The role of an attorney includes wearing many hats, from court appearances and handling client intake to managing clients’ files while staying on top of case preparation and tracking time. Lawyers are responsible for a lot. Considering everything we are responsible for doing, it is easy to see how attorneys are at an extremely high risk for burnout. In the age of technology, many attorneys are turning to legal software and innovation to automate and delegate specific day-to-day tasks to free up their time to self-care and better serve their clients. Here are several ways that technology has furthered Pennant Law Offices’ goal of serving clients in traditional and nontraditional ways.
Calendly allows clients and potential clients to schedule a meeting directly from my Google calendar. In the past, this would be done with a lawyer or their secretary by phone or email. However, Calendly has provided me with a nontraditional but more convenient way of scheduling meetings without the hassle of back-and-forth emails or phone calls. Calendly sends automated meeting reminders and follows up with potential clients, so that I can reduce no-shows and cancellations and no longer have to spend time manually doing this. Calendly also offers a variety of virtual meeting tools like Zoom and Google Meet, which are the ones I default to the most. Having virtual meetings has allowed me to establish and maintain my law offices in multiple states. That time saved by automating my scheduling is utilized elsewhere to manage my law firm and serve my clients.
Another legal technology software I use in my firm is Clio, a simple case relation management system. Clio allows me to manage client intake and client documents. Clio integrates well with Google, allowing me to save my client’s emails with attachments without creating a separate folder. Clio has built-in features that enable me to set reminders in client matters for deadlines, the statute of limitations for a possible case, and also when a client’s retainer needs to be replenished. The features I appreciate the most in Clio are the ability to easily track the firm’s time spent with every client matter and to create entries for billing purposes. I have a good memory, but I don’t want to rely on it more than necessary to track my billable hours. Plus, accurate billing is important to attorneys. It can be an unethical nightmare when we don’t stay on top of it. Clio’s innovation in tracking my time has eased my concern, avoids bill disputes, and makes billing easy. It also promotes client trust and shows our firm’s transparency in our work for clients.
The last time-saving technology I use in my firm is LawPay. LawPay permits our firm to receive credit card payments safely and securely for our clients. Most consumers are transacting online for convenience. Receiving payments through LawPay has allowed me to streamline client payments and has minimized my need to take money or checks from them. This service is a massive convenience for clients, since there are times when funds to pay me for my services are available on a credit card rather than in a checking account. Offering more payment methods gives clients more options to pay for your services faster. Also, LawPay integrates well with QuickBooks Online, which helps those who use QuickBooks to reconcile their accounts. While LawPay doesn’t remove any ethical responsibility for how I handle clients’ funds, the technology has significantly reduced my trips to my bank for business transactions and provides convenient payment options to clients.
Thanks to the new wave of legal software and technology, attorneys are better equipped to conveniently serve clients, perform administrative tasks, maximize their time and energy, and reduce the stress of our profession, which limits burnout. In the long run, technology will continue to make the business of practicing law more beneficial for us as attorneys and for our clients.
Choosing the right technology has allowed Pennant Law Offices to maximize time and serve our clients in new and nontraditional ways.
About the Author
Dwayne Pennant is a former North Carolina magistrate who recently entered private practice, using his diverse legal background to handle estate planning, administration, guardianship, and personal injury cases.