Eclipse's Proclaim Practice Management system maximises potential at international firm, DKLM Solicitors

Eclipse Legal Systems is implementing its Law Society Endorsed Proclaim Practice Management Software solution at DKLM Solicitors, an established central London law firm.

With a strong international focus, DKLM Solicitors' expert legal team offers a complete range of services to both private and commercial clients. Formed in 2004, the firm has seen spectacular growth - doubling in size in the last five years - across both client base and areas of practice. The firm prides itself on the diversity of its clients, partners and staff, and attributes this to its continuous expansion.

The Proclaim Practice Management Software solution will be rolled out across the Conveyancing and Immigration departments, ensuring instant desktop access and a consistent approach to matter management from all users. Additionally, Proclaim's integrated financial platform will enable a seamless approach to billing and practice management firm-wide.

To further drive client service and streamline efficiencies within the Conveyancing department, DKLM Solicitors is opting for Proclaim's integration with the Land Registry Business Gateway (LRBG) and LRBG Electronic Document Service. These integrations will automate a number of stages within the Conveyancing process, as well as provide fee earners with access to Land Registry services - including completion of eDRS applications and sending of accompanying documents - entirely through the Proclaim desktop.

Alan Dixon (pictured), Managing Partner at DKLM Solicitors, comments:

"As a rapidly expanding firm with international reach, our core Practice Management system needs to be as efficient as possible in order to maximise our potential. Using Proclaim's flexibility, we can seamlessly meet the increasing complexities of client cases, and streamline a number of our processes, freeing up our time to provide quality advice, and ultimately allowing us to further perfect our clients' journey."

Cyber security in the legal sector - minimise your risk to exposure

The prevalence and wide variety of cyber-crime means it is now a major risk to businesses across any sector. However, law firms and other legal organisations are particularly attractive sources of information due to the sensitive commercial and client data they hold.

According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), cyber-crime caused substantial losses to law firms last year, with figures ranging from £50,000 to £2million, whilst a further 20 firms fell victim to email scams.

Due to the increase in sophistication of cyber-crime tactics, security is no longer a back-office IT issue. The risk of exposure to cyber-crime and the steps to prevention are rapidly becoming key business decisions, and high on the agendas of senior partners, as the cost of cyber-security breaches can be disastrous in terms of financial, professional and reputational risks.

Essentially, the greatest dangers can often be overcome by taking straight-forward preventative measures. Below, we list a few of the common threats and the simple steps to combat the risk of breaches.

• Emails
  
  Perhaps most worryingly, one of the biggest risks to IT security comes from firms' own employees - maliciously or unintentionally.
  
  Email is the most common method in which employees can cause security breaches unintentionally, for example, by sending a message to the incorrect recipient. One of our recent articles commented on the increase in popularity of SecureDocs, our secure online document delivery and acceptance tool. This growing popularity can be attributed to firms' increase of awareness in the importance of sending and receiving confidential information, particularly in light of recent hacking threats. Using a tool like SecureDocs, fee earners can utilise an email messaging function that allows only the intended recipient to securely view the documents via an online portal. 

• Legal software and technology
  
  For law firms, legal software often underpins business operations and as such, acts as a storage facility for client contact details and sensitive case information.
  
  The right case management software will enable administrative users to limit file access and ensure only relevant fee earners can view and/or open a particular file.
  
  Furthermore, an effective audit trail should be in place to ensure all incoming and outgoing transactions within a case can be seen at-a-glance, as well as any amendments made to cases, including documents or fields.
  
  Taking this further, clients themselves are increasingly conducting audit inspections of law firms prior to instruction. As part of the initial research period, clients expect their potential firm to be able to demonstrate the measures and software they have in place to ensure any sensitive data remains confidential. 

• Know Your Client (KYC)
  Compliance, risk management and diligence are always at the top of the list for the legal sector, and as part of any client inception process, reliable and accurate ID checking needs to be carried out.
  
  Nowadays, sophisticated phishing tactics can involve criminals using social media information to pose as a contact of a specific individual, a prospective client, or even another law firm you're intending to do business with. This can be highly effective and ultimately allows access to account IDs, passwords or a means to install harmful software.
  
  Integrations with case management software such as Proclaim's ID and AML checker, enables fee earners to request 'one-click' ID checks, directly from their desktop, and ultimately provides them with a comprehensive solution to the KYC problem. Similarly, Proclaim's Lawyer Checker integration enables purchase conveyancers to gather information on a seller's conveyancer, identifying risks of sending funds to the suggested account. 

As the importance of the internet to business increases so will the issues relating to cyber-crime. The big challenge for law firms is how to maintain a cost-effective defence, which can develop in time to match a constantly evolving threat.

A vital strategy is to identify information that matters the most - typically emails and data held in legal software - and ensure strategies are in place to prevent attacks, or quickly detect those that can't be. In addition, the basics cannot be forgotten. Law firms need to develop and maintain a robust business continuity plan in order to react quickly and effectively if compromised. Being aware and prepared for threats will enable firms to prevent incidents and react quickly enough to reduce impact.

Eclipse implements its Proclaim Debt Recovery Practice Management system at Stenfield Solicitors

Eclipse Legal Systems, the sole Law Society Endorsed legal software provider, is implementing its Proclaim Practice Management Software solution at Stenfield Solicitors, a niche practice specialising in debt collection and dispute resolution.

The specialist firm, established in 2004, acts for a range of clients - from sole traders to large corporate companies - across a variety of industries to recover money quickly and efficiently. The practice prides itself on its friendly and cost-effective service, and believes its expert team is the reason for its rapidly expanding client base.

Eclipse will implement its Proclaim Practice Management Software solution, incorporating a comprehensive accounting and financial toolset with an out-of-the-box Debt Recovery Case Management system. Fee earners will benefit from a completely centralised desktop application, ensuring consistency and security firm-wide.

Additionally, Stenfield Solicitors will benefit from Proclaim's integration with the County Court Bulk Centre (CCBC), enabling staff to submit claims seamlessly through the Secure Data Transfer (SDT) portal without leaving the Proclaim desktop. This will serve to increase case volume and reduce administration time, as manual processes associated with claim submission will be automated and therefore, significantly minimised.

Mahesh Patel, Principal of Stenfield Solicitors, comments:

"Due to the nature of our work, we need a legal software solution that can minimise the manual processes associated with debt collection and enable our team to focus on recovering our clients' money as quickly and efficiently as possible. With Proclaim, we can significantly simplify our claim submission procedures, ensuring a truly streamlined process, as well as higher levels of accuracy."

Client Case Study: Brabners

Eclipse works in conjunction with Brabners to develop bespoke Plot Sales Case Management Software solution 

"Eclipse is the market-leader for legal software solutions and it was clear that Brabners could benefit from a huge ROI with the Proclaim Case Management system. The conveyancing process is managed entirely from the desktop application, including one-click property searches, meaning our Residential Conveyancing team can increase the volume of work as well as profitability per case."
Jon Taylor, Software Developer at Brabners 

Brabners is a full service law firm operating from offices across the North West. With clients ranging from PLCs and SMEs to private clients and public sector bodies, the team brings an in-depth knowledge and a wealth of experience to a range of matters within the legal sector.

The firm's global reach has meant rapid expansion in recent years, enabling a greater range of services and a proactive approach to providing commercially realistic solutions to legal problems.

The challenge 
The team's work was entirely paper-based, resulting in a slow and inefficient process. Additionally, fee earners were working on cases individually, producing inconsistent approaches to work, and ultimately resulting in compliance issues.

Essentially, Brabners needed to standardise client inception and matter management across the department.

The solution 
Working in conjunction with Eclipse, Brabners developed a bespoke case management system for its Residential Conveyancing team - specifically for Plot Sales work - enabling high-level automation and speedier case progression.

Additionally, the firm opted for Proclaim's integration with PALI (Property and Land Information), an online conveyancing search provider, facilitating one-click searches from the Proclaim desktop, saving hours of data entry.

The results
Repetition is inherent within Plot Sales as document packs are often identical for groups of properties under a specific development or developer. Since implementation, Brabners has seen significant reductions to administrative overheads by utilising Proclaim to automate the majority of case stages, including document production. This has meant fee earners can focus on the legal aspect of their work, whilst increasing overall profitability and case volumes.

Additionally, Brabners is currently in the process of implementing Eclipse's online case tracking tool, FileView. Linked to the Plot Sales case type, developers will be able to log in securely an view real-time information as and when they need to, providing a convenient and modernised approach to case updates, eliminating continuous interruptions for fee earners.

Due to the success of the Plot Sales software, Brabners is looking to work with Eclipse again to develop a similar case type for the Social Housing department, enabling automatic matter creation and maximised matter management efficiency.

Case Study highlights: 

• Bespoke Plot Sales case type 
• Comprehensive integration with PALI 
• Standardised client inception and matter management 
• Real-time client updates via Eclipse's FileView tool 

Eclipse to implement its Proclaim Practice Management Software solution at Anderson Rowntree in 6-figure deal

Eclipse Legal Systems, the Law Society's sole Endorsed legal software provider, is implementing its Proclaim Practice Management Software solution at Anderson Rowntree, one of the oldest law firms in West Sussex.

Established around 1850, Anderson Rowntree has an enviable reputation for results and service, and prides itself on its firm roots within the local community. Offering services across property, private client, family and litigation, the experienced team provide an entirely client-focused and efficient service, earning the firm a recommendation rate of over 98%.

The 6-figure deal will see Eclipse implement pre-configured work types for all staff to provide a core centralised productivity suite. For financial management, Proclaim's Credit Control Centre (CCC) will provide the firm with a central dashboard of key financial and payment information, including the ability to drill directly into bills, clients and matters. As part of the implementation process, Eclipse will conduct a complete data migration from the practice's incumbent system, resulting in increased efficiency throughout all departments.

Furthermore, to ensure firm-wide compliance, Anderson Rowntree has opted for Eclipse's integrated compliance toolset to assist with the extensive SRA obligations, and to provide an improved risk management strategy.

Additionally, as part of the drive to further enhance client service, Anderson Rowntree will also take advantage of the integrated Proclaim lead management system, empowering the firm to track and analyse sources of new business, and streamline the inception process. Taking this further, the firm will benefit from Eclipse's integration with an online ID and AML service, providing end-to-end 'one-click' verification and instant on-screen validation.

John Dickerson (pictured), Partner and Practice Director at Anderson Rowntree, comments:

"It is crucial that we achieve our goal of staying ahead of the competition and strengthening our enviable reputation for outstanding client service. Proclaim will be fundamental to our future success, by providing a flexible central solution, embraced by all departments and therefore guaranteeing a consistent approach to matter management.

"Proclaim will not only improve our internal efficiencies and compliance, but will also provide client-facing systems to enable an online service. The fact that Proclaim's scope is this broad made the system our first choice by a large margin."