Colin Bohanna, Clio General Manager, UK and Ireland
By Colin Bohanna, General Manager, UK and Ireland at Legal Futures Associate Clio
At Clio, we’re on a mission to transform the legal experience for all. To do that, we’re investing heavily in both technologies and resources that are designed to move legaltech forward, making it easier for law firms to operate and for clients to gain access to justice.
As we near the end of 2021, I’m taking a look back at some of the Clio innovations, announcements, and law firm resources that shaped the year and empowered law firms in the UK and Ireland. I hope these will be of use to you in growing and optimising your firm’s operations in 2022.
The release of the popular “Making of a Law Firm” Series and Hub
In February 2021, Clio was pleased to introduce our “Making of a Law Firm” series, designed to help start-up law firms to hit the ground running. The series features four fearless law firm leaders who each started their own firm during a global pandemic, as well as a range of expert speakers.
Initially devised as a year-long, monthly, online, free event, all the content from the series has been made available to watch on-demand via this go-to hub for new firms. For more information, or to see the full list of on-demand recordings, click here.
Clio launches Clio Ventures
In October, Clio launched Clio Ventures—making direct equity investments in promising early-stage companies and diverse founders who are advancing legaltech and creating innovative solutions that help transform the legal experience for all.
If you’re building an innovative solution that could transform the legal experience, we would love to hear about it. See more about Clio Ventures.
The 2021 Legal Trends Report
Research shows that hybrid work and remote communications are here to stay. The question law firms should be asking is, what does this mean for the future of legal? We explored this in-depth in the 2021 Legal Trends Report—the latest in Clio’s comprehensive annual reports on the state of the legal industry.
We’ve analysed anonymised data from tens of thousands of legal professionals to bring together critical insights including:
- Why 79% of consumers expect remote solutions from law firms
- How online payments have set a new standard for client service in legal
- Why firms are prioritising investments in software over office space
You can download a free copy here.
Clio becomes a “unicorn”
In April 2021, Clio made history by becoming the first-ever legal practice management “unicorn” (a term used to describe a privately held start-up company with a valuation over $1 billion).
Following a Series E funding round, which was led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and also included OMERS Growth Equity, the company announced a new valuation of US$1.6B after raising US$110M in its Series E. The funding has expedited Clio’s plans to grow our workforce by 40 per cent in the UK and Ireland in 2021, with a focus on bolstering our product and engineering teams to continue innovating and evolving its product offerings.
Clio’s best-in-class legal CRM goes global
Better client relationship management is top of mind for many legal firms. That’s why, in July 2021, Clio released its market-leading CRM solution worldwide, Clio Grow.
With features such as intake and email automation, effortless appointment booking, and performance dashboards, as well as integrations with popular client contact software such as MailChimp, it could change the way you interact with clients.
For more details, click here.
A Legal Aid software solution for England and Wales
As part of Clio’s commitment to transforming the legal experience for all, and increasing access to justice, last month, Clio introduced a brand-new legal aid feature for practitioners in England and Wales. Designed for the needs of legal aid firms working in the areas of Criminal Controlled, Civil Controlled, and Civil Certificated legal aid work, it helps to make managing legal aid case work quicker and more efficient as well as making legal aid invoicing easier and more accurate, ready for upload to the CWA portal at month’s end.
To explore Clio’s legal aid software for practitioners in England and Wales, click here.
Your 2022 software solution
This is just a small selection of the legal software solutions, resources, and legaltech innovations that Clio released throughout 2021. We’re looking forward to continuing to support UK law firms, and law firms globally, in 2022 and beyond.
To see what Clio can do for your firm in 2022, start your free trial here.
