The Clio Cloud Conference is always the occasion for the law practice management company to announce new and enhanced products, and today’s kick-off of this year’s event was no different, with CEO Jack Newton unveiling what he described to me as the most important product release since Clio’s debut 13 years ago.
That product is Clio Payments, a native e-payments technology built into the Clio Manage law practice management platform, allowing lawyers to offer clients secure and compliant credit card, debit card and e-check payments.
More on Clio Payments below, but, in addition, Clio today also announced:
Clio for Clients. This client portal facilitates secure communications and notifications to clients, and now works both on mobile devices through the Clio app and on computers through a web-based portal. Lawyers can use it to provide case updates, notify clients when documents are ready for review, and send and receive messages privately. In addition, the mobile version has a built-in scanner so that clients can scan and upload documents.
Text notifications. Clio said that its new text notifications feature enables firms to send an SMS confirmation to participants when they schedule a meeting in Clio. Recipients receive the meeting details and can confirm attendance directly via text.
Automated court forms. Last month, Clio acquired Lawyaw, a document automation and assembly platform. That followed Clio’s acquisition in July of CalendarRules, an automated court calendaring product. Building on the two acquisitions, Clio said that Lawyaw, which already offered automated court forms for California federal and state courts, has added forms for another five states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York and Texas.
Clio Drive. Clio Drive is a desktop application that allows a user to synchronize documents between the Clio cloud and the desktop. That means a user can create, edit and store documents on a computer while keeping them fully synchronized with the Clio Manage platform.
Clio Ventures. Not a new product, but Clio today also announced the launch of Clio Ventures, an equity investment portfolio for early state companies that are creating innovative solutions aimed at helping transform the legal experience for all. The fund will initially focus on companies building products on the Clio platform, but Newton said it will eventually extend to “companies that align to our vision of creating the connective tissue the industry needs in a legal operating system.”
Integrated Payments
While Clio users already could accept electronic payments through third-party companies such as LawPay, the new Clio Payments is a native solution fully integrated into the Clio platform, which makes the process of accepting and tracking payments far more seamless.