By Legal Futures’ Associate LEAP Legal Software
Ben Aslet, LEAP UK Marketing Manager, explains how law firms using LEAP’s cloud-based practice management solution are successfully adapting to remote working and how it’s as near as can be business as normal for law firms using LEAP. He said LEAP have talked to several law firms using the software to find out how they are managing with life away from the office.
The current health crisis means that more and more legal professionals are working from home. Many are showing resilience and agility in the face of the lockdown and those firms that are equipped and have remote-friendly software are faring much better than those have not.
Mike Leeman, BLJ Solicitors comments “We now have 50 members of staff working seamlessly from home, thanks to LEAP Legal Software UK.”
We have been working hard to support our clients to acclimatise during lockdown and the feedback that we have received has been incredibly encouraging with many very grateful that they made the transition to cloud software when they did so that their business can continue functioning remotely. Eliot Hibbert of Nexa Law adds: “LEAP is helping our lawyers continue to offer a seamless service in what is a challenging and unprecedented environment.”
Our Helpdesk and Client success teams have been touching base with our clients to ensure that they can continue to remain productive during the crisis and in many cases our clients are now beginning to understand the true value of LEAP. Paula Langley, Practice Manager, Bookers & Bolton says: “We love it! We are all happily working from home immediately and by taking our work machines home we have fully functioning desktops immediately.”
We are finding that firms are benefitting from LEAP’s existing integrations with leading software providers such as LawConnect, for secure document sharing and collaboration with their client. As Stephanie Richardson, Office Manager, Evolve Family Law Ltd puts it: “We are able to create correspondence with all the enclosures without printing a single piece of paper, building bundles and briefs virtually with a click of a button and sharing securely via LawConnect.”
Many LEAP firms are using RapidPay which lets your clients pay you quickly and conveniently online. Ms. Bushra Ali, Director and Head of Practice of Bushra Ali Solicitors and Immediate Past President of the Leicestershire Law Society says: “We can claim fees from clients much quicker and more efficiently. LEAP made it possible for us to shift all our staff to work from home and to be able to operate the entire firm remotely.”
We also hope that our clients will appreciate our continued development of the software to help law firms to work from home during this difficult time. Since the beginning of lockdown LEAP have launched some additional exciting new features that will benefit law firms when working from home. Via the LEAP Mobile App, iPhone and iPad users can now make FaceTime video and audio calls to clients and other parties, time record these calls and can invite clients to prearranged FaceTime meetings.
LEAP now integrates with Microsoft Teams, meaning law firms can work across multiple locations and staff can share and collaborate on documents and matters, conduct audio or video calls across the team and schedule client call backs directly from LEAP using Microsoft Teams’ instant messaging service.
At LEAP we are committed to making our software ever easier to use and more versatile so that our law firms can get on with doing what they do best – practising law. We were one of the first legal software vendors to utilise cloud technology and the fact that our clients are able to function remotely so well is a validation of the work our research and development teams have been undertaking for many years. Stay safe everybody, and keep your clients happy!