Law
Intake, case management and billing in one owned system
A small law firm can run intake, matters and billing in one system it owns, instead of renting three that never quite agree.
I build that system around how your firm actually works, usually as a Consolidate build at $20,000.
What this usually looks like
Intake in a form builder, matters in a practice-management platform, time and billing in another tool, and payments through LawPay. Each one has its own client list.
Your attorneys use a handful of screens in the practice-management tool and pay for every seat. The rest of the features go untouched.
Status updates to clients go out by hand, because no single tool knows where the matter stands.
Why it got this way
Legal software is sold as all-in-one, built for the average firm. Your intake questions, your fee structures and your workflow are not average, so the gaps get filled with forms and spreadsheets.
Switching costs feel huge, so firms stay on platforms they have outgrown and add tools around them.
The fix, three ways
Connect, $5,000
keep the tools, fix the plumbing
If each tool works and the problem is only the re-typing, Connect at $5,000 links them for one workflow. It is the wrong choice if your team fights the practice-management tool every day.
Consolidate, $20,000
one app for the daily work, keep what still earns its place
This is the usual fix. For $20,000, I build one app for intake, matters and the hand-off to billing, shaped around your firm's process. Payments and accounting stay in the tools that do them well, and the app talks to them.
Replace, $75,000 to $100,000
rebuild the part of the big platform you actually use
If the firm pays for a large practice-management platform and uses a small part of it, Replace at $75,000 to $100,000 rebuilds that part as software you own, migrates your data, and you cancel the platform.
What it looks like when it's done
Peterson Zeyer Law is in discovery with me now. We start with discovery, then a clickable prototype, then build in phases the firm can use as each one lands. The case study comes when there is a result.
The finished example of the same approach is 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 you want a cheaper copy of a practice-management tool that already fits your firm, buy the tool. It will be cheaper.
If you need it live in two weeks, I am the wrong fit. The fastest thing I offer is Connect, at 3 to 4 weeks.
Questions about this
Can a small law firm own its own practice-management software?
Yes. You own the code, the data and the cloud accounts from day one, and the software is built around your firm rather than the average one. It makes sense when the firm uses a small part of a big platform, or works around it every day.
What happens to our existing client data?
It moves over. Migrating data from the tools being retired is part of the build, and discovery maps every field first. You keep exports of the old systems, and nothing is switched off until the new one is working.
How long does it take to build?
Consolidate takes 4 to 8 weeks after a two-week discovery, depending on complexity. Replace takes 2 to 3 months after discovery. You see working software every week, so the firm is not waiting until the end.