How Saving 8 Hours a Week Using Clio Turned into $10,000 Prize for One Chicago Lawyer
June 18, 2015
Themis Solutions Inc. Names Mother of Four as Winner of #Clioday Video Submission Contest
Lawyer Ritalerae Haley-Austin from Chicago saves so much time using Clio’s cloud-based legal practice management solution that she takes every Friday off from her busy law practice. And as an avid user and advocate of Clio, Ritalerae now has 10,000 more reasons to love Clio, with just as many dollars to make every one of those Fridays a Clioday.
Ritalerae Haley-Austin is the winner of the Clioday video submission contest, collecting a check for $10,000 and a slew of practice management solutions to help her with her practice. The additional prizes include a free year of Clio access, as well as services from Fastcase, NetDocuments, Fujitsu, Curo Legal, Box, Solo Practice University, and Jurispage.
A survey conducted with 3483 Clio customers in September of 2013 found that, on average, lawyers who use Clio to manage their practice save an average of 8.5 hours per week. That’s the equivalent of one full work day.
“We call that the Clioday,” says Jack Newton, CEO and cofounder of Clio. “Lawyers are busy professionals with a lot of obligations and demands put on them each day, but they have the same number of hours in a day that we all have. If we can help them alleviate some of the challenges of managing their practices–like time recording, billing, and file management–then they can spend that time doing other important tasks, ranging from more time with their families, to investing in their practices and client matters. Everyone needs and deserves more time, and we’re delighted to help lawyers find that time.”
Announced at the end of March, the Clioday video contest drew numerous entries from legal professionals in various sized firms from a wide range of practice areas. In their submissions, lawyers from all across the United States remarked on Clio’s time saving measures, which gives them up to 8 hours per week that they previously spent on managing the business aspects of their practice. What they are doing with that time is as broad and diverse as the country itself.
Gordon Firemark from Los Angeles invests his time in marketing his business. Suzanne Meehle from Florida has taken up running, losing up to 70 pounds. Jaime Langton from Oregon gets more vacation time to head down Mexico way for a fantastic sunsoaked adventure. Wendy James from North Carolina gets to spend more time with her two young daughters. And Valerio Romano from Massachusetts grabs a fishing pole and some tackle to reel in the catch of the day.
It works even in Canada, where new mom Heather McFadden from Nova Scotia gets to spend more time with her family as well as winning the battle against dandelions in her front lawn.
But for contest winner, Ritalerae Haley-Austin, that extra 8 hours is spent every Friday doing, as she puts it, whatever she wants. As a mother of four children, Ritalerae credits Clio for being the silent partner in her practice that allows her to be an engaged mom as well as being an efficient lawyer.
“My husband found Clio online … and it was absolutely amazing. Clio cut my administrative time in half,” says Haley-Austin in her video submission. “When my baby looks at me and says ‘I want to be like you when I grow up, I want to be the kind of mom that you are and I want to do what you do’–it’s worth it, and Clio helps me do that. Clio is the partner that works as hard for my business as I do, as hard for my kids as I do. So when you ask me what I do with my Cliodays, I live. I live.”
Ritalerae Haley-Austin’s winning video submission can be viewed here: https://www.clio.com/customers/
When asked what she plans on doing with her winnings, Haley-Austin said she intends to reinvest it into her firm and her business, with the aim of growing the practice and creating jobs.
“I happened to meet Ritalerae in person at a Clio Meetup back in March around the time we were announcing the contest, and her story was exactly the reason why we developed and built Clio ,” adds Rian Gauvreau, COO at Clio and cofounder with Newton. “A passionate and enthusiastic lawyer, she’s also a wife and mother of four children. As a lawyer building a small but growing practice, she wears all the hats in managing her practice, but the one she wears as a family woman is the one that is most important to her. Providing the time and resources she needs to be both a successful lawyer and a successful mom is what Clio is all about.”