Tech friendly attorneys rejoice! Legal work is becoming more and more accessible online these days. New apps and online services are making it possible to get your practice’s name out there, lighten the load of files in your briefcase, and eliminate paperwork for your paralegal.
Here are 6 great options to transition to a more advanced workplace. Choose one or all of them—each of these apps can help your firm modernize, and best of all, at a reasonable price.
MyCase
MyCase is a small firm essential, especially for ones just starting out. This legal platform integrates and manages all of the administration needed in a firm. Features include: managing legal cases and matters, contact log, scheduling, billing, unlimited cloud space and more.
What’s great about it: with smaller firms, there tends to be less overhead and time to manage the workplace. Law practice management can be confusing and overwhelming for this type of firm, adding unnecessary stress to an already demanding line of work.
Expenses don’t have to be a deterrent with MyCase, which costs $39 per attorney and $29 per paralegal each month. This streamlined systems replaces expensive legal software and IT support is included in the cost.
What’s best about MyCase is that it does what a lot of what single-use legal apps do, except it’s all in one place and outperforms the others. Get a free trial to check it out.
AVVO and AVVO JD App
Love it or hate it: AVVO is here to stay. So, you might as well take advantage of what it can offer you and your firm. This network lets clients find attorneys near them and review their resume and credentials with a scoring system.
People can also ask general legal questions that are answered by the attorney community. AVVO lets you post info like education background, awards, publications you’ve written, and associations you’re involved in.
What’s great about it: AVVO does not reveal its rating system to keep it an objective resource for clients, but there are a few things that you can do that are known for improving you score. You can complete your profile and give thoughtful answers to questions posted on a regular basis.
This is basically free marketing that just needs some attention. While the AVVO App isn’t as intuitive as their website, it still lets you answer questions on your phone. This might be a way better alternative to social media in your down time.
Dashlane
Dashlane is a secure way to store all of your online passwords and keep them in one place. It keeps track of the strength of each password and alerts you in any of you password behaviors put you at risk for potential hacking.
What’s great about it: Dashlane is a practical online security network foundation for small firm or a secondary layer of security for any attorney working in a larger firm with security systems already put in place. When it comes to online security, you’re better off safe than sorry.
A lot of people repeat the same password or have a variation of the same password for fear of forgetting what they are. With Dashlane, you can make passwords as complicated and different as you want and dashlane will can keep the safe without having to remember them all.
It alerts you if there is any suspicious activity on your accounts. This is top quality security for the $40 a year that includes unlimited devices synced to any one profile.
Yaara Lancet at PCWorld calls Dashlane the “perfect password manager for the less tech-savvy, and even the experienced are sure to enjoy it, if only for the merits of its interface.”
Expert PDF Reader for Windows or PDF Expert for IOS 115
It may feel like a modern day “what’s in a name?” situation with these two programs, but they’re both great and both easy to use depending which operating system your firm uses.
These two PDF Readers allow you to sign documents electronically and manage/edit clients’ legal docs online instead of on paper.
What’s great about these two readers: This is a low cost solution for cutting the amount of printing paper needed in an office. Instead of having boxes of file splayed out across your office, everything is in one place.
You can take your work on the go and stop worrying about forgetting documents in the office or at home. Plus, you get a free $60 license after the purchase of five with PDF Expert. The environment will thank you for spending on PDF licensing instead of paper.
LexisNexis CourtLink
LexisNexis is a renowned research resource used by organizations around the world. It has created a special legal resource for attorneys called CourtLink. Attorneys can get docket data, ongoing case information, and advance court case searches.
What’s great about it: This great resource gives attorneys an edge on litigations that every client wants. For example, an overtime attorney can stay up-to-date on employment regulations that could affect clients and their cases. LexisNexis allows attorneys have an extra attention to detail that sets their work apart.
TripIt
TripIt isn’t exclusively a legal app, but it’s really useful for travel. TripIt takes you confirmation emails for reservations and automatically creates an online itinerary. Hotel locations, flight details, and travel logistics are all in place. If you pay $49 a year, it adds extra features like sharing itinerary, flight alerts or alternate flight options, and travel benefits.
What’s great about it: Limiting the amount of planning you have to do for your trip lets you focus on the trip itself and its purpose. Don’t worry about when or where you’re supposed to pick up your rental car, TripIt will remember for you. Your days of scrambling across a million of rental lots at airports are over. Thanks, TripIt!
Apps for the Modern Law Firm
Overall, purchasing the premium version of all these apps would be a relatively low cost each year. These apps reduce the overhead price for the services that will be used to run a more efficient firm.
Administration for a firm doesn’t have to be as expensive as it used to be – conscious management goes a long way these days with the help of key apps and strategy.
Photo via: Pixabay
