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Software Used by KEYTLaw

by Richard Keyt, Arizona business attorney & law office technology guru

The following is a list of the productivity software I use in my law practice:

1. Word 2007 by Microsoft.  I make my living writing and producing words on paper.  Word is my bread and butter program.  Word can do it all for those who invest the time to learn Word.  I bought WordPerfect 2 in 1983.  My license number was 50 something thousand.  I became an expert and used WP through DOS version 5.2 until 1998 when the large law firm in which I was a partner switched from DOS to Word and from WP to Word.  Everybody who uses Word regularly should purchase and read a book called "Word 2003 for Law Firms" by Donna Payne.  I use it as a reference source, i.e., when I need to understand how to do something in Word, I read Donna's explanation on the topic.  If your primary job involves writing and you use Word, you owe it to yourself to become a true Word expert rather than one who dabbles in Word and cannot understand why things happen or why you cannot get Word to do what you want it to do.

2. Timeslips 2010 by Sage Software.  Timeslips is the best lawyer billing program I have ever owned.  Timeslips is a critical program in my practice that enhances my productivity and ability to bill for my services.  I bought my first law office billing program in 1984, Client Management System by Compulaw.  It was a great DOS billing program.  Over the years I owned and used Omega, TABS III, and Forob.  The latter was a great DOS integrated billing, accounts payable, accounts receivable and general ledger program for which I paid $10,000 in the early 1990s.  When I had my eight lawyer firm, we paid a billing clerk $40,000 a year with benefits to do the bills.  Today, I use Timeslips alone without a billing clerk and save the money I used to spend for billing assistance.  I run Timeslips constantly in the background and enter my time as I work each day.  It takes me approximately three to four hours a month to review and edit hundreds of bills and print them in final.  I use Timeslips to generate over 600 invoices.  Because Timeslips makes a copy of every invoice, I do not retain hard copies of any invoice.  If a client calls about an invoice, I can access the invoice in question and email a copy of the invoice in pdf format in a few seconds.

3. Time Matters Version 2010 by LexisNexis.  The perennial number one selling and top ranked law office contact management program.  This program truly does it all, which is why some of its features have a high learning curve.  I have used Time Matters since version 2.0 in 1998.  Time Matters is a superior contact manager, calendar, to do list, tickler system, internet email manager, document management system and many other things.  My Time Matters contains contact information for over 3,700 clients, referral sources, contacts, vendors and government agencies.  I can find a name, phone number, mailing address and email address in a few seconds.  Time Matters' document management system is one reason I am a 100% paperless office.  See my article called "A Simple Inexpensive Way to Create a Paperless Office" for a detailed explanation of how we became a paperless office.  Time Matters allows me to save everything related to a client, matter or contact in one place.  For example, if I access World Wide Widgets matter called "Newco vs. WWW," I will find every document, internet email (incoming and outgoing), phone call (in and out), calendar event, to do list item and relevant website for the matter, including all such items created by other people.  Time Matters gives me total client, matter and contact information in one central location.  Can you instantly access a record of a phone call you had relating to a client a year ago or a contract signed by a client two years ago?  I can because I use Time Matters.

4. Infusionsoft Customer Relations Management.  See my review of this fabulous automatic marketing system.  Infusionsoft helps small businesses grow fast by automating their marketing, sales, and customer management.  Infusionsoft centralizes, organizes and automates small business' marketing, sales, and customer management, which results in better lead conversion, lower labor costs and greater lifetime customer value.  I have been using Infusionsoft since the middle of October 2007, and can say that it is fabulous and its marketing potential is unlimited.  The CRM lets me do automatic marketing to my contact lists.  For example, I wrote an article called "10 Critical Facts Every LLC Owner Must Know."  I put a teaser link on my LLC Library area on my website.  When people click on the link to obtain a copy of the article, they are asked to give their first and last name and email address.  On entering that information, the CRM automatically begins the following campaign:

A.  The CRM sends an email to the person and asks the person to click on a link to opt in to receive the article.

B.  When the person clicks on the link, the CRM sends a second email to the person that contains a pdf copy of the article attached to the email.  The email is a sales message telling the person why he or she should hire me to form their LLC.

C.  Over the next several months, the CRM sends additional follow up email messages intended to get the person to purchase one or more of my legal services.

5. Acrobat Pro Version 9 by Adobe.  Acrobat standard version is must have program for all lawyers.  I have a 100% paperless office because I scan all documents into Acrobat format (.pdf) using Acrobat Pro (standard version also creates pdf files).  When you have Acrobat running on your computer, it adds a feature to Word that allows you to create .pdf files directly from Word documents, which is much faster and creates very small files.  For example, by telling Word to print a 55 page Operating Agreement, Acrobat created the .pdf file in about 30 seconds and the file size was 253k.

6. Hot Docs Pro 2008 by LexisNexis.  Hot Docs is the best automatic document assembly software on the market.  You or your Hot Docs programmer use HD to create templates with powerful programming features and logic to assemble finished documents in Word.  All of the legal forms that I use frequently for my clients are assembled automatically using Hot Docs templates.  I recommend that you hire an experienced professional HD programmer to create your templates and automate documents that you or your firm routinely create for internal use or for clients.  Anybody who creates the same basic document over and over (for example, lawyers who prepare contracts, pleadings and other form type documents) should use Hot Docs to automate the process.  Hot Docs is the reason my only legal assistant / secretary was able to form 342 limited liability companies (and all related documents including an Operating Agreement) in 2005 on a part time basis.  I could not practice law and be as productive as I am without Hot Docs, my fabulous automated document assembly program.  For Hot Docs template development, I recommend Bart Earle who programs my templates.  Contact Bart at Capstone Practice Systems; phone 781-652-8419 or email Bart at bart@capstonepractice.com. 

7. Wealthdocs by Wealthcounsel.  Wealthdocs is the best estate planning software that money can buy.  Wealthdocs produces wills, trusts, LLCs, FLPs, and almost every ancillary document an estate planner could possibly want or use.  Wealthdocs has a very high learning curve, which you would expect for an automated document assembly program that can produce anything from a simple will to extremely complex trusts and estate plans designed to save millions of dollars in federal and state estate taxes.  It requires a lot of up front time to learn and use the software effectively.  With its high learning curve and $10,000+ price tag, Wealthdocs is not for the technology challenged or technological faint of heart.  I love Wealthdocs because it: (i) produces outstanding estate planning documents for my clients, and (ii) allows me to operate a very efficient and profitable estate planning practice.

8. Mailwasher Pro by Firetrust Limited.  I use this program to screen all email sent to me.  Mailwasher has great anti-spam features, but the main reason I use it is because I can see all email on my server before the email is downloaded to my computer.  Mailwasher allows me to mark for current and future deletion all spam and suspicious email and delete it from my server before I download bona fide email.  It is my first line of defense against malicious email.  Deleting bad email from the server before downloading it to my computer greatly reduces the risk that any bad email will get to my second line of defense, i.e., the anti-virus and anti-spyware software that runs on my local computer.

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This page was last modified on December 12, 2009.

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