An Australian practice management system has formally launched in the UK at this year’s Legalex Conference. Smokeball is a cloud practice management platform first launched in Australia in 2008 and since then has expanded in to the USA in 2012. It says it now serves 15,000 clients across various practice areas with the ambition to “(give) legal professionals access to innovative and integrated solutions” and “revolutionise the legaltech landscape in the UK.”
The platform points to research by The University of Manchester, University College London and The Law Society, as evidence, particularly in smaller practices, of a need for a “deeply connected platform providing transparent end-to-end solutions specific to a firm’s areas of practice.” The research suggests that more than a third of solicitors sampled said they do not use legal technology but acknowledge the potential benefits. A lack of confidence in using legal technology is cited in the research.
Smokeball says it is critical that firms prepare now for the future.
“At Smokeball, our mission is to amplify the productivity of our clients by offering innovative and practice-area specific solutions.”,
says Hunter Steele, CEO and Founder at Smokeball.
“We are dedicated to propelling law firms into the future, and our cloud-based solutions are designed to unlock the latent revenue in their businesses.”
The platform is described as “(enabling) firms to easily manage the daily operation of their legal matters and business” with onboarding tools, document automation and pre-populated form filling, time recording, and billing all integrated into the platform.
The UK team is being led by Rachel Holmes with the website listing the practice areas it covers, including real estate, estate planning, probate, family law, criminal law, civil litigation and business law.
