Have you ever received an email from someone and couldn’t quite put your finger on who they were? Did you later find out that the email contact was a member of the case that you are working on? Your firm is consistently dealing with cases, clients, and other related individuals which makes it easy to lose track of what point of contact is associated with which matter.
Every day there is more evidence that in order to stay competitive, lawyers need to harness technology to streamline their processes. The more sophisticated the client, the less tolerance they have for inefficiency. In our never ending quest to provide the right tools for law firms, CARET Legal is thrilled to now support electronic LEDES invoices with Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTBMS) Codes.
As much as marketing will improve your law firm’s ability to build clientele, nothing is as valuable to bringing in prequalified clients as a referral from an outside source. Whether this source is a former client, another attorney, or a close friend or family member, the benefits of sitting down with someone who is primed ahead of time to retain your services goes unmatched in the legal profession.
As an attorney, there are no shortage of minefields that can land you in hot water. While many of the dangers that lurk can be subjective or unavoidable, failing an audit of client trust funds is one that consistently strikes fear into one’s heart. Yet, keeping your trust funds in good order need not be a challenge if you employ the right process and software.
Freakonomics Radio recently did a really interesting podcast about handwriting. During the episode, they talked to regular people and experts about the pros and cons of moving from a pen and paper society to a digital one. Here at CARET Legal, we have an on-going debate about pen and paper vs. digital notetaking, so it was exciting to listen to the podcast and hear that we are not the only people thinking about these things.
If you can’t get a real-time, 360-degree overview of your practice and its finances, you have little more than your intuition to help you make smart strategic decisions. This 360-degree knowledge is the “current truth” that informs you about your firm’s financial position and overall productivity. The trouble is, unlike mega corporations who have access to highly-customized applications and a small army of number crunchers, small (and midsize) law firms rely on disparate applications, each perform only a portion of the firm’s activities and hence there is no clear way to perform centralized reporting.
You are ambitious. You want your law firm to grow from an all-consuming practice to a thriving business. But how? Once you realize that your time is better spent doing those things you can’t offload – namely, enhancing your knowledge and reputation in your practice area and cultivating relationships with your clients and referral sources — it’s time to get some reinforcements. You need to hire an associate or a paralegal who can help you grow your firm and keep the work flowing. But, since it’s your reputation on the line, it’s crucial that your clients receive the same level of service that you provide to them without anything falling through the cracks. CARET Legal to the rescue!
Whether you’re just graduating from law school or making the leap from junior status to private practice, creating your own law firm offers a wide spectrum of unique challenges and advantages. Sure, being a part of BigLaw has its own set of benefits, but if you’re a lawyer who wants to work independently and make big decisions on your own, opening your own solo practice is the only way to go.
The weather’s getting warmer, the days are getting longer, and Cadbury’s famous eggs are back on the store shelves! Spring is truly in the air! Everyone here at CARET Legal is excited to see the seasons start to change, except for one thing – Daylight Savings. Sometimes it seems like we lose way more than an hour when we “spring forward” each March.
Does this sound familiar? You’ve just returned from a conference or other networking event and you have a pile of new business cards to go through. You get started following up with people (which is, as you know, the most important part of networking) only to realize that you have no idea who half the people are. This scenario played out enough times in the life of Fred Cohen, the CEO and Architect of CARET Legal, that he decided to do something about it when he developed the CARET Legal mobile app.