Zoe Edquist

Midland Law is a small law firm based in regional Victoria. I am currently a sole practitioner; I returned to practising law and decided to start my own firm in July 2020 after a 10-year hiatus of raising my children. When I first launched my new business, I had limited start-up capital. So, I did not invest in practice management software initially. I struggled without a system for a couple of months until a fellow lawyer recommended Smokeball and assured me it is worth every penny.

When I first examined Smokeball legal practice management software, I was very impressed with the value it offered. The software is incredibly affordable considering how feature-rich it is. Smokeball included all tools I needed to manage and grow a successful practice. For me, it was a no brainer, so I decided to jump on board straight away.

Smokeball software is user-friendly and has a clean and intuitive interface. It was very easy to learn. After the first training session, I was able to start using the software, and I almost instantly noticed significant improvements to my productivity. I was so relieved when I implemented Smokeball and realised how much easier it was going to make my life.

Smokeball software has had a profound impact on my overall efficiency. The matter management system neatly organises your entire practice, by making all client matter information like emails, documents, tasks, events, and contacts easily accessible and viewable from one central place. Removing the need to forward, save to a folder, or search through emails for matter-related communication. This functionality saves me hours each day - it is magic! When you use Smokeball, you can walk into your office each day and breathe a sigh of relief knowing that everything lives in its proper place and you know exactly where to find what is needed for the day.

I primarily practise commercial law but working in a regional town it is not uncommon that I need to provide services across a broad range of practice areas. Smokeball is fantastic because it is built for many areas of law. It includes hundreds of distinct matter type, plus an extensive library of automated forms and precedents. Smokeball’s integration with Microsoft Word means that your documents automatically fill in with the matter details already saved in Smokeball. This eliminates the need to manually enter data. You will save time and hassle by knowing that you have the most up-to-date documents with accurate information.

I am also more efficient due to Smokeball’s seamless integration with InfoTrack. I can quickly and easily order all my searches directly from within Smokeball, without having to access a separate system. All information from Smokeball is mapped into search fields and search results are returned in real-time. This has been a huge time saver for my practice.

For the most part, I work in the office, but as I am also a parent I will often need to work remotely from home, or on the go. As Smokeball is a cloud-based system with live data syncing, I can now work productively from anywhere and on any device. When you use practice management software with cutting-edge cloud technology like Smokeball, you no longer need to worry about backups. All your data is constantly backed up and can be easily retrieved at any time, from any location.

A problem for many legal professionals especially women is that we tend to underestimate our time and value, and therefore under change for completed work. Clients often do not understand the costs of services and how time-consuming particular tasks can be. Smokeball's Automatic Time Tracking helps you realise and charge for the value you provide, by tracking exactly what is done on each matter. This helpful tool will enable you to justify the cost of your services and avoid disputes.

However, what I like most about Smokeball is that they take small operators seriously and the software has been built specifically with small law firms in mind. The customer support they provide is also outstanding and very human. The Smokeball team have experience working in the legal industry, so they have a deep understanding of what you are going through.

I recommend Smokeball to everyone, but I especially recommend it to legal professionals who are starting their own practice. Smokeball is an essential investment in your new firm’s success, spend your money on this software before anything else. Just get it!