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McAngus Goudelock & Courie, LLC Adapt ProLaw and Achieve Firm Efficiency

Growing Needs for a Growing Firm

McAngus Goudelock & Courie, LLC (MG&C), a growing law firm with nearly 300 attorneys and staff, has been expanding its practice areas since its founding in 1995. In 12 years, the firm has grown from four attorneys in one office to more than 110 attorneys in five offices. MG&C, originally a boutique firm practicing workers’ compensation, is now a full-service law firm offering comprehensive legal services.

With new personnel and new areas of law continually expanding, firm leadership wanted to maximize efficiency and processes throughout the firm. Establishing and enforcing specific protocols for each practice area was obviously part of their agenda. However, MG&C wanted to be able to centrally manage all of those protocols with a technology platform for better firm-wide efficiencies.

MG&C’s previous system had all of the components necessary to run the firm including billing, general ledger, case management but they did not truly work together as one system. Staff still had to duplicate entry of details, such as client information and manually calculate docket deadlines in Outlook. Not having a fully integrated system was inefficient and was prone to human error. In addition, it was nearly impossible to generate reports on a real-time basis to measure and improve performance.

		Everything we do flows through ProLaw because of the seamless integration between functions. It is clear that we’ve increased our efficiencies from document production to docketing to billing since implementing ProLaw - Candy Sharpe, Database Manager MG&C

In 2003, MG&C conducted a search to find an integrated solution to automate and organize its entire practice. ProLaw® easily fit these parameters but it was ProLaw’s forward-thinking features that impressed the MG&C team.

According to Candy Sharpe, Database Manager for MG&C, “Everything we do flows through ProLaw because of the seamless integration between functions. It is clear that we’ve increased our efficiencies from document production to docketing to billing since implementing ProLaw.”

Customizing for a Competitive Edge

Implementing ProLaw gave firm leadership the opportunity to rethink their workflow patterns and what procedures would best serve their clients. The customization process started with each practice lead determining best practices and protocols, such as how to set up a file and what information to capture.

“ProLaw has proved to be very flexible and customizable,” shares Sharpe. “Tabs can be added or changed, document templates can be designed and automated reporting can be set up. We’ve been able to build the system to fit our exact needs without requiring any extensive amount of programming or outside consulting.”

Centralizing Workflow through Docketing

MG&C’s workers’ compensation and litigation practice areas rely heavily on ProLaw’s advanced docketing features. ProLaw calculates the firm’s customized deadlines and automatically adds them to the Microsoft Outlook® Task List and/or Calendar. Bi-directional integration enables any change an attorney makes in Outlook to automatically reflect back in ProLaw. By funneling all of their case management aspects through ProLaw’s docketing, no task or court appearance is missed.

		We’ve set up our docketing system to organize all internal and external information about a file. Because we track so many items, we are able to generate reports that allow us to more efficiently monitor and manage the business - Candy Sharpe Database Manager MG&C

Sharpe is also able to add client-requested activities directly in their docketing system. For example, if a client requests a recurring status report every 30 days, the deadline appears on the attorney's Task List in Outlook once it has been docketed in ProLaw.

“It is our attorneys’ jobs to make our clients succeed. Meeting every report deadline is a critical part of our job and the automation in ProLaw enables us to do this,” adds Sharpe.

A customized docketing system is also extremely helpful during audits. Sharpe can quickly pull up the entire history of a file to prove compliance. “We’ve set up our docketing system to organize all internal and external information about a file. Because we track so many items, we are able to generate reports that allow us to more efficiently monitor and manage the business.”

Addressing all Reporting Needs

At MG&C, hundreds of reports are generated on a regular basis, while dozens more are created on demand. Sharpe and her team have customized reports that are automatically generated nightly and emailed to the appropriate people. “Without ProLaw’s automatic agents, I would spend all day generating reports. They are extremely powerful,” Sharpe remarks.

Management can also regularly generate internal compliance reports that highlight any uncompleted tasks or past deadlines. ProLaw allows them to customize how reports are viewed so they can analyze the specific data they need. For instance, management can generate a report to monitor if their staff completed all the steps required to set up a new file or if they’ve met all status report deadlines.

Recently MG&C integrated Crystal Reports by Business Objects®, a ProLaw partner, for more advanced reporting capabilities. Crystal Reports allows more complex reporting that provides bigger picture perspective on the overall health of the firm at month end and during planning periods.

Managing and Producing Documents More Efficiently

Prior to ProLaw, the firm did not have any document management system, making it extremely difficult to locate documents. MG&C now manages electronic files on each case so attorneys can easily search through all relevant emails, PDFs, notes, calls and scanned documents – even when away from the office.

Customized templates also improved document production. Literally thousands of document templates reside in the tabs for each practice area. As part of their established protocols, staff now has access to standardized forms that are easily accessible and consistent from file to file.

Measuring ProLaw Benefits

The commitment MG&C has made to ProLaw has paid off in huge dividends. By using the docketing and reporting capabilities, overall efficiencies have improved—a key goal for the firm. Billable staff now focuses on higher value tasks, while nonbillable personnel can handle more administrative tasks. Time spent searching for documents or templates is no longer wasted.

Client relations have also improved with more efficient deadline tracking and management. In fact, ProLaw was featured in a recent client newsletter underscoring the firm’s commitment to meeting client deadlines. Clients were informed on how the system worked in order for MG&C to achieve 100% compliance with their guidelines.

Finally, the firm has experienced lower total cost of ownership with a single integrated solution versus disparate applications. “ProLaw is so ingrained in our daily workflow that we now take our efficiencies for granted, which is one of the biggest benefits,” says Sharpe.

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