Clio

Clio is the best option for a solo or small firm law practice

Comments: After 3 years, I am still working at discarding habits and practices built up over 25 years as a practicing attorney to better incorporate Clio's feature into my daily work flow. One of Clio's driving philosophy's is to make lawyers more productive with their time, and make lawyers services more accessible to persons that need legal advice. Clio's focus on providing multiple access points, including mobile apps designed from the ground up with these two goals in mind, will pay off for both Clio and my practice in the long run.

Pros:

The Clio platform is not intended to be a closed, proprietary system. Instead, it forms the foundation for the day to day management of leads, clients, time, documents, and billing, supplemented by almost 200 third party integrations, with new offerings coming on line each month. Clio offers unlimited cloud storage and IOS/Android apps making all of your firm information, clients, and documents available 24/7. Clio continues to innovate and as the leading provider to small/medium law firms throughout the world, I don't worry about whether they will be in business a few years from now. Finally, all, yes all, of your data saved in Clio is easily exportable should you decide to change to a different vendor.

Cons:

Clio's growth means that feature changes must be more fully vetted as they are used by more than 150,000 legal professionals. As they broaden their perspective to encompass larger firms, the pace of change may continue to be more deliberate. The movement and management of files without a third party integration, such as FasterLaw, is cumbersome. Clio's own integrations with Office365 for emails and calendaring remain a work in progress.

Alternatives Considered: CosmoLex and Rocket Matter

Reasons for Choosing Clio: At the time I decided to look at alternatives, in 2017, the product was getting worse, not better.

Reasons for Switching to Clio: Largest user base and least likely to get assimilated or go out of business, forcing another vendor change.

I love Clio - it's already helping my practice grow

Comments: Really a great experience - great product! Sales was never too pushy, and also happy to answer my questions.

Pros:

Clio is so easy to use, and definitely a great value. I love that Clio can grow with my practice - and help my practice grow! I'm looking forward to getting other products I use to interface with Clio (like QuickBooks, etc). I'm also thrilled that I have the ability to quickly and easily get clients signed up directly through Clio, rather than having to use a third party electronic signature system.

Cons:

The self-help isn't fabulous, but fortunately I've been able to get help through online chat.

Alternatives Considered: MyCase

Reasons for Choosing Clio: I used it at my prior firm, and swore I'd never use it again. Choosing Clio was the best decision I ever made.

Switched From: NuLaw

Reasons for Switching to Clio: Clio has great pricing, and I don't feel nickel-dimed - it's straightforward, easy to use, and no one in the sales process made me feel like I was buying a used car.

I shouldn't have to call support every time I use a feature of the product.

Comments: Once started I was committed to use it until I have time to find a better alternative. Capterra.com was the primary tool I used to find Clio. I have concerns that the positive reviews are all fake.

Pros:

Clio has the features I needed. I was fooled by the initial trial into thinking it would be a good fit for my firm. What use is a feature that is so complicated to find, use, and enable that I have to call support or Google how to make it work.

Cons:

Nothing is intuitive, at first it seems like everything is going to work. Clio has all the features I wanted, or at least it seemed like it did. Once I used it for more than just the trial period, using it to manage my trust account, client billing, client communication, it just does not work. After using it for any length of time, the navigation gets tiresome and then frustrating. At every turn I find myself having to Google how to make it work. Sharing a document with a client requires several steps including typing in the client's contact info; instead of just clicking a button for share. Now my client can't enter a partial payment. What the heck? Prior to becoming an attorney I was a software engineer; I would have been embarrassed to put my name on such a product. Frankly, I don't trust the myriad of positive reviews for this product, they can't be true.

Couldn't Live Without Clio Manage and Clio Grow

Comments: Excellent. I highly recommend Clio and it is worth the cost. I also appreciate the ongoing CLE opportunities, some of which are free.

Pros:

Clio helped me hit the ground running when I opened my solo practice. Nearly every feature is user intuitive, and I have already been delighted to see Clio continue to upgrade its services in the two years I have used them. I couldn't survive (i.e. stay organized) without all of its features, billing, document e-signature service, and access to its partner, Proof for service of process.

Cons:

Initially I was disappointed that Clio Grow and Clio Manage didn't "talk" to one another. I love Clio Grow to keep track of leads and potential clients, and I like the ability to transfer a file over to Clio Manage. I didn't like that they weren't truly in sync. However, Clio has worked to solve that pet peeve and is continuing to make improvements.

Alternatives Considered: MyCase

Reasons for Choosing Clio: No access to government system when opened own practice

Switched From: Odyssey Management System

Reasons for Switching to Clio: I was impressed by their sales presentation, the ability to track payments in the trust account and operating account, and it was highly recommended by a colleague I trust. She was not wrong. When another colleague opened her practice next door, I recommended Clio and she also loves it.

Clio Review

Comments: Very positive and I would highly recommend. I use Grow and Manage and would never change to anything else now because these platforms are customisable, easy to use and very comprehensive. I have previously used other platforms and systems but Clio is by far the best on ever my level. Customer support and service is also great.

Pros:

It’s easy to use and covers everything I need it to do. From letter/document creation to billing and invoices. Everything is centralised in one place for accurate record and ease of access.

Cons:

It’s very time intensive to set up all the features in the manner you need the system to function to align with your business and there’s not really a guided process for this which would be helpful as some of the set up features can be tricky. It would be helpful to be assigned someone when you first sign up and for them to help you actually set things up the way you need them to be. I also can’t link my emails to Clio as my email:outlook was purchased through a third part (Go Daddy) but I was not aware this was going to be a problem so it would have been helpful if that that was clarified from the outset when I first spoke to Clio so I would have known.

Alternatives Considered: Actionstep and SOS Legal

Reasons for Choosing Clio: LEAP had terrible customer service and although I had used them previously when I was employed, using them now as a firm manager, the customer relations and care was horrendous. Once they have you signed up they couldn’t care less about you and it was a nightmare dealing with them.

Switched From: LEAP

Reasons for Switching to Clio: Clio was practicle, affordable and comprehensive. It has everything I need for my firm currently as a start up business as has the ability to grow as my business grows with all the in built features.