At the time of drafting documents, legal firms cite accuracy, risk mitigation, mobility, time, and third-party integrations as the most important factors for productive work.
Advanced legal collaboration software is increasingly able to address industry challenges, which is why its market adoption continues to expand.
In 2022 alone, the global legal practice management software market was valued at $28 billion.
What makes legal collaboration software unique?
Which industry collaboration tools are the most effective for lawyers and law firms? We’ll cover these aspects of the legal profession below.
Key takeaways
| Solution | Pricing | Noteworthy features |
|---|---|---|
| PandaDoc | from $19/month | Seamless contract creation, collaboration, and approval, full-fledged document management automation, unlimited e-signing |
| Clio | from $39/month | Advanced task management, built-in payment capability |
| LEAP | from $49/month | 12,000+ automated court forms and templates, powerful billing features |
What makes legal collaboration software unique?
Legal collaboration software is a specialized tool built to accelerate key workflows and streamline coordination among legal professionals and their clients. It covers the specific needs of lawyers, attorneys, and legal teams, including:
- Matter and case management
- Document management
- Team collaboration and client interaction management
- Calendaring and scheduling
- Billing management
- Legal research
By addressing these and other industry-specific use cases, legal collaboration platforms help enhance team productivity and client service, in turn increasing overall profitability for law firms.
Top 3 legal collaboration platforms
After analyzing multiple legal collaboration software products from trusted websites like G2, Capterra, Software Advice, and others, we’ve compiled a list of those that excel in terms of functionality, mobility, and security.
1. PandaDoc
PandaDoc is an all-in-one legal collaboration solution built to streamline documentation, speed up contract review, and ensure compliance.
As for document management, the software helps firms increase the number of completed legal documents each month — and generate those docs in less time than previously required.
You can use an extensive template library or upload your own documents to turn them into templates.
Peace of mind is guaranteed with strong data security and privacy capabilities.
Backed by AWS cloud, GDPR and HIPAA compliance, and SOC 2 Type II certification, PandaDoc provides end-to-end data encryption, regular backups, sophisticated access and permissions management, and real-time system monitoring.
Furthermore, smart fields will allow you to pull customer data from your CRM or other customer management solutions into a document, giving you the ability to quickly personalize legal forms or filings in the PandaDoc document editor.
And a built-in drag-and-drop ability will customize individual clauses and terms as well as tailor docs in line with your branding (including logos and color palettes).
When it comes to managing contracts, PandaDoc offers advanced editing and approval capabilities.
You can suggest changes to the documents using built-in commenting and track version history with an audit trail feature.
This software solution is a game changer for law firms looking to revamp workflows, as PandaDoc accelerates the approval process with legally binding e-signing functionality.
Team members and clients can sign contracts and other documents from any computer or mobile app, and automatically generated certificates will ensure signer identity verification and signature authenticity.
Third-party integrations are another clear “pro” for PandaDoc.
The platform pairs up with over 30 business apps, including CRMs, video conferencing, and messaging platforms, as well as payment gateways.
Platform highlights
- Extensive document template library
- Legally-binding, ESIGN, UETA, HIPAA, and SOC 2 Type II compliant electronic signature
- Rock-solid security features
Important details
- Great for legal document management
- Pricing: $19-$49 USD per month; custom enterprise subscription is available
- Free trial: 14 days
2. Clio
Cloud-based legal collaboration software Clio is a good fit for legal firms that prioritize mobility, client communication, and streamlined case management.
Clio covers all things collaboration and project management.
Its smooth integration with Microsoft Teams allows for reviewing recent notes and ongoing communications, tracking and introducing updates to matters, scheduling upcoming events in Team, discussing plans with your team in the sidebar, and more.
Seamless video conferencing is possible thanks to integration with Zoom.
You just need to add conferencing details to the Clio Manage calendar and invite your clients or colleagues to meet remotely.
Advanced task management functionality provides full visibility into all the tasks organized by due date, allows assigning tasks to team members and outside parties (via a secure co-counsel portal), provides custom task categories, and enables real-time task progress tracking and reporting.
Among other key advantages is legal document management.
You can use Clio Draft to auto-fill court forms and convert existing Word files into reusable online templates that are underpinned by smart document storage, categorization, editing, annotation, file sharing, and search capabilities.
However, there’s a little drawback here: Clio doesn’t have any in-built collaborative editing functionality like PandaDoc, which means users can’t edit the document simultaneously.
Without this feature, you and your colleagues may not efficiently draft documents, missing out on the ability to easily suggest, track, and manage edits.
This lack of collaborative capability can lead to delays and errors in document preparation for client review.
As for document approval, Clio provides UETA-compliant electronic signing. But the number of e-signatures available each month depends on the subscription plan.
This is an advantage over LEAP, which doesn’t offer in-house e-signatures at all but falls short of the unlimited signing offered by PandaDoc, no matter your subscription.
If you want to exceed client expectations, leverage Clio’s Legal Client Portal, which enables users to review the status of their cases, upload documents, and communicate with their attorneys.
The payments are also made easy. You’ll just need to send your clients an email with an invoice and a secure link to built-in Clio Payments.
Platform highlights
- Clio’s top-rated mobile app
- “Clio for Clients” tool
- Secure built-in payments
Important details
- Great for remote collaboration, on-the-go work
- Pricing: $39-$139 USD per month
- Free trial: 7 days
3. LEAP
LEAP legal software is designed specifically for small to medium-sized law firms looking for an all-in-one legal practice management solution for their workspace.
The areas it covers include estate planning and probate, real estate, family law, litigation, commercial law, personal injury, and criminal law.
Its dedicated legal document assembly functionality provides a centralized repository for storing and organizing all types of documents, such as contracts, pleadings, correspondence, and more.
Lawyers can use over 12,000 automated court forms and templates for over 3,000 pre-built matter types, automatically populating fields with client information and case data.
On top of that, LEAP provides the version control feature and secure channels to allow users to track particular document versions and send them to colleagues and third parties.
Despite its rich document management features, LEAP doesn’t have built-in electronic signing, which might be a drawback for some.
To legally bind documents with signatures, you’ll have to employ the use of third-party tools like DocuSign or LawConnect — or PandaDoc, which, as we mentioned above, provides seamless e-signing right out of the box with its collaboration software.
Powerful billing functionality automates invoicing, fee calculations, trust account management, billing report generation, and billable hours tracking.
Clients can securely make online payments through various payment gateways.
Among other huge pluses are LEAP’s matter management, team collaboration tools, task progress tracking, centralized meeting scheduling, and routine workflow automation based on predefined rules and triggers.
Although LEAP seamlessly pairs up with various third-party systems, it’s more focused exclusively on legal and not as comprehensive as PandaDoc in terms of integrations with CRMs and HR systems, which are often key to ensuring the highest level of client service.
Platform highlights
- Covers a great variety of legal areas
- Provides thousands of pre-built templates and court forms
- Extensive legal accounting and billing functionality
Important details
- Great for trust account management
- Pricing: $49-$125 USD per month
- No trial period, just a demo version
Best practices for legal document collaboration, review, and execution
Choosing the best fitting document management system for your practice is half the battle. To make the most of legal technology, follow these expert recommendations:
- Set clear objectives and guidelines for the document review and approval process
- Assign roles and responsibilities within your legal department
- Leverage tailored collaboration tools for legal document editing and version control
- Establish a specific workflow to review and resolve edits
- Maintain rock-solid document security with encryption and fine-tuned access control
- Maintain open and effective communication throughout the review process
- Ensure accountability by documenting all the changes and comments
- Conduct a final review to make sure you meet your initial objectives
- Consult legal experts for the most complicated areas
- Continuously gauge the collaboration process and refine it
Accelerate your legal collaboration workflows
Our team provides a comprehensive suite of onboarding services to help you kick-start and then maximize your ROI.
We’ll assist you with the entire setup and configuration of your account (including branding personalization), smoothly and securely migrate all your content, as well as provide personalized training through online webinars.
You’ll also have neatly tailored document workflows and secure integrations with CRMs and other key software.
Let PandaDoc do the heavy lifting for you.
Start a free 14-day trial to learn more about optimizing your legal workflows.
Disclaimer
PandaDoc is not a law firm, or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. This page is not intended to and does not provide legal advice. Should you have legal questions on the validity of e-signatures or digital signatures and the enforceability thereof, please consult with an attorney or law firm. Use of PandaDoc services are governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
