Source Above the Law

We’re growing much more dependent on technology today. As we do so, people are expecting lawyers to also move and produce faster. In order to do so you must find the right tools to take with you wherever you are.

Automate the Tasks you Can

Aside from always having the tools you need with you, it’s also a good idea to automate as many tasks as possible. This will save you a lot of time, which is one of the first things here that you can use an app for.

Accurately tracking the time you spend working on tasks is vital since you bill by the hour as a lawyer. In the past, this was a slow, laborious task. While you may think that you’re saving yourself time by doing this at the end of the day or week, you probably won’t remember things correctly, which means that you won’t account for all the work you’ve done. This is why contemporaneous timekeeping is so important – so you’re accurate and fair. Fortunately, there are a lot of mobile apps that will quickly and easily take care of this for you and each of your clients. These include Time Master, Hours Tracker, and iKeepTime which easily integrate into most of the common billing systems, including QuickBooks.

When you realize how easy this is, you’ll start looking for other apps to help you automate other tasks. One Legal says that some of the apps you’ll want to look at include:

  • Scheduling apps help you automate your appointments. This will help put a stop to the seemingless endless back and forth emails that are used to negotiate the best time and place for these appointments. These apps are better because they let you use your time more efficiently. Examples of these include Doodle (set up a series of time slots then invite attendees to select which one works best for them) and Calendly (integrates directly with your calendar so people who want an appointment can choose what works best for them).
  • Research is probably another thing that eats up a lot of your time. If you’re using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, there’s a browser extension that will help you with this. BestLaw will pay attention to your browsing patterns on Westlaw and Lexis. It will then automatically add features to your browser to simplify and streamline your legal research. With this tool you can copy Bluebook citations, titles, docket numbers, and full text with one click; expand and collapse statutory sections; and jump between footnotes and the main text all for free. When you pay for the extension you’ll also be able to print, download PDFs, and access secondary sources.

Use Cloud-Based Apps

As a lawyer, you have to be careful when using new technology. Although using Uberconference for web conferencing for consultation is a time-saving option, cloud-based apps are yet another great way to improve your efficiency. These tools aren’t only really secure but they really do help you be more productive for three reasons:

  • Your documents are available to you as long as you have an internet connection. This is great because you’re no longer tied to your office.
  • You can instantaneously share your documents with others.
  • Collaboration is easier now that everyone can work on the same document in real-time.
  • Your documents are available on any of the devices you use. This means you won’t have to start over every time you pick up a different device.

Stay in Control While Away From the Office

While you may think these apps are great, you’re probably also wondering how you can stay in control of your practice when you spend a lot of time away from the office, in the courtroom. This shouldn’t worry you though since One Legal has a lot of tools available to help you here too, including:

  • Duet lets you turn your iPhone or iPad into an extra display screen for your computer. Simply use a 30-pin cable to connect your iOS 7.0 or above device to your desktop or laptop that’s running OS 10.9 or Windows 7 and above. This second display will increase your productivity by 20% – 30%.
  • Digital dictation software is a big-time saver when you’re on the go a lot. It allows you to dictate letters, messages, and other things – record what you want to say and have it typed up and automatically stored in the cloud for you. Although these tools aren’t perfect, they can drastically increase your productivity since speaking is faster than typing. All that’s left for you to do is a simple review of the text instead of writing it from scratch. Of course, there are also services who can quickly and inexpensively edit these documents for you too.
  • Turn your words into commands when you’re using your computer thanks to help from ActiveWords. Some things you can do includes opening files and folders, web pages, and applications. With ActiveWords Sync you can automatically save your commands to the cloud so you can use them on any device you want.
  • EverNote is one of the tools you’ve probably heard of in the past. This note-keeping application keeps getting better though. Now it’s easily integrated with other apps so you can create, capture, and have everything accessible from all of your devices. As such, this is a great way to create a project to-do list, write reminders, snap pictures, and easily share what you’ve captured with other people especially if you also use the Scannable app. It lets your camera capture something on paper and turns it into a high-quality, sharable scan for free.

Now you can stop your days from whizzing by, leaving with you an ever-growing to-do list. Fortunately, there are technology professionals who have created some great productivity and time management tools. These will help you focus more so you can get more done with the time you have available so take a few minutes to check them out so you can start implementing them in your practice today.