How Acumen Law firm streamlined operations, including reducing file opening time by 75%

Kyla Lee, Senior Legal Associate at Acumen Law

Acumen Law offers legal services related to insurance, immigration, criminal cases, civil forfeiture, and more. Before adopting Clio, Acumen Law was using an archaic solution. But as an expanding law firm, managing the increasing volume of work was becoming difficult, and it was clear that a more robust solution was necessary to efficiently scale its operations.

Kyla, who manages legal operations at the firm, says document management became a big challenge with the firm’s high volume practice. Keeping track of finances was another concern. The firm wanted a solution that gave oversight of everything in one place, so employees could access information from any of the offices.

Transitioning from their old solution to Clio transformed their firm’s operations. Kyla compared it to going from using Apple computers from the 80s to a modern MacBook. It was able to build great efficiencies by centralizing client and case information, significantly reduce redundancies, improve client responsiveness, and better track its finances.

How Clio helped

Physical files → one accessible case management system

“We have a high volume practice, and some clients have multiple matters. Our previous system didn’t have document management so everything was done onsite, which caused a lot of problems. With physical files, we couldn’t view any client information, or separate matters for clients. Billing was also difficult. Now we just fill out fields in Clio, and if a client comes in with a new case, we create a new matter, verify the information, and easily update it in seconds. Since using Clio, we’ve saved hundreds of hours.”

Read about case management in Clio

Unreliable, expensive payment process → easy, reliable, secure payment solution

“Clio Payments helps us easily keep track of our finances. We’ve replaced cash with online payments, so it’s easier for clients to pay. And we use matter numbers as we take payments, so no money goes missing, unallocated, or improperly allocated. Clio has also helped us with things like chargebacks, because the needed evidence is recorded, and we pay a much lower rate than the bank’s exorbitant transaction fees.”

Learn more about Clio Payments

Time consuming billing processes → quick, batch payments

“Clio has significantly reduced the workload for the billing department. Before every transaction had to be individually posted. Now we link the payments to individuals one time, and then mostly it’s just a click of a button because the information is already there. Clio allows us to batch payments, rather than generating a check for every matter. This eliminates the time-consuming task of writing individual checks, depositing them at the bank, and waiting for processing. It’s much faster and there are fewer mistakes.”

Read about billing in Clio

Additional benefits to using Clio

Enhanced employee training and onboarding experience

The firm integrated training resources across multiple platforms into one accessible folder in Clio, reducing new employee orientation from 10 days to just 1 day and allowing them to be more confident and responsive to clients when stepping into their roles.

Quick access to past files

“Because our previous system lacked document management, it was very difficult to find information on past cases in physical files. With Clio, we can now store precedents, making them easily accessible. As a result, lawyers can quickly retrieve past cases similar to their current work without having to spend time recreating the same work multiple times.”

Space optimization and sustainability

Digitization of case memos and records helped the firm reclaim 90 square meters of office space, which is now profitably used for operations, and also aligns with the firm’s sustainability goals.”