Right before our eyes a major transformation is occurring within the legal profession. I believe 2010 will emerge as a year that we will look back upon as a tipping point. A year where lawyers left behind the traditional confines of their office walls—no longer tethered by phone cords, computer cords, or real estate leases–to practice where and when it suits their needs and the needs of their clients. 2010 will be the year that being small, mobile, and almost expense-free went mainstream.

Several trends are intersecting to drive this major transformation. They include the rapid innovation of mobile technology, the changing perceptions of consumers, economic trends that are squeezing the bottom line for many law firms, and the rise of solo and small law firms started by big firm refugees. Let me identify and discuss how these trends are coming together to change the practice of law in fundamentals ways, and whether the Apple iPad is the tipping point in this change.

Amazing work Reid, thanks for your insights! Click here to read the full copy.

Allison knows a thing or two about making law offices more profitable and efficient:  she’s a former practicing attorney and law firm manager who helps lawyers create more productive, profitable and enjoyable law practices.

Here’s a great quote, but click here to access the full article:

At a recent meeting of solo lawyers, one attorney remarked to me, “I would tell anyone who is starting their own practice to invest in practice management software from the very beginning. It’s the easiest and best way to stay organized. They may not think they need it right away, but it’s an investment worth making, and it’s much easier to have it ready from the start and enter each client as they come, rather than having to convert later when you’ve got a lot of clients and other work to focus on.”

BOCA RATON, FL – April 2, 2009 – Rocket Matter®, a leading web-based legal practice management and time and billing solution for small to mid-sized law firms, today announces the availability of document storage in their signature product – Rocket Matter.  This new tool allows users to easily organize their files via a secure mechanism for massive data storage.

Rocket Matter is a web-based SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) product that addresses legal practice management and time and billing needs of law firms.   

“Rocket Matter brings legal productivity tools to today’s market that are easy-to-use and provide efficiency,” says Larry Port, Founding Partner and Chief Software Architect. “We heard from our customers that document storage was an important feature to them, which is why we are excited about this announcement.  We add features based on their feedback and want our customers to run their practices as efficiently as possible.”

Rocket Matter’s document storage tool provides the following features:

* Ability to organize documents by matter number and by tag (notes added within documents).
* Documents are stored using a highly available and redundant secure server.
* All traditional office documents can be uploaded – Word, WordPerfect, Excel, PDF, .txt, and .csv files. 
* Ability to upload files up to 2MB.
* Unlimited storage capacity; 10GB of included storage (about 100,000 Word documents).
* Notes can be tagged, billed and deleted just like documents.

Rocket Matter requires no installation or upgrades.  Users navigate Rocket Matter securely using an Internet browser and by simply logging in to use the application.  Known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Rocket Matter represents an evolutionary development in the typically non-innovative world of legal practice management software.

About Rocket Matter, LLC

Rocket Matter, LLC (URL: http://www.rocketmatter.com) provides a web-based legal practice management and time and billing solution for small to mid-sized law firms.  Rocket Matter® is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application, providing increased security, business continuity, decreased technology infrastructure and maintenance, and improved return on investment for information technology expenses.  Launched in February 2008, Rocket Matter’s corporate headquarters is in Boca Raton, FL.

From Ross’s list, my favorite is number 3:

SaaS products start to make serious inroad in legal technology areas including practice management and billing systems.

And from Neil’s list, my favorite is number 2:

Legal Software and Web Applications Both Win

Practically every week in TechnoLawyer you read about case management solutions. And legal accounting solutions too.

But most law firms don’t use case management solutions. And many firms use QuickBooks for accounting.

In other words, both legal software and legal Web applications have a lot of room for growth without competing against each other.

Don’t expect an all out war between the two camps anytime soon, certainly not in 2009.

The following is our response.  Keep in mind that what we do is replace your IT guy.  

Think of all the costs involved with installations, upgrades, and training, and realize they go away if you use Rocket Matter. The true cost of a traditional legal practice management system, once you approximate the functionality of Rocket Matter, is very high.

For example, let’s say you want to run Amicus Attorney in a multi-user environment and you have 5 people in your firm.

For new licenses for Small Firm edition, they charge $499 for the first user, and $399 for additional users.  There are annual maintenance fees of $295 for the 1st user, and $95 for each additional user.  For training, it’s $399 for a bundle for 5 online training webinars.  So for an average firm that would be $2,494 for the initial licenses and training, plus you would be paying $675 annually.

However, the story doesn’t end there.  

This does not include the installation of Amicus Attorney, and for a firm of average size you will most likely need a dedicated server to be setup and configured. Each workstation will also need to be configured.  To approximate Rocket Matter’s functionality, you will also need secure login ability, remote access, a backup strategy, and someone to import your existing data. All of these items have initial and potentially ongoing costs.

Most Windows Network IT people average in the range of $75 per hour, and Practice Management Software specialists charge anywhere from $120-200 an hour.  

So on top of your initial $2,494 and $675 of overhead and annual recurring fees, to set this up you will likely pay anywhere from $2K to $10K depending on the consultants you hire.

So does $50 a month and $15 for support staff sound so expensive after all?

Introducing Reports

In addition to a major design upgrade, we rolled out a major new feature: Reports. Now, you can easily get a quick view of the financial status and performance of your firm. And if you prefer to work with data in Excel, that’s fine too, because each of our reports exports to CSV.

And try out our improved User preference editing, including a new and improved color chooser! This is a feature request that was near and dear to a number of our legal secretaries, and we are happy to oblige.

Lots of Changes

The entire application has been outfitted with an eye-pleasing user interface upgrade, making the already simple-to-use Rocket Matter even easier.

We’ve incorporated a large number of user suggestions, too numerous to mention, in the new rollout, so take a look around – you may just find something you asked for!

For the Legal SaaS curious, it’s a must read.  Luigi does a great job of describing what SaaS is and some of the major benefits of using online practice magament and time and billing software:

What is Saas? It’s been described as software that doesn’t reside on your hard drive or office network, like Microsoft Word or Outlook. It’s software that you access through the Internet from a third-party provider outside your office, which hosts and operates the software. You pay that provider for it (on a one-time or subscription basis) just as you’d pay a traditional software provider for the program that resides on your own system…

Most strikingly, all you need to do this is a standard web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox: SaaS users don’t install any software on their computers. Each application is “hosted” on another computer in the “cloud,” the symbol on computer network architecture diagrams that represents the Internet.

He mentions a maxim to consider for those of you who do not use a SaaS solution for your law firm:

There are two types of computer hard drives: those that have failed, and those that will.

Thanks Luigi, we are happy to be a part to educate and spread the word about web-based solutions for law firms!

Microsoft Corp.’s Sharepoint, extranets, and even e-mail are well-known collaborative platforms. But there are innovative, new collaboration technologies that can be found “in the cloud” — Internet-based sites and services that aren’t necessarily designed for the legal community, but that lawyers can use to communicate and work with others no matter where in the world they happen to be.

Tom is co-author, with Dennis Kennedy, of “The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together.”

So you’ve been hearing the words Virtual Assistant pop up just about everywhere lately? Not surprising, because although the virtual assistant industry has been around for awhile, in our current economy using a virtual assistant is becoming a wise economical decision. For lawyers, especially solo practitioners and small law firms, a virtual assistant is the perfect choice. You get an experienced professional with no need for additional office space, office equipment or other costs associated with hiring an on-site employee. Internet technology has made working remotely not only possible, but practical.

Since a virtual assistant usually has a specialty niche, you can easily find those that have legal experience and training. You can search the Internet through a search engine using the terms ‘legal virtual assistant’ or go to one of the websites for VA’s like the Virtual Assistant Forums or VANA. You’ll find a wealth of highly capable professionals to choose from.

The internet based collaboration product that Rocket Matter offers is the perfect tool for an attorney/virtual assistant situation, allowing access from any computer with an Internet connection, anywhere. Rocket Matter becomes your ‘office’ where you and your virtual assistant ‘meet’, collaborate and share information. And it also offers the tight security measures that an attorney’s confidential documents require, so a virtual assistant doesn’t have to be concerned with the added responsibility of high security storage of files.

If all of this talk of virtual assistance has you curious and wanting to know more, I’ve written several articles on the industry over at the Home Office Warrior; Home Office Virtual Assistant, including my recent 4 part series on finding and working with a VA. Contracting with a virtual assistant could be your administrative answer to gaining more billable hours.

Tina Hilton, from Clerical Advantage, just posted about the natural relationship between virtual assistants and Rocket Matter. Take a look at her post, Virtual Assistants for Attorneys? Check out Rocket Matter…, to see how your firm may benefit from a Legal SaaS solution and the use of VA’s.

Thanks, Tina!