By CosmoLex
Who We Are
William "Billy" L. Peebles, a solo practitioner serving all of southern Mississippi, has been practicing law since 1971. The small firm focuses on family law, criminal defense and personal injury.
The Problem
To help the law firm run more smoothly, the firm's paralegal, Kandee Harwood, started looking into ways to shift from the manual bookkeeping the firm was currently doing. She knew it needed to be made current and that they needed something that would eliminate mistakes and duplications. "I knew I couldn't be alone in this need," stated Harwood.
That's when she started talking to other paralegals, and found out that many of them were also still doing manual bookkeeping. "I have no idea how they are keeping up with things, given the number of clients they have," she continued. Many of them were creating Excel spreadsheets, while some were using ledgers and books.
The Solution
Harwood looked into products like Peachtree and Quickbooks, but they were not specific to the legal market and didn't fit her needs. She contacted the local State Bar Association to see if they were endorsing or recommending a company that could help, only to learn that they had nothing. That's when she came across CosmoLex on the Web.
CosmoLex seemed to be exactly what she was looking for, so she implemented a free trial to see how it would work. She immediately saw the benefits of using the product. With CosmoLex, when a client comes in, she can easily retrieve their time sheet, see their actual account to-date, and know, at that minute, what's owed. She is able to generate a professional report or invoice immediately (not hand-written as they were in the past), making it quicker and easier for the clients as well.
The Results
"With CosmoLex, everything is simpler, quicker, and easier."
The firm has now been using CosmoLex for a few months and is very impressed with how much it has improved productivity. They are also very pleased with the level of customer service that is available with the product. CosmoLex is a cloud-based product, so all upgrades are automatic. "The company's goal is to free your time, so you can focus on your firm and your clients. They go to great lengths to make it as easy and accessible as it can be and I am a true believer in the product," stated Harwood.
In the past, Harwood needed to stop throughout the day to write receipts and track work that was manually documented on time sheets. With CosmoLex, she spends a total of about 20-30 minutes at the end of each day recording everything. "This saves tremendous time and increases my productivity," she said. In addition, Harwood can now easily run reports that reflect information requested by the court.
"There is a combination of things that make me love using CosmoLex," stated Harwood. "The first thing is that the customer care and support I have received from the company has been awesome! They really take pride in making sure that I am happy and they are willing to help with anything I need. The second thing is the ease of the program. I absolutely love how easy it is to pull up information on our clients and see, in real-time, the status of that client. CosmoLex is the perfect answer to a huge problem for any paralegal."
CosmoLex (www.cosmolex.com) is a leader in cloud-based software for lawyers. The company was founded by Dr. Rick Kabra, who has worked for many years in the legal software industry, catering to the specialized technology needs of small to mid-sized law firms. CosmoLex integrates time tracking, billing and trust accounting functions, allowing lawyers to focus on the practice of law.