Like all businesses, law firms are always looking for ways to become more efficient. If you can be more efficient at your job, you can not only make more money by taking on more clients (if you want to) but you can also benefit from a greater work-life balance.
And if we know lawyers, we know that they want more work-life balance. Or maybe they need more work-life balance.
So how can this be accomplished?
Well, legal software solutions are everywhere these days, offering efficient solutions to law firms, solo practitioners, and corporate legal departments. Practice management software, legal accounting software, and pricing software are just a few of the legal software solutions that legal tech companies are offering up to legal professionals with the promise that they will make their working lives much better.
But it’s not just about increasing law firm efficiency and providing better working conditions for lawyers. Legal software solutions are also about meeting client demand.
That’s right. Clients want YOU to use legal software.
Why?
Because it’s more convenient for them.
By using legal software, clients can do things like paying their legal bills online, meet with their lawyers remotely, and even log into a client portal to see how their case is progressing. This is all without needing to leave the comfort of their home or office.
According to the 2021 Legal Trends Report from Clio, client demand for remote options has increased significantly in recent years.
We can safely say that the pandemic was likely a huge catalyst for this change, but there haven’t been any signs of demand for convenient, remote options from clients slowing down any time soon.
So whether you want to increase your law firm’s efficiency or meet the needs of clients (and likely you probably want to do both), there are legal software solutions out there for you.
In this article, we take a closer look at the world of legal software, including common problems that law firms and lawyers face and how legal software can provide solutions to those issues. We’ll also outline what you should be looking for before choosing legal software and what types of legal software solutions are out there.
Legal Solutions Software Explained
Often provided by legal SaaS or technology companies, legal solutions software programs are aimed at providing law firms with the tools they need to:
- Modernize their daily operations
- Provide more client-centric service experiences (e.g., e-billing, online portals where clients can see case status)
- Streamline processes for pricing, billing, and accounting
- Make researching legal matters easier
- Collaborate effectively with colleagues
In other words, the mantra of the tech industry is “you got problems, we got solutions” inside and out, and it’s no different for the legal tech industry. Yes, legal tech is an extremely lucrative market, with its value attracting the attention of investors and projections for future growth numbering in the tens of billions of dollars.
The common phrase “time is money” is one that resonates with law firms and lawyers everywhere. Being able to decrease time and increase money through being more efficient and thus more productive is something that’s worth its weight in gold.
That’s where legal solutions software rides in on its white horse, ready to save the day. In fact, budgets for legal technology within legal departments have already been increasing. From 2017 to 2020, in-house budgets for legal tech increased by 3.9%. Gartner predicts that this trend will not only continue to increase over time but predicts a threefold increase to 12% by 2025.
This means that the legal tech industry has even more opportunities to provide software solutions for both law firms and legal teams.
ARTICLE BY ALTFEE
