clio: Efficiency for law firms

It’s funny, but a in the minds of a lot of people the days when a lawyer’s desk was just an oversized shelf for a pile of dusty and unorganized files disappeared with the death of Dickens and his host of colourful characters. Believe me, some of them still exist in offices nationwide and it’s quite worrying to think of delicate legal matters piled high in this way. If only there was a simple system to get these guys organized. Well there is and Clio bills itself as the one for the small and solo firm. Let’s face it these are just the sort of people I’m talking about, the ones without the support of a thousand PA’s and the back-up of an expensive IT department.

The pricing for this cloud based system is on a user basis and comes in at $49 a month for an attorney and $25 for any support staff. Money well spent I think for a system that will get cases organized and easily accessible to everyone that needs access. On top of that it will allow tasks to be linked and viewed across all matters providing a dashboard that gives an instant overview of important jobs on a daily basis.

The other great thing of course is that fumbling around in a dusty old office looking for a file is not really an activity that comes under the "billable hours" category. Not only will Clio put a stop to this problem but can also track time and bill clients directly from tasks adding even more efficiency to the daily grind. What’s more it can accept client payments.

All in all this does look like a great answer to the problem facing a lot of small legal firms who don’t have the resource or the justification for an expensive IT system.

Conclusion

With its collaborative nature, comprehensive organizational capability including a practice diary system, and a level of reporting on the actual performance of a practice, it has to be worth a look.