In the first two posts in this series, I have talked about the consolidation of ownership that has occurred in recent years for law practice management technology. Whereas this market was once characterized by a variety of competing companies, virtually all of the major products are now owned by one of six ownership groups. Part 2 provided a “scorecard” of
Continue Reading The Shrinking Ownership of Law Practice Management Technology (Part 3 of 4): Future Development and Market Opportunities
“You can’t tell the players without a scorecard,” yelled the hawkers of olden days at major league baseball stadiums. In the modern days of law practice management, that may still be true.
As I wrote yesterday in part one of this four-part series, the law practice management market has undergone dramatic consolidation, from what was once a robust marketplace
Continue Reading The Shrinking Ownership of Law Practice Management Technology (Part 2 of 4): A Scorecard of Who Owns What
At the American Bar Association’s Techshow this week in Chicago, the law practice management platform Smokeball will unveil its plan to deploy generative artificial intelligence within its platform across the client lifecycle, from intaking new clients to handling their matters to billing them for the work.
It will launch the first set of these Smokeball AI features in beta in
Continue Reading Exclusive: Practice Management Company Smokeball Unveils Plans for an AI Ecosystem Spanning the Full Client Lifecycle
Call me lucky. Every week, I get to sit down at the mic for my LawNext podcast and have a conversation with the leading “innovators and entrepreneurs who are driving what’s next in law.”
For me, each and every one of these conversations is fun and fascinating. But I am equally fascinated to add up the numbers at the end of
Continue Reading Top 15 LawNext Podcast Episodes of 2023 and of All Time
I hate it when people talk about dysfunctional families. That suggests there are functional ones, but I sure haven’t seen one yet.
Smokeball, a cloud-based legal practice management software provider, today released its 2024 State of the Law Report. It reveals some pretty scary findings about smaller law firms and their lack of knowledge of fundamental business principles. The
Continue Reading Smokeball Report Reveals a Dysfunctional View of Business and Technology by Smaller Law Firms
The majority of law firms use just five or fewer unique software products, according to a legal industry study published today by the law practice management company Smokeball.
The study, How Technology is Changing the Legal Industry in 2023, looks primarily at law firms of 50 or fewer employees, and finds that 77% of those firms use five or
Continue Reading Most Law Firms Use Just Five or Fewer Unique Software Products, Smokeball Study Says
On this episode of LawNext, we take a closer look at Smokeball, the law practice management company whose roots are in Australia but that is firmly entrenched in the United States. In fact, after Smokeball was founded in 2010, its very first customer was a law firm in Chicago.
Appropriately, then, it was in Chicago last week, during ABA
Continue Reading On LawNext Podcast: A Closer Look At Smokeball, with Chief Revenue Officer Jane Oxley and President Ruchie Chadha
Aiming to help law firms capture more client leads and streamline client intake, the law practice management company Smokeball is introducing Smokeball Intake, an intake workflow system integrated within its platform that is intended to provide potential clients with the kind of digital experience they expect from a modern law firm.
The new feature is currently being tested in beta
Continue Reading Smokeball to Expand Its Law Practice Management Platform With Addition Of Client Intake Feature
Earlier this month, in a sign of the increasing legal acceptance of gender-neutral markers, the U.S. Department of State allowed U.S. citizens to select X as their gender marker on their passports.
Yet, while it is common for legal document automation software to detect the male or female gender of the subject of the document and adjust the pronouns accordingly,
Continue Reading In Possible First, Smokeball’s Document Automation Now Adapts for Gender-Neutral Pronouns