Clio - How I Manage My Law Practice From Anywhere
Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 2:40PM 
My law practice is basically a virtual law practice. I work from a home office, and I try to leverage technology to greatest extent possible to make my practice completely portable. I am also a technology geek - so I am constantly toying with the latest gadgets and services for use in my practice. With those characteristics serving as a backdrop, you can imagine that when I started my solo practice, I was basically obsessed with finding the best way to manage my practice...and manage it in the cloud using SaaS (for those of you who are not tech savvy, this explains what I mean by "in the cloud", and this explains what I mean by SaaS). That took a number of the traditional desktop applications out of the running immediately. I have a good laptop, and a server that backs my laptop up every night, but I don't want the lifeblood of my practice, my practice management system, running on my machines - which are completely dependent on me for technical support. SaaS was the only way to go.
I looked at and tried everything. RocketMatter came close and has some nice functionality, but the interface was less than desirable and just seemed clunky. Then I found Clio - and it was perfect. First of all (and this might be sad that I list this as the first reason I chose Clio) - the interface is very, very slick, easy to use, and intuitive. It has all sorts of "ajax-y" menu and form systems. Secondly, it has all the functionality I need - time tracking, task management, and most importantly, online invoicing and billing. Everything is streamlined. My billing cycle varies from client to client, matter to matter - but with Clio I never have any problems keeping track and getting bills out the door. The clincher for me, though, was the ever-evolving ClientConnect system - which allows for the creation of a password protected client area. Clients can login, see and comment on documents, and see and pay invoices.
I have traded many emails with Clio's co-founder and president, Jack Newton. I have even seen a few of my functionality requests actually be implemented in the application. They are not shy about reaching out and engaging customers.
If you are looking for the best way to manage your law practice in the cloud, check out Clio!
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