Financially Legal

In this Financially Legal episode, host Emery Wager talks with Matt Darner, founder of Collbox, to uncover practical strategies for law firms to master cash flow and collections. With years of experience helping businesses recover millions in outstanding invoices, Matt offers a unique perspective on the intersection of accounts receivable management and legal practice operations.

This episode explores the common challenges law firms face with payment delays, the importance of setting clear expectations with clients, and actionable steps to reduce lockup time. From refining billing practices to leveraging technology, Matt shares insights to help firms improve their financial health and focus on what matters most: delivering exceptional legal services.

In this Financially Legal episode, host Emery Wager interviews Evan Meyerson, Managing Director of Burford Capital, to explore the rapidly evolving world of legal finance. Evan brings a unique blend of legal and venture capital experience, which gives him insight into how litigation funding can transform legal claims into strategic assets for law firms and clients alike.

This episode dives into different funding models, from single-case to portfolio financing, each designed to support firms with varying needs. 

Many law firms assume that transitioning to flat fees is just about crunching numbers—taking your hourly rate, figuring out an average case length, and adjusting your billing model. But that’s the wrong way to go about it.

In this Financially Legal episode, host Emery Wager sits down with John Grant, founder of Agile Attorney Consulting, and Elise Buie, founder and managing attorney of Elise Buie Family Law, to discuss how law firms can successfully design and implement flat fee legal services. Both John and Elise bring a wealth of experience and unique perspectives to the table—John from his background in technology and Lean principles, and Elise from her journey of founding a family law firm focused on flexibility, collaboration, and client-centered services.

Embracing flat fees means adopting a different way of thinking. It’s not just about changing how you charge; it’s about reimagining how you deliver legal services in a way that benefits both your firm and your clients. Flat fee services, while beneficial for clients by offering cost predictability, shift the burden of unpredictability to the firm. This episode explores how firms can manage these challenges, align their teams, and implement systems that ensure flat fee services, to use John Grant's words, are profitable sustainable and scalable. 

Managing client funds through trust or IOLTA accounts is one of the most critical responsibilities for law firms. Especially for contingency-fee firms, ensuring that disbursements are made accurately, ethically, and securely is essential to maintaining compliance with Bar Association rules and avoiding serious penalties.

Is your LCM software holding you back? If core tasks like billing and document management are causing headaches, it might be time for a change. 

In our latest Legal Case Management Jam Session, Confido Legal's Emery Wager interviewed Casita Simpson, the founder and CEO of Simpson & Associates, a company specializing in CRM design and paralegal support.

Choosing the right case management system can be a game-changer for your law firm. Thoroughly evaluate the capabilities and limitations of your current case management system before deciding to switch to a new one. 

In this Financially Legal episode, host Emery Wager interviewed Gary Allen, who recently retired from a multi-decade legal career. Gary’s extensive experience includes building a million-dollar practice in environmental and land use law at Givens Pursley and co-founding LeanLaw to help other firms operationalize the best practices he learned the hard way.

Gray is passionate about helping firms understand the financial state of their businesses and enact small changes that make a big impact. Read on for the highlights or watch the full episode here:

In our latest Legal Case Management Jam Session, Confido Legal's Emery Wager interviewed Casita Simpson, the founder and CEO of Simpson & Associates, a company specializing in CRM design and paralegal support.

Operating a law firm involves navigating various challenges, especially as the firm grows and takes on more clients and cases. One of the primary challenges faced by law firms is the potential breakdown in operational efficiency. This breakdown can manifest in several ways such as missed deadlines, overlooked emails, and disorganized workflows.

Many firms rush to hire more people when things get busy. The big question is: Is your firm ready to handle this growth?

Handling chargebacks can be a daunting task for any business, but for law firms, the challenge is often compounded by the unique nature of their services and client relationships. At Confido Legal, we have developed a tailored approach to help law firms manage (and win) chargebacks.

In our latest Legal Case Management Jam Session, Confido Legal's Emery Wager interviewed Casita Simpson, the founder and CEO of Simpson & Associates, a company specializing in CRM design and paralegal support.

In the previous session, Emery and Casita discussed the critical aspects of building and scaling standard operating procedures (SOPs) from the client's perspective. View that discussion here.

As firms grow and handle a diverse range of cases, the manual handling of tasks such as lead nurturing, client communication, and document management becomes time-consuming and inefficient. This presents an opportunity for firms to leverage no-code workflows to automate these processes, saving time and empowering teams to focus on more strategic tasks.

Originally published on law.com by Cassandre Coyer

In our latest Legal Case Management Jam Session, Confido Legal's Emery Wager interviewed Casita Simpson, the founder and CEO of Simpson & Associates, a company specializing in CRM design and paralegal support.

In a previous discussion, Emery and Casita shared how firms can establish and gain adoption of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). View that discussion here.

As a follow-up to that conversation, Casita and Emery discussed the critical aspects of building and scaling standard operating procedures (SOPs) from the client's perspective. Clients can tell when a firm has clear SOPs and when the firm is improvising. Each client interaction can be thoughtful and clear or confusing and ad-hoc. In this discussion, Casita and Emery discussed how you can map the client journey and implement SOPs that ensure client consistency and clarity. 

In this special series focused on legal case management software, host Emery Wager explores various case management companies to help firms make informed decisions. In this episode, we welcomed Jared Correia to the first-ever live recording of Financially Legal. Jared, the CEO of Red Cave Consulting and the Cofounder of Gideon Software, shared his experience from helping thousands of law firms choose and successfully implement the right technology. 

Jared and Emery covered strategies for selecting the right software, whether to use all-in-one systems vs. pulling together best-in-class systems, the future of AI in legal case management software, and the dangers associated with breakfast burritos and falling asleep at your desk. Read on for the episode highlights or watch the full episode here:

In our latest Legal Case Management Jam Session, Confido Legal's Emery Wager interviewed Lindsey Corbin, the founder and CEO of Delegate Legal, a company that focuses on outsourced paralegal support and technology consulting for law firms.

Rising operating expenses and evolving client expectations for better communication channels are common drivers for firms seeking new systems. As a virtual paralegal firm specializing in supporting small firms and solo practitioners, Lindsey has a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities associated with upgrading technology. 

This article covers the second step in our three-step Collections Optimizer process: Offer Payment Flexibility.

In our latest Legal Case Management Jam Session, Confido Legal's Emery Wager interviewed Casita Simpson, the founder and CEO of Simpson & Associates, a company specializing in CRM design and paralegal support.

Establishing and expanding Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) can be a challenge without a clear strategy. Many firms fail to develop and expand adoption of these SOPs, which leads to a breakdown in client communication and ensures that procedures can only be run by certain individuals at the firm. 

In our latest Legal Case Management Jam Session, Confido Legal's Emery Wager interviewed Casita Simpson, the founder and CEO of Simpson & Associates, a company specializing in CRM design and paralegal support.

Client communication can take various forms, ranging from case updates to invoice delivery. One of the crucial advantages a firm should anticipate from its case management software is enhanced client communication. In this session, Casita and Emery explored strategies to leverage your case management platform for optimizing client communication.

There is one significant update in this release and no breaking changes. See below for details. 

In our latest Legal Case Management Jam Session, Confido Legal's Emery Wager spoke with Julia Taylor, the owner and managing paralegal of LevLegal, a company focused on assisting law firms with paralegal services, billing, administration and technology setup. 

Law firms often forget or fail to get buy-in from their teams in a software transition, leading to poor adoption, unrealized benefits, and in some cases, a failed implementation. In this session, Julia outlined some practical tips for bringing your team along to get the most out of your firm's new software.

In our latest Legal Case Management Jam Session, Confido's Emery Wager spoke with Lea Wold, CEO and founder of Checkmark Projects. With more than fifteen years of experience in operations, Lea shared her insights into the often-overlooked science of preparing for software demos from the buyer's perspective. While most of us sit through software demos to be sold, Lea proposed a more proactive approach that ultimately saves time and reduces the chances of picking the wrong software.  

Happy new year! There are three main updates and no breaking changes in this latest release. See below for details. 

In this special series focused on legal case management software, host Emery Wager explores various case management companies to help firms make informed decisions. In this episode, we welcome Kim Bennett back to the Financially Legal Podcast. Kim, the Cofounder of Fidu, shares insights into the innovative subscription legal services management platform that is reshaping the relationship between lawyers and clients.

We had an exciting discussion with Casita Simpson, the founder and CEO of Simpson Associates. Casita brings more than ten years of experience as a paralegal, working with both large corporations and small law firms, specializing in CRM design, paralegal support, and legal document drafting. We discussed when and how to upgrade from a cobbled together set of non-legal software to a complete legal case management solution. Casita has been instrumental in assisting numerous firms in this transition. In this session, she discusses the challenges, opportunities, and success stories involved in making this transition. View the session here or read on for the summary.

Have you ever experienced sticker shock while shopping for legal case or practice management software? Have you ever opted for lower-cost software to run your firm, because you just couldn't stomach the expensive option? Maybe you have even tried to cobble together solutions to stay under free trial limits?

Confido Legal: Embedded Finance for Legal 

In industries like retail, software developers have great tools to embed payments into their applications. These engineers create powerful, seamless payments experiences for consumers and the businesses from which they buy. But things aren’t quite so seamless for law firms. Law firms have specific financial needs: 

• Multiple bank accounts
• High dollar transactions
• A variety of payment methods; and 
• Strict rules of professional conduct that govern how money is handled 

These idiosyncrasies prevent legal technology engineers from using best-in-class embedded payments tools. That’s where we come in.  

Expanded transaction handling in GraphQL API. 

This month we have some significant updates to our GraphQL API. 

As the legal tech industry undergoes rapid transformation and modernization, software developers are constantly seeking methods to enhance their applications and boost efficiency. Integrating online payments into complex legal case management and billing systems has long been a significant challenge in the legal tech domain.

Introduction

Why do you have to submit so much information when applying for a payment processing account? There are two reasons:

1. The government enlists payment processors to help combat financial crimes. As a result, processors are required to take certain steps to verify the legitimacy of a firm.
   
   
2. When a firm accepts online payments, financial risk is created for both the firm and the payment processor. Processors ask for documentation on the firm to help prevent these losses.