Clio is web-based legal practice management software for solo practitioners and small firms. It is designed to replace multiple different systems (like document management, case management, and accounting software) to streamline the amount of technology that small firms need to manage.
$49
per user/per month
Lexis+
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
Lexis+ is a legal research tool used to resolve legal research issues through its case law collection, editorial analysis, and data visualization, which are all accessed via one simplified AI search experience.
Clio is a wonderful practice management solution for small firms that do billable work. The Clio manage software is excellent for tracking your time at different rates, tracking matter budgets, and tracking expenses. Clio is also great for firms that want to implement and use tech in their offices. If clients are at least somewhat tech-savvy (have and know how to use email), they will also benefit and enjoy the implementation of Clio.
Lexis Advance is highly customizable and intuitive, perfect for solo or small practitioners who lack the patience for extended training and too much searching. The contracts are also customizable and can be graduated for new practices so you don't go broke in year one paying for research. I do wish there was more contact with a dedicated account rep, and perhaps not with sales. In a larger firm, you can stack more features and content as needed. I probably would go back in time and renegotiate my contract, which stepped up quite a lot in year two and will step up again in year 3 to what I think will be an uncomfortable level. Also, Lexis has maybe one too many brands and could stand a redesign of the main home page.
Provides an interface with NextChapter Bankruptcy.
Provides an interface with the forms on our website and landing pages to allow for easy transmission of potential clients into our Clio system from these sources with little human intervention.
Its billing, invoicing and payment integration makes the billing cycle for clients easier.
Document management. It's still far easier for me to create Word templates and just use Word.
Centralized filing of client files. Like I said, I use Word. I work on a Mac and use Mac's tag structure. Clio should find a way to gather all files that have a certain tag and allow me to access them through Clio. Instead, I use Hazel and DropBox.
Case planning and budgeting. I use OmniFocus for project management, a self-created Excel spreadsheet for project budgeting and a cloud-based service for Gantt charts. How hard would it be to add robust project management tools to Clio?
Search feature for stored documents and information. Evernote has Clio beat hands-down, but I don't put client-sensitive information (only caselaw) on Evernote.
Case notes. This feature may be useful for high-volume practices, but I never use it.
You really have to get creative to make Clio work well. Support suggested tonight that I use other products instead since Clio can't even do simple things it promises like notify clients of their court dates. Insane.
Very intuitive, easy to use visual qualitative assessments, and I like that they don't "summarize" rules but give exact quotes from cases. The product is super customizable and you can try before you buy. Unlike their main competitor, I don't feel like they tricked me or set me up to purchase more content that I don't need--so in terms of service and overall functionality, they are superior to the competition.
Rather than talk in generalities, I'll give two specific examples. First, after updating my OS, I got locked out of Clio. I was back in, up and running, with no loss of data, within an hour thanks to Clio customer support. Second, I made some specific recommendation for features that I thought would be useful. Those recommendations fell in a black hole, with the suggestion that I try a very buggy third party integration app. Clio is making lots of money from lawyers using its software. Why can't Clio create the integrations and test them if Clio is not willing to build them into its platform?
CLIO Grow is custom-tailored for law firms to use off the shelf with some advanced customization options. CLIO Grow has some superior API integration options that integrate with answering services, online chatbot, website contact forms to capture new leads and automatically include them in the intake pipeline. As mentioned previously it integrates with HelloSign for no additional costs. CLIO Grow also offers API integrations with Mailchimp to add prospects to email drip campaigns in addition to built-in automated email campaigns within its own software. These features make it far more user friendly, automated, and robust compared with MyCase's CRM feature, and Pipedrive (a non-legal specific CRM).
Lexis Advance and Westlaw do the same thing and are very comparable. We actually use both. If Lexis Advanced doesn't have content we are looking for, it can usually be found in Westlaw. They compliment each other well. If I had to pick one over the other I would choose Lexis Advanced, but it's close.
