The Top 5 General Productivity Apps for Lawyers

Law firms are unique in many of their features and needs. The need to protect client privacy, the importance of written communication, and the variety of types of meetings and presentations are all distinct features of law firm operations.

Law Firms Can Get Substantial and Immediate Benefits From General Productivity Apps
These features mean that, when the need arises, law firms often have to develop their own solutions, workarounds, and systems to address the issue at hand.  Luckily, the proliferation of general web and phone apps has made it possible for law offices to also simply leverage these general software solutions to address some their own unique needs.
The good news is that law firms and lawyers today are already successfully using these productivity apps to drastically improve work performance and client satisfaction.
At CommandHound, we are constantly communicating with clients in law firms about the software that they have found most useful for increasing productivity.  
Want to learn more about how productivity and accountability go hand-in-hand for effective law practice? Download our Lawyer’s Ultimate Guide to Accountability:

 
Or read on to find the top 5 general productivity apps for lawyers today.

Apps for Note Taking

The first type of apps law firms are using to increase productivity is the very simple note-taking app.  Only a few years ago, offices were required to email copies of documents back and forth in order to edit them, or have documents available on multiple devices and for multiple users.
Ways to improve work performance while taking notes were unheard of. That is now a thing of the past.  Information sharing apps have revolutionized how teams and individuals coordinate information across devices.
 

Evernote:

Evernote allows users to type notes, make lists, and set reminders all within their desktop and mobile apps. Individual users can access and edit the same notes anywhere – on their desktop, laptop, tablet, and on their phone. You can even share notes with other users, given them access to edit or simply view documents.  You can also add pictures, diagrams, sketches, sounds, voice recordings, and videos to your notes.

Google Drive

Google Drive has features similar to Evernote, but backed by the power of Google.  Drive also allows for sharing between users and devices, but goes beyond simple note-taking to allow you to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentation slides all within the same app.  Since all of this information is synced to the cloud, there is no possibility that a file goes missing or that duplicate files lead to confusion.  It also allows for cooperative real-time updating of documents and files.

Apps for Communicating

Law firms are unique in the amount of time they spend communicating with different parties – clients, courts, experts, witnesses, etc.  Sometimes, meeting in-person every time something needs to be discussed is just not possible, and in fact gets in the way of your team’s productivity. Luckily, a variety of software solutions make it easy to be in constant communication, whenever you need.
 

Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts is another powerful tool by Google. All you need is a Google Hangout link to send to everyone you want to meet with, and they will quickly and easily be able to enter into whatever type of conversation you like- a chat, a phone call, or a video conference call. They can also use any device they want and view documents.

Slack

Slack has gotten a lot of attention recently as one of the most effective (and fun!) ways for teams to communicate with each other. Slack’s setup makes it easy for entire organizations to use different chat rooms to discuss different projects or keep entire teams communicating with each other. It’s feature that allows you to easily insert GIFs into chats also makes it pretty fun to have regular work conversations.
These two ways to improve work performance can actually go hand-in-hand. Law firms often use Google Hangouts with anyone outside their organization and/or physical location, like clients or other external parties, and use Slack for real-time internal communication across teams or projects.

Apps for Keeping Clients Accountable

All of these tools make communication and sharing of information in any law firm and with clients easier. By streamlining processes with these apps, productivity significantly improves and clients notice.
But how do you actually make sure that things are getting done? 
 

CommandHound

CommandHound acts like many other task management systems, with one crucial feature added. Teams can create tasks, assign them to individuals, and create due dates for those tasks.

But where other task management systems simply mark those tasks as “late,” CommandHound actually allows teams to escalate tasks to partners or other lwayers after a certain amount of time. With this feature, teams can make sure no task falls through the cracks and that top performers are recognized for their productivity.
Law firms can use CommandHound to track internal team and individual performance, or even to assign tasks to clients and to also hold them accountable for ontime completion. If a client needs to sign a contract, provide copies of paperwork, and send an important email, now the team can include them in the process and hold them accountable by keeping track of ontime completion.
By injecting accountability into task management, CommandHound provides a unique productivity solution that will help both you and your clients.

Next Steps

Would you like to learn more about how to be more productive?

Or download our guide specific to lawyers that discusses the importance of accountability at law firms: