When Boyd & Kummer, a Chicago-based litigation firm, sought to move from a tangled web of firm management solutions into one comprehensive environment, they opted to replace their existing case management solution with Smokeball.
Prior to Smokeball, their process for tracking documents, emails and client information was difficult and time-consuming, according to partner Scott Kummer. Switching back and forth between their previous practice management system, Outlook and Word was especially cumbersome.
Now, Smokeball allows them to automatically fill out forms, draft emails and generate documents within seconds.
“With Smokeball, instead of focusing on the process, I am focusing on the content,” Kummer said. “It makes my work much more efficient.”
In fact, other firms like Watson LLP have increased productivity by 30 to 40% overall through Smokeball’s document automation feature. Tasks that typically took four to five hours, such as drafting documents, can be done in minutes with a preloaded library of over 18,000 legal forms.
How Smokeball works
Smokeball’s comprehensive case management tools and powerful automatic time tracking are designed to help firms reduce time spent on unbillable administrative tasks, while accurately recording the hours that remain – allowing legal professionals to bill for their worth.
All of the time and activity spent on a Smokeball matter – from emails, phone calls, meetings, document creation, and hearings – is automatically captured in that matter for the most accurate client billing. In fact, Smokeball found in a recent study that clients using automatic time tracking increased their daily billable hours from two to four.
The Firm Insights dashboard allows Smokeball users to see what cases and matter types are driving ROI in real-time. Users can see detailed breakdowns of new business, referral sources, time spent, and area-of-law-specific data.
Companies placing court filings and scheduling hearings will benefit from these Smokeball features:
- Every matter related to each case is readily available to users on a mobile phone app. In a few simple clicks, Smokeball users can download all documents, calls, and emails related to a case and have them available – both online and offline – at every hearing.
- Time in court, as well as all notes taken during the hearing, are stored in Smokeball as part of the respective matter, making it easier to track all items and bills for court time.
- Through Smokeball’s Communicate feature, users can easily send status updates to their clients.
- Smokeball’s integration with InfoTrack makes it simple to file court documents, sync back court-stamped copies to any matter and see the history of each case docket. Integration users can search court records in all 50 states, and distribute documents for electronic signatures.
In addition to InfoTrack, Smokeball offers a variety of integrations that allow users to get more done in one place.
- Microsoft Word – Smokeball’s industry-leading Word integration allows users to quickly and accurately generate public forms and private firm documents in seconds. This document automation benefit saves hundreds of hours per year in repetitive document creation.
- Microsoft Outlook – Smokeball can generate emails from any document and send them through Outlook. Emails and responses are easily saved to their appropriate matter, which can be accessed later by all firm members.
- Zoom – This integration allows users to add meeting links to events and start Zoom meetings directly from Smokeball. These meetings are tracked for every matter.
- RingCentral – Record and easily bill for time spent on phone calls with Smokeball’s phone call logging integration.
- LawToolBox – This integration provides a rules-based deadline calculation for law firms across all 50 states. Enter matter information into Smokeball once, and LawToolbox will use that data to determine all necessary deadlines for a given case.
Learn more
Looking to invest in your law firm’s billing software to increase productivity and profitability? Check out Smokeball’s ‘Investing in Your Law Firm’ guide for insights on evaluating your options.
You can also view a demo to see if Smokeball is right for you.
