Law Practice Management Consulting

Many law firms both ignore technology and do just enough to "get by", or they haphazardly implement the latest and greatest without a plan. As technology and business demands change we like to work closely with clients to arm them with the information required to make intelligent decisions about office technology.

The consultants of LawTech Partners are called upon to advise on a wide variety of needs related to the business side of running a law practice. The legal technology team at LawTech Partners understands that building a strong infrastructure involves a full understanding of the business and how technology can support it.

Our practice management consulting services help your firm evaluate the technical aspects of the practice that encompasses technology, marketing, management, and accounting. We help your law firm ensure that practice and technology systems are working together to support your business goals.

We may be engaged for a one-time assessment to examine potential or existing problems in a practice or to provide ongoing services. Our consultations take place in person, remotely or a combination of both. We have significant experience in the application of technology to legal practice, from helping law firms go paperless to broader areas as litigation support, case management, and infrastructure design.

What can you expect during a consultation?

We are always happy to talk with you at no charge to determine how we can help. From there, we'll have an "official" first meeting - by phone or hopefully face to face. All stakeholders should be encouraged to attend this meeting, and everyone should openly state any concerns or questions. We'll ask a lot of questions because we need to understand how things currently work in your office before making any recommendations.

We may determine that individual or further interviews should be held. This will vary depending on the defined goals, but in many cases, it would be important for us to speak to as many attorneys and/or supporting staff that are involved or impacted. We hope you will encourage everyone to communicate candidly with us.
Our recommendations come in the form of actual conversations and discussions with you or in a formal report - that's up to you and your budget. It may also be determined that a full technology audit is in the best interest of your goals.

What do we expect from you?

Information! We may be able to let you know what information will be required in advance of our meeting (all depending on your goals with us) or we may ask you pull together reports or data that weren't available during our meetings.

We hope for 100% cooperation and open minds. While we know that often "that's the way we've always done it" is they why, we don't like to think that's how it should always stay. And we hope you don't either. We really look forward to creating a long term and trusted relationship with your firm. Please contact us to ask questions and get to know us better.

Contact Us to Discuss Your Law Firm's Needs

Legal Technology Audits

Your Firm Needs a [Legal] Technology Audit.

A technology audit from LawTech Partners examines your firm’s Information Technology (IT) infrastructure; and involves the collection and evaluation of the firm’s information systems, practices, business processes and operations.

Value to the Firm

• Verifies that systems and applications are appropriate, efficient, and secure.
• Provides decision-makers with the information they need to make the technology decisions that will affect the operational efficiency and bottom-line of the business.
• Identifies disparate systems that no longer serve the organization and pose a risk of business interruption.

The Technology Audit Covers

• Network & servers
• Desktops
• Applications
• Integration of technology with business processes & workflow

The Process

Information is normally gathered through an initial questionnaire and on-site visit(s) to examine computers, printers, servers, and software/applications used to share information or data across your firm. We can perform a remote technology under the right circumstances and with the proper support at the law firm’s end.

We’ll provide you with a questionnaire prior to our visit. The questionnaire should be returned in advance of scheduled on-site interviews. That way, the time we spend on-site will be as productive as possible – we’ll be able to accomplish more in less time, helping to keep the cost of the audit to a minimum. The questionnaire also serves the purpose of getting everyone involved thinking about how technology is affecting their work day, their performance and productivity, and the balance of workflow throughout the firm.

The most critical aspect of the discovery process is meeting with stakeholders – attorneys and staff to gain a clear understanding of the firm’s goals, objectives and overall technology strategic plan. By meeting with stakeholders, we can help identify whether or not existing technology is meeting the needs of various departments within the firm and can further recommend technology solutions which are cost effective. We promise to keep our attorney interviews limited in scope and as short as possible.

On a day/s convenient to all, we’ll meet and interview selected attorneys and staff. We’ll discuss in further detail the answers provided to the questions on the pre-visit questionnaire. Technical and network information not gathered prior to our on-site visit will be collected. The steps are for the purpose of creating a technical benchmark documenting the current status of your technology.

How can you contribute to the success of the audit?

We really just need information, time and cooperation. It’s great to have…

• Preparation and return of the pre-visit questionnaire
• Access to attorneys and staff the day of the on-site visit
• Access to all hardware (computer room, servers, desktops, laptops, etc.)
• Access to software including passwords

Project Deliverables

Once the information is gathered, we go to work analyzing the data and preparing a report for your review. We then meet at your convenience (in person or via conference) to discuss the results of the audit and our recommendations. You can expect to receive your report within 2-3 weeks of completion of our on-site visit.

Technology Audit Fees and Costs

The final cost of a technology audit will depend n the size of your Firm and is based on an hourly rate of $250. We have found that the average cost for a Firm with 15-20 total employees and standard infrastructure is about $8,500. In addition to on-site discovery, we estimate 6 hours off-site, administration and report preparation and a conference call to your office post-visit to discuss in detail, the results. Any further work (consulting, training, optional services) can be discussed and negotiated.

Contact Us to Discuss an Audit for Your Law Firm

Clio & NetDocuments Implementations & Training

We offer Clio consulting and NetDocuments consulting. Clio is a subscription and web-based legal practice management system. Clio includes a full suite of practice management tools targeted specifically to the needs of sole practitioners and small firms. NetDocuments is the leader in legal-specific document and email management.

Contact Us to Discuss How We can Help