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There’s a term for when lawyers use Latin and other obscure languages to describe consumers’ legal processes: “legitimate.”
But there is no such term when vendors use technical and other obscure language to describe their legal software processes to lawyers.
True, this dynamic may seem unfair. But we now have a legal tech-to-English dictionary to help us cope.
Read on for a crash course in practice management terminology.
Law practice management software
1. A database for managing clients of law firms, which organizes preliminary case information within case files.
2. A platform to organize customer data collected from integrated systems via software integration.
3. Client files organized into email subfolders…2002.
Attorney1: I just bought a new software to manage my law practice, and I spend a lot less time looking for everything because it’s all in one place now!
Attorney 2: Yes, you should see this Excel file that I put together. It’s badass.
Attorney 1: Just…stop it.
cf. Organized porn.
relational database
1. A program that recognizes the relationships between pieces of data.
2. A system based on the relational model of data, Created by Edgar F. Codd.
cf. Law practice management software
cf. the Oracle (Kevin) Bacon.
Client portal
1. A software system feature that allows law firms to share certain data with clients via an encrypted storage container within the system, which clients can access using a unique password or personal identification number (PIN).
2. The means by which unwieldy tasks can smoothly enter your workflow.
Attorney1: The good news is that my clients can send me things through our portal. This is also bad news.
Lawyer 2: Ba-dum-cha.
Attorney 1: Thank you. I’m here until Thursday. Try the veal.
cf. Online document engines, most of which are actual customer portals, also allow users to share information with others in a secure format. Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, dropbox, and others. provide such features. It can also be linked to the Law Practice Management software via integrations.
cf. Like what happens in action movies There is always a portal with all these aliens coming to invade the planet. Honestly, I don’t know which gate is worse: that one, or the one that puts a 90-page contract on your lap for review.
Fusion
1. Linking two programs via an API (Application Programming Interface) that allows each software system to share data with the other.
2. Linking two programs through a middleware (Like Zapier) so that the two programs can share data without the need for an API.
3. One of the main reasons modern practice management software can be life-changing, especially for those who currently use a combination of dictation machines, hard copy margins, and logo turtle.
cf. Linking the Law Practice Management software to a productivity program (email and calendar) allows users to synchronize emails, events and tasks with client files within the Law Practice Management software, reinforcing this software as a comprehensive law firm data management solution. Linking an accounting software to a law practice management software allows users to push expense and invoice data into the accounting software.
business intelligence
1. A method of collecting and aggregating data in an easily digestible format that allows software users to make data-driven business decisions.
2. Reports from software systems focus on specific business metrics, including key performance indicators.
3. You know, pretty much everything that law school neglects to tell you. But hey: you still know what the rule against eternals is!
Attorney 1: What does your profit and loss statement look like for the last quarter?
Lawyer 2: Uh. Mother. Res Ipsa Loquitur.
Attorney 1: Say what?
cf. no Edsel.
Jared Correa is the host of Non-Eventcast.
Jared Correa is the host of Non-Eventcast.
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