OnePlace solutions highlights their abilities in three separate solution packages;

•         OnePlaceMail seamlessly connects Microsoft Outlook to Sharepoint, giving you the ability to save your emails and/or attachments directly from Outlook to Sharepoint- improving records and email management, while simultaneously improving productivity.
•         OnePlaceDocs provides easy to use document management. By using OnePlaceDocs explorer, access all your documents locally on your computer and automatically save all changes back to the cloud. It also provides a true seamless Adobe PDF and O365 integration.
•         OnePlaceLive provides one central place for all your O365 products and gives you access where you work most. Save emails to Sharepoint from Outlook, access Sharepoint documents from Outlook and attach them to emails, automatically show colleagues copied on an email that it has been saved to Sharepoint, and more.

We are excited to tout OnePlace as a featured solutions provider for NuLaw clients. In our partnership with OnePlace Solutions, NuLaw is looking forward to enhancing the integrations and solutions that our software provides- by offering the OnePlace Solutions product suite as a premier integration for our premier application.

Contact us today to find out more about how the OnePlace Integration will best complement everything NuLaw has to offer for your legal practice!

In fact, leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey from the American Bar Association, almost half of all law firms operating in the United States did not utilize cloud software in management of their firm. This means that nearly half of all US law firms were ultimately blindsided by the unprecedented shutdown of all in-person businesses at the beginning of last year. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that cloud computing is the way of the future, something that must be capitalized upon sooner, rather than later. Firms that utilized cloud management of their business were exponentially more prepared for the instant shift to remote work than firms that did not- going forward, it may be wise to consider cloud computing and management as necessary insurance to run a business.

Let’s compare the benefit of the cloud to needing a grocery list for shopping. How many times has something unexpected happened- your child or spouse throws away the list on accident, or you lose said grocery list in some other way. If you only keep a physical, one-copy record of your grocery list, it will be lost to the ages. However, if you happened to jot down your grocery list onto your iPhone notes (thus utilizing the cloud), not only would it be impossible to lose the grocery list- you would be able to continue to add or otherwise edit your list at any time, from multiple different platforms- from your phone, tablet, or computer.

This is the benefit that the utilization of cloud computing can provide. Who knows what can happen- maybe you’re forced to stay home from the office on a sick day, or need to access relevant casework from somewhere other than your office. Having the cloud as a practice management resource allows you to be able to access your firm from anywhere in the world. By using the right type of cloud-based software, not only will your work become all the more accessible at any time, but it will also become more secure than ever.

This is where NuLaw becomes all the more relevant. Powered by Salesforce, and as one of the most all-inclusive practice management software providers on the market, NuLaw is able to handle everything- from intake, prospecting, and matter planning, to reporting, billing, and scheduling. Additionally, NuLaw integrates with a laundry list of third party software while keeping everything under wraps with the same top-notch security measures utilized by the United States Department of Defense. As the working world moves to the future, help your practice stay prepared for anything that may come it’s way, and invest in cloud computing sooner, rather than later.

Indeed, consolidation is one of the most important organizational aspects of our day to day lives. When you make a grocery shopping list, do you make a separate list for each aisle, or do you make one single list for everything you need for your trip? When you’re moving to a new home, do you throw everything into random boxes, or do you strategically fit everything into as few categorized boxes as possible, in order to be more efficient (as well as cost-effective) in the process of bringing everything from point A to point B? When you are running your legal practice, do you want to conduct your day-to-day agenda by clicking in and out of different apps and tabs, or do you want to conduct your business efficiently, through the usage of a single, all-inclusive platform?

This is made possible by utilization of a platform that touts the ability to manage software integrations. Essentially, these integrations streamline day-to-day tasks, and make it easier to not only organize your firm from the top-down, while also improving the cost-effective efficiency with which your firm operates. Think about how much frustration and stress in the day that you can mitigate by not constantly sifting through different platforms just to accomplish one task for one case. Again, referring to the previous analogy- how hard would it be to unpack in your new house or apartment if all of your belongings are spread across multiple mixed-item boxes, when you could’ve just put specific belongings for specific rooms into a single box? With the properly organized moving boxes (properly coordinated integrations), you never have to stress out trying to think about whether you have lost or forgotten something again. Integrations are a proactive measure for any legal practice.

For example, think of a communication integration with a Case Management Software, such as chatter. According to a recent blog from ActiveCampaign, “[software integration] adoption increases the quality of communication between [employees] and managers by 56.9% — meaning less time spent on misunderstandings and more time spent selling.”  Additionally, the blog continues on to state “[Practice management] apps can increase sales productivity by up to 34%. The learning curve can be steep — although a strategic implementation process softens it — but the results are more than worth it and can save your sales team tons of time.” Why continue using a system that continually clutters and otherwise complicates your day, when you can bring in a new system that improves upon finance and efficiency for your practice?

NuLaw understands that consolidation is key to running any business more efficiently than ever before. That is why we have so many integrations available with our software. Powered by Salesforce, manage your firm’s day-to-day operations while utilizing software such as SharePoint, Outlook, Office 365, Gmail, Google Calendar, Quickbooks, airSlate, Adobe Sign, Docusign, and NuPay- all from the single NuLaw dashboard! Managing your firm from a single all-inclusive platform has never been easier, or more efficient. With NuLaw, enjoy the time-saving power of software that just works.

As a woman-owned small business, we are passionate about supporting our community! Since the pandemic began, we have been working diligently to play our part in helping our country’s economic state. We used our stimulus to create new jobs and retain existing ones. We implemented discounted savings on our legal SaaS product, NuLaw, to allow law firms to continue operating while working remotely.

Our senate declared 9.25.2020 as National Lobster Day.* As a South Florida-based small business, we have a sentiment for lobster season and embrace the reasons behind National Lobster Day!

JOIN US in turning National Lobster Day through the month of October into a stimulus for small business restaurants and hungry families who have lost jobs during the pandemic.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

• Click Here to Donate $2.00 to the national charity organization “Feeding America” to help Hungry Families.

• Wear a lobster bib on red Friday, September 25 as we kick off a united campaign for small business restaurants and hungry families while eating or taking out at your favorite small business restaurant.

• Take a photo eating or taking out from your favorite small business restaurant and post it with the hashtag #LobsterMonth.

• Don’t like lobster? That’s okay! This is about supporting your favorite small business restaurant!

• Through October 25, continue to eat at your favorite restaurants and share with the hashtag #LobsterMonth.

With your support, we can stimulate many small business restaurants and feed families in need.

Let’s do this as united Americans! 

Ignoring the future is no way to run a law firm. The future arrives every morning when the office is opened for the day. Morning after morning adds up to a long future that can make or break a firm. As for responding to it when it finally arrives, that is not a sound strategy either. Responding is not proactive. Responding is a strategy that always leaves you playing catch-up. You are always behind the eight ball.

Positioning for the future in advance puts your law firm ahead of the game. When you position your firm for the future, you are not playing follow the leader. You are the leader. That’s the way it should be.

Wave Goodbye to Legacy Software

The most important thing any law firm can do to position itself for the future is to transition away from legacy software. It is called ‘legacy software’ for a reason: its legacy is in the past. We are not dealing the past at NuLaw, we are dealing with the future. It is time to adopt software that serves the needs of the present but is also ready for the foreseeable future.

That sort software has a few key characteristics. First and foremost, it’s found in the cloud rather than on local servers. Cloud computing is both the present and the future; there is no getting around it. That’s why we developed NuLaw as a cloud-based case management app and built it on the Salesforce CRM package.

Another characteristic is scalability. If you’re thinking about the future with the right mindset, you are planning on growth and expansion. You need software that can scale up along with your firm. If your software doesn’t scale, you’re going to have problems.

Say Hello to Mobility

Your typical law firm is very familiar with smartphones. But how do staff attorneys and other employees use their phones? The fact is that mobility is now king of the internet. Your firm needs devices that can utilize all that this mobility brings to the table. Old cell phones that cannot run modern apps need to be retired.

If your firm utilizes tablets and laptops, the same thing applies. Updated devices make the best use of updated case management applications, billing software, communication applications, and so forth. They do so safely and securely – as long as they are maintained to proper security standards.

Embrace Automation and AI

Two of the things that sets NuLaw apart are automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Both technologies are built-in to our software for the purposes of making running a law practice more efficient and productive. Note that the two technologies are quickly being established as mainstays of legal practice software.

Automation saves time and increases efficiency. Artificial intelligence enhances case acquisition, billing, calendaring, and even e-discovery. If your firm’s legal software doesn’t utilize automation and AI, you’re already behind the times.

The future doesn’t remain the future forever. Eventually it becomes the present. This is why it’s so critical to position your law firm for the future in advance. The goal is to be ready when it arrives. If you’re not ready, all you can do is respond or ignore. Neither strategy is viable when you’re trying to grow a practice.

As the creators of a market-leading case management application based on the Salesforce CRM platform, we believe it is not enough just to know that modernizing technology is a good idea. We believe firms need to know why. After all, the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ is that which provides the motivation to modernize.

The basis for this post is a survey of millennial lawyers published in April 2019 by Major, Lindsey & Africa. There are three key statistics from that survey that really zero in on why technology modernization is so important for law firms. Bear in mind that the baby boomers are beginning to retire. Millennial lawyers are coming in behind them.

1. The Need for Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is very important to millennial attorneys. According to the survey, 75% say they would be willing to sacrifice some of their compensation in order to reduce their billable hours or have access to a more flexible work schedule. Simple enough, right? What is not so simple is understanding how technology effects work-life balance.

A modern case management app should, at the very least, make the modern law office more efficient. NuLaw does. Greater efficiency leads to more productivity. As such, attorneys who do their jobs more efficiently are capable of generating more revenue without having to take on more billable hours. Increasing efficiency is the first step toward offering millennial attorneys a better work-life balance.

2. Loyalty Among Junior Attorneys

Despite some 40% of millennial lawyers saying that they view partnership as a long-term career goal, 75% of them also admitted to either being open to new job opportunities or actively seeking them out. That is big. If 75% of the junior attorneys in your firm are actually looking for work elsewhere, where does that leave you for the future?

The point here is that making sure junior attorneys stay with your firm long enough to become partners should be a priority. It cannot be if your firm is still using outdated technology. Remember, the millennial generation was raised on technology. They expect that the technology they are given to do their jobs is up to date. They do not expect to be encumbered by legacy technology that has not kept up with the times.

3. Millennials Are Committed to Change

The millennial generation and their younger counterparts are somewhat unique in that they take very personally what they believe is a responsibility to change the world. Where previous generations maybe gave an affirming nod to the need for change, millennials and Gen Z members actually take an active role in facilitating change.

This suggests that the millennials at your firm are going to try changing the way you do business with the goal of better serving clients and the local community. But they will only try for so long. If your firm is resistant to change, those millennial attorneys will ultimately go elsewhere.

Some 62% of those who responded to the Major, Lindsey & Africa survey said that millennials are already changing both law firm culture and policies. More importantly, 70% said they were confident in their abilities to achieve their long-term career goals. Both statistics suggest that millennials are committed to change – whether their firms are behind it or not.

It’s time to modernize your law firm’s technology. If you are still behind the times, you’re in danger of alienating millennial attorneys.

We get the fact that cost is always an issue when you are talking software upgrades. We also know that plenty of law firms stick with the status quo because it seems to be working. They do not want to spend on new software when what they are currently using seems to be working just fine.

If your firm is in that position, would you give us an opportunity to explain the financial benefits of NuLaw? We believe we can justify the cost of a new cloud-based case management application in all but a few cases.

Maintaining On-Site Hardware

We are extremely proud of the fact that NuLaw exists in the cloud. We firmly believe that the cloud is not the future of software – it is the here and now. We also believe that most law firms will save money in the long run by moving to the cloud. The savings begin with not having to maintain on-site hardware.

The useful life of your typical server is anywhere from 3 to 5 years. Let’s say five years to be on the high side. Over 30 years of owning a law practice, that means replacing hardware six times. Every replacement means hardware and labor. And yes, the price of both goes up with every upgrade.

When hardware breaks – and it does – you bear the entire cost on your own. If broken hardware results in a software crash and significant data loss, you bear the expense of repairing the damage. Move your case management software to the cloud and all those problems go away. We take the hit on hardware. It is just one of our costs of doing business.

Software Upgrade Costs

One of the reasons we are talking costs is the simple fact that switching to NuLaw does involve some upfront subscription fees. But as you know, upgrading your local software costs money too. We are willing to bet you would spend more to buy new software and licenses than you would on a software subscription.

Even better, you might pay your software developer every time you need an upgrade. That’s not the way cloud software works. Cloud software is presented as a service. You subscribe to the service, not the software. Our job is to maintain and upgrade the software on a regular basis. We do that without any additional charge to you.

Maintaining an IT Staff

If hardware and software costs are not enough, consider maintaining your own IT staff. We all know that labor costs are the highest costs of doing business, and there is no exception for the legal industry. Maintaining your own IT department is a costly venture that requires paying several skilled individuals a good salary plus a generous benefits package.

You do not need a large IT staff with NuLaw. Why? Because we are your IT staff. You only need one or two IT pros to handle maintaining your computers and mobile devices.

It is our firm belief that most law firms will spend less over the long term by switching to NuLaw. We would love the opportunity to sit down and discuss this with you further. If you are interested, give us a shot. Let’s see if we can justify your firm’s transition to cloud-based case management software.

Believe it or not, attorneys can employ some key communication strategies that actually reduce unnecessary communications with clients. The key is understanding the root causes of why clients attempt to communicate without any real purpose. Once you figure that out, you can cut down on communication volume.

Here are four strategies for reducing unnecessary communications at your firm:

1. Provide Regular Updates

The number one reason clients contact their attorneys is to get updates on their cases. That is normal and to be expected. However, an attorney does not need to receive a phone call every single day. Rarely do things change that quickly. So how do you put a stop to daily phone calls? By offering regular updates.

There is no black and white rule for how often updates should be provided. But contacting clients every time their cases are touched pretty much heads off most unnecessary phone calls. Such frequent communications do not have to be long and detailed, either. A simple one or two-sentence message is often enough to let clients know what is going on so that they don’t worry.

2. Communicating in the Cloud

It is rarely a good idea to give clients personal cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Doing so is an open invitation to a communication tsunami. Instead, it’s better to give clients access to cloud communications via your case management app. By the way, NuLaw contains a secure communication module for just that purpose.

With chat and other communications tools, our software makes it easy to keep communications within the cloud environment so that clients aren’t calling your cell phone or sending e-mails to your personal address after hours. They will limit themselves to communicating when they know you are in the office.

3. Answer Every Single Contact

Though this next strategy might seem counterproductive, it’s not. One of the big reasons clients continually try to contact their attorneys is that they aren’t getting a response. The more times they have to make a phone call or send a message, the more anxious they become. This only increases the frequency with which they try to make contact. If you answer every single contact with a clear, concise answer, you relieve some of that anxiety and subsequently reduce contact volume.

Note that the attorney doesn’t have to answer every single contact him or herself. Members of the support staff can respond to less urgent contacts that don’t require specific advice. Junior attorneys can also be utilized for contacts that require a bit more knowledge. It is less important who answers and more important that every contact be answered.

4. Schedule Phone Calls

When phone calls cannot be avoided, its best to schedule them. In this day and age of so much busyness, it’s too easy to find yourself entangled in a game of telephone tag that will never have a clear winner. Scheduling phone calls eliminates the game and streamlines communication.

It goes without saying that some of the communicating that goes on within the legal industry is unnecessary. But that’s true in any industry. It’s just more pronounced in law because every unnecessary communication distracts attorneys from working on cases. If you understand why unnecessary communications happen, you can take action to prevent them. Hopefully the strategies discussed in this post will get you pointed in the right direction.

Law is not usually an area that we normally associate with big data. But that’s only because the legal sector has historically been slow to adopt new technology. The fact is that data can be a tremendous help in the ongoing effort to grow a practice. It all comes down to understanding how a practice is performing in all areas of case acquisition.

A Few Key Questions

We will assume that your case acquisition program is not data driven. With that assumption, there are a few key questions to ask about your firm, questions that should illustrate the importance of making data part of the equation. Here they are:

• Do we know what our top referral sources are?
• Do we know how many referrals come from those sources?
• How many prospects do we expect to actually become clients?
• Among those that are converted, how much revenue can we expect to generate?
• Do we use online intake to convert prospects into clients?
• How do prospects find us online?

Believe it or not, a lot of law firm owners and managers cannot answer these questions. They do not really know the numbers behind their case acquisition efforts. They do know the bottom line, which is good, but they do not know what goes into making the bottom line what it is.

Data Provides the Answers

Hopefully you now have a better idea of why data is so important to case acquisition. It provides the answers to all of the marketing department’s questions. Data tells the marketing department where prospects are coming from. It tells them how successful they are converting prospects to clients. Data also measures how well attorneys are doing in the converting process.

By way of example, imagine your law firm works with other industry partners and website owners to exchange links. Let us also say that one of your backlinks has consistently delivered 12 to 15 leads every week. Suddenly that drops to just two or three. Your data tells you that something is wrong. Now you can go investigate and hopefully fix what is broken.

If you are not tracking referral sources, you would have no way of knowing that something is wrong with that link. You would not know to go fix it. As a result, you would have fewer weekly leads to follow up on. Fewer leads means fewer opportunities to convert prospects to clients.

Data Offers a Snapshot

Data-driven case acquisition is very much tied to marketing. But there is something else at play here: the current state of your law firm. Data helps by providing a snapshot of all the most important key performance indicators at a glance. Understanding the current state of your business makes future case acquisition efforts more productive.

For example, your case management app should be able to clearly tell you the current status of every prospect your firm is working with. Knowing that information makes responding to each prospect a breeze. On the other hand, not knowing the status of current prospects means your firm is less nimble and responsive to them.

Data-driven case acquisition is the way to go. If your firm is not using data for generating leads, contacting prospects, and converting those prospects to paying clients, it is time for a new approach.

For law firms, working at home can be an option. Attorneys, legal assistants, and support staff can all work from home when necessary. Moreover, giving staff members work-at-home opportunities can enhance the work-life balance and give employees a sense that their employers care about them as people.

We believe that there are a number of essential work-at-home strategies that law firms can employ to make the most of those opportunities they wish to give their staff members. Four of them are discussed in this post.

1. Adopt Cloud-Based Software

Working at home in the legal arena requires access to software. In this day and age that means cloud-based software. The place for every law firm to start is adopting a cloud approach for everything from case management applications to accounting software. You will be happy to know that NuLaw is a cloud-based package.

The cloud’s most attractive benefit is access. From in the office or outside of it, staff members always have access to software, communications, and so forth. Moreover, data can be shared in real-time among team members. With an internet connection and a device to get online, NuLaw is just a tap or click away.

2. Create a Device Policy

Device usage is generally a concern when employees work at home. When a law firm adopts a bring your own device (BYOD) policy, there is not much they can do or say about staff members using their devices for personal reasons at home. But when devices are supplied by the firm, that’s another matter. As such, creating a device policy is a very good idea before allowing staff members to work at home.

A device policy determines exactly how firm-issued devices can and cannot be used. It stipulates how data is transferred and protected. It might stipulate certain websites that are not allowed, as well as how users protect their passwords and usernames.

3. Practice Time Tracking Diligence

Since the home environment is not always conducive to productivity, it is imperative that staff members be encouraged to eliminate distractions while working at home. A good way to make sure that happens is to be diligent about monitoring time tracking. This is one area in which management needs to be especially diligent until good work-at-home habits have been developed. Even after that, routinely checking time tracking never hurts.

4. Insist on Secure Communication

We are proud to say that NuLaw has a built-in communication module that offers secure communications for the entire legal team. When attorneys and staff members work at home, they should avoid using personal communication methods to conduct business. Everything should still go through the secure cloud platform.

Secure communication is essential to both client privacy and law firm integrity. It can be essential to the integrity of any case. To be as succinct as possible, working from home is never an invitation to use less secure means of communicating with clients and between staff members.

There is a lot to be said for working at home. With the right mindset and a few key strategies, law firms can allow staff members to work at home from time to time without any loss of productivity or service. It all starts with NuLaw.