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Last week Jordan Furlong published an insightful post titled “The Electric Law Firm” which ponders how the forces shaping the electrification of the automotive industry may come to bear on legal practice. Referring to a recent special edition of The Economist dedicated to the electrification of motoring, Jordan likens the commodization of certain legal services to the redundancy of petrol-based services in an electric automotive economy. With a fleet of battery driven vehicles poised to hit the roads in the coming years, the petrol distribution network is struggling to find ways of continuing to derive value from electric vehicles by tailoring their services to the needs of this burgeoning industry. One prominent proposal suggests commoditizing the vehicle itself, and revamping the service network to supply batteries on a pay-as-you-go basis, such that, like cellphones and razorblades, you pay for the service, not the tool. Similarly, in the context of legal services, the rise of low-priced alternatives to using a lawyer, such as online documents and forms, is pushing the legal industry to revisit how and where it derives its value. According to Furlong:

The day might soon arrive when firms publish and automate their legal knowledge, document assembly and document review process free of charge, over the internet, to anyone who wants them — but will charge a monthly retainer fee for the personal judgment, advice and representation that animates those documents and processes and provides real value.

Jordan’s article is a provocative read, and struck a special chord with us here at Clio, since we feel that many of the same forces are working to shape the basic economics of the software industry. With increasingly powerful web-based applications luring growing numbers to the cloud as their platform of choice, consumers are growing less willing to shell-out for traditional applications, expecting instead to get the tool as a perk of using the service.

This basic re-thinking of the automotive, legal and software industries may eventually pronounce the irrelevance of more traditional business models, but is paving the way towards redefining value in the new economy.

North Carolina Lawyer’s Weekly has recently published a case study highlighting the Law Offices of Place & Hanley, a firm that is leveraging Clio to manage their practice and to deliver superior service to their clients.

Sara Hanley, a partner in the firm, outlines the approach she and her partner, Randall Place, have to delivering better and more efficient service by leveraging technology:

Not only do Randall and I strive to meet the legal needs of our clients, but we must also run the office and manage our employees. Between e-mail, document-processing and the need for frequent remote access, technology has become a necessary part of our daily work. Therefore, we are always looking for ways to build efficiency and increase productivity by implementing technology and legal software applications.

With offices in North Carolina, West Palm Beach, and North Fort Myers, Place & Hanley not only faced all the typical practice management challenges, but also had to deal with a geographically distributed firm. Their search for an ideal technology solution led them to consider web-based alternatives, and ultimately to Clio:

The keystone of our technology is a Web-based practice management system called Clio, which is developed by Themis Solutions Inc., a Canadian software company.

We discovered Clio in late 2008 while looking for a Web-based solution that could support the demanding requirements of our practice. Within minutes of activating our trial account, our entire firm was up and using the software with relative ease, storing contacts, case information, appointments and documents.

Time entry is simple, which was a welcome change from the cumbersome manual methods we had been using. And, where it used to take us three to four days to generate our bills, with Clio the whole process takes less than two hours — clearly a significant return-on-investment and a huge gain in terms of time that is now available to assist clients.

Best of all, regardless of where I am, provided I have my laptop, I can access Clio and work as effectively as if I were sitting at my desk.

The full article PDF is available for your viewing here and on the Clio JD Supra site. The article  is a worthy read for any lawyer considering how technology can help make them more efficient and streamlined.

With Labor day nearly upon us, solos and small firms everywhere are readying themselves for the hectic pace of fall, and looking for new practice tools to help them hit the ground running. For those back-to-work shoppers who find themselves puzzling over the merits of practicing in “the Cloud”, several recent articles do an excellent job of presenting the important considerations and benefits of selecting a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution:

Resonating with our earlier discussions on security, privacy and data availability, Niki Black published an informative article on the Lawyerist that addresses many of the commonly expressed concerns over data security and privacy in “the Cloud”. In it, Niki recommends that lawyers “resist the urge to overreact to emerging technologies”, referring to a 2008 NY State Bar Ethics Committee conclusion dealing with email confidentiality that found no objection to the inclusion of context-driven advertising provided there was no material departure from conventional privacy policies. Niki’s full article on the Lawyerist can be found here.

Those seeking a great executive tutorial of what to look for in a SaaS product, should check out Mazyar Hedayat’s article titled INFRASTRUCTURE: In The Cloud which was featured in the September issue of Law Technology News. The article provides a succinct educational overview of the critical criteria worth considering before committing to any SaaS solution, and does a thorough job of presenting the many excellent alternatives available on the market. Check it out here. The article also features Clio as a “SaaS” case study:

The growth of leading provider Clio typifies the penetration of SaaS in the market. Like other leaders in this space Clio features calendaring, tasks, trust accounting, and document storage. The company has also enabled online payment via PayPal as well as secure client collaboration and a desktop billing widget. Clio may also be looking into self-directed (“automatic”) billing.

Mobile warriors may also be interested to read Chris McKinney’s balanced analysis of the pros and cons of adopting a SaaS solution for practices that demand a great deal of accessibility. His article, Cloud Computing for Mobile Lawyers, was recently published on Law.com and covers topics of frequent concern such as cost, mobility, collaboration, security and offline access. Chris’ practical and fair analysis makes the article a worthwhile read for anyone curious about what SaaS has to offer. The full article is available here.