By LEAP US | AAML NJ Silver Sponsor
New Jersey family law firms already recognize the need to move their operations into the cloud to avoid the mishaps that come from manual and paper-based processes. Moreover, the cloud offers several benefits to law firms like streamlined tasks to improve employee outputs, reduced data errors, increased profit margins, reduced noncompliance, and enhanced security. In fact, 31% even said that they trust cloud solutions over their on-premises systems for increased security, according to an American Bar Association survey. However, it’s often difficult for matrimonial lawyers to identify the right cloud technology for their firm and what characteristics make up a “good” cloud-based legal software.
Here are three characteristics New Jersey family law firms should look for when purchasing a cloud solution.
1. Legal Expertise
Law firm staff need to trust that the software provider they select genuinely understands the needs, complexities, and nuances of New Jersey family law practices. While engineers are experts at understanding and building software that looks and runs great, if they don’t have the industry expertise for the solution they’re building, it won’t truly address the needs of its users. The legal industry especially poses its own challenges as family law and New Jersey regulations, forms, and processes constantly change.
Software providers like LEAP avoid this by employing the top legal talent needed to update common family law forms and templates across New Jersey jurisdictions, address current and emerging challenges legal professionals face, and ensure that all users get value from the software, regardless of their role in the firm.
LEAP offers 11K+ forms and 2.5K+ pre-built matter types, including Summons (Divorce) (LL-NJ-FAM-0123), Certification of Insurance Coverage Pursuant to R. 5:4-f (LD-NJ-FAM-0025), and Case Management Order (R.5:5-7) (LL-NJ-FAM-0115), that are regularly updated for users to reduce double work and maintain compliance for users. Additionally, LEAP is a product of constant innovation and technology advancements based on legal technology trends and direct user feedback to solve common issues faced by family law practitioners that cost them time and money across the business. That’s why the first thing a firm should look for when purchasing legal software is if the company is using legal industry experts and customer feedback to build its solution.
2. Comprehensiveness
The second characteristic law firms need to look for in legal software is the comprehensiveness of the platform. Many software solutions only focus on one or two problem statements and don’t address all the challenges a family law firm faces in its daily work. These niche solutions lead to only partially digitized firms, select users having access to information and advanced technical skillsets, and high technology spending as firms invest in multiple solutions over time to address specific challenges.
A comprehensive cloud solution creates a more productive firm with all team members accessing the same real-time information and updates to improve efficiency so more time can be spent on taking new clients, billable work, and better legal services. This also helps law firms reduce technology spending with one solution that immediately positively affects the firm’s bottom line. LEAP is the leading, comprehensive legal practice productivity solution for New Jersey family law firms and allows them to have practice management, legal accounting, document assembly and management, and legal publishing in a single solution. The LEAP implementations team can get firms onboarded in as little as two days to start taking advantage of a one-stop productivity solution.
Another benefit is that law firms can foster their employee’s growth through new skillsets. As law firms continue to see growth, it means that law professionals have more options to find an organization that will support their career growth. If all staff members can use the same platform, the firm can then support them in training and developing new skill sets to support their career development and potentially identify new skills or areas of expertise.
3. Scalability
At its core, cloud software naturally lends itself to scalability as firms can use resources as needed instead of having to over-purchase on-premises software or risk the chance of being under-resourced by purchasing only what they need at the time. However, not all legal software is built to address growing family law firms.
Family law firms may expand the areas of law and regions they practice in to grow their reach and potential client base. An excellent legal software solution will be built to address the varying regulations, processes, and forms that are used across different areas of law and regions. If that flexibility is not offered, law firms that want to expand will outgrow the software and run the risk of malpractice and cause permanent damage to their reputations and the future careers of their staff. Additionally, a cloud solution will need to enable organization across the firm to avoid creating confusion across team members due to a lack of transparency when it comes to up-to-date information, forms, and communication internally and with clients.
The software provider should also offer law firms ongoing support as they grow and evolve to get the most out of their partnership. For example, LEAP offers a dedicated Practice Management Advisor, online help centers, and ongoing training and webinars for new features or releases that law firms may need to use as they continue to grow. It is difficult for law firms to bring on and train new staff members on solutions and processes when this level of support is not offered.
Conclusion
With so many legal software solutions on the market, New Jersey family law firms are faced with a difficult choice to narrow down which solution is right for them. Whether a firm only has a sole practitioner or a full team, it’s critical to identify the right cloud solution by ensuring that the provider offers the expertise, comprehensiveness, and scalability needed for the firm to have long-term success and scalable processes. In addition, once a firm implements a fully encompassing cloud solution, it can solve current and future roadblocks to improve productivity, profitability, security, compliance, and client satisfaction across the business.
Ready to bring your firm into the cloud to improve productivity, communication, collaboration, and profitability? Schedule a demo of LEAP to see why over 61,000 global legal professionals made the switch.
