Today, Clio, the world’s leading provider of cloud-based legal technology, unveiled a suite of new features and updates to its centralized platform. Customers can now benefit from deeper integrations, increased productivity, enhanced client experience tools, and extended customer support as the company further innovates on the industry’s first legal operating system.
“Clio revolutionized the legal technology category with cloud-based and client-centered software for legal professionals to run their practice. With today’s enhancements, we’re raising the bar once again,” said Jack Newton, CEO, and Founder of Clio. “Deeper integration between connecting technologies, mobile-first product design, and customization of client-facing tools are at the forefront of legaltech innovation. Law firms powered by Clio can easily operate within and connect to Clio’s centralized platform, all while leveraging greater customization of their client-facing interactions through intake, services, billing, payments, and more. The world’s leading legal technology just got better.”
Clio Grow websites offer no-code online presence for law firms
Clio Grow websites are now available to help lawyers establish an online presence without learning to design or code. Websites are generated by an easy-to-fill form and design selection. Once published, Clio makes it easy for clients to discover legal services, book and pay for consultations online, and collect prospective client information.
Clio Grow websites seamlessly connect to Clio’s online scheduler, intake tools, payments, client portal, and Google Analytics. Lawyers can easily toggle these features without having to do manual or technically challenging work themselves.
Text messaging added to Clio’s complete set of communications tools
Clio’s desktop or mobile app lets legal professionals text updates, answers, and requests to their clients without giving out their numbers. Text reminders for important events can be automated according to preferences. Clients can conveniently text and share videos, images, and GIFs with their lawyers. All interactions are securely stored in Clio alongside email, call, and client portal messages, so all associated firm members have the context of what’s been communicated.
Centralized payments and billing
At the 2021 Clio Cloud Conference, Clio announced its expansion into financial services with the launch of Clio Payments. A year later, the company’s first payments product has substantially grown in both the number of firms using Clio Payments and processing volume. Creating a seamless billing and payments experience from Clio’s core Manage platform helps weave together matters and fees linked throughout the client journey.
Clio has added a suite of new functionality to make it easier for lawyers to bill for their services and for clients to pay:
- Firms can securely request and store client payment methods in Clio at any point in the client journey
- Firms can use new bill personalization options to replace generic messages that typically support client invoices
- Firms can streamline month-end with time-saving flexibility in bill preparation and invoice review
- Firms can use QR codes to facilitate quick and easy in-person payment collection
- Clients can manage and pay their bills right from Clio for Clients, a mobile app built to facilitate end-to-end client case management
Clio has also changed the way payment processing fees are deducted. Clio is now the only legal payments provider that gives law firms the ability to choose how their payment processing fees are deducted, giving them the flexibility to manage their costs and cash flow, as well as their reconciliation process.
“There’s tremendous value in offering a frictionless payments experience for your client,” continued Jack. “It’s too important to the health of a firm to be switching between payment technologies, not to mention it creates unnecessary roadblocks for your firm to quickly and accurately settle client invoices. Centralization of billing and payments within your LPM offers benefits all round.”
Additionally, customers leveraging Clio Payments will now benefit from Clio’s new chargeback support. Disputes are rare, but can be incredibly stressful for legal professionals. Clio’s payments team will provide hands-on support to any customer going through the process.
Expanded support and self-serve learning with the new Clio Help Center
The company also announced a reimagined help center experience, combining technical help with training for legal professionals looking to try a new feature or enable a workflow specific to their practice. Clio’s newly designed self-serve support center provides customers an additional option to learn and discover more ways Clio can help them grow, including:
- An expanded library of video tutorials
- Easier navigation, both in search and within individual support articles
- More intuitive content that facilitates continued product exploration
Advanced Integration including Third Party Apps
Advanced integration of Clio’s connected product suite is a key innovation towards the development of the industry’s first legal operating system. Creating more points of connection between Clio’s suite of products enables greater efficiency, ease of use, and added benefits to lawyers operating their firms on the Clio platform. Today this includes the ability to toggle between Clio’s Grow and Manage products, and quick exporting and importing of contacts between products. As more customers expand the use of multiple Clio products to grow their firms, ease of operations between products is essential.
Clio also offers the industry’s most extensive library of integrations, enabling customers to truly customize their Clio experience for their unique firm size, practice area, and services. New breadth and depth of Clio’s integrations open new possibilities for productivity while lawyers work from the nucleus of the platform, Clio Manage.
Advanced app integration with Clio enables customers to further centralize their legal workflows. Customers can now:
- Browse the library of App integrations and sign up for select apps while in the Clio platform
- Use Clio credentials to readily sign in to select apps
- Use and interact with select apps directly within Clio, including Fidu, LegalBoards, and Proof
- Actions recorded in App integration Fidu are tracked directly in Clio Manage
Lawyaw Courtforms Soon Available in all 50 States
In 2021, Clio announced the acquisition of Lawyaw, an advanced document automation solution. Lawyaw Court Forms enable customers to find ready-to-use, standard court forms in a cloud-based library and to populate sets of forms quickly and easily. Clio has rapidly expanded the library of Lawyaw court forms throughout North America. On October 19, Lawyaw court form libraries will be available in all 50 states and federal immigration forms.
“At the heart of these platform-wide updates is one common practice: listening to the needs of our customers,” said Newton. “Innovation is happening in law firms every day, and we’re constantly working to ensure the tools lawyers need to work faster, accurately and centered on the needs of their clients are available. Today’s legal professionals seek remote access, seamless connections between the technologies they use most, built-in billing and payments systems, and above all—the convenience afforded to their clients when legal technology works brilliantly to support them.”
