Suzanne Stevenson on Small Law Firms and PCLaw

Suzanne Stevenson is a Melbourne-based law firm practice management consultant

 
Suzanne Stevenson

[LPI Legal Practice Intelligence  Suzanne Stevenson]

LPI  How long have you been providing consulting services to law firms?

 12 years.

LPI  How long have you been working in the legal industry?

 I lost count after 20 years.

LPI  What roles did you have before moving into independent consulting?

 I started as a legal secretary and then moved into accounts and practice management. In small law firms the accounts and practice management functions are often performed by the same person.

LPI  What type of consulting work do you do?

 It mainly involves helping small law firms get the most out of their accounting and practice management software. In practical terms this means helping them implement the software, training their staff and advising on procedures. I have done this type of work for more than 220 law firms.

The firms I have assisted over the years have used a number of different software systems. One of those systems is PCLaw, for which I am a Certified Consultant.

LPI  How did you first become involved with PCLaw?

 In 1999, the principal of the firm that I was working in was looking for a low cost software solution that would be suitable for the soon-to-be-introduced Goods and Services Tax. He found PCLaw on the internet, bought it and told me to start learning it.

LPI  What does PCLaw do?

 PCLaw runs a trust account. It also runs a general ledger which will supply you with a profit and loss statement. It manages client disbursements, tracks time and generates invoices. You can put your to dos and appointments into PCLaw. It is an email and document management system and does document assembly.

LPI  What are your top three favourite features in PCLaw?

 I like the way it does the time recording. It is a very user friendly time sheet.

In terms of entering expenses and disbursement payments, data entry is straightforward, especially with the ‘memorised transactions’ function.

Equal third favourite would be the way it handles billing and the deeds register.

LPI  What are three items on your PCLaw wish list for further improvement?

 PCLaw currently comes with two document precedent systems. One is a flexible system which you can use to create and modify your own precedents in Word. This is ideal for creating standard letters that merge with your PCLaw data.

The other system is mainly used for court forms but also for work flow type correspondence. PCLaw doesn't come with the software that is needed to modify these types of precedents. Admittedly the output is still a Word document which can be edited but it would be nice to be able to modify these precedents in-house.

I would like to see program enhancements in relation to links between anticipated disbursements (disbursement creditors), client ledgers and the trust account. Some of these transactions have steps which could be automated.

The way some of the reports come out can be a bit confusing for new users. PCLaw probably has the most comprehensive suite of reports amongst comparable software systems but some individual reports are densely populated with information and I would like to see these reports simplified. The reporting option settings can be used to achieve this for many of the reports but this requires extra time for configuring.

LPI  Are there any features in PCLaw that give it an edge over comparable programs?

 The standard general ledger chart of accounts is excellent and designed specifically for law firms. It is easy to use and easy to modify.

I like the way PCLaw stores documents, notes and emails in the matter manager. You’ve got everything in the one place.

LPI  PCLaw sounds like a very broad program. Does a small law firm need any other software?

 That’s the million dollar question. PCLaw offers broader functionality than many other comparable programs.

LPI  Where do firms get the most productivity benefits after implementing PCLaw?

 It depends on what software the firm was previously using but usually in the time recording, billing and end of month procedures.

PCLaw provides great reports on fee earner productivity and performance as well as reports on fees by clients and by type of law.

LPI  What advice do you have for firms that currently use PCLaw?

 Firms get to a level where they can enter their time, do their trust and office accounting and then they just sit at that level. A lot of firms don’t come anywhere near using the full potential of the software. To be able to do that they need more training. If they are given the opportunity to receive further training then they can get to the next level.

LPI  What are some important features that firms might not be using?

 Firms might not be using the appointment and calendar features in PCLaw because they use Outlook and they think, I won’t bother with that. The advantage of using appointments in PCLaw is that you can convert an appointment into a time entry thus avoiding “double handling”.

LPI  You have worked with many law firms over many years. Do you have any advice for them that you would like to share with us?
 
 They need to be more prudent in tracking the time of fee earners. Non-billable work should be tracked and reported as well as billable work. They need to report on their whole day and that includes non-billable time. I have seen firms benefit tremendously as a result of implementing such a system.

LPI  Thank you very much for your time. It is greatly appreciated. (9 July 2011)

Suzanne Stevenson can be contacted at Suzanne Stevenson Consulting 

Link to more information about PCLaw Software 

   

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