Clio

We count Ross Kodner, a leading legal technology consultant and founder of MicroLaw, as a friend here at Clio, but Ross has always harbored some reservations about SaaS in the legal space. Over the last couple of years we’ve enjoyed participating in some healthy debates with Ross both in person and in listservs such as SOLOSEZ on a variety topics relating to SaaS. However, despite our best efforts, we seemed unable to win him over on the merits of SaaS over traditional desktop software.

So, you can only imagine our surprise last night when the latest issue of TechnoLawyer’s excellent SmallLaw column, titled “Ending the SaaS Stalemate In the Small Firm Market”, arrived in our inbox.

Having heard enough of the rhetoric, and sufficiently debated the issues of accessibility, ethics, and security, Ross, like many others, has grown weary of the moot debate over the validity of SaaS in the legal space, and called for the industry to shift its discussion towards more relevant topics:

This debate is perpetually mired in concerns about accessibility, ethics, and security. It’s time to move past these nonissues and focus on more relevant issues that will enable SaaS products to mature into mainstream small firm products.

We’ve written extensively on the topics of accessibility, ethics and security on this blog, and while they remain  important issues that should be properly investigated before selecting a SaaS provider, it is refreshing to see a call from an industry stalwart such as Ross to advance the discussion from hypothetical risks to how SaaS can truly help users:

The small firm legal SaaS world can most certainly succeed. SaaS vendors should focus on promoting functionality first, while methodically shoring up their services’ perceived and/or real weaknesses in the two fundamental areas of platform criticism. Address and end the current stalemate and grow up SaaS — the small firm market is ready for and needs you.

The small firm legal SaaS world can most certainly succeed.

SaaS vendors should focus on promoting functionality first,

while methodically shoring up their services’ perceived

and/or real weaknesses in the two fundamental areas of

platform criticism. Address and end the current stalemate

and grow up SaaS — the small firm market is ready for and

needs you

Let us be among the first to welcome this breath of fresh air to stale discussion. Thank-you Ross.

Although Ross rightly points out that the ethical and confidentiality considerations inherent to “the Cloud” should always be properly weighed, we heartily agree with Ross’ acknowledgement that “SaaS makes sense” for small firms, and that it is time both SaaS cynics and vendors shed the trappings of a debate over “non issues” and concentrate on “shifting the debate to what really matters to users”. On this note, we’re eagerly awaiting the host of new innovations that will undoubtedly be revealed by SaaS vendors at this year’s ABA TechShow, and look forward to a 2010 that’s focused on customer-centric product development with an emphasis on functionality over familiarity.

2010 is shaping out to be an exciting year for legal SaaS.

With the release of Apple’s iPad just under a month away, speculation on the impact of the device is continuing to mount. Clio’s developers have added their voice to the chorus by way of a interview by Josh Barrett on his TabletLegal blog on cloud computing, the iPad, the legal technology industry, and what happens when you combine all three.

The interview touches on a wide range of topics including why Clio was founded, why Clio decided to go the SaaS route, adoption of technology by lawyers, and how the iPad will impact the legal industry. Read the entire interview here.

While we’re on the topic of the iPad we’ll take the opportunity to point out a few of our favorite blog posts on the iPad:

• Josh Barett at TabletLegal has written extensively on several aspects of the iPad, including its ease of use being appealing to lawyers, the freedom it promises, and how the “less is more” design ethos of iPad applications is good for lawyers.
• Reid Trautz suggests the iPad will be the tipping point that sees the cloud go mainstream in 2010 on his Reid My Blog! site. Reid astutely points out that the explosion in mobile devices and their capabilities, coupled with the increasing need for lawyers to access practice information anywhere, on-demand, will help drive cloud computing applications like Clio into the mainstream.
• Jeff Richardson writes on the iPhone implications of the iPad at his fantastic iPhoneJD blog.
• Victor Medina points out several key design decisions Apple has made that may make the iPad the “ultimate machine for lawyers” on  the MacLovin’ JD blog.
• Ben Stevens sums up his impression succinctly on The Mac Lawyer: iPad = iWow.
• Joe Ficocello wires on how the iPad will be rolled out in law firms at The Rung.
• TechnoLawyer speculates the iPad will become the legal pad, reinvented.

One of the core features to any practice management system is the calendar, and we’ve learned a lot about just how important this is in the time since we’ve launched Clio. Today we’re happy to unveil a completely redesigned calendar that has been rebuilt from the ground up.

In redesigning the Clio calendar we incorporated the feedback we’ve received on what our users would like to see in an improved calendar. The new calendar incorporates a host of new features while also improving ease-of-use and performance:

• A new firm-wide “Firm Calendar”
• Easily view multiple calendars simultaneously
• Support for drag & drop of calendar appointments
• Support for adjustment of appointment length by click & drag
• Support for full screen mode
• New “Agenda” view
• New “Year” view

The following overview video provides a good summary of the new features in the Clio calendar:

Enhanced Calendar from Clio on Vimeo.

A recent post on Slaw.ca by Agnese Caruso highlighted the results of an Accenture global report on Millenials’ use of technology, and the transformative effect their generation is having on how businesses, both big and small, leverage leading-edge technologies. The report details the the findings of a survey of 5595 employees & students aged 14-27 in 13 countries, and describes an up-and-coming workforce of “profuse” technology adopters that are using emerging tools to achieve seamless connectivity with their business and social networks.

According to Accenture’s findings, asynchronous forms of communication such as email are losing favor to instant media such as Facebook, Twitter and IM. Preferences for these technologies is beginning to shift expectations among the Millenials for how businesses will interact with employees, customers, and suppliers. With more than 1 in 5 Millennials spending the majority of time away from the office, there is also additional pressure from this cohort to support predominantly online technologies, such as Software-as-a-Service, that cater to mobility and accessibility. Moreover, given a hallmark tendency for rapid technology adoption and non-conformity, Millennials are increasingly seeking solutions that afford device neutrality, and the ability to choose their own technologies – Macs or PCs, iPhones or Droids etc.

For anyone interested to gain some insight into the generational attitudes that will shape our technical future, the Accenture report is an interesting read, and provides a prescient look into the motivations of the Millennials and the transformative influence this group will have on technology over the next decade.

Since the spectacular opening ceremonies that kicked off the games almost a week ago, we’ve been bursting with hometown pride over what has been a thoroughly electric week for Vancouver. Despite a few false starts, and some unfortunately uncooperative weather, its thrilling to see over six years of eager preparatory effort culminate in an event that has Vancouver buzzing with energy, and the whole world watching.

When we’re not glued to the TV tracking outcomes of sports we know almost nothing about, a few of use have been seen taking in the innumerable festivities, pavilions, and Olympic sites sprawling throughout the city. The city of Vancouver and all of Canada is proud to have  an Olympian event in our own backyard.

We hope all of our sporting followers are enjoying the games as much as we are, and wish everyone’s athletes the best of luck at the podium.

Jack Newton, Clio’s co-founder and President, will be a guest lecturer at Solo Practice University on Tuesday, February 9th at 12:00 PM ET.

Solo Practice University is the leading educational and professional networking community for lawyers and law students, designed by lawyers for lawyers and dedicated to helping solos and small firms build a successful solo practice. We’re honored to be part of the vibrant and diverse range of speakers Solo Practice University students have access to every day.

Teleseminar Topics

• What is cloud computing / Software-as-a-Service?
• What does cloud computing mean for lawyers?
• What are some of the benefits (and some of the disadvantages) of “the cloud”?
• What are the ethical implications of using Software-as-a-Service? Is it OK with my Bar?
• What questions about security and privacy should you be asking a prospective SaaS provider?
• How should you evaluate the costs of SaaS versus traditional desktop software?
• How can you protect yourself against worst-case scenarios?

This guest lecture teleseminar is open to our students within Solo Practice University and will be posted for Solo Practice University fans on Facebook shortly after the live seminar. Join the Solo Practice University Facebook page for free access to the recorded webinar or enroll in Solo Practice University to participate live.

Clio’s co-founder Jack Newton will be delivering CLE on cloud computing for lawyers and practice management at the New York State Bar Association and the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Jack’s talk will focus on the practical and ethical implications of cloud computing for lawyers, and will detail how a cloud-computing-based practice management system such as Clio can help lawyers practice effectively and efficiently while minimizing ethics-related risks:

February 3rd, 5:30PM – 9:30PM: New York County Bar Association
http://www.nycla.org/index.cfm?section=CLE&page=CLE_Detail&itemID=1848&dateID=20100203
14 Vesey Street, 2nd Floor Auditorium
4.0 MCLE Credits

February 4th, 6:00PM – 9:00PM: New Jersey State Bar Association
http://www.njicle.com/seminar.aspx?sid=1010
Crowne Plaza, Fairfield
2.5 PAE Credits / 3.0 NYE (t&nt) Credits / 3.0 NJ Credits (pending)

Jack will be speaking alongside world-renowned practice management export Jay Foonberg as part of their recently announced CLE series that aims to educate lawyers on how to efficiently and ethically manage a practice.

We’re happy to announce a partnership with LawCharge and the launch of LawCharge for Clio ClientConnect. LawCharge is the leading merchant account provider for the legal industry. LawCharge for Clio ClientConnect allows law firms to receive payments from clients via Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover.

We chose LawCharge as a partner because they offer several unique features to attorneys. Most notably, LawCharge allows attorneys to accept IOLTA-compliant trust account transactions via credit card. LawCharge accomplishes this by allowing attorneys to specify, based on the nature of the deposit, whether a given transaction gets deposited into your operating account or trust account. LawCharge also keeps deposits and merchant fees separate, allowing lawyers to properly segregate operating and trust funds, thereby adhering to IOLTA trust accounting rules.

To enable LawCharge for Clio ClientConnect all you need to do is log into your Clio account visit “Settings | Online Payment”. If you don’t have a Clio account you can always sign up for a free 30-day trial – all accounts include Clio ClientConnect.

Yes, today Apple is launching their much talked-about tablet. The other big news of the day? We’re launching the official Clio Facebook page!

Over the past year we’ve been hearing an increasing number of our customers asking us “hey, hey, where’s your Facebook page – I want to become a fan!” – and we’ve listened. Today we’re launching the Clio Facebook page as a home base to build a growing community and fanbase. Become a fan and get the latest news on Clio, announcements of upcoming webinars and training events, and special offers available only to our Facebook fans.

We’re also proud to be showcasing the latest Facebook applications and technology developed by the great folks over at JD Supra. The Clio Facebook page:

• automatically streams our blog and JD Supra document portfolio,
• allows visitors to sign up for our monthly newsletter
• publishes a daily social transcript of tweets on any subject (at time of writing, all tweets for “goclio”), and
• features a custom-built About Clio section, complete with press mentions, a tour of Clio’s software offerings, and the ability to sign up for Clio.

Over the years JD Supra has built up a tremendous expertise in the use of Facebook for legal professionals, and we’re extremely happy to be launching the Clio Facebook page with JD Supra’s leading-edge technology and expertise. Aviva Cuyler, JD Supra’s founder, comments:

As a legal content distributor, we’ve been building our own pages on Facebook – and now we are turning that skill set (for custom apps) and knowledge base (how to make the most of Facebook) into a product offering for legal professionals. We’re proud to have created Clio’s page – we see, daily, Facebook’s amazing ability to facilitate meaningful connections between firms and the people they want to reach through the viral spread of information.

We encourage you to become a fan of Clio’s Facebook page and, if you haven’t already created one for your firm, perhaps you should start thinking about it.

There was a time not so long ago when leaving the office marked an abrupt end to productivity. Long hours and late nights were a necessity not only to make ends meet, but also to be close to the technology that made billable work possible. This is all changing, and at a pace that’s almost dizzying. While BlackBerries and laptops have been around for years, most mobile warriors would likely agree that, although these tools provided some basic essential connectivity under urgent circumstances, only recently have mobile devices, and the infrastructure that supports them, matured to the point where practical mobility is truly a reality. As Nicole Garton-Jones points out in a recent Slaw.ca post entitled Practicing Law on the Road: the Role of the Cloud and the Emergence of the Virtual Law Firm, the convergence of cloud computing, advanced mobile devices, and ever-increasing mobile data speeds are making the long-held dream of a “virtual firm” a reality.

The number of game-changing mobile innovations to reach the market since 2007 is truly staggering, and the most recent batch of announcements out of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) suggests that the revolution is set to continue for the foreseeable future. The release of Google’s Nexus One Android-based smartphone offers a serious challenge to the primacy of Apple’s much-envied iPhone, and further converges the already blurry line between computer and phone, and making it ever-easier to achieve unfettered productivity while away from the office. Phones are no longer just wireless analogs of their desktop counterparts, they’re word processors, dictation machines, email clients, internet access devices, web browsers, navigation tools, timekeepers, expense trackers, file browsers, organizational tools, and game consoles among other things. The list is literally endless, and new applications are only limited by the creativity of the developers behind them – something always working to the advantage of the lawyer on-the-go.

But, the innovations don’t stop at smartphones; Apple’s rumoured tablet is said to be ready for unveiling next week, and all early reports indicate that the device is aiming to raise the portable computing bar to new heights. Despite much speculation about what the device might offer, there remains little agreement other than over the belief that the device will once again revolutionize the mobile world.

We’re excited about the many ways cloud computing and mobile technology will combine to create what we believe will be a new era of go-anywhere computing. We’re also committed to continuing Clio’s evolution with the mobile legal professional in mind, with the aim to promote increasing freedom, efficiency and mobility via the rapidly advancing mobile computing landscape.