Tag Archives: Mobile Helix

Attorney Responsiveness – A Super Power

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In the midst of finalizing a significant deal for your company, you receive the second round of redlines on the Master Purchase Agreement from your client. Along with some contextual notes, you promptly forward it to your legal counsel.

What happens next? The truth is, whenever legal assistance is enlisted, be it for business or personal matters, prompt communication is eagerly anticipated. A response within 24 hours barely scratches the surface of satisfaction. Whether it’s a pivotal order for your company or the closure on a new home, these occasions come with pressing timelines. Urgency is an integral aspect that contributes to the demanding and relentless nature of the legal profession. Work is typically conducted under time constraints and often without prior scheduling.

Responsiveness

Responsiveness stands out as one of the top characteristics which we all look for in an attorney. Exceptional attorneys strive to strike a balance between their caseload and client correspondence.

In a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters, attorneys were asked, “What do you think makes lawyers, such as yourself, stand out to clients”?

64% of standout lawyers identified service-related factors as key contributors to their standout status. Among these factors, responsiveness emerged as the top service quality cited by attorneys.

Trust

“Speed is the most important component of the customer experience. Two-thirds of customers assert that speed is as important as price, as noted by Ruth Carter, quoting Jay Baer in his book, “The Time to Win.”

Baer further emphasizes that responsiveness fosters trust. “You’ll bolster trust by surpassing your client’s expectations in terms of speed.” This is precisely how a timely response resonates with me. It reassures me that my attorney is diligently looking out for my best interests and comprehends the urgency of the matter.

A good mobile solution with the assets that lawyers use everyday streamlines the process, enabling them to swiftly review documents and provide concise feedback to clients, followed by a comprehensive response.

Facilitating Responsiveness

At Mobile Helix, we specialize in facilitating responsiveness. Our LINK App integrates both Outlook Email and the firm’s Document Management System into a single, encrypted app. Our aim is to simplify and expedite attorneys’ ability to work efficiently from their smartphones and tablets. The fundamental objective behind our work – to help attorneys to better serve their clients.

If you are not familiar with the LINK App’s workflows, including document annotation, I encourage you to take a brief look at LINK in this informative 2-minute video.

-Maureen

Okta Businesses at Work 2024 – Legal Applications are the Growth Leader

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Okta has application usage data which you simply will not find anywhere else. This year’s report draws data from their anonymized 18,800 global customer base. Okta is a leader in identity and access management products. You may download the full “Okta Businesses at Work 2024” report here.

Growth in app categories: Legal software is the leader in customer growth

Source: Okta (My Annotations) – Growth in App Categories

Okta kicks off this year’s report with a spotlight on Legal applications, which was the leading app category in growth of number of customers.

“There’s no time for deals or
contracts to get hung up in legal. So, as we look
across the most popular app categories, it’s no
surprise that legal tools have locked up a win,
claiming by far the highest growth by number
of customers (35% YoY) and substantial 34%
YoY growth by number of unique users. Apps
including Ironclad, LexisNexis, and LegalZoom
drive this remarkable growth story. (Fun fact:
Ironclad contract management software was
our eighth-fastest-growing app in 2022.)”

-Okta (my bold type)

Let’s look at those three applications:

Ironclad – Offers Contract Management software, which includes moving sales contracts through the processes of review and sign-off to speed the business process.

LexisNexis – Provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics, now including Generative AI. LexisNexis is a premier product in legal research.

LegalZoom – Its online platform for business formation helps entrepreneurs by providing legal, tax and compliance products and expertise.

With that promising look at the growth in Legal applications, let’s take a look at four more charts in the Okta report.

Growth of the 50 most popular apps

Source: Okta

There are two leaders here. 1Password is the fastest growing application by number of customers at 39% YoY. Amazon Business with the fastest growing by number of unique users at 89% YoY growth. Law firms are ramping up usage of password managers like 1Password as one of the essential tools to prevent phishing and social engineering exploits.

Not to be missed by law firms is the growth of KnowBe4 at over 20%. KnowBe4 is a Security Awareness Training product, with a focus on phishing awareness. In 2022 I cited that KnowBe4 was the leading Security Awareness solution used by 62% of law firms surveyed in the International Legal Technology Association’s 2022 Technology Survey.

Most popular apps

Source: Okta

It’s easy to see the trend of law firms in the “Overall” ranking. Microsoft 365 is rapidly being adopted, as firms migrate from other Microsoft on-prem products. Number five, Zoom, and number eight, DocuSign, are nearly ubiquitous at law firms. Number ten is KnowBe4, the Security Awareness training SaaS application.

Fastest-growing apps by number of customers

Source: Okta

Data compliance applications make a first time appearance in the fastest growing app ranking by number of customers. Vanta holds the number one position with 338% YoY growth. Drata ranks number six, with 91% YoY growth. Data compliance software is growing at law firms as firms are subject to regulatory and client requirements.

Most popular security tool categories

Source: Okta

Okta entitles this section: “The perimeter shifts.”

They observe that VPN/firewall continues to lead the security tool category, as it has since 2020. However, deployment of VPN/firewall grew 12% last year versus 31% in the prior year. 57% of customers have deployed VPN/firewall tools.

The second fastest growing category in security tools is Endpoint Management and Security, deployed by 43% of customers. This category has grown consistently since the emergence of work-from-home.

For those interested in legal or enterprise technology there is much more in the Okta report worth looking at in detail. You may find the report here.

– Maureen

2024 Report on the State of the US Legal Market – My Four Favorite Charts

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The catchy take-away from the Thomson Reuters “2024 Report on the State of the US Legal Market” is that law firm leaders who don’t respond to the shifts in the legal market in the past 15 years may share a destiny with Pan Am.

The US airline, Pan Am, was the largest international carrier in the mid-20th century. Pan Am filed for bankruptcy in 1991, after decades of tremendous growth in air travel. For those who recall Pan Am, it’s a vivid illustration. You will see the tie-in below.

Looking at today’s legal market, the Thomson Reuters report is full of data and graphs which quantify recent trends.

Key Trends:

  1. There is a shift from the “Transactional Decade” of the 2010’s. Money was easy to borrow and transactional practices, including Corporate, M&A, and Real Estate climbed.
  2. More recently, the majority of growth is in counter-cyclical practices such as Litigation, Bankruptcy, and Labor & Employment.
Practice demand growth in 2022 & 2023, Thomson Reuters

3. The past few years have seen an aggressive increase in law firm rate growth. “In 2023, the rates clients agreed to pay law firms for new matters grew by more than 6%…”

Worked rate growth, Thomson Reuters

4. At the same time, the collection rate on those fees is down. Clients are are moving tiered legal work to lower cost firms. This is where the Pan Am lesson comes in – respond to the market or get left behind.

Collected realization against worked rates, Thomson Reuters

While we are devouring graphs, let’s not stop there. If you are brave, take a look at a perennial favorite, profit per lawyer. The growth seen in the pandemic year of 2020 and the pandemic recovery year of 2021 have have not been repeated in the past two years.

Profit per lawyer growth, Thomson Reuters

I encourage you to download the report. The Thomson Reuters “2024 Report on the State of the US Legal Market” has 20 graphs and charts, including staffing, expenses, and, as you might expect, “Reaction to AI in the legal profession.”

Whether you are in a law firm, corporate legal, or legal tech, there is timely data here which you won’t find anywhere else. I’m sure that there are a couple of graphs which will be helpful in your next ops review.

-Maureen

Social? See you over on LinkedIn

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On January 2, 2024, The Guardian reported that, “Fidelity, which owns a stake in X Holdings, said in a disclosure obtained by Axios that it had marked down the value of its shares by 71.5% since Musk’s purchase.” The number of monthly users is down 15% in the past year. X has lost major advertisers like IBM, Disney, and Apple, says MarketWatch. Also from The Guardian, “the European Union issued a warning to Musk after it found that X had the highest ratio of disinformation posts of all large social media platforms.”

Whew.

Image: Techeela.com

Now is as good a time as any to let our readers know that we are amongst the former users of Twitter who have decided that X is not worth it anymore. We, Mobile Helix, took the month of October 2023 off from posting on X as a test. While there is a personal loss of not seeing updates from friends and partners in the #legaltech space, we see no business loss.

This blog and our website, http://www.mobilehelix.com, are the major sources of news about our new product releases, webinars, and other updates. We cross-post many of our blog posts to LinkedIn. We post fun news and #legaltech news on LinkedIn, too. As most businesses in enterprise or B2B markets will tell you, LinkedIn is a far better medium for reaching your community than Twitter ever was.

But Twitter was fun. It was fast. It was sassy. And it was vast.

There likely will never be another phenomenon like Twitter. Many people you knew, and most brands, some with hilarious personas, were all posting to the same platform. Now people are posting on X, Threads, Post, Mastodon, Spoutible, and Bluesky, to name a few. For us, social media will be LinkedIn and our own publications.

See us over on LinkedIn.

-Maureen

Litera: The Legal Tech Juggernaut Takes a Breather

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Remember 2021 and 2022? Litera was buying so many companies that at times it was hard to keep track.

In August of 2022, I was at the ILTACON conference at National Harbor, Maryland. Litera had acquired two companies in the previous week, business intelligence company, BigSquare, and talent management software company, Micron Systems. These followed the substantial acquisitions of Foundation Software, Prosperoware, Workshare, and Kira Systems. Per Crunchbase, 15 acquisitions in the past 5 years.

I attended the Litera session, which was in a ballroom. Standing room only. The sense that something special was taking place was palpable. Litera’s new CEO, Sheryl Hoskins, introduced herself, mentioning her active duty in the Army. She was impressive .

Historically at ILTACON the companies with a big presence have been Thomson Reuters, Intapp, iManage, and NetDocuments. But in 2022, Litera had the momentum. They also had the ample pockets of Hg. And Hg was looking for growth.

A lot has changed in the economy in the past six months. The threat of a recession has loomed large. Interest rates are up. Law firms have laid-off associates. Many of the big tech companies have laid-off thousands of people.

From where I stand, legal tech appears to be holding strong. Very few legal tech dedicated companies are public, so we don’t get a quarterly window, or even an annual window, into revenues and profits. However, layoffs in legal tech have been limited thus far. At least two e-discovery companies have had layoffs. On the other hand, Exterro just acquired e-discovery rival Zapproved. Several legal tech firms, including NetDocuments, iManage, Aderant, and Litera are actively hiring.

It makes sense for Litera to take time to work on integrating all of the solutions which it has acquired in the past three years. Keep an eye on Litera. If we manage to have a soft landing, look for Litera and Hg to lead the way again.

-Maureen

2023 Report on the State of the Legal Market by Thomson Reuters

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Each year I look forward to the State of the Legal Market report in order to get a more granular look at the past year in legal services.

In 2022, the demand for transactional law firm services declined, most notably in Big Law. But law firms continued to hire apace. The result was a drop in productivity and profits. Profit Per Equity Partner growth was down in 2022. But PPEP is still at a healthy level compared to pre-pandemic.

That is the top line view from the new 2023 Report on the State of the Legal Market by Thomson Reuters with the Georgetown Law Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession.

The following three charts illustrate the slow down in demand and PPEP growth as well as the fact that profit per lawyer is still good compared to 1Q 2020.

This report is a one-of-a-kind. It has has 22 more charts, Including associate compensation, expenses per lawyer, lawyer turnover, collection realization, and more. If you work for a law firm, or if, like me, you provide solutions to law firms, there is certain to be data which will round out your view of 2022 and give you a picture of what 2023 may bring.

You can register for a free download of the full report here:

https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/legal/state-of-the-legal-market-2023/

– Maureen

What is Workflow Automation in Legal? A High School Internship

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This fall I have been fortunate to mentor an internship with Blake and Joaquin, two juniors at Design Tech High School, “DTech,” in San Mateo, California. The subject of this internship was Workflow Automation in Legal. Blake and Joaquin did the research, wrote the copy, and created the graphics. They did an outstanding job.

Take a look. Do you now know what Workflow Automation in Legal is?

What is Workflow Automation?

Workflow Automation is the use of process improvement and software to increase productivity and efficiency.

What is Workflow Automation in Legal?

Workflow automation in legal is the use of software to automate legal processes,

“Workflow Automation in legal is the automation and optimization of the legal team’s workflows to maximize efficiency, eliminate errors, and provide more value to the law firm or legal department.”

Jake Link, bryter

What are Examples of Workflow Automation in Legal?

  • Client Billing
  • Scheduling Appointments
  • Client Intake
  • NDA Generators
  • Employment Contract Generators

What Companies Provide Solutions for Workflow Automation in Legal?

  • ActionStep – cloud-based, legal practice management and billing and accounting software
  • Centerbase – cloud-based, legal accounting, billing, and practice management software
  • Clio – cloud-based, legal practice management and billing software
  • Rocket Matter – cloud-based, legal practice management and billing software
  • Zapier – used to connect different applications and integrate their workflow into a single application
  • BRYTER – development platform for legal, procurement, and compliance to automate workflows, build applications, and digitize contracting
  • Matter Suite – cloud-based legal practice management software
  • Mobile Helix – encrypted mobile app for document workflows for lawyers

Why is it Important for Legal Teams to Engage in Workflow Automation? 

Legal teams should engage in workflow automation because of the major impact it can bring to a firm, especially when it frees up the lawyers to bill more hours with clients. In addition, with workflow automation, lawyers and other employees can engage in higher level work which leads to greater job satisfaction and less stress.

Is Workflow Automation a Good or Bad Thing? 

It’s definitely a good thing as it enhances the efficiency of a firm to allow for increased profits.

Blake and Joaquin made a one minute video about the internship.

Authors: Blake and Joaquin

If you like this post, please let us know at contact at mobilehelix.com.

-Maureen

Resources

“Legal Workflow Automation Explained: Examples, Benefits, and Solutions”. Bryter. Jake Link. April 13, 2022. https://bryter.com/blog/legal-workflow-automation-transforms-legal-departments/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic   

  1. “Workflow Automation in legal is the automation and optimization of the legal team’s workflows to maximize efficiency, eliminate errors, and provide more value to the law firm or legal department.”
  2. Its benefits are increasing time and productivity for the workers that normally have to deal with manual paperwork/data processes. Examples of workflow automation tools are legal intake tools, automatic NDA generators, and data breach reporting, and client billing. 

“Everything You Need to Know About Legal Workflow Automation and Why You Should Have It”. Centerbase. Chelsea Huss. Apr 5, 2022. https://centerbase.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-legal-workflow-automation-and-why-you-should-have-it/   

  1. Basic overview of workflow automation along with a list of legal practice management software that includes workflow.
  2. “Workflow itself is defined as the sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.”

“Why Legal Workflow Automation is Important to Law Firm Success”. Mattersuite. July 27, 2021 https://www. mattersuite.com/blog/why-workflow-automation-important-to-law-firm-success

  1. Goes more into the ROI and the positive worth it brings to a firm, especially down the line in use of automation. Includes useful graphics that may be used for inspiration for future graphics or to source a quote from Mattersuite.
  2. “Legal automation is designed to streamline the law practice operations smoothly. Automating document management to gaining more clients, everything can be achieved with legal automation.”

The Modern Lawyer Report from Above the Law and Litera

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How Technology, Mobile Devices, and AI Are Shaping the Legal Industry in 2022

In February of 2022, Above the Law interviewed 500 attorneys on their views on technology, mobile devices, artificial intelligence (AI), and more. Of those 500, Associates made up 32%, Partners were 26%, and in-house counsel were over 12%. Above the Law and Litera have published their findings in The Modern Lawyer Report.

Over 58% over these lawyers consider themselves to be slightly ahead of the curve or a trendsetter in terms of use of technology. The lawyers who agreed to participate in this technology survey appear to be more tech-savvy than the general lawyer population.

Above the Law / Litera

Mobile Device Usage

Roughly 57% of attorneys reported that they can do “many things” or “everything” on mobile devices. From our vantage point this seems high, but consider the point above, that the majority of the attorneys who responded self-report that they are ahead of the curve in using technology. From our view of law firms, the third option, “I can follow email on mobile but that’s about it,” is the the common state of the art in law firms today.

Above the Law / Litera

Document review and approval is certainly the greatest need which attorneys and legal professionals have on mobile devices. Our clients tell us that the ability to review, annotate, compare, sign, and email documents in order to have complete workflows is their goal.

Above the Law / Litera

What is delaying mobile device adoption?

The report cities, “One partner stated, “My vision is too poor to work on such small screens,” while an in-house respondent noted that “security risks preclude the ethical use of mobile for most legal tasks.”

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence or AI is a somewhat amorphous term, granted. Over 60% of these advanced technology users consider AI to be valuable to business success in legal services.

Above the Law / Litera

One of the conclusions of The Modern Lawyer Report is that, especially with respect to mobile devices and artificial intelligence, lawyers are not taking advantage of technology’s full capabilities. There is plenty of opportunity for them to adopt these technologies further.

Update: Here is a link to register and download the report from Litera.

If you have questions or comments, I’d like to hear from you. Write to: contact at mobilehelix dot com

-Maureen

Maureen Blando is the President and COO of Mobile Helix, the makers of the LINK encrypted app for lawyers. LINK provides simple workflows for Document Management and Email in a single, secure app. Note: the LINK App offers font sizes up to XXL. (See above. for relevance.)

Meet LINK: The Easy Way To Handle All Your Document Workflows On Your Mobile Device In A Single App

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By Stephanie Wilkins

From Above the Law, a new product profile on our LINK app.

Here’s an excerpt:

Do Everything, Everywhere With LINK

When you think about the tools you use most in your day-to-day work, your document management system (DMS) and Outlook are probably at the top of the list. Working in both on your mobile device, though, has historically been a huge struggle, if not impossible. LINK brings them together in a single, secure, easy-to-use app.

LINK is designed to support the workflows attorneys use all day, every day. The app works with today’s most popular mobile devices – iPhones, iPads, and Android phones and tablets – and supports the three leading document management systems, iManage Work®, NetDocuments, and eDocs by OpenText.

LINK for Smartphones and Tablets

LINK is solving the pervasive problem of lawyers being unable to adequately work on their mobile devices. With LINK, lawyers can fully access their documents, compare them, mark them up, edit them, email them, and more, as easily and securely as they can on a computer.

Read the full profile here.

Questions? Write to us at: contact at mobilehelix dot com.

-Maureen

What is the LINK App? Find out in 112 seconds.

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In this short video, view the major features of our encrypted LINK app.

LINK is integrated with iManage, NetDocuments, and eDocs DMS as well as Outlook and SharePoint. LINK enables essential workflows in a single app. Review, annotate, compare, and email files. Edit securely with the Word App.

Want to learn more? Email us at: contact at mobilehelix dot com.

-Maureen