Law Firm Software: Your 2024 Guide to Building Your Tech Stack

Related: Building Out Your Law Firm Tech Toolbox

Watch the talk with Uptime Legal and Clio on how to build out your law firm software toolkit.

When it comes to any software you use, an important consideration is whether you go with sever-based software or cloud-based software.

They both have their benefits, and ultimately, it’s up to you to weigh the pros and cons of both to determine the best route for your law firm.

Here, I’ll briefly discuss the general differences between the two.

Since LexWorkplace is a cloud-based platform, we clearly promote cloud-based software over server-based software. As we were determining how we can best server law firms, we understood that cloud technology is the way of the future.

With that being said, server-based software isn’t without its advantages and reasons to pursue it, such as:

With those reasons outlined, I do want to caution you about a few things if you decide to pursue server-based software.

For example, server ownership can be an involved, expensive, and irritatingly ongoing process.

Refer to this chart for an understanding of the lifecycle of servers. Backing up data and replacing servers is a necessity to avoid the risk of data loss.

If we’re talking about Document Management specifically, you’ll find that you run into the same issues.

Dinosaur DMS platforms are difficult to use, expensive to implement, and painful to maintain.

I understand that you may have used Legacy Document Management for most of your career, but the future holds a better option — Cloud-Based Document Management.

Watch the video below to understand the difference and why I, and many others, are favoring this newer form of software.

On the other hand, choosing Cloud-Based Software provides you with great benefits:

Similar to Document Management, the conversation continues when it comes to other forms of software you’ll use.

The pros and cons that you encounter when deciding between server-based and cloud-based software are important in considering all aspects of your workflow.

We’ve already discussed what it’s like to deal with servers — it goes beyond this.

When you have software, you will undoubtedly face issues that require IT Support. It doesn’t matter how good the software is or how trained your staff is. Issues happen.

What is important is that you understand the process for getting help when you need it the most.

For example, this is what IT Support looks like when you’re using server-based software.

As you can see, the process is a bit lengthy and wrought with unexpected costs. The burden is on you to stay on top of your software and to know when to seek the proper help.

In contrast, this is what IT Support looks like with a Cloud-Hosted solution, where you delegate the hosting and operation of your software to an authorized cloud provider, like Uptime Practice:

Documents, Email, Collaboration

Productivity is the bedrock of law firm software. Productivity software generally encompasses the tools your team will use day-to-day, and includes word processing, spreadsheets and presentation, email, and sometimes tools to keep these resources organized.

In addition to providing basic word processing, spreadsheet and email apps, some law firm productivity platforms serve as the working hub of your law firm.

Taking, Organizing & Searching Notes

Next in our roundup of the best law firm software, we’ll cover popular note-taking software.

Note-taking apps do more than just replace the old legal pad: they bring a new level of organization, functionality and note-taking on the go.

Features of note-taking applications often include the following functionality:

Document Signing, Editing, and Updates

In today’s digital landscape, ensuring the authenticity of documents and transactions is paramount. Digital signatures provide this assurance, acting as a cryptographic stamp of approval.

Much like a traditional signature, but bolstered with added security, digital signatures are vital in fields like e-commerce, legal documentation, and software distribution.

Business Accounting, Trust Accounting, Financial Reporting

Next in our roundup of the best law firm software, we’ll cover legal accounting software.

These are applications that (in most cases) focus on the specific accounting needs of law firms (such as trust accounting), or general-purpose accounting software applications commonly used by law firms.

Accounting law firm software typically include the following functionality:

Time Tracking, Expense Tracking, Invoicing

After productivity, the next law firm software a new firm tends to implement is time tracking and billing software.

Most, if not all Practice Management applications (which we’ll cover shortly) include time and billing. However, some firms don’t want or need everything that comes with a full-fledged Practice Management suite, and instead want a stand-alone time & billing app. For those firms, we’ll cover the top (mostly) pure time & billing products.

This is particularly true for law firms looking at small law firm legal software.

Time & Billing software typically include the following functionality:

Sales Pipeline Management, Intake Forms

Next in our roundup of the best law firm software, we’ll cover online payment processing solutions.

Getting paid is an important part of running a law firm, so having on online payment service is vital to growing and sustaining your law practice. Online payment services make paying your firm easy for your clients and automated for you.

Legal-centric online payment services, like the ones we explore below, will cater to the unique needs of law firms, including dealing with trust accounts and ABA billing codes. Online payment services are more than just cloud software for law firms, they are a service that provides payment clearing, authorization and other financial tools to help manage your practice.

Sales Pipeline Management, Intake Forms

Next in our roundup of the best law firm software, we’ll cover CRM & intake software.

A traditional CRM serves as a basic database of customers and prospective customers. More importantly, most CRM’s provide sales pipeline functionality, where you can track incoming “leads” (prospective customers), and manage communications and outreach.

Law firm intake software provides functionality to automate portions of the intake process, and usually includes practice-area specific forms and questionnaires for clients.

CRM and Intake are two discreet functions, but go well together in a single piece of software. Most law firm CRM & intake applications include:

Clients, Contacts, Cases, Calendaring, Billing

Practice Management software lives at the center of many law firm’s technology toolbox. Practice Management software typically handles a law firms clients and contacts, case management, calendaring, document creation, time tracking, billing and accounting.

There are many applications to choose from today: Some focus more on “front-office” functionality (case management and calendaring), others focus more on “back-office” workflow (billing and accounting.)

There are well over 25 reputable Law Practice Management products in the market today. We’ll cover the top 7 in our law firm software review, and will provide a link to the complete list at the end of this section.

Practice management software typically include the following functionality:

Automating Creation and Drafting 

Drafting documents can be time-consuming. A simple letter might only take minutes, but intricate legal documents like contracts can demand hours of meticulous work.

Thankfully, top-tier document automation software for law firms streamlines this process, offering significant time and effort savings.

Top-tier document automation software for law firms offers document assembly as a core feature, but effective document management requires more.

Essential tools also encompass storage, enhanced search functions, version control, optical character recognition (OCR), and beyond.

Full-Text Search, Version Management, Email Management

Next in our roundup of the best software for lawyers, we’ll cover legal document management software.

Document Management Systems (sometimes referred to as a DMS) is software that stores documents and provides more robust tools to manage them than you would otherwise see in basic cloud storage or practice management software.

Document management software can come in either an on-premise variety (installed on your own local servers) or can be cloud-based. The scope, features and capabilities of any given legal document management software varies from product to product; though broadly speaking, legal document management software performs the following functions:

Law Firm Software – Next Steps

There you have it, our overview of the top law firm software. This list of applications should be useful whether you’re starting a new firm and just building your legal tech stack, or are a mature law firm looking to modernize your law firm software.

I recommend taking time to go through each category of Law Firm Software.

While doing so, start by writing down what your firm would like, love, and need. From there, you can evaluate the options that I list to determine which one best suits your needs.

As always, feel free to contact us if you need help deciding.

Onward and Upward!