What Lies Ahead for SME Law Firms?

 

Top Challenges for SME Law Firms

Enhancing Client Experience

Did you know that 57% of SME law firms are prioritising client experience? Today's clients expect seamless digital interactions, similar to what they get from companies like Netflix and Amazon. Enhancing client experience is no longer optional—it's a necessity.

How can you meet these demands?

Imagine having a centralised platform that makes information sharing easy and keeps everyone up-to-date. This speeds up transactions and boosts client satisfaction. This is where a client portal and mobile app comes in.

Client Portal and Mobile App: Facilitate a paperless/paperlite way of working. A client portal or legal app delivers real-time, secure, two-way information sharing so clients can self-serve a range of tasks digitally 24/7. Our client portal and legal mobile app have features allowing you to meet your client’s expectations for rapid, on-demand services, including:

• Secure messaging & push notifications
• Timesaving electronic signatures and forms
• ID, AML & KYC checks
• Helpful client to-do lists & process flows
• Secure & easy biometric login

Plus, the portal and app can be branded to have your firm’s logo, colours and fonts – win win.

Hear firsthand from our customer Angelo Piccirillo, Partner and Co-founder of AVRillo,

"Our client portal offers 24/7 access to real-time case updates, secure messaging, and seamless document viewing, keeping our clients fully informed and engaged. Overall, the Access Legal client portal has enabled us to build closer relationships with our clients."

Embracing a Digital-First Mindset

The digital revolution is in full swing, and it's time to get on board. Since last year, there has been a 22.2% surge in SME firms prioritising digital transformation. How technology can work for your firm:

Streamline Client Onboarding

Modern legal software can make the client intake and onboarding experience seamless. This is crucial, especially as many clients seeking legal services come from distressed situations. 95% of firms have found that implementing technology has made them more responsive to client needs.

But, what technology specifically should you implement? Let’s take a closer look at some of the features our case management software has that can help make the client onboarding process as painless as possible.

• Task and Matter Management: Enter critical information once and automate files. Benefit from complete communication and diary management, case activity monitoring and automated reminders.
• Customised Workflows: Fully customisable workflows for all areas of law, ensuring a consistent client experience. Our case management system can be customised to know which letters to send, how to adapt those letters and what documents to include.
• Claim Management: Improve case handling and reduce processing time per case.

Improve Firm Efficiency

Addressing cost management is the third top business challenge for SME law firms. The right technology, that provides real-time data and analytics, can help you make informed financial decisions, reducing overheads and increasing profitability. Our case management system includes a cost drafting and budgeting feature to help you do just that.

Cost Drafting and Budgeting: Measure, understand, and control every aspect of your costs and revenue streams with integrated reporting and analysis tools. Build budgets, track time spent, and prepare accurate bills and relevant court forms to ensure comprehensive financial management.

Investing in the right software

Three-fifths of business leaders are planning to boost their technology investment to stay competitive. But, here’s the catch: this increase in tech spending adds pressure to prove return on investment (ROI). As SME law firms start to measure whether the software they have in place is a good investment, critical metrics such as client retention rate, average billing rates, and time spent on billable tasks are key to understanding whether you’re getting the most out of your current technology.

Our customer Curtis Law cut their workload by 50% and saved 4 hours of IT resources by implementing our case management system. Find out how much our case management could save your law firm with our ROI calculators below.

ROI calculators

• Cost per Case Calculator: Estimate potential annual savings using our case management software.
• Efficiency Calculator: Determine how much time your fee earners could save.
• Self-Serve Calculator: Calculate the hours your fee earners can save from not having to make follow-up calls, thanks to a client self-service portal.

Still unsure whether you’ve got the right technology? Why not book a free legal IT tech review to help assess your current state of technology adoption? During the review, we’ll compare it with the best practices and recommendations from legal governing bodies including the SRA and PI insurers.

Attracting and retaining top talent

With the changes to flexible working laws making it easier for employees to request hybrid or remote work arrangements, it is becoming increasingly necessary for SME law firms to adopt technology that accommodates this new norm.

Hybrid and remote work are here to stay, making cloud-based solutions essential for success. To keep your team collaborating effectively from anywhere without compromising security or efficiency, it's crucial to adopt the right technology.

While larger firms often have the IT infrastructure in place to support flexible working, the good news is even SME law firms, have access to cost-effective, secure, cloud-based software. However, transitioning to this new work model isn't without its challenges. That's where our technology steps in to ease the transition.

The challenges:

• Collaboration: Remote and hybrid work can hinder effective teamwork.
• Security: Ensuring secure access to sensitive information from various locations is critical.
• Efficiency: Managing IT infrastructure and keeping systems up-to-date can be overwhelming and time-consuming.

Our solution:

Implementing a cloud-based case management system like Access Legal Proclaim takes care of these challenges:

• Boost collaboration: Ensure your team can work efficiently from anywhere at any time. Plus, enable collaboration remotely with features like multi-case access mode allowing more than one user to work on a case at the same time.
• Cyber Threat Protection: Relax in the knowledge your critical data is stored securely in an ISO-accredited environment and is Cyber Essentials accredited to ensure maximum security of your case management files.
• Stress-free IT Management: Receive IT support from legal industry experts, ensuring your infrastructure is up-to-date and secure. We’ll handle all the day-to day system management, so you can focus on what really matters— being there for your clients.

By leveraging cloud-based solutions, SME law firms can embrace flexible working, effectively attract and retain top talent, and stay competitive with larger firms.

The legal industry is rapidly evolving, and staying ahead requires adopting the right technology. At Access Legal, we specialise in providing comprehensive solutions tailored to the unique needs of SME law firms. Whether you’re looking to improve client satisfaction, manage costs more efficiently, or embrace a digital-first culture, our software can help you achieve your goals.