Image: Shane Deleers
Four practice management companies will be among the first-time exhibitors at LegalTech, starting today at the Hilton New York.
The practice management companies aren't startups. ActionStep Software, AgilePoint Inc., CLM Matrix, and Doculogix Inc. are established companies that for various reasons chose 2013 to start exhibiting, their representatives said.
ActionStep's namesake product is an online practice management system for billing, contacts, documents, and matters. The company is based in Auckland, New Zealand, and formed in 2005 to target its home market and Australia. Private consultant Dan Livingston began U.S. sales out of Mountain View, Calif., six months ago, he explained. Besides expansion in the Western hemisphere, ActionStep in 2013 will focus on Microsoft Office integration, he said. See ActionStep in the exhibit hall: 1316.
AgilePoint Inc., also in Mountain View, formed in 2003 as the unusually spelled Ascentn product. The company developed software to help companies manage their business processes and workflows. AgilePoint through the years signed some notable law firms, including Dorsey & Whitney, Faegre Baker Daniels, and Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, CEO Jesse Shiah said. The company will show its latest product called Genesis at LegalTech. The software lets law firms visualize their processes, using products such as Microsoft SharePoint, to see where efficiencies can be gained. It is more customizable than previous versions, Shiah said. See AgilePoint in the exhibit hall: 1616, 1618.
CLM Matrix, of Dallas suburb Flower Mound, Texas, specializes in contract management for Microsoft Office and SharePoint, CEO Tim Sparks explained. The company started in the early 2000s by working on collaboration and workflow for IBM's Lotus Notes platform. "Every project that we've done over the last 10 years, all over the world, it always involves legal," Sparks observed. Its product is called Matrix Enterprise. See CLM Matrix in the exhibit hall: 214.
DocuLogix is the youngest company of the group, formed in 2009 with a focus on project management software. Its technology originated from forensics training applications and now includes customer relationship management and also a time/billing system, targeted at litigation support companies. DocuLogix is in Rockwall, Texas — also a Dallas suburb — and at LegalTech will show the beta version of its newest application called PTS for Law Firms, President Terry Vaughan said. The law firm version differs from previous editions in its interfaces and workflows. See DocuLogix in the exhibit hall: 2507.
Practice management consultant Ed Poll, of Venice, Calif.-based LawBiz Management Co., said the DocuLogix project management angle is most significant to him. "That's something the legal community has not had any experience with in this country," he said. Such software has been more successful in the U.K. and in Australia, he said. "It's trying to show lawyers how they can become more effective and more efficient, because it's what's used in other industries."
Poll added that he isn't surprised to see companies from adjacent fields trying to find new business in the legal practice management field. It's relatively simple and inexpensive to make management software for law firms if the vendors are coming from related professional services, he explained.
Evan Koblentz is a reporter for Law Technology News. Send email or follow him on Twitter.
