Legal Software and Information Technology Suppliers A to D
Information on software suppliers, IT consultants and companies associated with legal software, maintained by Delia Venables.
These descriptions are based partly on Delia's own notes and partly on the information provided by the suppliers themselves.
Acorn Legal provides a legal accounts bureau service aimed at sole practitioners
and smaller firms. The practice does not need to employ a cashier, purchase software or undergo training. A fixed monthly
fee covers all accounts postings and regular reporting, including reports such as quarterly VAT figures. There is also
no limit to the number of postings so the fixed monthly fee is exactly that meaning no surprises! Online access is
also available for ledger enquiries, time recording and custom reports. The firm simply provides Acorn Legal with details
of each transaction and these are then posted to the accounts. A comprehensive report pack is provided at the end of
each month and a more detailed pack ot the year-end which the firm can hand straight to the reporting accountant.
For smaller firms unable to find a cashier or where a practitioner is managing the books him/herself, unloading the
burden of the accounts postings and freeing up enough time to raise one more bill each month would typically more
than pay for this service.
ADERANT is a leading international provider of business solutions to professional
services organisations worldwide. Products offered include CMS.Net, Keystone, ADERANT Business
Intelligence, Novient and now ADERANT Front Office CRM. They are also able to offer major domain expertise.
Today with three major regional centres UK & Europe,
Asia Pacific and North America their global workforce is focused specifically on services software.
They serve more than half a million users and 630 clients worldwide.
AIM is now part of IRIS Legal. See entry in
IRIS Legal.
AIM Evolution is an enterprise level Legal accounts, practice and case management
solution for large law firms and remains a fully supported product in
the IRIS Legal portfolio. AIM Evolution is fully integrated with IRIS
Laserform.
Airtime Manager are authors of the AP4 solution which
enables users to capture time from their mobile devices such as BlackBerry, iPhone and the Android range of smart phones.
An event capture module accounts for client-related time and expenses associated with wireless calls, email and document
review. A stopwatch function can track meetings, travel time and other billable events. A simple form allows the creation of
time entries on the train, at the airport, or anywhere else, on the run. Billable time and costs are automatically transferred to the
accounting system, or to an administrator for review. There is also a hosted version available for individuals and smaller firms.
Note - AlphaLAW is now part of
IRIS Legal and remains
a fully supported part of the IRIS Legal portfolio.
For more on IRIS overall, see
IRIS Legal.
Software products under the AlphaLAW name are as follows:
AlphaLAW-Esprit+
is a legal accounts and practice management solution which is ideal for sole practitioners.
AlphaLAW-Uno
is an advanced Fee Earner support system that has its own fully integrated case Management and workflow system,
ideal for small to medium sized firms.
AlphaLAW Vantage
is a flexible and comprehensive legal accounting systems. It is totally Solicitors Accounts Rules (SAR) and
LAFQAS compliant. Together with its integrated Nominal and Purchase Ledger, AlphaLAW Vantage ensures
that the fundamental requirements of the firm are completely and securely controlled.
Amicus Attorney from Gavel & Gown Inc.
is a Lawyer Case Management system
with over 225,000 users worldwide; the UK based Gavel and Gown Limited
provides full system Technical Support, implementation and Training. There
are two version, the Premium Edition 2010 which is SQL based and provides
full MS Outlook integration and is offered with a Mobile integration option;
Amicus Mobile. Alternatively, there is the Small Firm Edition 2010 and both
systems are well documented on the web-site. Amicus Attorney allows you to
effectively manage the continuous stream of information you must deal with
every day; providing a comprehensive suite of tools for managing client
matter files, people, all communications, documents, deadlines,
appointments, "to do's", time entries, CRM, notes, legal research, conflict
checks and business development. Amicus Attorney organises all the
information in one integrated system. Pricing is a one-off £599 per user for
the Premium Edition (which includes the MS SQL Cal Database) and £399 per
user for the Small Firm Edition.
Anya Designs Anya Designs has been providing legal software
for 12 years and supports over 400 firms. With a particularly strong following amongst contentious work lawyers,
users range from sole practitioners to multi partner, multi branch firms nationwide. Anya's product range includes:
· iLaw CK: The legal aid package for all franchise contract areas: Crime, Family, Civil and Immigration.
Includes time recording, case management, full legal aid and private billing, document production, accounts and reports
· iLaw Professional: The case management package for growing and larger firms, private or legal aid. As well as full
time recording, billing and accounts, iLaw Professional provides high-end case management from call logs to undertakings,
workflows to scanned document archives.
· iLaw Grad Fees and Advocate: the only stand alone packages for Crime graduated and Litigators fees
· iMobile: case management on the move, everything you need on your laptop, fully synchronisable with iLaw
when you return to your office
· iLaw Web: web design, internet marketing and SEO to enable law firms to increase client acquisition and retention.
Bar Squared are the authors of LEX Chambers Management -
a complete software solution for Barristers Chambers. Bar Squared is the latest entrant to the market but employs
an experienced team combining clerks and software developers. LEX runs through Microsoft SQL server and Internet
Explorer so is quick to deploy and can be used easily whether in chambers or remotely. LEX offers: Multi-view Diary -
Case Management - Fees and Billing - Graduated Fees - Workflow - Drill Through Reporting - Marketing - CRM
(client and prospective solicitors) - Solicitor profiling - Mail Merge - Campaign Management - Diary to Exchange to
Blackberry/Windows Mobile - Practice Analysis - Document Management - Time Recording - LEX for Mobile IE -
System Resilience. As of October 2010, LEX has been successfully installed at 76 Chambers across the UK since
its release in January 2007, with a further 12 Chambers currently awaiting deployment.
C
Cann Consultancy is a new IT consultancy, based in the West Midlands, set up by
Chris Cann, himself a lawyer and a former partner at regional firm Martin Kaye.
Advice and practical assistance around outsourcing and managed IT services will be one of the Cann Consultancy’s lead offerings
(in his role as Martin Kaye’s IT head, he completely outsourced the firm’s core infrastructure).
He also offers general IT consulting services with particular attention to system audits and cost analyses as well as risk and compliance topics.
Keen to offer added-value and the prospect of a ‘quick win’ for clients, he has introduced a fixed-price risk audit package – a site visit, interviews,
and system and document review prefacing a gap analysis report for any business wanting to measure itself against the Code of Conduct 2007
and/or Lexcel standards.
CASE RECORD is a secure online venue for confidential correspondence
between professionals and their clients. It meets the needs of users from different organizations, facilitating correspondence
between them while also managing the separate private communications that need to take place and be recorded.
The product takes a significant evolutionary step beyond email while respecting the complex array of relationships and
conversations that take place in a professional services and inter-organizational setting.
A free month's trial is available.
CBitSoft Ltd offers a suite of conveyancing software
called Case Family. This consists of CaseCollect, CaseQuote, CaseMan and CaseTrack,
all of which can be purchased, or leased, separately or together as required.
The system provides full integration with the Internet for obtaining new business,
as well as enabling clients and other parties secure
access to view the progress of their case online 24/7. The quotation module
produces quotations quickly and efficiently and the case management system
allows the conveyancer to view the progress of cases as well as being able
to automatically assemble communication documents, generate forms and access the NLIS via
Searchflow, TM Property and Transaction-Online. The system
can check its own database daily and carry out the tasks of producing the forms and
communications that are due automatically and autonomously if the user wishes.
The system user interface is highly intuitive meaning that training requirements are
minimal. Free demonstrations of the systems can be arranged and the products are available for a
free evaluation period. Systems can be purchased outright or leased if preferred.
Chrome River Expense is a "hosted" online expense claim and purchase ledger processing
system that is built from the ground up specifically to meet the needs of law
firms. With no up-front hardware or software costs and a solution that is
quickly deliverable to users around the globe, the product provides a almost
instant return on investment. Log in over the internet and enter the
expense/invoice against the appropriate matter or project number and the job
is done. Invoices/receipts are scanned in and attached to the entry. It also
integrates with credit cards. A Quarter of the AMLAW 100 are Chrome River
clients. The company is based in the USA but is now expanding into the UK.
Member of the Legal Software Suppliers Assocation Civica UK Limited has been supplying IT systems to Legal Practices and medium to large sized practices for over 20 years.
Their Legal range of software is a comprehensive and fully integrated practice, case and document management system for both private and public sector clients.
The system is totally integrated with a central relational database (SQL Server) that operates on Windows platforms in either a 'thick' or 'thin' environment or
supplied as a 'hosted' or 'managed' service. Standard workflows can be supplied to assist with the rapid deployment of a case system in a practice including
LEXCEL/Risk Management, Conveyancing, Personal Injury, Re-mortgage, Mortgage Repossession, Family, Criminal, Wills, Trust, Probate and Debt Collection
modules as well as special applications for the Local Authority user. The system can also be used in 'generic' mode to provide a complete, practice-wide system
and conformance to 'Practice Standards' which enables practices to manage electronic files for every Client and Case within the practice or legal department.
Other features include the ability for documents to be scanned directly into the system and updates to clients, partners, fee earners, support staff or third party
service providers being sent by e-mail, task lists, fax, SMS message or web based link. Civica Legal integrates with MS Outlook, GroupWise and Lotus Notes
to provide e-mail, calendar and task list functionality. Civica Legal also integrates to CPC, CCBC, PCOL, NLIS, LLPG, BACS, Equitrac and various formats
for bank reconciliation.
With nearly 3,000 daily users they are both a Microsoft and Citrix GOLD Certified Partner.
Codean is a software and analytics company focused on bringing software technology and its benefits to
legal and financial services firms. Codean was founded in 2008 and is privately held by the founders. One particular product, called Codean Visualizer,
is a desktop application which takes a legal contract in Word or PDF format and automatically analyses it to find defined terms.
It creates a live, hyperlinked version of the original document. Each defined term and references to it are highlighted, so you can see the terms that matter
to you and where they appear throughout the document. Navigating through a chain of definitions is made simple by a graph which visually shows how defined
terms are linked together.
Second in the Institute of Legal Cashiers survey of user satisfaction 2007 Featured in the Law Society's Software Solutions Guide 2008 Featured in the Law Society's Software Solutions Guide 2009 with 5 first place listings Cognito Software has provided legal software solutions since 1991 originally inspired
and developed by a progressive partnership of solicitors. Since then the software has expanded from its original Legal Accounting Package through to
the more complex Legal Case Management and Legal Practice Management Solutions that are now required by the modern forward thinking firm.
Cognito now boasts a variety of Legal Software Solutions to the legal sector with HIP production, Online Case Tracking facilities, Electronic Post Room ,
CRM and Marketing Solutions.
They also offer hosted solutions with flexible payment terms including rentals and Pay Per Matter. The pricing is extremely competitive and they have
solutions in place specifically to help the smaller firms.
Converge-IT provide Cloud Computing solutions, a Legal Sector specific
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application and Fully Managed IT Services to firms throughout the
UK. They help practices reduce their total IT overhead via either their Cloud IT solution or via an outsourced
fully managed service. The Legal Sector specific Client Relationship Management
application also help firms to drive increased revenues via exploiting
existing databases, improving cross departmental sales opportunities,
helping fee earners better manage key accounts and by producing and
managing effective marketing campaigns.
Converge IT act as a complete outsourced IT department for small firms,
actively supporting and managing their clients' network and helping them
protect their data. They also work with larger firms by providing
specific solutions including a Client Relationship Management
application, Virtualisation, Unified Communications, Storage and
Disaster Recovery solutions, all underpinned by a comprehensive and
flexible IT Support Service.
ConveyanceLink is designed to
streamline the whole conveyancing process, from sending a quote to finalising a completion statement.
It removes the inital investment
and annual license fees usually associated with a quality case
management solution and replaces them with a cost per file, which can be passed on as a
disbursement. The system assists users through
every step of the process, from producing the initial estimate through
to e-submission of the SDLT - producing letters, Land Registry forms,
bills and completion statements along the way.
ConveyProControl, from the creators
of "SDLT.co.uk" is the conveyancing case
management system for high street practices, developed by conveyancers for
conveyancers. Helping to standardise, automate and track each step in the
conveyancing process, Convey Control is intended to significantly reduce
administration time, and therefore costs, for all types of conveyancing. The
software contains over 300 easily personalised standard letters, documents
and official forms together with a database containing details of all
clients and other related parties. It monitors completion warning dates and
provides pro-active secure web-based progress reports for clients,
solicitors, estate agents and other parties.
See also SDLT.co.uk.
COURTMAN is designed specifically for Scottish Litigators.
It ensures compliance with ordinary case rules, calculates critical dates and warnings, generates standard court forms and
replaces the firm's court diary. It works either as a standalone solution or in a network and is
designed to work "out of the box" with minimal configuration.
Smaller companies in the legal area form a group to market their skills CoreLegal is a new group of consultants and suppliers for lawyers working together.
They deal with all aspects of legal practice administration; legal bookkeeping from Boogles, legal accounts systems from Perfect Books Accounts,
and legal costings from Lawlords. Staff training from Rebekah Gomez of Coach London and process serving and tracing services by Blackhawk Investigations.
Specialist legal insurance from Cobine Carmelson Ltd, specialist lawyers’ banking services by John Brooks of Royal Bank of Scotland
and law practice valuations and mergers from The Bottom Line Consultancy. Customer satisfaction surveys and legal market research
from IRN Research, specialist law firm marketing from The Fedora Consultancy and legal newsletters written by Roger J Gould.
Crisis management or reputation protection support from Infoplan Public Relations.
Crescendo provide modular solutions which incorporate the most advanced
digital dictation, transcription and Voice Recognition systems. The software works as a client/server based solution,
which provides maximum control and security over the dictation and transcription processes.
The user experience is fully featured and very easy to use. From a management point of view, the user has full control over
document production routines and turnaround deadlines. Crescendo supports all methods of dictation from desktop to
mobile, including Blackberry, Iphone and Windows Mobile. Firms of all sizes can experience the benefits of a truly
professional digital dictation solution.
Denovo Business Intelligence
is a privately owned company which has delivered Legal Software Solutions to firms throughout the
UK since 1982. Over 400 Law Firms use their Software. The current
range of software has been developed to integrate seamlessly with
Microsoft Windows and Office products applications.
The "Intelligent" suite of software is designed to help lawyers
to manage their time and, as its name suggests, is also smart enough to
recognise the case number and the fee to be charged. It also allows
lawyers to produce an electronic daily timesheet of activities, and
works out the various charging rates automatically.
The two latest additions to the innovative range of software are
• Denovo Intelligent Cloud, enabling the software to be accessed from anywhere (see more about this
here) and
• Denovo Intelligent Cashroom, a service whereby a legal firm can employ the expertise of a qualified legal cashier remotely and according to their needs.
Featured in the Law Society's Software Solutions Guide 2008 DPS Software is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of legal
practice management and accounts software. Their systems streamline the practice and track both work done
and to do for all users whilst automatically keeping clients and work providers updated either by SMS or web-based tracking.
They have specialist LSC software that bills fixed fees, completes all LSC Crime, Family and Civil forms and supports
online submission
Their solutions include Conveyancing, Personal Injury, Family (including civil billing), Crime including full billing & contract
management, Probate with estate accounts, Immigration and Employment.
Their ‘IT as a service’ department delivers DPS and Microsoft software solutions as a hosted service to over 60 firms (July 2010).
With their own data centre they provide business continuity and disaster recovery along with full home and remote working,
anti spam & virus and of course full delivery of the practice management solution and Microsoft Office. The hosting is a fully
managed service inclusive of periodic user training and on site staff if required.
DPS is dedicated to innovation and adapting its products and services to a constantly changing legal environment.
