Legal Practice Management Systems: Digital File Cabinet or
Automated Workflow
Selecting the Right Tool for the Job
When choosing technology solutions of any kind, today’s attorneys and law firms are faced with the daunting
task of vetting dozens if not hundreds of products. Picking the right tool for the job doesn’t guarantee
success, but picking the wrong tool makes success much harder or perhaps impossible. When selecting a
Legal Practice Management System (LPMS) the number of choices has never been greater. This is both
good and bad. It’s good because lots of products means lots of competition and innovation. But, it’s bad in that
it is more difficult than ever to know which tool fits your firm the best. This paper provides information to
help you in your evaluation process.
Quick History of LPMS
Lawyers have always needed to manage their individual matters/cases (hereinafter “matters”) and their
practices as a whole. Although there is no universally recognized definition of an LPMS, we have always
defined “case management” as the process by which matters are handled from start to finish, and used the
term more inclusive “LPMS” term to indicate the addition of a billing/accounting system, and any other
organizational structures the firm uses, to the system.
Until the 1980’s when computers became available for small businesses, LPMS functions were accomplished
using paper or manual systems. Computerized law practice management systems became commercially
available in the late 1980s and early 1990’s when local area networks and their ability to share information
among users became commonplace. The LPMS were “premise-based,” meaning that they were installed on a
computer in the office. For the past 25+ years, these systems “matured” in that about every feature law
firms want has been provided in some form or fashion, and the rate at which new features are added has
slowed or stopped.
These systems were a godsend, especially for firms with high volumes of work that focused on specific
practice areas. Used in practices like personal injury or estate planning, which were repeatable and subject to
automation, firms were able to increase their efficiency, productivity, and profitability. By enabling attorneys
to do their work faster, better and more economically, they realized a high rate of return on their investment
in these systems. Even in law firms that did not have a lot of repeatable workflows, there was a high return
on investment just by better managing their large volumes of paper better.
As the Internet became more ubiquitous and bandwidth became less expensive in the past decade, a new
breed of LPMS was introduced – “cloud-based” legal practice management systems. Instead of being
installed on a computer in the firm’s office, these systems run on the vendors’ servers in the “cloud,” and are
accessed via a web browser. The core functionality of these systems was basically the same as the premisebased products, but the cloud aspect of the systems made implementation easier, and introduced a new
pricing model where the LPMS was paid for on a monthly subscription basis. Capable of being run more
easily on tablets and Smartphones, these types of LPMS are attractive to the ever growing breed of mobile
lawyers.
Two Types of LPMS
Evaluating the comparative advantages between premise-based and cloud-based LPMS is a subject for a
different paper. Regardless of how you choose to install or host your choice, we believe that the
overwhelming number of options in the market has obscured a very important, if not the most important
consideration a firm has to make when choosing and adopting an LPMS – do your needs only require a
“digital file cabinet” into which you put all the “stuff” you work with every day; or would you be better suited
with a system that also has “automated and advanced workflow” capabilities. We can’t count the number of
times we’ve seen attorneys get so caught up in the method of delivery – having it in the cloud is “sexy,” or “I
want it in my own office so I have more control” – that they don’t even consider that there are significant
differences in the functions that each LPMS provides.
Digital File Cabinet LPMS
All firms can become more efficient using any type of LMPS that enables them to organize their information
into what we call a Digital File Cabinet. And, most if not all LPMS provide this functionality to one degree or
another. They take information about your matters, including information now contained on paper, digitize it,
and store it in a database. You may find that some systems do a better job than others in certain areas, or
work more like you do. The idea of the digital file cabinet is illustrated below:
Shown here are (starting in the middle, then at 12 o’clock and moving clockwise) are:
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Matter information – the hub – where you can access all of this information about your matters.
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Contact information – all the people involved in your matters, all your clients, prospective clients, and
everyone else you need to call, email, or make notes about.
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Calendaring and Docketing – so everyone can see their own calendar and perhaps everyone else’s
calendar as well. Docketing helps firms who have to track deadlines of all sorts.
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Task management – shows the tasks that need to be done, filtered and sorted in a variety of ways. All
uncompleted tasks assigned to a user can be viewed, as well as all uncompleted tasks for a specific
matter.
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Document management – save and retrieve all of your documents or computer files easily and quickly.
Most link with popular programs like Word and Adobe Acrobat to streamline saving such files and
connecting them to the matter in the LPMS.
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Email management – instant access to not only all of your emails, but also all emails sent or received by
anyone else in the office that are related to each matter. Most link with Outlook so that emails can be
saved from Outlook into the LPMS.
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File and Phone Notes – centralized, easy to save and retrieve notes so everyone can see what’s going on
in the matter.
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Billing/Accounting – although every firm needs to manage their finances, and integrating those functions
into the rest of the LPMS is a function of some LPMS applications, that is not the central focus of this
paper and won’t be discussed in detail.
All LPMS, by providing secure, centralized and shared matter information makes you more efficient and
productive.
Automated Workflow Systems
If all LPMS provide digital file cabinet capabilities, what else might they provide? Once you have obtained the
benefit of being able to centrally store your information, you should determine if your firm is one that would
benefit from codifying your best business practices. If so, then you need to dig deeper to see which products
provide automated workflow capabilities.
“Workflow” typically refers to the actions that need to be done to advance a matter through its life cycle. In
some firms, the workflow has been standardized, based on the firm’s practices and procedures (“best
practices”) that have evolved and been refined over time, and changed periodically when someone figures out
a better way of doing something. Everyone uses the same workflow to ensure efficiency and quality control.
In other firms, everything is a “one-off,” and everyone works differently based on their own preferences.
Most firms are somewhere in the middle.
“Automated workflow” systems build the best practices referred to above into a system that are used by
everyone to advance a matter through its life cycle, from the marketing efforts to acquire clients to the
closing of the matter. These systems make it easier to follow the firm’s standard practices and procedures
because the questions of, “What do I do next,” or, “How do I do” thus and such have been answered by the
system, ensuring efficiency and quality control.
“Automated workflows” accelerate the processes by which matters are handled in the firm by automating the
processes that lend themselves to automation, and prompting the appropriate users to focus on the matters
that need their intervention. In other words, they automate the work that lends itself to rules that a computer
can follow, and prompt a user to do work when a human being is needed.
Workflow systems make the attorneys and staff more efficient and productive, and enable the firm to handle
these matters at a lower cost. Because it takes fewer staff to do the same work, they can either increase their
caseload without adding staff, or move some staff to other practice areas that have not been automated.
Essentially, these LPMS replicate, accelerate, and improve on the manual workflow processes that the firm
uses to process its matters from start to finish. Unless you implement a system that is already customized for
your areas of law, you will need to configure the system according to how you want your matters to be
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handled (what the “rules of the road” are), using your existing best practices as a baseline, leveraged by the
automation functions in the LPMS. Your workflows are built on top of the digital file cabinet functionality that
is typically not specific to a practice area.
Here are some of the tools available in these “automated workflow” systems that will enable you to move
your matters along this digital “conveyor belt”:
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Practice area phases - Each practice area has its own series of steps, stages, or phases (the terminology
varies) in the life cycle of a matter at which time certain work needs to be done (“workflows”), and each
firm will treat similar practice areas differently. Personal injury cases might include steps such as
investigation, treatment, settlement, pleadings, discovery, trial, etc. Estate planning matters might
include phases such as initial meeting, information gathering, document preparation, document review,
signing, etc. Some workflows are independent of a practice area, such as the workflow used to manage
the prospective client process. Sometimes there are decision points where different workflows need to
be done based on those decisions. There may be other discrete events that kick off or “trigger” a
workflow, such as marking a task “Done” or scheduling a trial date. Any of these triggering events can
automate workflows such as:
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Tasks – with due dates relative to other dates in the system, such as adding a task to make changes
to a will should be due one week after the date the client reviews the will. Even better would be to
create groups of tasks that are daisy chained together based on a common date, such as a trial date, to
create a scheduling order so that if the trial date is postponed for 30 days all of the due dates of the
tasks in the chain are changed accordingly based on statutory rules.
►
Documents – created by merging “boilerplate” language with any data fields in the system, such as
merging the client’s name and address, and the case’s trial date, to create a routine letter to the
client.
►
Emails – also created by merging “boilerplate” language with data fields in the system. This is of
increasing importance as email continues to replace “snail mail” as most clients’ communications
method of choice.
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Prompts to add contacts to the matter at the appropriate times – in a PI case you need an
adjuster linked to the case before you can merge a settlement demand letter to the adjuster, or in an
estate planning matter you need to know who the client’s accountant is. Even better would be the
ability to track each contact’s matter-specific information, such as the opinion of an expert witness, or
the demeanor of a judge, who is involved in multiple cases so you can refer back to this information in
the future.
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Billing records – when a step or task is completed, to avoid the problem of forgetting to add the time
later.
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Moving the matter to the next step automatically when certain tasks are done.
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Sending a message to the person who handles the next step that the “ball’s in their court.”
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Reminders – to attorneys and staff about important tasks or other information can be sent automatically
via email or text message.
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Views – Most workflow systems have the ability to “slice and dice” the data to your heart’s content. This
is usually referred to as a “view” of the data. More data is not necessarily a good thing. If you can’t filter
and sort it according to your needs you can become a victim of “information overflow.” Examples of such
views include:
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Contacts – Instead of seeing all the thousands of contacts you have, view just the prospective client
contacts so you can keep in touch with them to maximize the chances of their retaining you. Even
better, add the ability to email them periodically with helpful hints based on their needs and your
practice area (known as a “drip campaign”). There is a huge difference in the value to the firm
between this type of system and one that just gives you a digital Rolodex because having a better
“view” of your prospects makes it more likely that you will acquire more of those prospects. Since
acquiring just one additional client can mean thousands of dollars in increased profit to the firm, this
is a big profit center.
►
Matters – Instead of viewing the hundreds of active cases you have, view just the matters for which
you are the responsible attorney, or view just certain types of matters. Even better, view just certain
types of matters and sort them by what the next step is that needs to be done. And best would be to
give each attorney and staff member in the firm their own view(s) of the matters that they need to
see in order to do their work more efficiently. No more piles of files on desks to indicate which ones
need to be worked on. Click a button, and there are the matters you need to work on today.
►
Calendars – Instead of viewing everything on your calendar in a daily, weekly, or monthly view, see
just your trial dates, or all the trial dates in the firm, without having to flip through a lot of weekly or
monthly calendars. See everything on one page in a docket list format. The same holds for deadlines.
You don’t want to see a statute of limitations deadline for the first time the day before it expires. You
want to see it months before. See just the upcoming depositions, or just the ones that haven’t been
prepped yet. Or, see all the upcoming appointments where estate planning documents are going to be
signed so that you can make sure the documents have been reviewed and printed the day before.
Plus, see a visual cue as to whether the staff has called the client to remind them of the appointment
to avoid the lost and unbillable time that missed appointments cause.
►
Tasks – View just the tasks assigned to you that haven’t been done yet. Even better, see the status of
all the tasks that you have assigned to others to make sure they get done properly and on time. And
best would be to estimate how long each task will take to do, and total that time over a week or
month so that you can level the workload of each of the people to whom you delegate work.
Unlimited data fields – so you can store all the information about your matters that you need.
►
Some data fields apply to every type of matter, such as lead source, open date, and close date.
►
Some data fields are specific to a particular practice area. Having different sets of data fields for
different types of matters lets you manage all the data you need, but doesn’t make you wade through
data fields you don’t need. Once you assign a matter to a particular practice area, all the custom fields
become available automatically. Examples of practice area-specific fields are:

Damages and treatment information in a personal injury case.
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Discovery and other mileposts in a litigation case.
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Financial information and where the signed documents are stored in an estate planning matter.

Custody, support, and property information in a family law case.
Which LPMS is the Best Tool for Your Firm?
Although for some firms the only goal is to minimize the upfront cost, for most firms the goal of
implementing an LPMS is to run their practice as efficiently, productively, and profitably as possible, while
delivering high quality legal services to very satisfied clients, and giving everyone in the firm the peace of
mind that everything is being managed properly. For these firms, how well a particular LPMS meets their
needs should be the focus of their decision-making process, not the delivery system. The first decision point
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in that process is whether a system that just provides a digital file cabinet, or a system that also provides
automated workflows, is better suited for them. The next decision point would be which of the systems
within that group best meets the firm’s needs.
Systems that provide “only” a digital file cabinet may be the best choice for a firm that has one or more of the
following characteristics:
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Does not focus on a single practice area.
Does not do a lot of repetitive work.
Does not have a lot of staff.
Is not overwhelmed with work.
Does not need to hire more staff.
Has a limited budget.
Does not see a high rate of return in investing in a workflow system.
Does not want to change its existing procedures.
Has a limited amount of time to recoup the investment in a workflow system due to retirement or other
plans.
For such firms, investing in an automated workflow system may not only be a waste of money, but also a
waste of time that could otherwise be invested in marketing the firm, spending time at home with the family,
or in other personal pursuits. In fact, trying to implement an automated workflow system in the wrong
environment could result in a worse system than the firm had to begin with.
Conversely, an LPMS with automated workflow functionality may be the best choice for a firm that has one
or more of the following characteristics, or is planning to grow or expand to the point that they will have such
characteristics during the five- or 10-year life cycle of the system they select:
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Focuses on a few practice areas.
Could get more work in these areas, but it would overwhelm their current capacity to do the work.
Does a lot of repetitive work.
Has a high staff to attorney ratio, and many of the staff are doing repetitive work.
Is very busy and faced with the need to hire more staff.
Can afford to invest in a system that has a substantial return on investment.
Is flexible and willing to change the way the firm works.
Has attorneys and staff who are willing to learn new and better ways of doing their work.
Want to enjoy the practice of law and not spend a lot of time doing work that can be automated.
Is planning for five or 10 years into the future.
Firms that want to succeed in today’s (and tomorrow’s) competitive legal marketplace need to take advantage
of every tool available, technical and otherwise. Automating their work processes is one such tool, and an
indispensable one at that.
For firms that don’t fit neatly in either category, but are somewhere in between, i.e., they don’t fit into the
workflow category now, but are planning to grow or expand to the point that they will do so during the fiveor 10-year life cycle of the system they select, most systems with automated workflow capabilities can be
used as digital file cabinet systems initially and the workflow capabilities added as the firm’s needs change
over time.
Financial Management
Managing your firm includes deciding how to meet your billing, trust, accounting, and financial reporting
needs as well as your ”case management” needs. These needs will be different if all of your billing is based
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on hourly or contingency fees, if there is a complicated compensation agreement among multiple owners,
whether you have many trust transactions, and how you want to handle your accounting, payroll, and tax
reporting.
Both digital file cabinet systems and automated workflow systems may have one or more of the billing, trust,
and accounting system components. There can be an advantage of having all your financial systems
integrated with the rest of your LPMS, such as entering billing records directly from the calendar when
finishing a meeting or from a task when marking it done; entering a payment or a cost advanced so that they
post to the client’s ledger and also to the operating bank account; paying a bill from the client’s trust balance
automatically, etc.
Because the purpose of this paper is to focus on the need to analyze your firm’s case management needs to
determine whether a digital file cabinet or combination digital file cabinet and automated workflow system is
the best choice for your firm, a more detailed analysis of the billing and accounting functions is not included
here.
Conclusion
There have never been as many choices in the LPMS market as there are today. At every legal technology
trade show and conference we attend it seems as if there are several new LPMS products being introduced
into the legal market. However, we also find that all the excitement about the delivery of these new products
through the cloud, of which we are big fans, all too often short circuits a full evaluation of which system is
truly the best for a firm’s needs. While the cloud-based v. premise-based decision is important for many
reasons, it isn’t the end-all be-all decision. Regardless of the delivery method, you need to dig deeper with
your analysis to make sure that the functions of the product you select best meets your needs.
OTB Consulting is an award-winning and nationally recognized consultancy helping law firms build more
profitable and efficient practices, while improving lifestyle, through the use of legal specific software – legal
practice management, document and email management, time, billing and accounting, document
automation, and other practice area-specific applications. Since the early 1990s, OTB has been serving law
firms of all sizes and types throughout the U.S. and around the world.
OTB’s founders and principals, Tom Rowe and Bob McNeill, are both “recovering lawyers,” and have more
than 20 years each of experience helping lawyers leverage law with technology to improve their practices.
You can reach them at [email protected].
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