April 30, 2013 by Catherine Hillier
Today we’re pleased to release an often request option: the yearly subscription plan. WIth this new feature, you’ll save 10% off your Subscription amount for the year! Whether a current user, or just testing in trial, you can take advantage of our yearly subscription option.
To switch to yearly subscription, click here.
Check our Support site for more information on subscribing to our yearly plan.
April 30, 2013 by Joshua Lenon
The Beverly Hills Bar Association recently held a talk entitled, “Cloud Computing: Legal and Ethical Issues.”
Jack Newton, the founder of Clio, was a special guest at this dinner presentation.
Moderated by Anthony Ross of the Law Office of Anthony D. Ross, this presentation focused on the security and privacy related best-practices that lawyers need to know when entrusting confidential client information to cloud-computing services.
The talk also covered the ethical issues relevant to cloud-computing with a survey of recent ethics opinions relating to cloud computing, such as California’s Formal Opinion No. 2010-179.
Thanks to the Beverly Hills Bar Association for inviting a member of the Clio team to the event.
Did you missed this talk? Look for it soon among the Beverly Hills Bar Association webcasts, and watch it for CLE credit!
Interested in having someone from the Clio team speak at your Bar Association event? Contact us.
April 24, 2013 by Joshua Lenon
We mentioned several tools in our presentation, “Effortless Social Media for Lawyers.”
Here’s a list of those tools, with links, so that you can learn more about how they help you succeed in using social media to market your law firm.
Social Media Websites:
Blog Hosting:
Professional Rules for Lawyer Advertising:
Social Media Tools:
We hope you enjoyed our presentation and that these tools help you in using social media with your own law firm.
April 23, 2013 by Joshua Lenon
Jack Newton, Clio’s CEO, will be presenting a talk tomorrow in San Diego.
This is a Brown Bag CLE put on by the Law Practice Management and Marketing Section of the San Diego County Bar Association in conjunction with California Western School of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law and University of San Diego School of Law.
San Diego County Bar Association describes the talk as:
“Cloud computing is one of the hottest trends in legal technology. In this session we will discuss how you can leverage cloud computing can help make your practice more efficient, effective and less error-prone. We’ll explore a wide range of cloud-based tools, including cloud-based practice management, time tracking and accounting, document management, and other law office productivity tools. We will also review the security, privacy and ethics issues relevant to cloud computing and provide a survey of recent ethics opinions related to cloud computing.”
April 19, 2013 by Jay Castro
Have you ever wondered how to apply a different tax rate from Services to Expenses? You may be practicing in an area where there is a need for a secondary tax rate.
To View or Edit what your Tax rates are set to, Click on the “Bills” tab and then the “Settings” sub-tab.
You will want to ensure the checkbox for “Apply Secondary Tax” is selected to enable the second tax.
Once you have verified your Tax rates, there are a couple options in applying the Tax to the Activity or Expense.
1. When you Generate the Bill, there is an option in the New Bill Settings pop-up that allows you to apply the taxes directly to the Bill.
2. Alternatively, you can apply the tax directly to the line item when editing the Bill. This will allow you to select a specific tax for that line item. This is especially useful if you apply both the first and second tax to services, and only the second tax for expenses. Once the Bill has been generated, use the Edit option and select the appropriate tax for each line item.
You can also have the total with tax shown in the bill by changing some of your Bill Theme settings. You can have the line item show the total of the activity or expense including the tax.
Here is what a final bill will look like with the primary tax applied to services and secondary tax applied to expenses.
April 18, 2013 by Gwynne Monahan
Chuck McLaughlin is a private investigator based in Andover, Massachusetts. A private investigator using Clio might sound unusual, but McLaughlin handles many litigation cases and believes that “since many of our clients are lawyers, it makes sense to handle cases in a similar way as they do. We’re here to service lawyers, so it’s important to make their lives easier so they continue to hire us.”
Handling cases “in a similar way” used to mean using Timeslips for billing, and Time Matters for case management. Then he switch to Clio. When asked why he switched to Clio, McLaughlin emphasized “flexibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness.” Both Timeslips and Time Matters forced him to be tied to a server, and “were very, very expensive and became limiting as technology and the cloud grew.” Private investigations, “like any business, has ebbs and flows.” Some cases require a number of investigators; others didn’t require any. “Being able to scale at a moments notice was appealing to me. It’s just as simple to scale backwards as forwards with Clio.”
Another key to his practice is flexibility. Since Clio is cloud-based, McLaughlin “can access my files anywhere in the world. I do a lot of international investigations, and being able to have my laptop in a hotel room in Hong Kong and work like I’m in my office in Andover is fantastic. Clio works exactly the same overseas as in my office, if you have a good Internet connection. You wouldn’t know the difference.” McLaughlin travels often, and does a fair amount of work both overseas and for overseas clients. This international work often requires dealing with things “late at night or early in the morning to make up the time differences.” Since switching to Clio, he can “do that from the comfort of my home instead of the office, which is great. When I do travel, it allows me to run my practice like I’m at my office and people don’t need to know I’m on the road.”
When asked if there were any unexpected benefits, McLaughlin said how freeing it was to “get away from the server and being tied to my office. I could always dial into my office computer but it was cumbersome. I knew the cloud would allow me to be freer, but I didn’t realize how important that would be to me until I was actually experiencing it.“ The benefits of Clio don’t stop at lifestyle, either.
With Timeslips and Time Matters, McLaughlin had to hire an independent consultant “any time I had to buy a new computer. Everything had be reprogrammed and all the kinks had to get worked out. That’d cost me $500-$1000 for a consultant to come in for the day, and reprogram everything. Time Matters implemented a mandatory service contract too, and it was just so clunky, heavy and expensive I was so happy to get away from it.”
When asked about computer preference, McLaughlin claimed to be “a PC person who wants to become a “cool” Mac person.” Asked to elaborate, he said that “one of the things I was looking for is to get away from PCs and go to the Mac platform. I have some MacBook laptops that I use, naturally the integration is perfect with Clio.” He pointed out that he has accumulated equipment over the years that he still uses, so switching isn’t a simple task, but his “goal is to become is to become one of the cool kids someday.”
Read the rest of the interview interview. (more…)
April 15, 2013 by The Clio Team
Rhode Island is the Most Recent State Bar Associations to Offer Clio as a Member Benefit via the Clio Bar Association Affinity Program
Themis Solutions Inc. welcomes the Rhode Island Bar Association to the Clio Bar Association Affinity Program. This partnership program allows the Bar’s members to subscribe to Clio at a discounted rate.
Clio is the leading provider of cloud-based practice management, time and billing and client collaboration tools for small and mid-sized law firms. Since Clio is a cloud-based service, law firms can securely access their data from any Internet-connected device, whether it is a PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet.
“We are excited to be working with the Rhode Island Bar Association.” said Clio Founder and CEO Jack Newton. “Part of the Bar’s mission is to advance the science of jurisprudence. Partnering with Clio gives the attorneys of Rhode Island access to cutting edge technology that grows with their practice.”
The Rhode Island Bar Association has been helping their lawyer-members since 1898. The Bar promotes the administration of justice by conducting continuing legal education for the lawyers of Rhode Island, and by arranging access to tools that aid legal practice, like Clio.
Rhode Island joins over 30 bar associations offering Clio as a member benefit, including the Alabama State Bar, Colorado Bar Association, Connecticut Bar Association, Hawaii State Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Indiana State Bar Association, Iowa State Bar Association, Louisiana State Bar Association, Maryland State Bar Association, Missouri Bar, New Jersey State Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, North Carolina Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association, South Carolina Bar, State Bar of Arizona, State Bar of California – Law Practice Management & Technology Section, State Bar of Michigan, State Bar of Nevada, State Bar of Texas, State Bar of Wisconsin, and the Vermont Bar Association.
For more information on the Clio Bar Association Affinity Program, please visit http://www.goclio.com/resources/affinity/.
April 12, 2013 by Joshua Lenon
Catapult 2013 is an innovative new conference — created by the Law School Toolbox and The Girl’s Guide to Law School and hosted by the Bar Association of San Francisco — to empower law students and young lawyers to take control of their careers and think creatively about the future.
Catapult 2013 takes place on April 13 at the offices of Bar Association of San Francisco, California.
The talks at Catapult 2013 range from legal issues related to the sharing economy to designing a legal career for yourself, if the existing models are not suitable.
Clio is sponsoring this conference and Clio’s CEO, Jack Newton, is speaking at the event. Jack will be part of a panel discussing, “Starting and Growing a Solo Practice, Ethically and Effectively.”
Jack will be on a panel with:
This is one of seven different lectures, panels and discussion planned for the day. Catapult 2013 is packed with legal scholars, entrepreneurs and thought leaders.
Click here to see the full schedule of talks and topics planned for Catapult 2013.
After the talks, there is a two-hour social event at the wood-paneled Bently Reserve lounge with food and beverages, followed by a raffle. Clio donated a free, one-year subscription to Clio for one lucky winner.
We want to especially thank Alison Monahan and Lee Burgess for their hard work in organizing this topical conference. Clio is glad to be a part of Catapult 2013.
April 12, 2013 by The Clio Team
Clio is pleased to announce a newly designed Small Firm Innovation, its award-winning blog written by and for lawyers.
“We’re proud that Small Firm Innovation has become an important, award-winning resource for solos and small firms in the short time since it launched in June of 2011. Together with the team at Stem Legal, we’re thrilled to launch a new visual design for Small Firm Innovation that helps the amazing content on the site stand out,” said Clio CEO and co-founder Jack Newton.
Small Firm Innovation focuses on the business aspect of running a law practice, and the nitty gritty of what has made a solo and small firm practice a success. With over 40 Contributors, ranging from the well known, successful solo and small firm lawyers to first time solo and small firm lawyers and newly-graduated lawyers, Small Firm Innovation offers lawyers insight into starting and running a successful law practice.
Small Firm Innovation Contributors include:
Small Firm Innovation is always looking for new contributors. If you’d like to contribute to Small Firm Innovation, share ideas and otherwise engage, drop us a line, or join our Google+ Community.
April 11, 2013 by Kimberly Davison
Is your firm growing? Congratulations!
A growing firm is likely going to want to add new Clio users. To do this, simply go to “Settings” and “Users”, then click “Add” and enter the user’s email address and an optional custom message. Once you click “Save,” an email will be sent to that user inviting them to join your account.
Once the user has been created you will see the user in the “Users” screen. To ensure the user’s subscriber type and permissions are set correctly, click on the “Edit” icon to the right of the user. Here you can set the subscriber type, and the areas of Clio that the user is entitled to access:
For more information on permissions within Clio please see Permissions within Clio.
You may also want to ensure that everyone in your office can access your new employee’s calendar by having them share it. To do this, go to the “Calendar” tab followed-by “Sharing,” then click on the “Share Calendar” link, and select the users you wish to share with and their desired permission level.
Unfortunately staff members sometimes leave the organization. To ensure that client confidentiality is preserved, you can disable a user within Clio by clicking on the “Disable” icon (person with X) to the right of the user you wish to block from accessing your Clio account. Once a user has been disabled they will no longer have access to the account, the information they have entered will remain within the account and you will not longer be billed for that user.
If for some reason you need to re-enable a disabled user simply click on the “More” button, select “Show enabled and disabled” and click the “Enable” icon (person with +) to the right of the user.
