want the lifeblood of my practice, my practice management system, running on my machines – which are completely dependent on me for technical support. SaaS was the only way to go.

Brian then moves onto what he decided gave Clio the edge over the other web-based contenders: our design and ease-of-use:

Then I found Clio – and it was perfect.  First of all (and this might be sad that I list this as the first reason I chose Clio) – the interface is very, very slick, easy to use, and intuitive.  It has all sorts of “ajax-y” menu and form systems.  Secondly, it has all the functionality I need – time tracking, task management, and most importantly, online invoicing and billing. Everything is streamlined.  My billing cycle varies from client to client, matter to matter – but with Clio I never have any problems keeping track and getting bills out the door.

While Brian feels his decision being based on Clio’s “slick” interface, which on the surface perhaps seems superficial, he’s touching on something important: design matters. While software reviews often focus on a feature matrix comparing Feature A to Feature B in Product X and Product Y, design and ease-of-use rarely come into consideration. This is partly because design is hard to quantify and is, to some degree, a subjective experience, we think it’s one of the most important considerations when choosing software for a simple reason: if software looks great and is a pleasure to use, you’re more likely to use it. Ugly and hard-to-use interfaces all too often become “shelfware”, bought with the best of intentions, but left collecting dust because they’re just not accessible.

Brian concludes his review by commenting on how instrumental Clio’s ClientConnect system has become for him in co-ordination information exchange and bill payments with clients:

The clincher for me, though, was the ever-evolving ClientConnect system – which allows for the creation of a password protected client area.  Clients can login, see and comment on documents, and see and pay invoices.

Brian, thanks for a great review – we’d encourage you to check out Brian’s full Clio review here. To learn more about Brian check out his website as well as his new IndianaStartup.com site.

In today’s downtrodden economy, many attorneys are finding themselves “suddenly solo”, having been turned out by big firms and large companies shedding ranks to stay afloat. Stability and familiarity is being abruptly replaced with emotion and uncertainty, with the responsibilities of many placed squarely on the shoulders of a single attorney coping with stark change. How to deal? Where to start? What technology to buy? How to make a web-presence? These questions among others are swirling in the minds of sudden solos everywhere, and Dennis Kennedy, an award-winning lawyer and leading legal technology consultant, has done an exceptional job addressing them in an article written for the ABA Law Practice Management webzine titled: “Lemons, Lemonade and Lean Legal Technology – A Shoestring Approach to Legal Technology for the Suddenly Solo Lawyer”. In Dennis’ words:

The idea behind the article is to try to scope out how little a lawyers who finds himself or herself suddenly solo might actually need (as opposed to want) in order to get a new practice off the ground.

I offer a list of twelve steps to consider:

1. Take a Deep Breath. Really.

2. Take an Inventory of What You Already Have.

3. Go on a Treasure Hunt.

4. Identify Your Software.

5. Take a Hard Look at What You Really Need to Do Your Work and Manage Your Practice.

6. Match What You Have to What You Need.

7. Make Lemonade Out of Lemons.

8. Free is Good, Especially for Software.

9. Turning Technology into a Utility Cost.

10. Find Internet Bargains.

11. Develop Your Internet Presence.

12. Think About Technology Selection as a Process.

Dennis’ article focuses on several places web-based applications and Software-as-a-Service can help realize the “lean legal technology” ideal. As Dennis points out in his article, to a startup cash flow is one of the most important considerations to keep in mind. With its per-month subscription model, Software-as-a-Service has a much lower impact on cashflow that traditional client-server and desktop software. Unlike traditional software, which can easily involve thousands of dollars of up-front expenditures on servers and software, Sofware-as-a-Service often requires no up-front investment and can be subscribed to for a low month-to-month fee (or, in some cases, for free). As Dennis points out, you can “turn technology into a utility cost” rather than a large, up-front capital expenditure.

Dennis’ article can be read in its entirety here – it’s a worthwhile read for any solo or small firm.

Earlier this week the technology news site TechCrunch reported that they’d received numerous confidential internal documents that were siphoned from the corporate servers at Twitter thanks to a security breach perpetrated by a hacker operating under the moniker “Hacker Croll”. News of this sparked a frenzy of finger-pointing that implicated a major flaw in Twitter’s security infrastructure as the root cause behind the unauthorized access. As it turns out, Twitter’s only security problem was the use of weak passwords. Allegedly one of the passwords used to gain access to the corporate network was literally set to “password”, essentially laying a welcome mat for any snooping user or malicious intruder.

Although an unfortunate outcome for the executives over at Twitter, this whole episode serves as a warning to web service users everywhere of the importance of strong passwords – especially where sensitive data is concerned. Even the most impenetrable security measures and safeguards are easily undone when users select simple, short or easily-guessable passwords.

So, what can you do to make sure you don’t end up in the hot-seat along with Twitter? Wikipedia and Psynch provide excellent guidelines for selecting strong passwords. For those wanting a little help with crafting something secure, a number of free services are available online including: PC Tools, GoodPassword, and StrongPasswordGenerator among others.

Ultimately, the burden of information security rests on users as much as service providers, and, while it’s essential that the systems housing the data be secured to the greatest extent possible, it’s equally important that users remember the critical role passwords play in the scope of quality security. If something is worth protecting with a password, it’s also probably worth going to the extra effort to ensure that the password fulfills its purpose to guard sensitive information from unauthorized access.

The announcement of Google’s Chrome OS earlier this week set the Internet abuzz with excitement and speculation over the revolutionary impact of an operating system aimed at supporting web-centric devices such as netbooks. Designed for people who “live on the web”, Chrome OS is promised to “re-think what operating systems should be”, hinting at Google’s vision of a web-based future wherein most applications are delivered via the Internet, and operating systems are relegated to lightweight platforms that merely support increasingly powerful web services. With Chrome, Google is hoping to take users from boot to browsing in a matter of seconds, de-emphasizing the importance of installed applications and sophisticated interfaces, focusing instead on speed, simplicity and security – the talents for which Google is known. According to the Chrome engineers:

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

Google Chrome OS casts a validating vote in favor of the Internet as the medium for future application delivery, echoing the benefits of Software-as-a-Service and the need to revisit the conventional computing model to provide greater simplicity, accessibility and security.

The shift from traditional desktop software to Software-as-a-Service, as evidenced by Microsoft’s recent announcement that Microsoft Office 2010 will be moving to the cloud and Adobe’s announcement of a suite of SaaS offerings at Acrobat.com, appears to be accelerating, and Google’s Chrome OS appears to well-positioned to take advantage of where computing is headed.

Gone are the days of needing an intermediary application such as iCal to push subscribed calendars to the iPhone. As of the recently released iPhone 3.0 update, users can now subscribe to calendars directly from their phones using one of two protocols: CalDAV—supported by Google and Yahoo—and subscriptions via the .ics format—which is what Apple uses in iCal, and what Clio uses for its calendar feeds. This will undoubtedly be a huge relief to many Clio users who, until now, have patiently performed regular synchronization to ensure the latest updates are reflected on their iPhone calendars. Now, with direct-to-phone iCalendar subscriptions enabled, users can be reassured that they’ll always have the latest appointment information close at hand, and without the need for cumbersome interventions.

Rene Ritchie over at the iPhone Blog has posted a great overview of how to add calendar subscriptions (such as your Clio calendar) via the new 3.0 interface. The full article can be read here: http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/06/24/iphone-30-easily-subscribe-holidays-sports-team-schedules-movie-release-dates/

The June edition of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Magazine featured an article entitled “Cloud Cover“ written by Luigi Benneton on the topic of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the realm of law practice management . The article features an interview with two Clio users: Florida lawyer Jason Molder and Quebec lawyer Lawrence Yelin.

For Molder, the key benefit of Software-as-a-Service is that his practice management software is not tied to one computer: “Being in South Florida, from June to November, we’re on hurricane watch,” Molder explains. “At any time we could be locked out of our building because of a hurricane warning. It would be impossible for us to run this firm if we were five years in the past.”

For Yelin, who was going solo after retiring from a large Canadian law firm, getting up and running with a practice management system as fast as possible was a priority. Yelin, a Mac user, also selected Clio because of its compatability with his operating system of choice.

You can read the entire article here.