Introducing Clio: Innovations To Simplify Legal Practice Management

As of 2023, the American Bar Association reported that an estimated 1.33 million attorneys are practicing in the United States today—or just about 4 attorneys for every 1,000 US residents. 

The job market for lawyers is expected to grow for these attorneys in the coming years. It’s estimated that the job growth rate will rise by 8 percent between now and 2032. All of this makes solutions like Clio legal practice management software important additions to every law firm’s technology infrastructure.

But here’s something else that is important to note about the state of practicing law today: The average attorney is billed for just 2.5 hours of work during a typical 8-hour workday—or around 34 percent of their workday. The reason?

Many lawyers just don’t have the management solutions they need to tackle their billable work. Their firms may have operational inefficiencies that keep them from having the time to focus on what they do best. To make matters worse, it’s estimated that lawyers don’t end up collecting 11 percent of the billable hours they charge to their clients. 

At Christo IT, we work every day with attorneys who are at the top of their field. Because of this, we strive to offer solutions that streamline their operations and make their work simpler and easier—all as part of our managed IT services for law firms.

That’s exactly why we’re proud to announce our new partnership with Clio. We’ve teamed up with this one-of-a-kind solution to provide our clients with a smarter way forward—and that now includes the leading cloud-based practice management software to help you grow, maintain, and run your practice.

The State of Tech for the Mid-Sized Law Firm

There’s a certain kind of advantage that comes with mid-sized legal practices. Attorneys who work for these firms get to take on great positions and tackle a diversity of work in both scale and scope. As these firms mature, they also get to add strong resources to their “toolboxes,” allowing them to take on heavier workloads, expand overhead, serve broader client bases, and work in more varied practice areas. 

All of this is also fueled by new solutions and technologies developing at lightning speed, which has only aided in rapid growth across the entire legal profession. While some lawyers are struggling to maximize billable hours, bogged down by non-billable and administrative work, others are adopting new tech solutions and ramping up billable hours, finding more time to support their clients, and achieving new successes. 

But here’s the thing: Not all mid-sized firms are embracing these new opportunities just yet. Or, if they are adding new software to their tech stacks, they haven’t found a workflow that serves their entire firm. Instead of streamlining their operations, they create isolated silos that may make things easier in some ways for some individuals, but not for the firm as a whole. They need better flow and a stronger organizational structure. 

Additionally, they struggle with the growing risk of cybercrime and need ways to protect sensitive data. And they may not be embracing new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) the way they really could to defend, manage, and run their firm’s operations. 

What’s more, many mid-sized law firms aren’t adopting technologies the way larger or even smaller legal practices are. While 73 percent of smaller firms have incorporated some kind of cloud-based solution to manage their practice, only 27 percent of mid-sized firms have currently done so, highlighting a potential gap in technological integration in this particular segment of the legal sector. It’s thought that this is because mid-size firms may encounter difficulties in leveraging legal practice management software the same way smaller practices can. The problem? This does not help set up these mid-sized firms for further technological innovation.

It’s a unique time to examine the ways technology can support or hinder a practice—and it means that finding the right legal practice management solution can make all the difference in the coming years.

Meet Clio: Comprehensive Case Management Software to Support Your Entire Firm

Clio, a cloud-based practice management collusion, empowers legal firms like mid-sized practices to establish a seamless, collaborative workflow. It’s designed to:

• Boost productivity
• Increase firmwide visibility
• Improve firm operations

Moreover, Clio is a smart solution to help mid-sized firms address the current technology gap and integrate cloud-based solutions, making their practices more efficient now, while also positioning these firms to adopt emerging AI-driven solutions as they become more commonplace in the legal sector.  

Clio legal practice management software brings all the tools a law firm needs together in one solution, supporting all the functions a firm needs to thrive with a single solution:

• Case and matter management
• Document and file management
• Invoicing and billing
• Payments
• Time and expense tracking
• Workflow automation
• Legal calendaring
• Reporting and insights

The firms that integrate Clio experience all kinds of immediate benefits—which is why Christo IT is proud to partner with this software solution to continue to serve our legal clients and provide assistance with systems that make sense for their highly skilled, demanding work. 

Strengthen Operations

It’s easier to make work more efficient when everyone is working from the same page. Firms can boost growth and keep clients happy with intuitive workflows that make it simpler to accelerate client intake, manage documents, get paid faster, and automate client communications. With Clio, you can even integrate your favorite existing solutions.

Boost Productivity

Clio is designed to help busy legal professionals optimize their billable hours and outpace the competition as a seamless part of your existing tech stack. This smart solution allows you to automate manual tasks, track work hours accurately, and even access court calendars and collaborate with team members.

Improve Visibility

Because Clio touches every aspect of your legal practice, it provides insights and feedback unlike any other solution. Gain key perspectives on how your firm is performing, as well as on things like revenue, expenses, and employee productivity firm-wide, all so you can make informed decisions for the good of your practice. You can also do things like monitor the progression of individual cases, predict staff availability for cases, and estimate case budgets with far higher accuracy.

Christo IT: Your Managed IT Services Partner

At Christo IT, we’re firm believers in the power of managed IT services for legal professionals to confront constant threats and maximize the potential of emerging technologies—and that’s exactly why we’re so excited about bringing Clio to our clients in the legal field as part of managed IT services that support and protect your operations, and expand what’s possible.

Whether you’ve worked with us before and we know your technology infrastructure like the back of our hand or you’re new to Christo IT, we’re eager to help you dive into the possibilities of what Clio legal practice management software can do for your firm. Ready to see Clio in action? Sign up for a demo here.