Finding software can be overwhelming. We've helped hundreds of law firms choose the right legal software so they can centralize case data and store important documents electronically.
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Abacus Law is both cloud-based and on-premise case automation solution designed explicitly for legal practices. The system works as a practice management tool that helps in managing workflows including billing, time and accounting... Read more
Platforms: Win
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
PracticePanther Legal Software is a legal management solution for small to midsize practices specializing in areas including bankruptcy law, personal injury, divorce, estate planning, litigation, criminal law and many more. The system... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Clio is a cloud-based legal practice management solution suitable for small to large law firms. The platform enables legal firms to track important deadlines, manage cases and documents and bill and collect from clients. The time... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
MyCase is a cloud-based legal management solution that helps attorneys in small size law firms to manage communications with their clients and carry out daily business operations. The solution also provides functionalities for accounting... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
TimeSolv is a cloud-based legal time tracking and billing solution that caters to law firms, accountants, consultants, architects, and freelancers, helping them manage daily business operations. TimeSolv integrates project management... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Zola Suite is a cloud-based legal practice management solution for single users as well as small and midsize law firms. Key features include task management, built-in email, document management, client portals, a calendar, contact... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Filevine is a cloud-based case management solution for small and midsize legal firms and legal professionals. It helps in managing case documents, communication and project management. Key features include bill and expense tracking,... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Tabs3 Software offers practice management, case management and financials for small to midsize firms in any practice area. Tabs3 enables legal professionals to manage their schedule and matters as well as track their time and bill... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: On premise
Business Size:
Smokeball is a complete cloud-based legal productivity software to automatically record time for you, allowing you to increase your firm’s profitability and productivity by over 30%. Whether you bill hourly, fixed fee, or on contingency,... Read more
Platforms: Win
Deployments: On premise
Business Size:
CloudLex a cloud-based legal management solution built exclusively for plaintiff personal injury law firms of all sizes. CloudLex’s Matter Manager enables users to collaborate through matter-specific communication tools and organize... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
CASEpeer is a cloud-based case management platform suitable for law firms of all sizes. It offers intake, case and task management tools, document management, negotiation and litigation tracking, reporting, search tools, case timelines... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
ProTempus is an on-premise practice management solution designed for small law firms. Key features include contact management, document management, case management and trust accounting. ProTempus’ contact management functionality... Read more
Platforms: Win
Deployments: On premise
Business Size:
Conceptualized by a partner at a personal injury law firm, SmartAdvocate is a legal management platform that offers flexible deployment options and a modular suite of applications. In addition to case management, attorneys and their... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
GrowPath is a cloud-based case management and client intake solution designed for attorneys and paralegals in midsize and large legal firms. Features include document management, matter trackers, market measurement tools and more. GrowPath... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
LegalEdge is a cloud-based case and matter management solution for government, city and county attorneys, agencies and school districts as well as prosecutors and public defenders. Case screens include claims, contracts, litigation... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Mitratech is a legal management system suitable for midsize to large corporate law firms. Key features include case management, contact management, document management, calendaring and docketing, time tracking, billing and invoicing... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Legal Files is an on-premise legal case and matter management solution for corporations, government agencies, universities and insurance agencies. The solution enables legal professionals and others to manage vital information, including... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: On premise
Business Size:
Law Ruler is redefining what legal practice management and intake software should be for personal injury and mass tort law firms. It is built specifically for lawyers to acquire more cases and manage them better. With Law Ruler, you... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Logikcull is a cloud-based system for managing the process of legal discovery. With Logikcull, practices are able to drag and drop files, search, cull and create discovery productions within a secure system. Logikcull makes documents... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Legal Track is used by in-house counsel and is designed specifically for the ever changing needs of the corporate legal department. Our system allow the legal departments to handle Contracts, Litigations (including outside counsel),... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud, On premise
Business Size:
Law firms are famous for the high volume of paperwork they must manage. Additionally, attorneys must keep track of their time for billing purposes, which is challenging when they have multiple clients or are working on contingency.
Legal practice management software streamlines the lawyer’s workflow with a centralized database, fast and flexible searching, calendaring, task tracking, phone messaging, mobile access and app integration and more. It helps enhance firm efficiency and prevents attorneys from being buried under physical files. Moreover, it helps prevent calendar and deadline-related errors, which are responsible for most legal malpractice claims (according to The American Bar Association).
Most practice management systems offer the same applications for all practice areas, but provide some degree of customization. And while many providers only offer their applications as a package, some are sold on a best-of-breed or “stand-alone” basis (e.g., time and billing systems). This guide provides an overview of legal practice management software to help you research and narrow down the best option for your firm.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Reviewers' Choice
What Is a Content Management System?
Common Features of Legal Practice Management Software
What Type of Buyer Are You?
How Is It Priced?
Benefits and Potential Issues
The Best Tactics for Evaluating Software
Market Trends to Understand
Recent Events You Should Know About
Reviewers' Choice
Reviewers' Choice Products
| Clio | Filevine |
| PracticePanther | Smokeball |
| TrialWorks | Zola Suite |
| AbacusLaw |
Our Reviewers’ Choice list shows the five highest user-rated software solutions for Legal Management when adjusted for total number of reviews and recency of reviews.
If a software solution has more reviews, and more recent reviews, we value those ratings more highly than a product with fewer, older reviews. This is because is it much harder to get 100 five-star reviews than it is to get 10.
We also know that software vendors continually tweak and update their product, so we believe that more recent reviews tend to be more accurate.
To determine which products made the final cut, we looked at how users rated each solution's:
- Overall performance,
- Ease of use, and
- Customer support
A solution can make the Reviewers' Choice top five in all three categories, or just one or two. All software solutions in the Reviewers' Choice have at least 10 reviews from real software users. The final products are listed in alphabetical order from left to right.
For more details on how we selected our Reviewers' Choice, read the full methodology.
Common Features of Legal Practice Management Software
| Case management | Offers a centralized database, fast and flexible searching, task tracking and management, phone messaging and checks for conflicts of interest and statute of limitations. Organizes the process of case handling and management from beginning to end, thus saving time and money. |
| Contact management/legal CRM | Tracks, logs and stores details about phone calls and emails, and gives callback reminders. Provides you the tools needed to keep in touch through scheduled phone calls, correspondence and meetings. Adds automation to schedule meetings, write letters and emails, and make phone calls—all designed to cultivate your role as a trusted advisor. |
| Document management | Drafts documents and links to word processing programs. Streamlines your document management process and decreases the time and energy required to find essential documents. |
| Document assembly | Efficiently creates legal documents from automated templates that encompass simple forms and letters to complex legal documents. Integrates with programs such as Dropbox and Evernote, and provides case and matter tagging. Reduces the time it takes to create drafts of document. |
| Calendaring and docketing | Allows you to view tasks, deadlines, appointments and meetings by day, week, month or year. Calculates calendar dates, schedules appointments and meetings. Enables you to automatically schedule dates in accordance with court rules relevant to the case, and submit calendar requests to the docketing department who can quickly calendar these requests without many manual steps. |
| Time tracking & billing | Records billable time on an hourly, contingent or transactional basis. Links to time, billing and accounting programs, and generates client invoices. Improves workflows to increase your billing speed and improve cash flow, potentially leading to better client communication, faster billing and decreased administration costs. |
| Accounting | Manages billing, receivables, trust accounts and payroll, and creates financial reports. Helps you organize, track and accurately report your financial transactions. |
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Prior to purchasing software for your legal practice, it’s important to understand your organizational needs and how a practice management solution can help meet those requirements.
Solo or small practice with 2-5 employees. The majority of U.S. law firms have fewer than five employees, yet they’re often in need of the same suite of applications that benefit larger firms. Small practices we’ve spoken with have cited the following as reasons they are evaluating practice management software for the first time, or for replacing an existing system:
- Enhance office efficiency and accountability.
- Consolidate case information across applications.
- Need better technical support.
- Want a single, integrated system rather than multiple, disparate applications.
Best-of-breed buyers. As mentioned, most firms will need an integrated suite of applications. However, some providers do sell stand-alone options, which is especially true for time tracking, billing and accounting systems. Many buyers we’ve spoken with who seek these applications had been using pen and paper or off-the-shelf options such as Outlook to manage their needs. Reasons they decided to switch to practice management software include:
- Tracking everything by hand is too slow and inefficient.
- Need software with industry-specific features.
- Want a more modern system with significant tech support.
How Is It Priced?
Cloud-based legal practice management software is typically priced on a per-lawyer, per-month basis, with systems starting at about $50-$70 per user, per month. Some vendors will provide discounts if you pay annually instead of monthly.
On-premise software, on the other hand, is most often priced according to the number of perpetual licenses required. These fees are typically paid upfront for the right to use the software in perpetuity (as opposed to paying a monthly or annual subscription). Some vendors, such as HoudiniEsq, offer their software for free to solo attorneys.
Regardless of whether the software uses a perpetual license or subscription pricing model, many vendors will offer packages with varying levels of functionality. In these cases, the price of the system typically increases with the breadth and depth of features offered.