Now is The Time to Transition Your Firm From Premise-Based Legal Software to the Cloud

Is it time for your law firm to reassess its IT systems? How long has it been since a technology audit was conducted to determine whether your firm is due to transition away from unsupported software systems? If it’s been a while, then now might be the perfect time to upgrade your firm’s systems. For example, if your firm still uses software like PC Law, you were probably notified that support for their antiquated server-based software system is ending. If so, then your firm is likely wondering about the next steps.

The good news is than now is the perfect time to upgrade to modern, cloud-based law practice management software. This is because the pandemic has disrupted the ways that attorneys get work done. In 2021, more lawyers than ever are working remotely and practicing law virtually, and as a result cloud-based software has become commonplace.

Notably, this isn’t a new phenomenon. Even before the pandemic, lawyers were adopting cloud-based legal software at higher rates than ever before. In fact, according to the 2020 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, 59% of lawyers surveyed were already already using cloud-based software pre-COVID. And according to the results of a survey that MyCase conducted in mid-2020, the social distancing requirements of the pandemic have only served to accelerate this trend.

As we learned from our survey results, 69% of lawyers reported that they believed that COVID-19 will have a lasting impact on the way law firms operate, and 76% of those surveyed agreed COVID-19 will have a long-term affect on the way their firm uses technology. Additionally, the vast majority of lawyers – 90% – reported that because of the pandemic, their firms were relying on cloud-based software to get the job done. Finally, 70% of lawyers agreed that as their firms continued to face uncertainty, cloud technology, including law practice management software, was paramount to their firm’s future financial stability.

That last finding isn’t a surprising one since technology, including legal software, plays a large role in ensuring that your firm runs smoothly on a day-to-day basis – especially during challenging times. The right tools can make all the difference, and outdated technology can lead to redundancies and time-consuming inefficiencies that can result in a decrease in productivity. This, in turn, can affect your firm’s bottom line.

Ask yourself, does your law firm spend too much time:

• Tracking your attorney’s billable hours
• Generating client invoices
• Assessing finances and accounting
• Handling client intake

That’s where cloud-based law practice management software comes in. Premise-based legal software is costly and complex. Fortunately, in 2021 you have an affordable and powerful alternative. Cloud-based law practice management software is a vast improvement over the premise-based, clunky software of yesteryear.

When your law firm is in the cloud, 24/7 convenient access to your law firm’s data is the norm. E-signatures can be obtained easily, contactless billing and invoicing is built-in, and clients can easily make payments online. And if your firm is using the right software, you can even run in depth reports that provide an instantaneous snapshot of your law firm’s operations, allowing you to see what’s working – and what’s not.

In other words, modern legal software can make all the difference to your firm, especially in the midst of uncertainty. That’s why the survey results above showed that so many law firms are planning to invest in technology in 2021, with law practice management spending coming in at the top of the list.

So if your law firm is still using premise-based legal software, what are you waiting for? Your current legal software is wasting time and money for your law firm – and it might not even be supported anymore. There’s no better time than the present to switch to cloud-based legal practice management software, so what are you waiting for? Research your options using the resources below, start a free trial or two, and move your firm to the cloud today!

For more information on your law practice management software options, check out this recent ABA article that I wrote. Additionally, learn why premise-based software is a thing of the past by downloading this free ebook: The 7 Pitfalls of On-Premise Software. Also helpful is this free guide that provides you with everything you need to know when transitioning to a new law practice management software system: An Attorney’s Guide to Switching Law Practice Management Software.