It is already available in Apple App Store, the LawRD iPhone application.

Optimized with the aim of simplifying the inclusion of time in the various matters of each customer, wherever you are.

For now, the application allows the inclusion of time and the user can update the information in any place and at any time from your iPhone by syncing right away with your online application.

This is the first of a series of developments that will accompany the Web version of LawRD. Our goal is to allow, over time, total access to application functionality, with the advantage of access via mobile.

With this new application, LawRD follows the needs of its users and facilitates the effective management of your time, focusing on maximum efficiency and productivity of their work.

Now you are ready to use, just download it at the App Store.

Post by Nuno B.M. Lumbrales, lawyer, partner at Lumbrales & Associados and LawRD user:

One year ago, as a partner of a newborn law office, I was confronted (relunctly and along with scarce financial resources) with the need to invest in the development of a website to the office.

At that time, our only target was to keep up along with our direct competitors, avoiding to “stay behind”, as we were resting assured that the website wasn’t going to provide us with measurable profits.

The first surprise was the budget presented to the website development and maintenance, which was quite reasonable. In fact, the competition between many of the Portuguese PME (Small and Medium Enterprises) in the computer sciences business was robust enough to assure that the prices kept reasonable and negotiable. The secret to get a good deal in computer sciences was to avoid making business with the highly acclaimed “monsters” (it only took the estimate budget of the project to get discouraged).

The second surprise was, once again contradicting our assumptions, that in our first year of existence some clients came to us stating they’d known our office through the website after performing some google searches.

At the end of the day, comparing the costs of the website and the profits coming from this specific clients, showed us that the balance was positive right in the first year, reason that led us to conclude that our investment was, in fact, profitable.

Post by Jared Correia. Jared is the law practice management advisor with the Massachusetts Law Officer Management Assistance Program, providing free and confidential law practice management consulting to Massachusetts attorneys.  True to certain veiled promises, he makes his thoughts on law practice management available generally online, most notably through the LOMAP Blog and his Twitter account.

As a law practice advisor for Massachusetts’ Law Office Management Assistance Program, I am afforded a ringside seat for the viewing of trends in the legal field, through, what has become, my informal, detached study of modern lawyers’ habits.  One of the trends that I have noticed, over the time that I have spent in my current capacity, is that most of the attorneys with whom I consult are desirous of finding appropriate new technologies, that can: (1) unlock previously undiscovered efficiencies within their practice; and, (2) save them money. Given these qualifying motivations, it is, perhaps, unsurprising that many of the attorneys with whom I meet are ready, and most willing, to begin to incorporate SaaS solutions into their practices, to the extent that they have not already done so.

SaaS systems essentially (and, I won’t belabor this point, because if you’re a regular reader of LawRD’s “Your Law Firm in Progress” blog, you likely already know what SaaS systems are, and what they do) move the traditional software program from residence on your computer/system to residence on the web, accessible through a secure portal by you (and invited collaborators), following a set of security checkdowns.  SaaS systems, especially SaaS systems with practice management features, like the LawRD: Reports on Demand program, answer for the above-referenced requirements respecting efficiency and cost.  Online practice management systems are, in my experience, more accessible, easier to learn, more intuitive to use and faster in operation than those systems that continue to reside on your own computer systems. Given that certain systems, like LawRD’s, offer practice management components, for the better leveraging of client matter and contact management and for time and billing (among a number of useful features), the efficiency upgrade will be obvious in terms of adding a practice management system where, perhaps, none existed before; and, generally, the ease of use/intuitiveness, and speed additional to such programs, means that you’ll be working faster, and more efficiently, not harder.  Of course, one of the obvious reasons for the speed advance achieved with the use of SaaS systems is the fact that such programs are removed from your own computer system, and are not competing directly for space, memory and processing speed with the other applications that you have already downloaded to your machine; this also means that you’ve got fewer costs related to desktop/system support moving forward, and that the remainder of your traditional software systems will work faster, as well (competition having been removed), making you more efficient, saving you more money.  The cost savings of a move to SaaS are also inherent in the pricing models of most of these systems versus the pricing models of traditional software programs.  Generally, with traditional software systems, you’re paying a significant initial rate, plus for program updates, usually each year. With an SaaS system, you’re paying a fairly reasonable monthly rate (rather than a significant up-front cost), with updates taking place automatically, and behind the scenes, and without additional charge. The cost savings can become large-scale, depending upon the SaaS system you select, and depending upon the size (in terms of accessing employees) and needs of your firm; and, the additional efficiencies achieved through the immediate application of important updates and upgrades, without your spending any time to apply same, can also become significant.

If you want to learn more about SaaS, check out the “The Use of SaaS in the Legal Field” episode of my podcast.  With respect to the vetting of SaaS providers, and some of the security questions related to the utilization, by lawyers, of SaaS systems, look over my blog post respecting a North Carolina Bar Association proposed ethics opinion that attempts to provide some clarification in that space.  And, of course, you should continue to follow LawRD’s “Your Law Firm in Progress” blog, for product-related updates, and information relative to SaaS.

When deciding on the purchase of SaaS products in the legal space, you might consider LawRD’s flagship “Reports on Demand” program; you should also consider, as well, (LawRD parent company) muchBeta’s other useful SaaS product offerings: Teepin and Yoomit.

Post by Gustavo Rocha, lawyer and consultant in management, IT and quality for law firms. He’s the author of Gestão.Adv.br (content in Portuguese only):

There are over 192 millions Internet domains registered on the Internet, until 2009.

What does this mean? To put it simply: your brand depends on you. There’s no turning back: Internet, social networks, contacts, connections, businesses.

When it comes to Internet domains, lots of people register the “.com.br” and the “.com” even if it is one and the same law firm. Two different law firms that have the same name have different Internet domains, i.e. one is “.com.br” and the other “.adv.br”.

It is a basic need to register their practice with the same name on the most common domains in the business area. The online brand management can not be overlooked.

Adding to this, it is important to keep you ears and eyes open to what’s being said about you, over the web.
Keeping up with your “online name” can prove to be an excellent path for new contacts, to check the degree of your clients satisfaction thus leaving a subconscious trail of your brand on those surfing the web.

How come? If I Google my name and find that there few references to it, I may start writing more and being more active in social networks and online groups and chats concerning my area of activity, i,e. make my online presence more noticeable. By doing that and always having some sort of online signature on my emails with my contacts, name, practice name, etc,  I’ll be broadning my brand.

Sharing and participating on online debates, will provide for others to better know of my work and to quote me in future references.

The more virtual contacts I get online the more they can turn into live ones, not to mention the ever growing of my brand.

So, don’t just read this, take action. Try this:

• Verify your present domain(s).
• Register your practice in all others that are most common in your business area.
• Be active in social networks. Interact.

Be online and keep at it. Your brand may depend on it!

Lumbrales & Associados, one of the many LawRD – Reports on Demand users, requested us for helping them to devise their new website - www.lumbrales-associados.eu -  which came about after a close collaboration with that law firm, resulting on a completely customized one:

Its content management is fully controlled by the user, via back office, with no need for a third party for issuing newsletters to their clients, just to name of the perks that such a collaboration has produced.

The interface design is also a joint result. The fast provision of contents from that legal office made way for a pretty fast deployment of this whole web initiative. The domain registration and hosting procedure requirements were all dealt with by us as well.

If this resonates with some of your IT needs, please let us know at info@lawrd.com.

Transcription of an original post by Rui Amores, lawyer and partner at RA Law Office, from the Inconfidencias (content in Portuguese only) blog:

“The legal practice is the worst managed and most productivity challenged of all practices, probably. I’m talking about Portuguese legal practice, a small one, with little resources, few employees: solo practitioners, so to speak. It may not sound pleasant that the legal practice is not just of public interest but a livelihood for many who must support their families, pay for their children’s education, pay the bills, i.e. the  sort of needs that all PEOPLE have to face.

At times it seems to be a heresy, a gross fault when a law firm is profitable, well run and squanders neither  time nor money. It should always be available and willing to spend mercifully time away to whom may want to take advantage from us, may they be clients who happen to have forgotten their wallets at home and so not paying for the consultation, or simply the courts and Judges always counting on us to be at their service.

Well, it doesn’t have to be so. It can not be so. A law firm has to know:

• How many clients it has;
• How to contact them swiftly;
• The time spent on each task;
• Expenses and costs per matter;
• The matters there are per client;
• What is the billing at any given moment.

Computers are great and effective when assessing on the above goals, Up until recently we were dependent on software that generally was little user friendly; expensive since there was the need for a license for each user; it had to be installed on our computer or it  had to run on an intranet, which seldom happens in law firms.

On the other hand, law firm management software overlooked the fact that at this day and age, law practice happens not only in the office, as well as in the court houses, state buildings and generally wherever clients have their interests located. Adding to this, there is the fact that laptops are taking the place of the old pen and paper at courts lounges and court rooms.

Not long ago, it came to light in Portugal, a law firm management system that meets all these needs, namely, accessing at anytime and from anywhere an online platform and therein log everything that has been done for a client. LawRD, that is the name of such a platform that provides the answers to the issues afore described. It is quite worthy to give it a try for 30 days, completely free.

I did and I’m enjoying it.

If you want to know more on the system’s features and potential watch this video:”

We got the following email from a client:

“I’m overwhelmed with your swiftness and efficacy.

I have to confess that it’s a pleasure to complain, when one gets an answer like this.

Miguel Moreira dos Santos
GIL MOREIRA DOS SANTOS, CALDEIRA, CERNADAS, FONTEMANHA & ASSOCIADOS
SOCIEDADE DE ADVOGADOS”

The feedback from high maintenance clients such as is Gil Moreira dos Santos, Caldeira, Cernadas, Fontemanhas & Associados enables us to constantly improve LawRD and make it evolve along with the needs from its users community.

Our service imposes a permanent high level of satisfaction from clients, everyday. So, we look at the feedback, complaints and sugestions from  users with the most attention.

Do keep on challenging us. The community of LawRD’s users will appreciate it.

LawRD is a SaaS - software as a service - application, thus delivered over the Internet. Therefore, LawRD’s users data is stored on Web servers.

It is only natural for issues and doubts on data security to arise.

Before getting to the point, here is some food for thought: it is almost certain that you already bought something or did some sort of banking transaction on the Internet. Most definitely, you use e-mail.

The commom denominator to these 3 situations: with no exceptions, they all use Web servers.

With LawRD, we have implemented industry’s best practices in order to offering the safest data protection possible. Such procedures are:

• Data storing on Amazon servers via Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon web servers have physical security that equals the one found in military facilities. For instance, every access, be it physical or electronic, to data centres by Amazon employees is registered and audited regularly. AWS service security was good enough for NASDAQ to lodged store it’s Market Replay service.
  Adding to this, operational security is ensured by LawRD’s development team and suported by implementing firewalls and permanently updating the operating systems that support the Web application stored on Amazon servers.

• Safe communication between users’ browsers and the application servers. From the very first access to the site, communication is protected by HTTPS protocol through a 256 bits SSL digital certificate.
  
  HTTPS and the digital certificate assure that both communication between browsers and servers is encrypted (safe from prying eyes), but also garantees that users are actually accessing LawRD’s website and not an illegal surrogate.
  
  For a more in depth  reading on LawRD’s security, please go to
  https://www.lawrd.com/html/files/en/security.pdf

• Pledge of confidentiality: for us at LawRD confidentiality is a pledge described in our Privacy Policy document: https://www.lawrd.com/html/files/en/privacy.pdf. The #5 of that document states: 5 - muchBeta will not make any of the collected information available to anyone. We will never sell, rent, exchange or share your personal information with any third-parties (…)
  Another important issue: Although muchBeta owns the code, databases, and all rights to the LAWRD application, you retain all rights to your data.

Aware that data security is vital to all web application users, we ground ourselves to the best safety practices available and keep updated using state of the art technology.