How LCI Law reclaims time with Clio
The ability to maximise efficiency, and simplify time-tracking and invoicing, makes Clio a key contributor to the firm’s growth and success, says LCI Law office manager Kate Panagopoulou
With new operations to set up and sort out, it isn’t always easy for new law firms to establish efficient workflows straight out of the gate. Fortunately, when LCI Law was established in 2022, the commercial and shipping law focused firm already had a strong background in knowing what they needed for the right legal technology, leading them to choose Clio.
“The firm’s three founding partners come from large law firms, and they had a lot of experience with software,” says Kate Panagopoulou, office manager and legal PA at LCI Law. “They knew exactly what they were looking for as far as time-keeping and invoicing were concerned.”
With law offices in Athens and London, the firm needed user-friendly, affordable and customisable legal case management software (CMS). And, perhaps most importantly, they wanted software that would save the firm time and allow them to work efficiently from anywhere. “Clio is an incredibly user-friendly software, and it does what it promises to do.”
After researching the software options available, one of the firm’s IT-savvy founding partners, Evangelos Catsambas, found Clio. As Panagopoulou explains, it was just what the firm was looking for: “With Clio, invoicing is straightforward and adaptable.”
How LCI Law leverages legal technology to run a modern, streamlined practice
Today, Clio is an integral part of LCI Law’s operations. The software, combined with iManage, provides the firm with an adaptable, affordable and easy-to-use solution. It’s not just a tool, but a key contributor to the firm’s growth and success.
1. A straightforward implementation process
When initially getting started with Clio, the firm took advantage of Clio’s training and onboarding support. “We did the onboarding to measure how we’re doing from one stage to the next, getting all our matters uploaded,” Panagopoulou says. “That was all done very efficiently.”
Then, after some time using the software, she turned to Clio’s support and training resources to help ensure the LCI Law team was equipped to use it fully. “There were videos and links, and the IT support was good. My colleague and I used these to understand the software better.”
2. Enabling a second office and seamless remote work
When LCI Law decided to open a second office in London, Clio helped make the process more straightforward. “The office in London was up and running from one moment to the next. It happened very smoothly,” Panagopoulou notes.
With offices in two countries, Greece and the UK, the ability to facilitate remote work is essential for LCI Law. With Clio’s cloud-based software, the firm can allow team members to work seamlessly from anywhere, providing them with the convenience and flexibility they need for a healthy work-life balance. “We have a mixture of people who live very close to the office and others who don’t, but generally everybody has their own laptop that they can take back home, but I think the fact that they can all have the application also on the phone helps provide balance,” she adds.
Clio allows the firm to maintain smooth operations — even when people are away from the office. “Time-keeping is important. If somebody’s away and the partner wants to issue an invoice, and the person needs to add some entries quickly, they can do so on their phone because Clio is cloud-based.”
3. Saving time with simplified processes
For LCI Law, time is a valuable resource. With complex commercial and shipping law matters to handle, every minute counts. Clio, with its user-friendly and intuitive interface, has been a game-changer. It has simplified time-keeping and invoicing, allowing the firm to make the most of their time and focus on what really matters-serving their clients.
As Panagopoulou explains, the amount of time it takes to invoice at the firm depends on the specific variables of each bill. However, with Clio, bills can be prepared in just a few clicks.
“With a certain type of client bills, you can press a quick bill, and there’s your bill. … With Clio, some days, I can churn out 40 bills in a couple of hours,” she finds. When creating matters, for example, she explains how she uses Clio to streamline the process and save time. “Clio’s matter templates can make opening matters a few clicks faster.”
4. Tracking performance at a glance
Beyond boosting efficiency with time-consuming administrative tasks, Clio also helps LCI Law by providing easy access to valuable performance metrics to the firm’s leadership via the Law Firm Performance Dashboard. This dashboard allows them to track various performance indicators such as billable hours, case progress and revenue.
“The partner who initially sourced Clio for the firm keeps track of the dashboard,” Panagopoulou says. “He makes sure that the fee-earners are fulfilling the hours that they contractually need to do and that they upload their chargeable time to the cases they work on. He also monitors that cases are opened timely and closed when finished. Most importantly, Clio makes it very easy for the partners to monitor the work in progress, unbilled time and the payment status of the invoices.”
5. Creating innovative solutions for the firm
As LCI Law has experienced, Clio does more than just streamline processes and simplify workflows today. Clio also works to continuously improve, innovate processes and find new customer solutions. Panagopoulou notes that one example of this for LCI Law is a new shipping law bill splitting functionality in Clio.
LCI Law provides services on some matters for which the invoices need to be split between numerous parties involved on the case. “Invoices are settled either by clients or by their insurance companies. In cases where hull and machinery underwriters are involved, invoices will often need to be split between multiple parties — even as many as five parties. The process of issuing the invoices on these cases was complex, tedious and incredibly time-consuming.”
“At the time, we couldn’t split invoices as needed, which we voiced to Clio, and they listened. We have been told that Clio will soon have split bills, which will be great for us, saving the administrative staff grief and time,” she says, adding: “The bill splitting is a fantastic development, and we are very pleased about that. Our requests are always noted, which is appreciated. For me, Clio is a better product.”
Clio helps LCI Law run efficiently as they grow
Within just a few years of operation, LCI Law has established itself as a thriving firm of experienced specialist commercial and transportation lawyers. Clio has been with the firm from the start. The firm maximises efficiency and simplifies time tracking and invoicing using Clio’s user-friendly interface. With the cloud-based software, firm members can access Clio remotely. “We are very satisfied with Clio. The support team has never let us down whenever we have reached out to them, and that is very important to us,” Panagopoulou concludes.
