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Why is a lawyer billing software essential for a law firm?

The essential lawyer billing software for a law firm

Lawyer billing software is a healthy firm’s best friend.

As we all know, lawyers don’t live on love and fresh water. And without billing, no fees. So why on earth is this task seen as the bête noire in their to-do list?

Probably because the time spent on it takes away from more essential tasks: case processing, client meetings or the firm’s growth strategy.

Yes, but… Making money « physically » is part of the life of any firm that wants to survive and flourish. Of course, not all firms have a dedicated accounting department and the smallest of them have to do everything themselves, in addition to the consulting work.

However, this step is no less essential. So we might as well roll up our sleeves and find the tool that will free them from this repetitive work.

Invoicing software for lawyers or how to save time


The process of invoicing a client is a bit like a fighter’s journey: fill in the required information, calculate the fees in HT and TTC, send the invoice, monitor the collection, follow up on unpaid invoices, transfer the whole thing to the accountant. And all this, for each client that the land has known.

So why not take advantage of the benefits of technology and innovation? Indeed, a simple software can pre-fill all the mandatory data of the invoice. Above all, it takes the place of humans for the daunting tasks of calculation and editing. All this in just a few clicks on your phone, wherever you are geographically.

In addition, the system automatically synchronizes itself with the features that follow the files instantly. Is a folder closed? This systematically triggers invoicing. Goodbye to the mental burden of accounting!

Editing invoices quickly: the promise of lawyer billing software


Each to his trade. And employees have better things to do than calculate additions or percentages.

Digitization has the ability to produce a number of invoices per minute that a fast human typist would be unable to produce. A lawyer’s invoicing software industrializes the editing of invoices and exports the data to any accounting tool.

In addition to saving time, readability is also very clear thanks to the centralization of all the essential information. A dashboard summarizes the list of clients to be invoiced, the price conditions negotiated with them and the payment history.

Stop losing money and manage your firm’s cash flow in real time.


Firms, like any business, are facing a phenomenon that is killing cash. Yes, we are talking about unpaid bills, which represent an average of 30% of lost earnings. However, cash flow is the sinews of war, especially in this period when the digitalization of law is creating competitors who are looking at the lawyers’ market (not to mention the gloom associated with COVID).

Invoicing is already a thankless task. But sending reminders and follow-up are even more so. A lawyer billing software will take care of all these time-consuming tasks. The gain of the operation? 30% on average more in the cab’s turnover.

This tool gives the partners the possibility to see the cash flow situation live. And therefore to identify lucrative market shares and take the appropriate actions for the growth of the firm thanks to the time saved on invoicing.

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The Lawyer’s Communication 1/2 – Differentiation

The Lawyer’s Communication 1/2 – Differentiation

As you know, since 2014, lawyers have the right to communicate. If this communication is authorized, it is nevertheless strictly framed by the texts. This will fortunately not prevent you from communicating in different ways to make your message known (we will come back to this in a future article).

Today, in the general hubbub, and whatever the market you have chosen, it is likely that your prospects will be spoilt for choice. So you need to develop a message that catches their attention: only way to be the one they choose.

Differentiate to exist 

As explained above (Article 2), presenting yourself as « a family law lawyer », « an administrative law lawyer » or « a labour law lawyer » is a good start. Unfortunately, this will not be enough to allow you to emerge. It is important to build a distinctive message to be quickly noticed and identified.

An attorney in employment law can thus place himself as an advocate for employees or, on the contrary, as an advocate for employers. A family law lawyer can communicate on a particular aspect (international divorces…). An attorney in criminal law can of course present himself as a defense attorney or a civil party attorney. As for business law, it offers the possibility to present a circumscribed offer such as intellectual property, companies in difficulty or, for example, criminal business law. Look carefully, all areas of law lend themselves to this targeting exercise.

Depending on the market you have targeted, it may be relevant to strengthen your skills by adapting them. With a degree in rural law, I was able to practice urban planning law with a greater focus on the agricultural world. On a personal note, although I have never wanted to practice exclusively in rural law, my installation in an area close to the countryside has led me to perfect my skills in this area.

Simplifying and making its message accessible

To be understood and powerful, be sure to present your message in the interest of those for whom you will be acting. To simplify your message, ask yourself how you would present your activity to your parents (or children). Would you describe yourself as « a lawyer who specializes in labor law on the employee side » or « a lawyer who defends employees in their conflicts with their employers »? As a criminal lawyer, you can say that you accompany the civil parties from the filing of the complaint to the execution of the judgment. As an intellectual property attorney, you can say that you help companies to protect their brands, etc.

Your presentation will be all the easier as you will have well thought about your offer, your skills and your motivations (cf. articles 1 & 2). This presentation follows on from the previous steps outlined (summary definition of your offer, confrontation with the market, refinement of your offer, which becomes « remarkable »).

If you wish to become a remarkable and « disruptive » marketing expert, I invite you to discover the marketing vision of Seth Godin, the author of « The Purple Cow » https://www.conseilsmarketing.com/referencement/critique-du-livre-the-purple-cow-de-seth-godin/.

As a lawyer by training, you may feel that my advice is far too far removed from your concerns. It’s true that Seth Godin has inspired many more start-ups than he has inspired many more top lawyers. You are probably skeptical or worried. Don’t panic! It’s perfectly normal to be afraid! Don’t worry, an offer that misses its target will be easy to change and inexpensive. And if you miss, no problem. Before he succeeded, Thomas Edison never failed but « found 10,000 solutions that didn’t work. The advantage of our intellectual and intangible business is that we don’t have to invest in a new machine or create a manufactured product that took 3 years of research and development. Test your offer and you will see!

Moreover, nothing will prevent you, at least initially, from continuing to work in other fields than those you have put forward. But this « targeting » will allow you to give your firm a dynamic, a color, in a word: a signature. The next step will be to use as many communication levers as possible to make this signature known. 

About the author

avocat entrepreneur

Presentation and introduction of Master Chloé Schmidt-Sarels.

Graduated from CAPA in 2012, I did not want to practice as a lawyer at all. So I started my professional career as the legal manager of a start-up company.

After a very enriching experience, a need for autonomy and a certain nostalgia for public law led me to settle down as a liberal lawyer.

Lawyer and telecommuting? Yes it is possible but not just anyhow!

Home-office and Lawyer, compatible and more if affinity.  

Until a few months ago, lawyer and telecommuting were not two words we thought we could associate. A lawyer works in his office, no matter how big or small, he is in the office. However, since March, the Covid crisis19 has brought to light a practice already in force among a majority of lawyers who were unknowingly teleworking, often handling their cases in the evening, on weekends or very early in the morning, from home, without any legal software to help them.

Teleworking, which is less constrained than in other professions, is now beginning to attract more and more lawyers, starting with the youngest among them. There are two reasons for this shift, which was already perceptible before March and even more so since then: a personal life that is already highly digitized; a more precarious personal/professional life balance.

According to a survey conducted by our teams this summer, 75% of the lawyers plan to start working in their firm in the coming months and for 25% of them for more than 2 days a week.

But, who says remote work, says adaptation of its work tools.

A laptop, of course, but also the use of new tools for communication and information sharing. Of course, tools for the general public already exist in this area: WhatsApp for rapid exchanges with customers, the use of drives to save and exchange documents, videoconferencing to compensate for the absence of face-to-face meetings (Zoom, Skype, etc.).

Yes, but what about data security and compliance with the RGPD regarding these tools accessible to all? Wouldn’t a tool specific to lawyers be more adapted and more secure? Wouldn’t a single « multi-tasking » tool be easier to use? Not to mention the time saved and the greater ease of organization and therefore management of working time?

The vision of telework by Jarvis Legal, legal software.

Jarvis has anticipated all of these issues in order to best support the profession and secure it in this new way of working. A new way of working from any location as if you were at your office.

How is it going to work? In the simplest way possible thanks to its full web solutions. Better. You can now also work locally without an internet connection thanks to the Jarvis box. As soon as you find a connection, all the data is synchronized with your cloud.

Finally, Jarvis is also a secure video conferencing tool to guarantee the confidentiality of your exchanges with your customers, making its offer a complete range of products and services that brings together all the uses of remote working in a single tool.

And because the human remains at the heart of our concerns, even more so in these times of « all dematerialized », and because it is important for us to maintain a form of relational relationship at the heart of our business and yours, Jarvis is also and above all a team that remains at your disposal to accompany you in this new transition and way of working.

It is the use of all of its functionalities around a team at your service that makes Jarvis a pioneer of the virtual practice.

This is the « Jarvis » recipe for promoting personal and professional life balance, for limiting health risks and for saving time and reducing fatigue (travel, etc…).