Law
Case management, intake, billing and email that don't talk: connecting a law firm's stack
In most small law firms, intake forms, case management, billing and email each hold part of every matter, and a paralegal re-types the rest.
I connect them so a new client enters once and shows up everywhere, usually as a Connect build at $5,000.
What this usually looks like
An intake form in Jotform or Lawmatics, case management in Clio, MyCase or PracticePanther, billing through LawPay, documents in Google Drive or Dropbox, and everything else in Gmail or Outlook.
A new client fills out the intake form. Then someone opens a matter by hand, creates a folder by hand, adds the client to billing by hand, and emails the attorney.
Conflict checks, deadlines and statuses live in someone's head or a shared spreadsheet. When a field is wrong in one tool, it stays wrong in the others.
Why it got this way
Every legal software vendor wants to be the one system, so none of them are built to share data with the others. The integrations that exist are shallow.
Firms add tools as they grow: a better intake form one year, e-signature the next. Nobody in a busy practice has time to own how it all fits together.
The fix, three ways
Connect, $5,000
keep the tools, fix the plumbing
This is the usual starting point. For $5,000, I connect intake, case management, documents and billing for one workflow, so a new matter opens itself. You keep every tool your attorneys already know. It is the wrong choice if the case management system itself is the problem.
Consolidate, $20,000
one app for the daily work, keep what still earns its place
If the firm works around its case management system more than in it, Consolidate at $20,000 builds one app for intake through matter tracking, and keeps billing and documents connected.
Replace, $75,000 to $100,000
rebuild the part of the big platform you actually use
If the firm pays for a full practice-management platform and uses a fraction of it, Replace at $75,000 to $100,000 rebuilds the part you use as software the firm owns.
What it looks like when it's done
I am in discovery with Peterson Zeyer Law now, on a workflow app that connects Google Drive, Gmail and Jotform. That case study comes when there is a result to show.
For a finished example of the same pattern in another industry, see Spark: spark replaced four tools and a payroll done by hand in Excel. It saves BigDog Solar 20+ hours a week of manual work and roughly $60,000 a year, and billing issues now live in 1 system instead of 3.
Read more: Peterson Zeyer Law on the work page.
When you should not do this
If fewer than about five people in the firm use these systems every day, a $5,000 fix rarely pays back. Use the tools you have.
If no attorney or office manager can give me two hours a week and make decisions, the project will stall. Firms are busy, so this one matters.
Questions about this
Can you connect Clio to our intake form?
If both tools have an API or can export data, usually yes. Clio and MyCase both have APIs, and so do most intake tools. I confirm exactly what each tool allows during discovery, before you pay for a build, so there are no surprises halfway through.
Is client data safe when tools are connected?
The integrations run in your firm's own cloud account, not mine, and only move the fields each workflow needs. Access is limited by role. Because you own the accounts, you control who sees what and can shut anything off yourself.
Do we have to change case management systems?
No. Connect keeps every tool you use today. Changing systems is a bigger decision, and it only makes sense if your team is working around the system more than in it. Discovery will tell you which side of that line you are on.