{"id":898268,"date":"2020-12-01T13:51:23","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T20:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=898268"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:33:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:33:55","slug":"app-for-law-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/app-for-law-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"What Law Firms and Legal Organizations Should Consider Before Creating Their Own Apps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Danielle Braff | ABA Journal<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to law firms and legal organizations, perhaps the question isn\u2019t \u201cIs there an app for that?\u201d but \u201cShould there be an app for that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spoke with firms that decided to build their own apps<\/a>, as well as with law analysts, to dig into their purpose and profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Goldman, professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law and co- director of its High Tech Law Institute, says law firms considering their own apps should answer two main questions. First, who is the target audience for the app? Is it existing clients? Prospective clients? The world at large? Or some other community?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy clearly identifying the app\u2019s audience, the law firm can then figure out how to measure the return on investment,\u201d Goldman says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, it will be much harder to measure the return on investment for an app designed to build the firm\u2019s long-term brand than it will be to measure the returns for apps designed to convert prospective clients into actual clients, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second question: How much will it cost to maintain the app over time? This includes the costs of fixing bugs, keeping up with changes in technology and updating the content, where applicable. According to Goldman, firms must also determine who is going to own responsibility for that supervision, what the costs of that supervision are\u2014both out-of-pocket and opportunity costs\u2014and how those ongoing costs affect the return on investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many law firms, apps don\u2019t make any sense because their audiences don\u2019t need them\u2014or because the returns will be terrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost likely, the most successful apps will provide existing clients with better service or help to get more business from them. But even then, the apps should be driven by what clients want and should be evaluated carefully for ROI,\u201d Goldman says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kia Roberts: \u201cOur clients immediately recognize the value of the app from a risk management perspective.\u201d Photo by Carey Kirkella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the goal for Triangle Investigations\u2019 app, which was launched and developed in 2019, says Kia Roberts, a lawyer and the founder and principal of Triangle Investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The firm\u2014which consists of lawyers and expert investigators performing misconduct investigations within workplaces, schools and other organizations\u2014developed its own app called Telli, which is offered as an enhancement to clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we have concluded an investigation into allegations of misconduct within a client organization, many of our clients are worried about future misconduct and how they can keep their finger on the pulse of misconduct in real time,\u201d Roberts says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To create Telli, Roberts vetted and phone-screened many developers before landing on the one she felt could make the app she needed. Telli was designed to be a mechanism for employees to report misconduct, and Roberts says it eases anxiety for employers who wouldn\u2019t otherwise know what\u2019s going on within their companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe outcome of the app has been great,\u201d she says. \u201cOur clients immediately recognize the value of the app from a risk management perspective and feel that it offers some protection against them getting hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit unaware.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Roberts also says creating an app is expensive, so she had to justify the cost of making it. Before creating an app, she suggests thoroughly researching the usefulness of it for your clients and crunching the numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other firms have created apps for public use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriel Cheong, partner and owner of Infinity Law Group in Quincy, Massachusetts, says his firm has an app that calculates child support payments. The original iteration of the app was a partnership between Cheong and an app developer. But several years later, Cheong overhauled the app with the help of an app development company from India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOverall, it was a very collaborative process, and we had a lot of input into the design and functionality of the app itself,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheong decided to make the app because of the way Massachusetts child support payments are calculated: They involve many multiplications, percentages and conditional statements. While they built the app for themselves to use when they\u2019re in court, it\u2019s also available for the public. \u201cSince we\u2019ve built the app and released it to the public, most divorce lawyers in Massachusetts have it, pro se clients have downloaded it and even judges use it,\u201d Cheong says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The app also has helped with business. Cheong says his firm has received calls from potential clients who have used the app but realized they need extra help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Cheong, the app has been successful because it helps with a concept that can\u2019t easily be found elsewhere. \u201cPut yourself in your client\u2019s shoes,\u201d Cheong says. \u201cIf your app doesn\u2019t add to a functionality that already exists on a smartphone, then it\u2019s useless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also key to make an app that people will actually use, says Alex Hargrove, chief technology officer of NetLaw Group, a company that allows users to generate their own estate planning documents. Customer acquisition is the biggest cost of getting a new app to market: The iterations you have to go through to find that product market fit can quickly drain your business, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hargrove worked with his firm to create NetLaw Draft, which is expected to come to market in early 2021. Similar to the LegalZoom app, it will allow attorneys to connect to users by offering them an app to draft their own wills. \u201cUltimately, we hope to create a large market of potential clients who have all completed a free will in our system and are virtually prequalified as needing additional services,\u201d Hargrove says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He adds that while do-it-yourself has limitations, \u201cby connecting attorneys with a burgeoning pool of DIY users and then providing the attorneys with a turnkey way to deliver bite-size add-on services, we hope to bring about a world where it\u2019s not a choice between do-it-myself or pay for a full-service lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Danielle Braff | ABA Journal When it comes to law firms and legal organizations, perhaps the question isn\u2019t \u201cIs there an app for that?\u201d but \u201cShould there be an app for that?\u201d We spoke with firms that decided to build their own apps, as well as with law analysts, to dig into their purpose and… Continue reading What Law Firms and Legal Organizations Should Consider Before Creating Their Own Apps<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[172],"tags":[9895,313,27],"class_list":["post-898268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-law-2","tag-advise-consult","tag-apps","tag-construction-law","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Law Firms and Legal Organizations Should Consider Before Creating Their Own Apps - 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