The Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards 2020 – shortlist

We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards 2020, which takes place on Thursday 6th February at the Victoria Warehouse, Manchester.

After facing a number of tough decisions to whittle down all of the high-calibre entries, the judges have created a final shortlist of firms and individuals, which can be seen below.

Congratulations to all!

ABS of the Year
Beacon Wealth Legal Ltd
BW Legal Services Limited
ESP Law Ltd
Nottingham Law School Legal Advice Centre
St James’ Square Law Firm

Law Firm of the Year
Birketts LLP
Duncan Lewis Solicitors
Hudgell Solicitors
Nayyars Solicitors
Ramsdens Solicitors LLP
Warner Goodman LLP

Boutique Law Firm of the Year (1-10 Employees)
3D Solicitors
Capitalise Business Solutions
ESP Law Ltd
Manders Law
Purdy Smith
The Law Boutique

Boutique Law Firm of the Year (11+ Employees)
Family Law and Mediation Limited
FD Law trading as Hayes Connor Solicitors
FTA Law
Greenhalgh Kerr Solicitors
Stuart Miller Solicitors Limited
TQ Property Lawyers

Managing Partner of the Year
Ayesha Nayyar – Nayyars Solicitors
Emma Carey – MSB Solicitors
Helen Johnson – Johnson Astills
James Thornton – ClientEarth
Lindsay Healy – Aria Grace Law
Paul Monaghan – St James’ Square Law Firm

Lawyer of the Year
Charlotte Clode – FBC Manby Bowdler LLP
Amira Hughes – Howell-Jones LLP
Georgia Holmes – Barcan+Kirby LLP
Madelene Holdsworth – Slater and Gordon Lawyers
Shaheen Mamun – Black Antelope Law
Sophie Murgatroyd – Bridge Law Solicitors Limited

Chambers of the Year
Exchange Chambers
Hardwicke
Normanton Chambers
Park Square Barristers

Barrister of the Year
David Boyle – Deans Court Chambers
Nabila Mallick – No5 Chambers
Philip Rule – No5 Chambers
Sally Penni – Kenworthys Chambers

Team of the Year
Consilia Legal
Instalaw Solicitors
OakNorth

Paralegal of the Year
Callum Scott – Nottingham Law School Legal Advice Centre
Hazel Montgomery – Cartwright King Solicitors
Machaela O’Brien – Coodes Solicitors
Natalie Lamb –  Slater and Gordon Lawyers
Nicholas Ash – Will & Probate Services (Estate Planning) Ltd
Nicola Goodburn – Ward Hadaway

Rising Star of the Year
Danielle Day – Berwins Solicitors
Heather Moore – Slater and Gordon Lawyers
Jonathan Andrews – Reed Smith
Kayleigh Leonie – Macfarlanes
Markella Papadouli – The AIRE Centre
Reise Luke – Instalaw Solicitors

Innovation of the Year
Capitalise Business Solutions
Chambers365 by Clerksroom
ContractPodAi
Legl
Luminance
Zeus Claims Solutions Limited

Marketing & Communication Strategy of the Year
Berwins Digital
Countrywide Legacy
FD Law trading as Hayes Connor Solicitors
Legmark Ltd
Morton Fraser
The Carvalho Consultancy

Client Care Initiative of the Year
1st Resolve Ltd
Bell Lamb and Joynson Solicitors
Farewill
Rothera Sharp Solicitors
Stuart Miller Solicitors Limited
Touch Solicitors Limited

Outstanding Commitment to Training
Bidwell Henderson Costs Consultants Ltd
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP)
Countrywide Conveyancing Services
Jackson Lees Group
My Home Move
ProMediate (UK) Limited

Best use of Technology
BW Legal Services Limited
Chambers365 by Clerksroom
Farewill
High Court Enforcement Group Limited
Settify & The International Family Law Group LLP
Zeus Claims Solutions Limited

Business Growth Award
Aria Grace Law
Capitalise Business Solutions
Farewill
Legl
Simplify
Thomas Legal

Combatting Fraud Award
Estatesearch
NetWatch Global
Shieldpay Ltd
SmartSearch
Teal Compliance Ltd
Thirdfort Limited

Diversity & Inclusion Award
Barcan+Kirby LLP
Black Antelope Law
Dentons
MSB Solicitors
Osborne Clarke
Wedlake Bell

Supporting the Industry (1-25 Employees)
Clinco
Curian Medical Limited
DMR Collation Ltd
LawNet Ltd
Obelisk Support
Zeus Claims Solutions Limited

Supporting the Industry (26+ Employees)
Corporé Limited
Geodesys
GlobalX
Mobile Doctors Limited
poweredbypie
Shieldpay Ltd

West End law firm Campbell & Co selects Proclaim Case Management solution

Bespoke legal experts Campbell & Co Solicitors is set to implement the Proclaim Case Management solution from Eclipse, the Law Society Endorsed legal software provider.

With over 30 years of experience in the legal sector, the Mayfair-based firm provides valuable legal assistance across a range of specialist areas, including personal injury, medical negligence, conveyancing and commercial.

Campbell & Co sought a solution to replace their incumbent system that would enable the firm to capitalise on new opportunities and build upon their existing reputation of excellence. The firm chose the Proclaim Case Management system with ready-to-go workflow modules for its personal injury and medico legal teams.

The firm will further streamline processes with full integration with the Ministry of Justice Claims Portals, enabling the management of both RTA and EL/PL claims directly from the Proclaim desktop, without resorting to the manual entry web browser method.

In addition, the medico legal workflow boasts an in-built ‘Expert Selector’, which will enable Campbell & Co to select the most relevant medical expert faster, benefitting clients with even greater speed.

Sandra Campbell (pictured), Principal Solicitor at Campbell & Co, comments:

“Our clients have come to expect an exceptional compassionate service at what is often a difficult time. With Proclaim, and the increase in efficiencies it will brings to our firm, we can focus on our client’s individual needs and tailor our expertise to suit the requirements and intricacies of every unique case. We’re confident we’ll be able to take on more cases than ever before – without compromising on the quality of our services.”

Pinkney Grunwells selects Proclaim Practice Management solution from Eclipse

Leading regional law firm Pinkney Grunwells is set to implement the Proclaim Practice Management solution from Eclipse, the Law Society Endorsed legal software provider.

Established in 1938, the Yorkshire-based firm boasts offices in Scarborough, Bridlington, Whitby, Driffield and Hunmanby, and has been offering direct and honest legal advice to local residents and businesses since its inception.

Providing a wide range of services including Conveyancing, Family and Probate, Pinkney Grunwells sought to replace its incumbent systems with a single solution geared towards firm-wide case management and practice financials. The firm selected a fully integrated Proclaim Practice Management Software solution.

As part of the project, Eclipse is carrying out a conversion of both case and accounting data from the practice’s incumbent systems.

To further streamline the conveyancing process, the firm will utilise Proclaim’s integration with the Land Registry Business Gateway (LRBG). This enables users to seamlessly interact with the Gateway from the Proclaim desktop environment. Tasks such as property enquiries and bankruptcy searches can be completed without leaving Proclaim.

The firm is taking advantage of Proclaim’s ready-to-go probate workflow which automatically completes all relevant forms including the IHT400 – ensuring sensitive matters are managed properly, accurately, and with no distractions.

Daniel Boynton (pictured), Operations Manager at Pinkney Grunwells, comments:

“Our clients’ expectations are becoming increasingly high, it’s key that we exceed these demands to set us apart from the competition. Proclaim will enable us to build on our operational effectiveness and re-invest time saved in enhancing our client’s experience.”

Three ways to keep your client’s sensitive data secure

The security of client data should be your number one priority. Most individuals won’t even consider hiring a law firm if they don’t feel confident their details will be properly secured.

The regulatory requirements with regards to data are another incentive to ensuring everything is managed correctly. With the introduction of GDPR, it’s more important than ever to handle data in the right way.

There are a number of ways in which data can be compromised. It can happen maliciously, where a hacker or fraudster is looking to breach your systems and steal sensitive information – probably for financial gain.

It can also happen accidentally. Human error is a part of life, and it’s not uncommon for an email to mistakenly be sent to the wrong person – an email that contains data that should not be shared with anyone other than the intended recipients.

Neither of these scenarios are completely unavoidable. But you can mitigate the risk by taking reason steps to maintain the trust of your clients, and reduce the chance of fines and other punishments by regulators.

So, what can you do?

Your Case Management software is where your client’s data is going to be stored. So you need a solution that provides suitable security, and makes it easier for you to stay on the right side of the regulations.

Meet GDPR requirements

Proclaim features two GDPR toolsets that assist you in remaining compliant. They are the GDPR Information Asset Register, and the GDPR Individual Rights Workflow.

The Asset Register acts as a map for all the data you hold. It allows you to track where information is stored, and helps you understand why you have it and what it is being used for.

The Individual Rights workflow manages GDPR requests such as the Right to be Forgotten from individuals whose data you hold, allowing you to respond to their requests in a simple and efficient manner within the regulatory time limits. Only authorised users can access this information. And it issues on screen alerts to flag potential non-compliance matters.

Ring-fence data securely in the cloud

Whilst you can host Proclaim on your own systems, Proclaim can also live happily in any secure UK based ISO accredited data centre, meaning data is never held on users devices. This makes it easy to control who has access to client information and means misplaced laptops are not the severe data breach they once were.

Your entire Proclaim database is regularly backed up automatically, so should a disaster strike your offices you can be back concentrating on client care in no time, accessing Proclaim from any location.

Send and receive sensitive data in encrypted emails

One of the newer features of Proclaim is the integration with RMail, which allows you to send encrypted emails to clients.
This means if an email gets intercepted, no data will be at risk because only the intended recipient can see the contents of that email – including any attachments.

It works through Outlook, so there’s no additional effort required from the sender. There’s a simple button you can press to ‘encrypt’ any email and then send it directly through Proclaim. Your recipients can even reply to the encrypted email in a secure encrypted portal.

You can also see when the email has been read by the recipient, which acts as proof of delivery – admissible as evidence in a court of law.

If security is important to you – and it should be – then Proclaim is the obvious choice as a Case Management solution.

You can find out more about this software by requesting a no obligation demonstration. Just visit this page.

Embracing app technology

Darren Gower (pictured), Marketing Director at Eclipse spoke with Legal Practice Management magazine to discuss why law firms shouldn’t think that, just because they’re operating in a traditional working environment, they’ve missed their chance to adapt.

If we’re honest, the legal sector has never been particularly quick to adopt new technologies. Traditional ways of working have always served us well in the past, so why change anything?

Well, the answer is because we can always get better. There’s always a new way to improve the level of service that law firms can offer their customers, and it’s often done through technology.

Digital technologies in particular have a big impact on businesses because they’re able to boost efficiencies. They can cut down time-consuming tasks into more manageable jobs, enabling more time to be spent on other areas of the business.

But it’s not just about embracing technologies that allow your fee earners to be more productive. You can also put these solutions into the hands of your customer – not only creating a better experience for them – but a more exciting one.

And the way to do that is through apps. Most people have a smartphone or a tablet and are used to using apps on a daily basis for a variety of things – from online banking and shopping, to browsing social media and reading the news.

The ability for them to communicate with their legal team through a simple, easy-to-use app –available 24/7 – is a huge benefit. They can view information about their case anytime without having to pick up the phone or send an email and wait for a response.

Certain apps used by law firms provide real time information, so users know that it’s completely accurate and up to date.

This additional value will encourage people to pay for and retain your services. You have to ask yourself what you can do that other law firms can’t. Using new technology is a great way of gaining an edge on your competitors.

Other firms are already providing these services – so you might be the one being left behind and losing that edge. The more quickly you implement apps and other process improvement features, the more you will benefit.

But it’s never too late. Don’t think that just because you’re operating in a traditional working environment, that you’ve missed your chance to adapt, and are behind everyone else.

Apps are going to be a bigger and bigger part of our lives in the coming years. Every day that goes by without you offering these powerful tools is another day that your competitors are gaining an edge.

RIAA Barker Gillette (UK) selects Proclaim Practice Management solution from Eclipse

RIAA Barker Gillette (UK) LLP is implementing Eclipse’s Practice Management solution, Proclaim, the Law Society Endorsed legal software provider.

Established in 1981, the West End law firm is part of the RIAA Barker Gillette Global Alliance, with affiliated offices from New York to Beijing. The firm boasts a leading reputation for the approachability and accessibility of its Partners and offers a highly personalised service. The firm provides a wealth of specialist services, including corporate and commercial, dispute resolution, employment, family, private client and real estate.

As a mid-tier law firm offering a wide range of services, RIAA Barker Gillette (UK) required a solution that could be rolled out across all departments enabling maximum efficiency. Proclaim’s compliance features and integrated document management and accounting systems made it the ideal choice of software.

TouchPoint+, Proclaim’s self-service portal, includes an app that allows the firm’s clients to access information from their mobile devices. This will help RIAA Barker Gillette (UK) to further enhance its position as a leading law firm providing outstanding client care.

Alex Deal (pictured), Managing Partner, of RIAA Barker Gillette (UK), comments:

“We’re delighted to be moving to the Proclaim platform – we’re confident the new system will have a massive impact on efficiency within our business. Proclaim’s flexibility impressed us and will enable us to integrate with our preferred software providers for postcode look-ups, digital dictation and ID/AML checks, making the transition to a new Practice Management system even smoother for both our clients and our team.”

Saving money with GDPR

Darren Gower (pictured), Marketing Director at Eclipse spoke to LPM Magazine to discuss how law firms should be efficiently handling GDPR regulations.

A year on from the introduction of GDPR, and adhering to its policies has never been more important than it is today. Not just from a compliance perspective – and being compliant will save you from being issued with fines – but in terms of the security of your law firm.

Research recently unveiled by the government shows that GDPR has, at least in part, contributed to the decline in cyber attacks against businesses in the UK. In fact, the number of companies who have experienced some sort of breach or attack went down from 43 percent to 32 percent.

According to the government’s report, each cyber security “breach” or “incident” costs large businesses an average of £22,700. So GDPR is a cost-saving exercise in more ways than one – it can prevent you from being fined and protect you from malicious attacks.

GDPR compliance pleases the regulators, it’s good for your clients, and it also has a positive effect on your bottom line. Which is why it’s so surprising that many firms don’t have efficient systems and processes in place to ensure everything is above board.

Sure, your business may not have violated any rules as of yet, but without a suitable plan of action for handling data, and dealing with Subject Access Requests, you could be walking on a tightrope.

It only takes one failure for the regulators to step in and start issuing penalties.

Implementing an entirely new system, or modifying the one you have, might be an expense you’re not particularly happy about paying. But it will undoubtedly save you money in the long run. An efficient, modernised organisational structure can make all the difference.

That means centralising all your data, rather than having it spread out across various platforms throughout your business. Effective search tools will enable you to comply with those Subject Access Requests in a timely manner, and discard appropriate data as and when necessary, to avoid being pulled up by the regulator.

Whilst a base system that improves efficiency across the board will enable firms to better comply with GDPR, there are more specific solutions available, built in a more bespoke manner particularly for this area of compliance.

Workflow systems dedicated to Subject Access Requests, or the individual rights of users as established by GDPR, can maximise efficiency even further, and ensure you’re doing everything you can to save money for your business.

Likewise, there is more you can (and should) be doing to reduce your risk against cyber attacks than simply adhering to GDPR. And the government’s report acknowledged as much. Many SMEs do not have cyber security policies in place and have not engaged in any formal cyber security training.

So when you do implement those systems and processes that will allow you to comply with GDPR, and therefore potentially save on costs, it’s essential firms look into what else they can be doing to ensure all their data is safe. It keeps the regulator happy, and it keeps your clients happy.

The Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards 2020 – nominations open!

The Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Awards are taking place at the Victoria Warehouse, Manchester on 6th February 2020.

We are delighted to be headline sponsor of the event, and to announce that nominations are now open!

The awards will provide the perfect opportunity for firms and individuals to showcase and set benchmarks for best practice in the ever diverse, challenging and exciting landscape for the business of law.

Click here to enter your submission before 15th November – and don’t forget you can nominate yourself!

How Proclaim Case Management powers Auxillis, the UK’s leading accident assistance provider

Part of £589.7m turnover support services provider, Redde plc, Auxillis is the UK’s leading provider of accident assistance services to drivers involved in non-fault accidents.

Launched in 1992, Auxillis now employs over 1,400 people across 2 operations centres and 27 branches, offering a range of services including credit hire, credit repairs, managed repairs and claims management services.

Almost 600 Auxillis staff use the Proclaim Case Management system. CIO, Andrew Langford (pictured), talks us through his experience of Proclaim.

Why Proclaim?

In 2009 Redde plc took the decision to merge three separate operating businesses to streamline our operations and remove the IT duplications that a series of company acquisitions had brought us.

Across the three businesses that dealt with claims management and hire services, we had a grand total of five separate software systems.

This was far from an ideal position, providing multiple points of data entry (difficult to control quality), multiple ways of working (making internal training long-winded and expensive) and a lot of duplication of effort in terms of moving and manipulating data between five places.

One business had been successfully using Proclaim since early 2001 (with over 300 concurrent users). It been tried and tested, and we saw it as having the most functionality and flexibility when it came to our plans for service expansion.

An in-depth systems assessment was carried out, to determine which system was the best fit for Auxillis moving forward. Using productivity benchmarking tests, Auxillis Operations Director, Susan Howe, found the business using Proclaim was the most efficient of the three businesses. This ultimately sealed our decision to roll out Proclaim as a replacement for the other systems.

The system transfer project was completed in July 2010 and saw a total of nearly 600 Auxillis employees using Proclaim.

Providing an end-to-end solution

Proclaim is used to support the full end-to-end accident management and vehicle hire process. The system gives us a holistic approach to case management – one integrated and consistent way of processing files, and one core data repository meaning a truly centralised approach.

Data integrity, and the resultant management information we can extract, are both of huge importance to Auxillis. Proclaim enables us to accurately analyse performance in real-time, and extract precisely what we need from the system. Nothing is ‘lost in translation’, and there is no need for guesswork or leaps of faith.

Given that we are controlling outsourced services from major financial services organisations and insurers, the confidence Proclaim gives us in our figures is invaluable.

Secure, robust and flexible

Given our scale and our fluid operational requirements, system resilience is vital. To aid our development team, we run three environments internally; the live one, a development area, and a test area.

These three sections are perfectly in tune, and the setup allows us to have a ‘sandbox’ creative attitude to system design which will not impact upon our live systems should we change our plans.

This helps us to be extremely reactive to business requirements and quickly deploy bespoke screens, fields and workflow steps.

We recently started to use Proclaim’s Web Services functionality to support full, real-time integration with our core business partners, using Microsoft BizTalk as a messaging layer. This will provide us with a deeper level of (fully reliable) real-time interactive intra-system messaging.

For overall system resilience, we utilise the ‘OpenEdge Replication’ toolset, which provides fast and accurate failover, should disaster strike. In fact, we have managed to create a strategy that will enable us to be up and running – all 600 users – just 10 minutes after an event that renders our primary systems inactive.

The benefits

Our Operations Director, Susan Howe, rightly places great emphasis on the ability to induct new employees quickly. Proclaim provides an extremely familiar Windows environment and ‘look and feel’, meaning that new users buy in to the system very quickly.

This continues when they find that Proclaim is genuinely straightforward to use, and as a result training is blissfully cost-effective for us. We can run sessions internally without the need to bring in external assistance.

Proclaim enables us to seamlessly link with case referrers to automatically import cases and updated details. The time savings here are immense – data inputting is made redundant, and mistakes (the ‘human factor’!) are greatly reduced. This makes for much closer and more valuable business relationships, reducing waste and frictional activity.

In addition, we use Eclipse’s FileView and SecureDocs tools to support our online Hire Agreement process, giving our customers the ability to electronically sign their rental agreements. Again, this streamlines our processes immensely and speeds up our overall service offering.

Following detailed internal analysis, we are actually able to put a figure to the productivity gains we see using Proclaim. We estimate that the system has reduced our ‘cost per case’ by approximately 20%. Considering the volumes we put through the system, that adds up to one very large annual cost saving.

The decision to standardise on Proclaim as our overall claims management platform has been truly validated. The system is by some distance the leader in the claims sector.

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Scottish start-up firm Teepee selects Proclaim Case Management solution from Eclipse

Start-up motor claims specialist Teepee is implementing Proclaim, the Case Management Software solution from Eclipse, a Law Society Endorsed legal software provider.

Established in 2019, the Glasgow-based firm specialises in motor claims; arranging repairs and credit hire through strong relationships with partner agencies that also utilise Proclaim. Proclaim will enable Teepee to operate with a high level of efficiency from day one.

As a new firm, Teepee requires a solution that will facilitate growth of the business – by establishing efficient processes for managing claims that ensure greater profit margins. Staff will benefit from this additional efficiency that permits them to focus on new business opportunities.

Proclaim’s self-service portal TouchPoint+ which includes an app that allows clients to access case information from their smartphone or tablet – will allow Teepee to differentiate from the established competition with increased levels of client care.

Tony Parris, Managing Director of Teepee, comments:

“Proclaim is going to be a game-changer for our firm – it’s exactly what we’ve been looking for. The flexibility it provides will really enable us to get the most out of this software, so we can concentrate on delivering a great service to our clients.

“TouchPoint+ in particular is going to be very well-received by our clients. The ability to keep them up to date in real time will help to create a smooth client journey during what can often be a stressful time.”

Proclaim integration with RMail enables law firms to send encrypted, tracked emails

Law Society Endorsed legal software provider, Eclipse Legal Systems, has announced integration with leading encrypted email service RMail.

RMail is a powerful email tracking and certification platform, used to send encrypted emails, confirm when an email was delivered, and at what point it was opened by the recipient. The tool is used by businesses throughout the world, many of which are required to send encrypted emails by law.

Proclaim, the Case Management solution from Eclipse, will embed RMail functionality to offer law firms a seamless way of sending and tracking important emails to clients, partners and external contacts.

Not only does RMail provide a receipt of email delivery, confirming the recipient has received and opened the email, but this receipt is also a court-admissible record proving the email was sent and received. Firms that are required by law to send encrypted emails can demonstrate they have met regulatory standards.

Email recipients do not require RMail to receive an encrypted email and can even reply to the encrypted email in a secure encrypted portal.

Mick Thompson (pictured), Technical Director at Eclipse, comments:

“Our integration with RMail will enable even better data security for law firms and their clients. With information security becoming increasingly important, the ability to seamlessly send and receive encrypted emails will prove invaluable to firms when transmitting sensitive documents and data.”

Video: how a bespoke Proclaim Case Management solution has enabled JMK Solicitors to achieve the best possible outcome with the least stress.

Cate McQuade explains how a commitment to embracing innovation and utilising the latest technology has led to JMK Solicitors choosing a bespoke Proclaim Case Management solution to achieve their goal of improving the lives of clients by achieving the best possible outcome with the least stress.

The team at JMK Solicitors benefits from an entirely paperless office enabling anyone to assist a client with their case and allows tablets to be taken to court instead of heavy paper files.

Proclaim provides automated reminders, document production at the click of a button and secure online portals helping to continually make clients the number one priority.

Three risks posed to Conveyancers and how to avoid them

Risk management is an essential part of running any law firm.

The costs – monetary and otherwise – can be substantial if practices don’t identify risks, and do everything they can to mitigate them.

Different types of challenges can present themselves depending on the exact nature of your firm, and the work you do.

Here, we’re going to look at those who specialise in Conveyancing.

The exact risks posed to those who work in this field can be managed with Proclaim, our Case Management software. We’ll explain exactly how throughout the course of this article.

Risk 1 – losing customers due to lack of efficiency

Those looking for a conveyancer, whether they’re a buyer or a seller, are going through the frustrating, sometimes long process of completing a house sale/purchase.

They want things to get done quickly so they can get on with their lives.

A big risk for conveyancers is that if they take too long to get the job done, clients and potential clients could decide to go elsewhere instead.

So efficiency is essential. Nobody expects the conveyancing process to take a day, but if you’re taking longer than your competitors, your client numbers will start to decline.

Conveyancers who utilise Proclaim don’t have this problem, as it automates many time-consuming tasks and allows everything to be completed in a timely manner.

In the past, it might not have mattered if things moved at a steady pace – but as more and more firms are utilising automation software, you’re only getting left behind if you don’t.

Risk 2 – making mistakes that cost time and money to fix

Making mistakes is a part of life. But where we can reduce the chances of mistakes happening, especially with something as important as legal work, we absolutely should.

Mistakes are often made when filling out paperwork. There’s lots and lots of paperwork in the legal sector, and it’s not uncommon to find inaccuracies.

So, how do you overcome this issue?

Proclaim stores all client and case data, automatically fills out the necessary forms, and allows you to submit them at the click of a button.

The forms use client and case information you have entered upon opening the case. So as long as everything is accurate then, it will be accurate on every form that requires that information.

Obviously no solution can eliminate mistakes, but Proclaim does an excellent job at minimising them.

Risk 3 – staff leaving to join a more modern working environment

Proclaim promises a more efficient law office. The ease at which cases can be managed, and the speed at which tasks can be completed brings many benefits.

One major benefit we haven’t yet discussed is employee happiness. Fee earners who use Proclaim are impressed they don’t have to spend hours and hours doing long, mundane tasks.

This naturally leads to a more positive work/life balance.

Law firms not offering a more efficient workplace are at risk of losing their top talent to competitors – practices that do provide a better working environment.

Fee earners want to work in a modern, forward-thinking business, utilising the latest technologies to ensure their work can be done to a higher standard.

And to enable them more flexibility.

Proclaim offers all of the above. Hundreds of conveyancing specialists are already operating with our case management software, and delivering an exceptional service to their clients.

To see how you can do the same, book a free demo of Proclaim by clicking here.

Boost efficiencies in your law firm by embracing flexible working

Darren Gower (pictured), Marketing Director at Eclipse spoke to LPM Magazine to discuss how flexible working can benefit law firms.

The nine-to-five working week is over. Well, for most people anyway. Whilst some businesses cling to the traditional ways of working, many others are embracing a more modern approach – to give employees more flexibility.

This change has been ongoing for a number of years, and now we live in a world where individuals can choose (to an extent) their own working hours and where they work from. Strict schedules where everybody comes into the office at the same time every day are becoming less and less common.

It has been a necessary evolution. People have important things to do outside of work – such as picking up their children from school – and a standard 9-5 job doesn’t offer that flexibility. In order for businesses to keep their top talent, they need to compete with other employers who are offering a flexible working environment.

This is why it’s particularly important for SMEs to embrace this type of thing. You need skilled people to help your business grow, but you won’t be able to keep hold of them if bigger firms are offering these sorts of benefits.

As a result, flexible working is now incredibly common in the law sector. Firms big and small all over the UK offer their employees different options. Some allow a set amount of ‘working from home’ days per week or fortnight, others allow staff to choose their own start and finish times.

In what is a very traditional industry, you might be surprised to see how many law firms are embracing these practices. Because they recognise that it’s not only good for their employees, but it’s good for them too. A number of studies have shown that it actually increases productivity.

So, how do they do it? How have businesses been able to allow flexible working without compromising on the quality of service they offer to clients?

One of the most important things is they have internal systems, processes and procedures that are flexible. Employees need to be working with software that allows them to log in and work from home. They need to be able to access files and folders remotely in order to continue delivering exceptional service.

And they need to be able to communicate with each other. Teamwork and communication are essential aspects of running a successful practice, so there needs to be a way of replicating the closeness of an office space into a remote working environment – which primarily takes place online.

Staff are legally allowed to request a flexible working arrangement once they’ve been at a company for 26 weeks. But law firms can make this easier, for themselves and their employees, by offering it right away.