Item: Clio
Rating: 8
Author: Brad Pearce

Overall Satisfaction with Clio

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am a sole practitioner, so it is used by my whole organization. I convinced a friend, who is a partner in a collection law firm who does not do collection work, to try Clio. He, his paralegal and his secretary use Clio separate and apart from all the other attorneys, paralegals and staff in the firm without problem. Of course there is some duplication (conflicts databases), and he has another partner handle files for him when he is on vacation who who does not have Clio, but those are small inconveniences.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Timekeeping. All I have to do is open Clio in the morning and press the "start timekeeping" button if I am too lazy to type in a few words.
Billing. The new interface is really easy to use.
Calendar. I use two calendars for deadlines, etc. My G-Suites calendar and Clio.

Cons

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.

Return on Investment

Positive -- I can see how far ahead or behind of budget I am in terms of WIP, invoicing and collections.
Positive -- super-easy timekeeping .
Positive -- easy invoicing

Alternatives Considered

MyCase

I switched from MyCase to Clio and haven't looked back. MyCase is decent, but I felt like I could use basic timekeeping/invoicing software for less $$ than MyCase.

Clio has more features, and looks to be working to continually improve.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 365, OmniFocus, Adobe Acrobat DC, Evernote, Dropbox

Likelihood to Recommend

Clio is perfect for solo practitioners and small firms. I handle a small number of complex cases, and it takes care of timekeeping and invoicing. I think it would be outstanding in a high-volume practice (criminal law, Social Security, personal injury, WHA practices).

Clio Support

Support Rating

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 Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of Clio Support

Yes, when I got locked out after upgrading my OS. The problem was resolved after two or three emails and a call from Clio customer service.

Comments

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The "gold standard" cloud based law practice management software