Apps for Lawyers to Increase Productivity
Managing a law firm requires overseeing several moving pieces—lawyers must keep track of client meetings, courtroom appointments, invoicing, calendaring, accounting, and more. Poor management and disorganization can be costly and result in lost billable hours, client dissatisfaction, and even malpractice. Plus, in the last few years, remote work has added another layer of complexity as many attorneys are now managing firms from a distance.
Luckily, legal apps can streamline your daily tasks, protect sensitive client information, improve client and colleague communication, and help you smoothly run a profitable law firm.
What Are Apps for Lawyers?
Law firm apps can streamline operations through task management, assist in document creation, improve communication, and increase payment frequency. Whether your law office is looking to go paperless or seeking a way to increase productivity—there’s an app for that.
How Can Law Firm Apps Enhance Your Work?
Law firm apps enable legal professionals to create powerful, efficient, and digital workflows. As remote work becomes more common, apps can help you efficiently manage your law firm and team from anywhere.
The best apps for lawyers deliver several benefits, such as:
- Saving your firm billable time and money
- Decreasing errors in your work
- Securely storing data and confidential information
- Enabling seamless client and colleague communication
Still not sold? You can use the power of technology to automate key tasks and get hours of your work day back. This includes automation for tracking time, generating invoices, building contracts, and accepting online payments. As a result, you’ll be able to focus on what you do best—practicing law.
Below, we’ll go over some of the best apps for lawyers including:
- Note-taking apps
- Communication apps
- Task management apps
- Cloud storage apps
- Law practice management apps
Note-Taking Apps
OneNote
If your team is already using the Microsoft Office Suite, OneNote is a convenient choice for note-taking. This app allows you to annotate or highlight notes, making review processes much easier. Additionally, you can add images and videos to elaborate your notes.
Highlights:
- Integrates with Microsoft Office
- Mixed media with images, videos, and text
- Separate text into sections and pages
Pricing: OneNote is free to download and use. If you want premium features, such as the ability to collaborate with others, you’ll need to pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription. Plans start at $6 per user per month.
Evernote
Evernote is a popular option in the legal world. Users can easily capture notes and recordings in several different formats. This lawyer app can use your smartphone camera to capture an image of text (this could be used on a receipt, whiteboard, standard paper, etc.), adjust that text to the required dimensions, and share it with clients and colleagues. Quickly file receipts, send contracts, and refer to notes in an easy-to-use app.
Highlights:
- Captures images and text via smartphone
- Can easily adjust dimensions
- Can be used on your phone or desktop
Pricing: Evernote is free to download and use on up to two devices at a time. Professional plans with premium features (such as integrations with Slack and Google Calendar) start at $9.99 per user a month.
Communication Apps
Slack
Image from slack.com
Whether your team is in the same space or working remotely, inter-department chat has never been so easy. Share files, messages, and .gifs with your team via Slack. You can use the app simultaneously on your laptop and phone—every conversation updates in real-time.
Highlights:
- Integrates with major platforms such as Google Drive, Zoom, and Zapier
- Has instant messaging features as well as voice calls and video chat options
- Allows you to securely share encrypted data
Pricing: You can use Slack for free with limited features or upgrade to a Pro, Business+, or Enterprise Grid account based on your needs. Plans start at $7.25 per user a month.
Ruby
Ruby is a lawyer app that provides a live virtual receptionist and live chat service to schedule appointments, answer client calls (in multiple languages), initiate outbound calls, and more. Ruby ensures that clients, court staff, and prospects can always reach your firm.
Highlights:
- Integrates with MyCase—sync and view call data within your MyCase account
- 24/7 live chat
Pricing: Monthly plans start at $219 and provide up to 50 receptionist minutes.
Bonus: MyCase users can get $75 off Ruby with the promo code MYCASE75.
Smith.ai
Smith.ai was built to manage communications within a law firm. This lawyer app can be used to efficiently manage client communications with a 24/7 phone answering service, live website chat, SMS text messaging, and more. Quickly and easily respond to leads, clients, court staff, and more with this secure, organizational communication app.
Highlights:
- Integrates with MyCase—your receptionist calls will appear in your MyCase Call Log
- Access and monitor all of your client calls and other communication within one convenient location
Pricing: The starter package is $240 a month and designed for solo firms and small teams, such as boutique law firms. The basic package is $420 a month and is designed for growing firms. There are also additional (and custom) options for larger firms.
Kenect
Kenect text messaging can be used to stay in touch with clients, send out requests for online reviews, or even collect payments. Boost online reviews and engage with clients via text message without giving out your personal information.
Highlights:
- Integrates with MyCase
- Sends out requests to help you generate online reviews
- Text clients directly
Pricing: Pricing is not available online.
Task Management Apps
Zapier
Zapier is not technically an app but it is an extremely useful resource for lawyers nonetheless. With Zapier, you can automate actions between your most used apps to set up efficient workflows.
For example, you can use Zapier to set up a “zap” or trigger an automated workflow that can create draft emails or send follow-up emails in Outlook when someone fills out a Woodpecker questionnaire on your website. In this case, Zapier is linking your Woodpecker and Outlook apps. (Learn more about how to use Zapier and Outlook together for more efficient workflows in this article.)
Highlights:
- Integrates with several major apps including Woodpecker, Outlook, OneDrive, Dropbox, and more
- Increase efficiency with automated workflows and save your firm from wasting time on non-billable tasks
- Decrease human error in your document creation with more automation
Pricing: Use Zapier for free and create up to 100 tasks a month. Or for more tasks, packages start at $19.99 a month.
Trello
Image from trello.com
With Trello, lawyers can create a task management board to keep track of all cases and matters. Break your workflow into stages or columns on the board and move a task along as each stage is completed. You can assign tasks to team members, add checklists, collaborate via comments, and attach documents or images to tasks.
Highlights:
- Add pre-saved templates based on recurring projects
- Get an overview of all tasks being managed on your Trello board
Pricing: The free version of Trello works for small firms. For mid to large size firms, packages start at $5 per user per month.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is commonly used to set reminders and keep track of tasks. Schedule meetings with multiple colleagues and clients, block out unavailable times, and keep track of all of your commitments with this useful tool.
Highlights:
- Part of the Google Drive Suite
- Integrates with several major platforms including MyCase, Slack, and Zoom
Pricing: Google Calendar is free, it just requires a Google account to get started.
Cloud Storage Solutions
Dropbox
Dropbox is a well-known and highly secure cloud storage option. Upload, store, and share files up to 2TB through your desktop or mobile device. With the “professional + eSign” upgrade you can also request legally binding signatures on documents.
Highlights:
- Integrates with MyCase for easy document organization
- Grant precise permissions to your documents
- Easily accessible cloud storage
Pricing: The basic plan is free. Additional plans start at $9.99 a month for one user or $16.99 a month for up to six users.
OneDrive
For collaborative cloud storage, OneDrive is a great app for lawyers. If your team is already using Microsoft Office tools, this may be the best option for you. Edit, share, and update documents in real time.
Highlights:
- Integrates with Microsoft Office
- Easily save files and photos securely on the cloud
- Collaborate with your team on live documents
Pricing: You can download and use OneDrive for free, or get additional storage with a subscription to Microsoft 365.
Google Drive
Store Google Docs, Google Sheets, and other files on your Google Drive and easily access them from any device. This storage solution is extremely secure and is likely already being used by your team, colleagues, and clients.
Highlights:
- Integrates with Google Docs and Google Sheets
- Intelligent search can be used to search through text
- Compatible with iOS and Android users
Pricing: Google Drive is free for up to 15 GB of storage. After that, plans start at $1.99 a month for an additional 100 GB of storage.
Law Practice Management Apps
MyCase
MyCase is used by over 14,000 legal professionals to manage their firms. As a result, firms see a 38% average increase in caseloads as well as 3+ billable hours per day gained.
Highlights:
- Time and expense tracking
- Billing and invoicing
- Accounting
- Document management
- Built-in text messaging
- Client portal
- Client intake forms
- eSignature generation and collection
- Calendaring
- Mobile app
Tip: Download the Ultimate Guide to Law Practice Management Software to learn more about essential features you should look for in a practice management solution.
How Do You Choose the Right Legal Apps for Your Law Firm?
Choosing the right legal apps for your law firm can mean the difference between hours of billable time wasted or saved. The best apps for lawyers, like MyCase, can save your team from tedious hours of document preparation, time tracking, and other time-consuming tasks. MyCase also integrates with popular apps, such as QuickBooks, Outlook, Google Calendar, Mailchimp, and LawPay, so you aren’t fumbling through multiple platforms.
Try a risk-free 10-day free trial to see firsthand what MyCase (and all of the features listed above) can do to make your day-to-day more efficient.
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