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What took this firm a better part of a day, now takes them a better part of an hour with Clio.

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O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors

  • 2007

    Year Founded

  • 25

    Number of Staff

  • 2023

    Started Using Clio

  • Sydney NSW, Australia

    Location

  • Fixed Fee

    Hourly

    Fee Types

  • Civil

    Coronial Inquests

    Criminal

    Practice Areas

O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors is a prominent legal firm in Sydney, Australia, specialising in civil law, criminal defense, and defamation cases. With a team of 25 staff members, including solicitors, senior associates, and paralegals, the firm is dedicated to providing exceptional service to its clients. As the firm expanded, its legacy practice management software struggled to keep up with the firm’s growing needs, prompting a search for a more adaptable and efficient solution.

Matthew Hudson, Practice Manager at O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors, recognised the limitations of their previous practice management software, which was unable to adapt to the firm’s growth. It lacked flexibility, user-friendliness, and clear reporting capabilities. Additionally, the firm required seamless integration with Google Workspace—a critical component of their daily operations—which their previous software couldn’t provide. The team needed a solution that could handle the complexities of their multi-faceted legal practice, streamline processes, and offer transparency into the firm’s performance.

Discovering Clio

In late 2023, after attending a legal tech conference, the firm discovered Clio’s compliant cloud-based legal practice management solution, which also offered a Google Workspace integration. Through Clio Manage, the firm is able to gauge how much work is being put into each of their matters, helping identify how many matters are on track and which matters are not. This allowed them to identify any matters at risk early and mitigate any issues.

Clio’s search feature has also proven to be a game-changer for the firm. It offers advanced functionality, allowing searches not just for file names and numbers, but also within documents, emails, and calendar entries. Additionally, the ability to edit any input at a later stage provides flexibility and eliminates concerns about errors, ensuring a seamless and efficient workflow. This has significantly enhanced the firm’s overall productivity and accuracy.

Clio has been a game-changer for us. It’s made everything—from administrative tasks to client management—so much easier. Productivity has increased, and we now have clear, actionable insights into our practice.

In addition, the transition to Clio was smooth and well-supported. Clio’s migration team provided tailored assistance, helping the firm transfer data efficiently and offering training sessions for users of all skill levels.

How switching to Clio transformed O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors’ operations:

1. Improved Efficiency
The firm now benefits from a user-friendly interface that consolidates key information. Management can access dashboards showing financial data, matter progress, and trust account balances, allowing for informed decision-making. Administrative tasks that once took a day are now completed in an hour.

Since using Clio, it has reduced my administrative tasks—that would normally take me a better part of a day—to a better part of an hour.

2. Enhanced Client Onboarding
Clio Grow streamlines the onboarding process. With customisable pipelines and centralised tracking, the firm can monitor new matters, forecast budgets, and assess workload capacity at a glance.

Clio Grow also gives us the dollar value of how much we’re actually retaining. Which is good to see future income and forecast budgets. Having everything in a single screen has really helped us take on new clients.
3. Simplified Payments 
Clio Payments enables clients to pay invoices quickly and easily using debit or credit cards. This eliminates the need for manual bank transfers and reduces errors, speeding up the payment process.
Clients are able to make a payment directly. It just speeds the process and there’s less room for error.
4. Transparency and Collaboration

Clio’s powerful search and communication tools allow solicitors to track case details across multiple matters seamlessly. Brooke Collins, a civil solicitor at the firm, highlighted how the system helps manage their caseload of 30+ files.

 

It’s clear, concise, and everything is in one place. Any solicitor can jump into a file and know exactly what stage it’s at.

For O’Brien Solicitors, Clio was the unknown that turned into an essential tool for success. Hudson’s advice to other firms considering a switch?

If you’re not happy with your current system, take the leap with Clio. The team will help you every step of the way.

Interested in learning more about what Clio can do for your firm?

See exactly how Clio can help your firm by scheduling a personalised product walkthrough with one of our Clio experts.

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