All PracticePanther Legal Software Reviews

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User Profile

Thalia

Verified reviewer

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed December 2017

Working with Practice Panther

The user-interface is designed for quick and easy navigation. You can look at your dashboard and very clearly see everything you need to know for your day to run smoothly (well as smoothly as possible). It is cost effective and the onboarding and training are taken care of with Practice Panther's incredible customer service.

PROS

Before PracticePanther we had started an Excel spreadsheet to log our contacts for conflicts checks. We created a joint email account with Gmail so our email would be centralized and that also gave us a central calendar that we all had access to in order to set appointments, record deadlines, etc. We also created a Dropbox account for file storage. While everything was low cost or free, all the parts felt scattered. PracticePanther pulls it all together in one beautiful, user-friendly interface. Now, instead of having to pull up 5 or 6 different apps/websites, we are able to pull up just one site and have everything right there. All of the components of PracticePanther are really easy to use. The entire program is designed for efficiency and ease of use. Color-coding allows you to see and understand your financial details in mere seconds. Tasks, events, and timekeeping are easy.

CONS

I would like to see the software integrate with more programs. Quickbooks is great, but my brain works better with Wave Accounting; LawPay is great, but being able to integrate with PayPal also, would be even better. However, these are minor things and not worth seeking a different program I like as much as Practice Panther. I had shopped around quite a bit before choosing Practice Panther; I doubt I would find anything I like as much. Hands down, our favorite thing about PracticePanther is the superior support staff. If you have a problem and leave a message after hours in the chat box, you get a response generally within the hour. There is also training videos and a help center that will help you find the help that you need.

Vendor Response

Thalia, I am so happy to let you know we are about to release our new API and Zapier integration, which will open the door to MANY more integrations. We highly recommend LawPay for a number of reasons, but if you must use PayPal, we do have an integration available. We will reach out to you to show you how it works. Thank you so much!

Replied December 2017

Brenda

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed September 2021

Love PracticePanther

This software has saved us time on the tasks that would take a long time like creating letters or pleadings as they are automated now. Since the information pulls from the fields there is also a very low risk for typing errors.

PROS

Super easy to use! We love that we can create custom fields for a contact or matter and have really enjoyed the automation portion of the software. The templates are easy to create and automatically pull the information from the contact and matter sections that we need.

CONS

Under Matter, instead of editing the whole section, it would be nice if I could hoover over the field I only need to update. I also wish I could highlight text in the matter or notes section. I create multiple matters under one client and some of the information in the fields is always the same. It would be nice if I could select an option so any time I create a new matter for that client, the information in the matter auto fills for any new case going forward.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

Price and ease of use

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

Had to upgrade every so often and had to log onto our server to use. With PracticePanther, I log in from anywhere.

Christopher

Law Practice, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

2

Reviewed October 2023

Personal Experiences

When the software works, it works amazing. The issue is it works only 30% of the time.

PROS

Client portals and the ability to have certain payments be applied automatically.

CONS

The reporting system is broken, and has been for 2+ years. Getting technical support is essentially pulling teeth, there will be months (6+) without response to simple tickets after they tried to deflect and then finally acknowledged issues. Consistently claim they added the new “feature requests” when fixing a bug such as the system doing math like: $1+$2 = $4,000 when it actually is $3.00. These are not feature requests - they are bug fixes. Despite reconciling our trust account monthly - there are data errors that their system has calculated incorrectly in the past, we have shown them via bank statements etc what the problem is and what transaction it is dealing with, and 2+ years later they still haven’t fixed it. Their Zapier integrations get triggered all the time when they shouldn’t be. They blame Zapier, but it is their software triggering the automation, Zapier isn’t just randomly doing it.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

Lawmatics integration, along with client portals.

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

Regret doing it. We wanted client portals and a more robust feature suite.

Vendor Response

Hello Christopher, Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. Sorry to hear about your experience. Your feedback has been escalated, and our team is currently working to resolve the issues you encountered as expediently as possible.

Replied November 2023

Barbara

Legal Services, 1 employee

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed December 2023

Great software. Highly recommend it for small businesses

Very good. Human beings actually helped and knew what to do. Not very common in the software industry. Great customer support.

PROS

It was so easy to retrieve client information and edit it. Invoicing was a dream. Loved the online pay option.

CONS

I could not batch invoice. This was a real pain as I sent out hundreds of invoices.

LaJoyce

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed July 2021

Long Term PracticePanther User

It has been a wonderful experience.

PROS

I've been a PracticePanther user for four years now. The most important factor in my selecting PracticePanther was the ease of use. With my prior software, I had to hire independent contractors and pay for "maintenance agreements" just to have access to the help desk. With PracticePanther, their support team can assist. More important, they have videos that will walk you through the process of setting up the various systems and integrations. Finally, I love the integrations. PracticePanther integrates with Microsoft Office, Box, Dropbox and Quickbooks. Your information stays in it's original locate with seamless access from PracticePanther.

CONS

Initially, there was a big push to produce new features. I'm not seeing new features coming out as frequently. However, I would note the quality of the new features, e.g., workflows with conditional logic and e-signatures.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

Ease of use, did not require me to hire independent contractors and the integrations.

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

Lack of technical support. In 8 years, I was never able to get the program to work in functional capacity.

John

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed February 2020

Great product

Easy to learn. Easy access to tutorials and the help area is full of information. It has been a great decision to switch. I know that i have been able to capture more of my time and reduce time needed for billing.

PROS

I like being able to bill, take credit/debit card payments, and tell clients their balance with the app while in court. There are simple reports and a great dashboard to see how much is outstanding, to be billed, and the amount in my trust account. Practice panther has cut down on the time it takes for billing and made my office more efficient.

CONS

I print checks directly from practice panther, which takes several steps, but it makes it easy to add the cost to the client's billing. I would like the software to allow a report of vendors/payees' payments over various time periods as it does with tags and categories.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

quick books was overly cumbersome with numerous unnecessary features. Practice panther has needed features for a law firm that are not available in quick books. It is much easier to use than quick books.

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

I used to use quick books for billing, but it is not as geared to attorneys as practice panther. Contingency cases were especially difficult. Practice panther even has a feature for evergreen retainers.

Alexis

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed August 2019

Best practice management system I have used

I use Practice Panther as my main case managment system. My team and I LIVE on this software. It is far better than the alternatives I have used in the past and in other firms. We have it downloaded on all computers and phones for easy access in court at all times.

PROS

I like the intuitive interface, clean look, and the ability to customize my own workflows.

CONS

I would like to see a private server capability added in instead of having to rely on Box. One that we can access via VPN would be helpful. I wish we could add in a bit more automation customization. For example, I would like to be able to send my clients a customized email with attachments and helpful info before specific events, rather than the generic reminder email. I would also like the ability to create conditional logic in certain events.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

The main reason I initially chose it was price and interface look. Now I wouldn't change for anything because it is constantly evolving with my firm's growth and provides all the support we need.

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

There was much more functionality and customization available with PP than Abacus.

Haley

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed June 2020

The team at PracticePanther is Great.

PROS

They add features on a regular basis and have loads of training. The support staff is super helpful and if they don't know the answer they will try to find it. I understand that every system is different and every one has it's pros and cons. I really think once we utilize every single feature this program has we will be a much better law firm.

CONS

The email integrations phase in and out on working. It may simply be the plugin I have for Gmail but that can be a struggle.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

The pricing and some of the features. I think Cosmolex may have the accounting side better locked down but I liked the ease of PracticePanther.

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

Leap was far too expensive for what they provided.

User Profile

Sofia

Verified reviewer

Legal Services

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed April 2018

A well designed CRM and so far, we cannot be happier with the product

Part of M Legal's mission is to stay innovative. Practice Panther (PP) as a case relationship management (CRM) tool has redesigned how the firm works overall. The user experience from the moment a client logs onto our website, uses the embedded intake form, to create a client profile to PP is seamless. This is just one of the time-saving tools we have discovered. This automated way of working and being able to integrate systems has forced M Legal to rethink how we work and more importantly, how to we can simplify our working processes. This has been a real game-changer for the business. While many of us worked with CRMs in the past, most of them were clunky and stand-alone systems that could not work with other applications or software. PP has made managing clients much easier, where our lawyers are in control from the moment a case is initiated, all the way through to billing clients. This has also given a level of transparency across the practice as lawyers can pick up any file from where the last person left off and delegate their work during absences. This transparency was a key selling point for us as we believe it is a core component of running an effective law firm.

PROS

The user experience from the moment a client logs onto our website, uses the embedded intake form, to create a client profile to PP is seamless. This is just one of the time-saving tools we have discovered. This automated way of working and being able to integrate systems has forced M Legal to rethink how we work and more importantly, how to we can simplify our working processes. While many of us worked with CRMs in the past, most of them were clunky and stand-alone systems that could not work with other applications or software. PP has made managing clients much easier, where our lawyers are in control from the moment a case is initiated, all the way through to billing clients. We have experienced our fair share of poor technical support teams when using other software programs. With PP, despite the time differences between Miami and Sydney, their technical support team are always available, whether it is through the chat portal, email or by phone. Each technical person is professional, knowledgeable and continues to take care of your matter until it is resolved. Further, they always have something new to teach you about the PP system on each call. I cannot express how impressed we are, with what we consider as stellar service from this tech support team.

CONS

Naturally, a product such as this is not going to have universal application across all legal fields. I would say that in the immigration space the status of a case is really important, so having a status bar that is customisable would be a feature that could be improved. Also, a lot of our data from clients are taken from in-take forms - we require intake forms that are easier to build and that have the capability of storing more information. While these are work in progress type issues, this certainly does not take away from PP's product, which we believe is a well designed and thought through CRM system.

Patricia

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed June 2019

Best integration with Office 365

Everything we need is here, trust accounting, case reporting, financial reporting, customizable fields, document automation, etc.

PROS

Practice Panther out performs on integration with Outlook. Users can send email from within the platform and the email will send in outlook, as well as be saved in the PP file. Similarly, emails that are received can be added by a drag and drop that resides on the Outlook side. It also has better document automation and work flows than the competitive products.

CONS

The dash board at the matter level could be better. All of the information is there, but one has to move from tab to tab to find it. I'd like a "status" feed at the top (with the ability to generate reports for all open matters and current status) instead of the feed that is at the bottom of the case dashboard (which we don't seem to use).

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

Pricing, ease of use, and Office Integration.

Robert

Law Practice, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed June 2020

The First (and Last) Billing Software You Will Need

Our own experience for our firm has been fantastic. Support staff has been very prompt and helpful whenever we had a question. I have recommended the product to every attorney I know.

PROS

Our entire office, from attorneys to support staff to office administrator, have all commented how intuitive and easy the software is to use. There is no doubt that our attorneys and paralegals have become more productive from using this software. Also, the reports for A/R, billable time per user, and many others are extremely valuable. We are a new firm, and this is our first (and last) billing software for our office.

CONS

If there is one thing I am "disappointed" with, it would have to be the add-on we purchased from Law Tool Box for court rules. When we first started using it, the rules for Nevada (where we practice), were almost all incorrect, or useless for our civil litigation practice. Despite providing Law Tool Box with all of the information on the proper court rules that apply here in Nevada over a month ago, they have still not made those changes. We have not been able to use or rely on it for anything. A great concept, but not functional. Useless.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

I test drove Clio and Bill4 Time, but I didn't find them as functional or easy to use.

Aska

Law Practice, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed May 2019

User-friendly software but there are still room for improvement to effectively serve larger firms

(continued from Cons) This sorting function for customized fields will potentially save us a lot of time. (3) Tags are great features, but the ability to sort the data using the tag is very limited. When you search using multiples tags, the software only recognize it as Tag 1 "AND" Tag 2, and gives you data that has BOTH tags. For instance, it's only "Show data that has Tag A AND Tag B". You can't do "Show me the data that has Tag A OR Tag B". You can't search data that DOES NOT have the specific tag either. If the search function in Tags was more comprehensive, it will allow users to expand the usage of tags and give users more flexibility as to how we can efficiently search the data we need. Practice Panther Tech Support has been aware of the suggestions listed above. However, there has not been any update on the progress, and we do not know if these functions will be ever available. We definitely would like to see them implemented very soon. I am open to revise this review once these functionalities become available.

PROS

This software is intuitive, easy to navigate and very user-friendly. Tech support is promptly available and they are very patient. Practice Panther continues to make improvements on the software and they listen to their customers feedback. They have fixed our issues with our calendar being very slow to load. It's fast now and working very well.

CONS

There are still room for improvement in terms of features and functions. (1) The format (layout) of the calendar is not user-friendly for mid to large firms with more than 10 employees. Everyone's events are scattered across the calendar and overlap with each other which makes difficult to identify availability for specific staff. Events are displayed with different colors assigned to each staff. It's hard to follow 10+ different colors on computer screen and it is definitely not working for staff who are color-blind. It's really difficult to see who has appointments at each hour throughout the day. We suggested to have columns for each staff so that it only takes a glance to identify who is available when, just like how calendars are in Time Matters from Lexis Nexis. (2) Sorting function for customized fields is not available unfortunately. What makes this software great is the customization you can make to fit it to your exact needs. However, customized fields are not sort-able, and without the sorting function for the customized fields, data is not as valuable and usable as it should be. As a legal administrator who manages the data and runs productivity report for legal staff, we are currently spending a lot of time downloading the information from the software to MS Excel, sorting and manipulating the data in Excel, and finally coming back to the PracticePanther to make necessary changes within the software. (Continues to overall experience)

Michael

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed June 2018

After years of begging them for real fixed price billing, I'm giving up.

It was a good start to law firm management, now I need something that works like a law firm needs to work, not force my law firm to work like the software wants me to.

PROS

It's easy to learn the basics. The calendar is good, it's helpful that they show tasks there. Searching is great. It's totally adequate if all you do is bill for time and integrate with Quickbooks.

CONS

Panther has no report on Items (e.g. how much of your revenue is from Document Drafting vs Litigation). To get such a report, you MUST integrate with Quickbooks. But the biggest problem is that Fixed Price billing (what they call "Flat Fee") is worthless. Fixed Price billing was clearly an afterthought, and their implementation has not changed at all since the early days when I started using it: 1) It does not let you assign an Item as you can with time entries, so you can't easily tell Quickbooks that a Fixed Price invoice was for a trademark application, not doc review; 2) You can't assign a lawyer to a Fixed Price billing, so you cannot get a report to help you pay everyone proportionally to their Fixed Price billings; 3) Fixed Price matters become immediately billable even if no work has been done, so you must manually keep track of when it's time to invoice for a Fixed Price matter, and there's no report on billable Fixed Price matters; 4) When entering time on a Fixed Price matter, there's way no way to check whether you are about to exceed the budget, and no way anywhere to compare budgeted vs actual. If you're a modern firm moving to fixed price as much as possible, you'll spend a LOT of time looking for work-arounds, and you'll find that implementing your work-arounds will chew up any time saving you might have gotten from using the rest of the software. I can't wait to change to software that does Fixed Price right.

Vendor Response

Hey Michael, thank you so much for you feedback. I just wanted to let you know that based on the feedback of our users, yourself included, we have implemented a NEW FLAT FEE pricing option. We are the ONLY ones in the market to offer this function! We understand that the needs of our firms are constantly evolving and we value the suggestions and feedback of all of our users. You can check out the guide published by our training department here: https://support.practicepanther.com/contacts-and-matters/getting-started/flat-fees-tutorial Furthermore, visit our updates page for past and future releases. https://www.practicepanther.com/law-firm-practice-management-software/ Thanks for being a valued customer from the beginning!

Replied August 2018

Tara

Used free trial

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed April 2017

PracticePanther has cut the amount of time I spend on my office management duties by about 65%.

Before PracticePanther my client information was all over my computer. I kept track of billable hours and financials in Exel, client emails in Google, and my forms (intake, representation, agreements, court filings etc) in Word. This meant in order to have everything as it pertained to a specific client in one place, I had to print everything out. And, I was using nonlegal software to send out billing invoices which lead to long hours of transcribing information from Excel to the service I was using. The rate of error of retyping information like addresses or agreements or billable hours into different software programs was high. I am a solo practitioner who does not have a clerk, secretary or paralegal. So after a long day of work, I then had to become the marketing, IT and accounting departments. I spent a lot of time doing things two and three times. I knew I needed a case management system but was afraid it would be too expensive or time consuming to learn. After doing my due diligence I found PracticePanther. Not only was PP one of the most affordable options out there, they had very intuitive methods of doing things so the learning curve did not take much time. Now anything and everything pertaining to a specific client is kept in one place. All billables, emails, evidence, representation agreements I even enter details of phone calls and meetings I have on matters in the Notes section for each matter so I have a documented history of what was discussed on what day. PracticePanther has cut the amount of time I spend on my office management duties by about 65%. I use that time to grow my practice, network or do pro bono work.

PROS

I love the IT help, the invoicing system and the templates feature. I had a lot of questions and needed a lot of help in the beginning. Being able to schedule times to discuss my issues with the IT guys at PracticePanther was great. The fact that they can take over your computer remotely so they can see what you see in real time is even better. Their response time to non-scheduled issues is pretty fast. I have also found their FAQs and how to videos to be extremely helpful but having a live person to speak with who can access your computer is just as good as having someone standing next to me while I work. The invoicing system is phenomenal. It keeps track of all of my client banking accounts. I can see at any time how much is in my IOLTA account, how much is in my operating account, how much a client owes, how much a client has paid and how much I have billed a client but not yet invoiced. I can do this client by client, matter by matter or as an overall total. LawPay is free if you sign up through PracticePanther which is awesome because it handles my credit card transactions and when a client pays, it automatically updates my invoicing and accounts. PracticePanther also knows how to deduct things from a client's retainer when sending out an invoice so you don't have to worry about that either. Their timing device feeds right into the system. It is awesome.

Kathleen

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed May 2021

PracticePanther

PracticePanther is like having a full time employee at a fraction of the cost without any employment law issues. I couldn't run my law firm without PracticePanther. The software is easy to use, the PP support is excellent, and the company is always rolling out new features to make running my law office easier and more efficiently!

PROS

It's very hard to pinpoint what I like the most about PracticePanther since there are so many features I rely on for my law practice. I very much like that I can find everything related to a contact or matter in one place. All emails and their attachments, notes, documents, billing, payments, calendar, "to do" list (Tasks), time entries, and communications for a contact and matter can be found in PracticePanther. I use the templates and workflows on a daily basis, which save me time and keep me on track. With a simple click I can send an online questionnaire to a client that, once completed, is kept in the client account. The tags allow me to filter and label my contacts and matters any way I want. I use PantherPay for online payments which is very easy and shows all payments in the billing account immediately. I also like that new features are made available regularly - the software is always improving!

CONS

1) Would like for clients to start, save, and continue an intake form at a later time and have them receive a copy of their answers after being submitted. 2) The timer buffers endlessly if the page has not been refreshed. I realize you are working on this. :-/ 3) If a client has a PP account with another law firm, that client cannot open a new account with my firm using that same email address. Is there a way to fix this? 4) Would love to have conditional/dynamic fields in the intake forms.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

PracticePanther had a good online review and the cost was reasonable. But, it was the template feature that really made the decision for me.

Zach

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed May 2018

Easy to use practice management software with top-end functionality at low price

Easy of keeping track of deadlines and client contacts. Overall, the best practice management software I have seen for the price. I would say this performs better than CLIO (I've used it with ALL of the add-ons), way better than AMICUS and MyCase and similar to ABACUS. They need to add a matter pre-billing function to run attorney's fees reports and allow you to copy/paste e-mails into the matter, but otherwise this is a perfect solution for most practitioners. Unless you are using the rules-based calendaring in ABACUS or Westlaw's Firm Central, I have not seen a product that is nearly as useful on the market.

PROS

Unlike a number of the cheaper practice management software programs on the market today, Practice Panther has a wide range of functions within the software which are easy to use. Instead of just having "Tasks" or "to-dos", PP allows you to create Activities which can be "Events" "E-mails" "Phone calls" or "Tasks". On the Task front, PP allows you to set sub-reminders that can send you e-mails or text messages in advance, like say "7 days before," and "3 days before," for a filing deadline. I also think it is pretty fantastic that PP shows whether a time entry has been completed for EVERY SINGLE ACTIVITY marked "completed" or "in progress". This would be incredibly useful for practitioners (mostly civil) managing staff and trying to deal with staff not accounting for all of their time in billing. The "mail sync" function is also easy to use, and allows you to e-mail out of your native software (MS Outlook, GMAIL, etc) and simply "bcc" the client matter itself. When you do this, the e-mail is automatically saved into the matter. Almost every other program out there that I have used requires you to use their client messaging portal to get the same functionality. The templates are easy to use for creating documents to merge out of PP also. Think client engagement letters, releases, and basic letterheads that you use in every file. We don't use PP for accepting payments so I cannot comment on that portion.

CONS

1. Matter pre-bills or invoicing. In many civil cases there will be a time when you need to prepare a billing report to present to the court solely for a claim of attorney's fees. In other software that I have used, you can run a report for a set period of time or type of billing entries which will then create a printable draft invoice-looking document. You would then be able to slap an exhibit sticker on that document and use it for your attorney's fee request. I haven't found a way to easily do this in PP yet, and it seems like you would have to utilize a draft invoice which captures all time billed in the matter. I could be wrong. 2. No Batch Entry System for E-mails. PP has a GREAT syncing system that works with your native e-mail so you can BCC messages into the matter when you send or receive them. However, if you forget to include the mail-sync in your BCC line, or don't forward a message to the mail-sync, there is no easy way to subsequently get the e-mails into the matter in PP. What I mean is this: say you have a number of e-mails from someone that weren't saved into a client PP matter and instead lived in your Outlook before the client actually hired. You would have to manually forward each one of your emails to the mail-sync to get them into PP. Additionally, if you are a federal criminal lawyer and use CORRLINKS to communicate with your clients you will know that you can't forward out of that system. PP doesn't let you copy/paste emails so your stuck.

Michael

Legal Services, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed September 2019

Practice Panther Time Keeping and Billing for Attorneys

I have always been terrible at time keeping and billing. I have probably left Hundreds if not Thousands of dollars on the table by failing to properly keep track of my time and billing. With Practice Panther I am encouraged to keep track of my time and billing because it is fun and easy to do. And I am now on top of past due bills, who is paying on time, and when to prompt clients its time to pay up!

PROS

I really like two features the most. First, is the absolutely fabulous customer support that I receive. I get answers within less than 60 minutes from the time I contact them. Second is the ease of use. Practice Panther is almost intuitive in its use. If the answer doesn't jump out at you, there are tons of training videos available and the online customer help is spot on.

CONS

I use the basic Essential Monthly Plan. It is the lowest cost but the value is exceptional. I do wish I had some of the additional features in the higher priced plans but those don't fit my budget currently. Those features I can supplement with my own documents or programs.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

The alternatives were good but way more expensive and not flexible like Practice Panther. I can add additional users as the need arises without costing me that much more in program costs.

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

Tussman is a good program. But it is hard to set up the first time and if you make changes they do not always carry through. I very much enjoyed working with the folks at Tussman but dreaded having to input my time and work charges. Practice Panther resolved all of those issues for me. Even though Practice Panther is a subscription model software and Tussman is a single purchase software, I prefer Practice Panther.

Richard

Law Practice, 1 employee

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed July 2017

Simple sophisticated software that will simplify your practice

This is a complete solution for my practice. I am a single solo so the document automation, notes, time entries and billing are a great way to save time and effort.

PROS

One of the best features of the software is not so much a feature but the logic employed in designing the flow of data. I have used a number of the more popular programs and can heartily recommend this as the best I have found. The ease of use makes it a top choice if you have staff that will use it. I am a single solo and it is not one of my concerns yet. But, I can't see anyone not understanding the flow of information. The automation is superb. Document assembly is easy and logical. One of the best features is the Forms generator. Email the form to your client or prospective client - they fill it out - and it goes right into your data. No need to waste time inputting names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and any other data you would like to have handy in your file. Tracking time is a breeze as is generating invoices, tracking retainer accounts, tracking trust accounts and more (I find the accounting component more than meets my needs). Over time you will come to rely on the information in the program over the physical file. It has become my organizational hub for all that I do.

CONS

I would like to see a thick book explaining all the capabilities and limits. The support people are great and can answer any question - I just like to read it and push the software to its limits. I have used PP for some time - moving to another package for some time. At twice the price - it did less. In my brief time away the product dramatically improved & I am back and very happy.

JG

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

2

FUNCTIONALITY

2

Reviewed March 2021

Developer Issues

Overall the program is subpar. It is great for simple billing tasks but customer support response time is lacking and the developer has limited the software to basic usage. Every time I raise a question about something simple that is not available I get the standard "that is a developer question" Will be looking for other programs to utilize that are geared more towards our needs.

PROS

The product is easy to manipulate and anyone can migrate through entering time.

CONS

Their billing templates are not interchangeable. I have clients that use different placements for the law firm id/customer id. Contacted customer support (as there is an option to copy the template) to find out how to reverse the 2 columns and was told that it cannot be done and that he would bring it up with the developer. I highly doubt that that is the case since I never received any response back. This means that each month I have to go into the ledes file and reverse the numbers in the 2 columns. Very time consuming and not realistic if you have more than 1 client utilizing ledes billing. Also, their reporting is horrific as you cannot create your own customized report.

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

I was not at the firm when the software was purchased or I would have highly recommended against it.

Vendor Response

Hi JG, we appreciate you taking the time to leave a review. We are happy that you found PracticePanther easy to navigate and apologize you had issues with the billing templates. Our development team was notified of your request for this change. If you have anything else we can help with, please let us know.

Replied March 2021

Joseph

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed April 2017

Great Product!

I recently switched to PracticePanther after 20 years using different version of Amicus Attorney. While Amicus helped me to keep my practice moving for years, the lack of continuing support for the product and meaningful changes caused me to start looking at alternatives. After researching the current crop of practice management programs and downloading several demo's, I ended subscribing to the PracticePanther team. The first reason I chose PP was the fact that I was able to create "workflows" that automate a ton of the tasks required for several practices areas. For example, a new misdemeanor criminal case can have the misdemeanor workflow that I created applied and all of the steps for the cases are automatically generated. The scheduling of the first client meeting, initial hearing, filing of our appearance, requesting discovery, sending discovery, attending the pretrial conference, plea meeting with client and change of plea hearing all become tasks or calendar events with just the touch of a button. My assistant then just needs to coordinate the dates for all of the auto-generated tasks or events in order to have the file completely organized. The workflow also assigns the responsibility for completion of tasks automatically to me or my staff so we all are reminded of what needs to take place next. The second selling feature for me was the automated email and text-message reminders that can be generated to the client (and to staff if desired). I like that I receive a text reminder from my dentist's office and wanted something similar. For all events that I create within the workflow, I can assign the reminder details. This has significantly lowered the number of no-shows that I have for office meetings and court hearings and reduces the staff time that was spent before calling to remind clients of court dates and meetings. The third key feature that I really wanted was the secure client portal feature. The portal allows me to hand incoming clients an Ipad to have them fill out their intake information that we would need to create a new client file. Once the client has completed the information on the Ipad, it automatically creates a new contact within the PP system and we can then easily generate a new matter if we are hired. For clients that we choose to work with, they are also sent an email invitation to open their secure portal, thus allowing them access to their online file within the PP system. Clients love it.

PROS

Great tools, great automation, great customer support

CONS

There are continuing areas that we could further automate to make the product even more amazing.

Linda

Legal Services, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2019

Why did I wait so long?

Until we found PP, we were posting our files in OneDrive and having to search for things that we should not need to. Quickbooks is inadequate for billing legal-type work and there was no way to run any kind of conflict check without making a spreadsheet and manually adding new clients and inquiries. Now, all we do is put everything in PP. There we can see the progress of our cases, billing, calendars, tasks assignments, project plans and do conflict checks based on more than just the case caption or attorneys. Each case has tag options for identifying the type of work we are doing or any other significant aspect of the case and we can use that also for finding things within the matter or inside our entire database. What's more, it works with OneDrive, so all of our documents are accessible within the program. This is just what we needed and more...

PROS

As a small practice, I needed to organize and implement an office management system that I could use if my assistant was not here. This software is the most intuitive, responsive and useful that I have tried...and I have test driven four of the top recommended products. I have everything I need in one package; whereas, other companies require additional packages to connect to email and form templates. The learning curve has been very small. Both of us here have not had any training yet and are up and running (for the most part) after only a week or so. Now we will be taking advantage of the great training videos and one-on-one training to hone our skills and use it to its fullest extent.

CONS

So far, our experience has only been positive. Graphics are simple and somewhat old-fashioned, BUT they work great for finding things...that's what counts.

Reason for choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

From the very beginning, it was apparent to us that this was the software that we could work with...we got the warm fuzzies when we discovered that we could just start right up and become proficient without having to "read the book".

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

Bill4Time did not have enough options and Clio's learning curve was WAY too much for us. Besides, Clio required that we subscribe two sets of software with two fees...NOPE!

Jonathan

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed January 2018

TOP NOTCH CUSTOMER SERVICE AND THEY CAN ADAPT TO MEET YOUR NEEDS!

PROS

The customer service reps are always available (through the website/app!) and are extremely flexible as far as meeting individual requests. The software overall is very intuitive and once the basic information is inputted, training other attorneys and staff is easy. The PracticePanther reps even offered to help with training and do individualized training as necessary! The iphone app is simple yet you can do everything on it you need to - right from court. I never have to worry about missing court dates or even reminders to review certain files or specific documents because in less than a minute I can have a task set, reminders set, and it will popup as I set it. The calendar syncs with Google Calendar and they imported all of our client contacts from Quickbooks Online, saving us many hours of data entry. We are getting into the more advanced functions like templates, workflows, and other automation and that's really where the software shines. You create the custom fields, you choose what information is important for every matter, and you can add-on as you are creating matters. The flexibility and ease of access to everything - including client files from DropBox, which can mirror any network - is unrivaled. Really happy we went with PracticePanther. The amount of time saved having customer care/customer service always available is invaluable. Highly recommended for law firms of all sizes.

CONS

Still working on getting the office transitioned from a paper filing and calendaring system to online. So the one suggestion I would have is to maybe have an app for the calendar that is independent from the phone app - similar to google calendar. Also, there should be a way to turn the default settings to "Do not email assignees" when a workflow is applied. But that's a tiny suggestion. Overall no major complaints.

Philip

Law Practice, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed July 2017

We have been very happy with the process and responsiveness of PP. Happy we took the plunge.

We are becoming more efficient and better able to service our clients at a higher level. It ultimately will allow me to market our firm even better. My team is getting very excited about it. Everything has been positive thus far. There is a lot to learn on the software. As we have a lot of people working with the software at once, it results in people achieving knowledge quickly. However, that is to be expected with any practice management software. The good thing is that PP personnel are always there to help.

PROS

We are just getting started with the software and have been implementing only for a few weeks. I will update my experience again in about one month. Although we were efficient, we were not hyper-efficient before Practice Panther. Also, although we are a very systematic firm with set processes, our significant growth made it impossible for us to sustain the systems without a practice management software. From what I have seen, Practice Panther allows us to become hyper efficient because of the following: 1. We are now able to input data one time rather than several times allowing our staff to work on more things and learn more substantive tasks. 2. Inputting information then populates forms and sets up matters. 3. We are able to task and monitor the tasks without relying on memory, sticky notes, pads of paper and task lists. 4. All of the information is now in one place without the need of navigating through various portions of our database. 5. Our clients are happy with the immediate availability and access to their documents without having to request it via email and the ability to communicate through the portal. 6. I believe that the system will allow us to increase capacity and scale our practice.Our model is simple. We try to make the experience for our clients seamless and effortless through the use of portals and constant access to the resources of our firm. The technology will allow us to compete against larger firms.

Ron

Legal Services, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed January 2022

Customized client intake, easy reporting, and simple invoice tracking!

It really has changed how we interact with our clients. The ease of sending new client intake forms, which can be filled out on any device regardless of having a PracticePanther account, has really streamlined our intake process. Being able to track invoices right within the tool, and being able to generate reports easily - it really has streamlined how we operate.

PROS

The look and feel was one of our deciding factors to go with PracticePanther. It’s incredibly intuitive, and most of your data is available whenever you need it. In immigration law, there’s a lot of very important dates and information that need to be tracked, so being able to create all the custom fields we needed was a big win. I also love how easy it is to track our billing. We can automatically track who has paid, and then follow-up with anyone we still need to collect from. Giving extra transparency to our clients really showcases our ability to use technology to enhance our services.

CONS

When starting with any new software you need to approach it with some patience. There’s a lot of training available, both videos and text-based. So getting ramped-up and knowing that we needed to experiment with customization and intake forms, and get the team to support using it was going to take some time.

Harold

Law Practice, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed February 2021

Law Office Management Software

PROS

This software is great right out of the box, so to speak; there is no box. But as I have needed something extra I have made suggestions and the company actually improves the program. New additions come up as other users make suggestions as well. The program is very intuitive and therefore easy to learn and use when you are a new user. But with time I have learned that it can do so much more than I realized at first. The customer support is great at teaching users how to do some new task and the You Tube training videos is a great way to learn how to make your practice more efficient using options that you might not otherwise know are available. Overall, this is the best law office management software I have used over the last 15 years.

CONS

Rarely, there have been times when I wanted to create a report that the program was not able to generate and I would need to export a current report to excel and then modify or add data to get the report that I needed.

Reasons for switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

Practice Panther was more flexible and could generate better data to help me manage my practice.

Showing 1 - 25 of 502 Reviews