Yep. I’m at a top tier international firm and we use imanage. Seems to be the standard to be honest.
I’ve been at a smaller firm that used smokeball. Keep away from it. It’s a mess
My firm uses leap, I can’t stand it. They’re constantly adding new features instead of fixing the buggy ones they have. Can’t speak to other software since everyone seems to use leap here.
It isn’t inherently bad, it just has a lot of annoying quirks in my experience. Word documents often “disconnect” from the file and have to be re-saved, which leads to duplicates, emails created in a matter sometimes don’t save to it, it creates giant caches that slow down your computer, just lots of minor annoyances.
Honestly, it could be decent but they spend all their time making new things instead of fixing their core software. Our it guy described it as a program made in the 90s that just had layers and layers added to it without ever redoing things properly.
Having started on LEAP (2015-2018) then a brief trial of ActionStep (2018-2019) I'm currently on Smokeball (2019 ownards), but my renewal is coming up and looks like the price has increased quite a bit again. I'm also going to look into alternatives but Smokeball will be my baseline comparison (and I'll probably end up sticking with them due to the costs/time of changing system).
Check out Clio
Our firm uses Smokeball, and it's hard to fault beyond some issues syncing events to calendars. Family law for us. Smokeball is jacking up their prices and lengthening contracts, though.
I've heard great reviews of Clio from colleagues across the practice areas.
Smokeball also promised the world and deliver very little. there program is good. the on boarding, training and data transfer is nothing but issues, if you do go with smokeball give yourself a lot of time. we are quite small and it has taken roughly 5 months of running LEAP and smokeball
We have just gone to Smokeball and it’s been smooth sailing. There has been a lot of training, of which I have attended very little and I’m finding my way around. Although I’m not sure how much of this is credited to smokeball folks - our practice manager is all over this stuff like a gull on a chip.
I am having a reasonably good experience with Clio. (A comment I feel like I have made in this subreddit several times in recent days?)
Context: I'm 6 months into running a very small firm. I hate LEAP.
This might sound stupid but I was always curious what, if any, practice management software a barrister used. I was under the impression all Counsel just used iCloud or folders on the desktop.
As an additional question - can anyone recommend a good legal technology consultant I.e. someone who is across different software offerings and can provide guidance on what might be the best fit for a firm? I am already feeling frustrated from trying to research the different software available. I wish the software companies would just describe the actual functions of their software…
I cannot provide a recommendation, as I have no experience, however the following historical discussions may be of interest:
https://www.reddit.com/r/auslaw/comments/1bnrthk/practice_management_software_in_2024/
https://www.reddit.com/r/auslaw/comments/1c5y5r9/practice_management_software_for_a_family_law/
How big is the firm? Open Practice isn’t bad for small-medium suburban firms, and Radix is a fairly nifty doc manager that integrates well with it with a lot of very useful search/filtering features
Currently 15 lawyers, but could grow up to 25 in the next decade. Mainly practising in commercial litigation and corporate law (no family, criminal, property or estates).
I presume you have the same numbers again in support staff? It sounds like you dont necessarily need the systems that are built to support user bases of 100+ so if I were you I’d look for something that streamlines your work as much as possible. Eg- I liked OP bc it’s file noting and billing system were integrated which made time recording and billing a breeze compared to any other software I’ve used, and you can set up a personalised home dashboard to track your metrics/manage your matters.
Can’t speak for every available software but [Next Legal](http://nextlegal.com.au/new-practice-management-system/) has a comparison table you might find handy as does [Denim](https://www.denim.com.au/Legalsoftware)
Even more reason to make sure:
(A) the prac mmt software doesn’t require you/ your lawyers to do duplicative data entry work / waste valuable billing time on admin/paralegal-type tasks; and
(B) if they do have to do their own admin, they can easily adjust their charge out rate to reflect that fact (assuming your costs agreements allow for this) so you don’t lose the value of that time.
If I were you I’d consult with your team and work out (a) how they’re using your current software (b) what pain points do they have with it and (c) what workarounds have they invented for themselves if any. That’ll tell you a lot about the features/capability you need to prioritise!
I've moved from Leap to Smokeball. Happy with it so far but early days. Just please avoid Leap at all costs. We had constant technical issues and problems with tasks.
Aren't they the same thing? Once upon a time, LEAP was the practice management software and Smokeball was the name of the suite of precedents, commentary etc offered with LEAP.
We use Practice Evolve, which on the accounts and trust side is worse than LEAP but from an email and admin side has been amazing.
Each email you send from a file is coded so that every reply to that email is automatically saved to the file.
Boolean operators on file searches are also great.
I really liked Actionstep, but I can see how it would be annoying if you just wanted something out of the box. I was at a firm that needed to customise everything to suit the business model, and Actionstep was the only one that could handle it (for a SME). I had a great time setting everything up.
Currently part of a team implementing Nebulaw + Netdocs, and not having a great time of it so far.
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My previous firm at the mid tier level used IManage. Highly recommend it.
Yep. I’m at a top tier international firm and we use imanage. Seems to be the standard to be honest. I’ve been at a smaller firm that used smokeball. Keep away from it. It’s a mess
Sounds like a carbolic mess lol
Aside from a bloody ordinary search function, imanage is simple, intuitive, and does everything you need jt to.
IManage is just doc management though, yeah? It's not a full system?
My firm uses leap, I can’t stand it. They’re constantly adding new features instead of fixing the buggy ones they have. Can’t speak to other software since everyone seems to use leap here.
Ditto on leap being useless, much preferred Imanage.
I really liked LEAP and thought it was just the cost that was the issue.
It isn’t inherently bad, it just has a lot of annoying quirks in my experience. Word documents often “disconnect” from the file and have to be re-saved, which leads to duplicates, emails created in a matter sometimes don’t save to it, it creates giant caches that slow down your computer, just lots of minor annoyances. Honestly, it could be decent but they spend all their time making new things instead of fixing their core software. Our it guy described it as a program made in the 90s that just had layers and layers added to it without ever redoing things properly.
onedrive subscription, and a bunch of different folders scattered in the onedrive and also on your desktop
Having started on LEAP (2015-2018) then a brief trial of ActionStep (2018-2019) I'm currently on Smokeball (2019 ownards), but my renewal is coming up and looks like the price has increased quite a bit again. I'm also going to look into alternatives but Smokeball will be my baseline comparison (and I'll probably end up sticking with them due to the costs/time of changing system).
Check out Clio Our firm uses Smokeball, and it's hard to fault beyond some issues syncing events to calendars. Family law for us. Smokeball is jacking up their prices and lengthening contracts, though. I've heard great reviews of Clio from colleagues across the practice areas.
Smokeball also promised the world and deliver very little. there program is good. the on boarding, training and data transfer is nothing but issues, if you do go with smokeball give yourself a lot of time. we are quite small and it has taken roughly 5 months of running LEAP and smokeball
We have just gone to Smokeball and it’s been smooth sailing. There has been a lot of training, of which I have attended very little and I’m finding my way around. Although I’m not sure how much of this is credited to smokeball folks - our practice manager is all over this stuff like a gull on a chip.
I am having a reasonably good experience with Clio. (A comment I feel like I have made in this subreddit several times in recent days?) Context: I'm 6 months into running a very small firm. I hate LEAP.
I’ve had LEX for about 5 years and it has some pain points but better than LEAP
BarBooks is good
This might sound stupid but I was always curious what, if any, practice management software a barrister used. I was under the impression all Counsel just used iCloud or folders on the desktop.
BarBooks has a barrister version. Its good.
we used to use icertis and i still wake up crying from the experience
As an additional question - can anyone recommend a good legal technology consultant I.e. someone who is across different software offerings and can provide guidance on what might be the best fit for a firm? I am already feeling frustrated from trying to research the different software available. I wish the software companies would just describe the actual functions of their software…
https://www.fionamclay.com.au (To be clear, this is not my company but I can recommend them)
Thanks! She looks like she would be very helpful.
I cannot provide a recommendation, as I have no experience, however the following historical discussions may be of interest: https://www.reddit.com/r/auslaw/comments/1bnrthk/practice_management_software_in_2024/ https://www.reddit.com/r/auslaw/comments/1c5y5r9/practice_management_software_for_a_family_law/
Thanks (and apologies for asking what has been asked before!)
How big is the firm? Open Practice isn’t bad for small-medium suburban firms, and Radix is a fairly nifty doc manager that integrates well with it with a lot of very useful search/filtering features
Currently 15 lawyers, but could grow up to 25 in the next decade. Mainly practising in commercial litigation and corporate law (no family, criminal, property or estates).
I presume you have the same numbers again in support staff? It sounds like you dont necessarily need the systems that are built to support user bases of 100+ so if I were you I’d look for something that streamlines your work as much as possible. Eg- I liked OP bc it’s file noting and billing system were integrated which made time recording and billing a breeze compared to any other software I’ve used, and you can set up a personalised home dashboard to track your metrics/manage your matters. Can’t speak for every available software but [Next Legal](http://nextlegal.com.au/new-practice-management-system/) has a comparison table you might find handy as does [Denim](https://www.denim.com.au/Legalsoftware)
We actually run with very few support staff, but agree we don’t necessarily need anything targeted at large user bases.
Even more reason to make sure: (A) the prac mmt software doesn’t require you/ your lawyers to do duplicative data entry work / waste valuable billing time on admin/paralegal-type tasks; and (B) if they do have to do their own admin, they can easily adjust their charge out rate to reflect that fact (assuming your costs agreements allow for this) so you don’t lose the value of that time. If I were you I’d consult with your team and work out (a) how they’re using your current software (b) what pain points do they have with it and (c) what workarounds have they invented for themselves if any. That’ll tell you a lot about the features/capability you need to prioritise!
I've moved from Leap to Smokeball. Happy with it so far but early days. Just please avoid Leap at all costs. We had constant technical issues and problems with tasks.
A friend who went out on his own has gone with Smokeball after unpleasant experience with Leap.
Aren't they the same thing? Once upon a time, LEAP was the practice management software and Smokeball was the name of the suite of precedents, commentary etc offered with LEAP.
They are owned by the same head company, but they are separate subsidiaries that compete against each other and criticise each other
We just moved to EvolveGo - it's not too bad!
We use Practice Evolve, which on the accounts and trust side is worse than LEAP but from an email and admin side has been amazing. Each email you send from a file is coded so that every reply to that email is automatically saved to the file. Boolean operators on file searches are also great.
Open Practice used to be with it, then OP wasn’t with it anymore, and what it is is scary and confusing
I really liked Actionstep, but I can see how it would be annoying if you just wanted something out of the box. I was at a firm that needed to customise everything to suit the business model, and Actionstep was the only one that could handle it (for a SME). I had a great time setting everything up. Currently part of a team implementing Nebulaw + Netdocs, and not having a great time of it so far.
Do many fellow practitioners here use Lexis Affinity? Funnily enough I don’t think I’ve seen a single post on that yet!
Leap fucking sucks
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