See how these Scottish lawyers confidently started their own practice with Clio.

Download This Article as a PDF
Loading ...

Back in November 2015, two Edinburgh-based lawyers started to consider a major change: What did they need to do to set up their own law firm? Having worked together at both large and small Edinburgh firms and having built a strong and long-standing working relationship, they were confident they had the right experience and skills to branch out on their own. A few short months later, in January 2016, Emma Reid and Cathy Donald did it. Ergo Law, a boutique employment law firm was born.

Although they were initially based out of an office space in Emma’s home, just five years later, their team has grown to include five fee-earners as well as a paralegal/ business manager and a law graduate who provides administrative support on a part-time basis. They’ve also moved out of Emma’s home office into comfortable offices in Edinburgh’s lively West End. Every year has brought them new success.

“The business has grown substantially and consistently, year-on-year,” Cathy says. “Even in the very uncertain business climate of 2020, Ergo’s turnover increased 42% on the previous year.”

So how did they achieve so much so soon? Along with a lot of hard work, a pivot to finding a good balance of employer and employee clients, and (of course) excellent employment law skills, technology played a big part in growing their firm. Previously, Emma and Cathy had worked both at firms that used case management software and at firms that didn’t. The two agreed that when starting their own firm, they needed a solid technology solution from the outset.

“We were really clear, especially because we were starting out with no administrative support, that we would need an easy-to-use, intuitive system for diaries, time recording, and invoicing. That is how we ended up with Clio.”

Clio, which is an approved supplier to the Law Society of Scotland, is a cloud-based legal practice management software. Its functionality and the fact that it can be used to work from anywhere—whether that be from a home office, a West End premises, or a client’s workplace—meant that it was perfect for a start-up business.

“It was great in those early days,” Cathy says. “Clio is very flexible and simple to use, and the support from the Clio team has been excellent—they are very good at responding to queries, and it’s always easy to speak with a real person on the phone.” It’s still a major boon to their firm five years later, too.

“As we’ve gotten bigger, Clio has expanded with us.”

Tools That Worked

Clio offers a variety of features that have proven useful to Emma and Cathy in Ergo Law over the past five years. Initially, Clio’s billing and time recording feature was a big part of the software’s appeal. 

The two solicitors found it much easier to record all of their billable time with Clio than at firms with manual recording only. The Time and Expense Recording function meant that they could record their time on every case with just a click of a button. That functionality also meant that, right from the beginning, Ergo Law had a clear picture of where time was being spent, making it easy to give clients a transparent view into their processes. It’s still an important part of their day-to-day operations now.

“With more solicitors in the firm, it’s particularly helpful that you can go on to a client’s file and know where you are with time,” Cathy says. “For our employee clients in particular, it’s important to keep an eye on costs, but all clients need clear and up-to-date information about the time being spent on any particular matter.  Clio facilitates that.”

When it comes time to bill, their business manager Laura appreciates how easy Clio makes it to bill accurately and efficiently. While the firm uses an accountant for the overall firm accounting, using the Clio and Xero integration makes billing smooth, Cathy says.

Additionally, as the firm continues to grow and target new clients, some of Clio’s other functionality has become increasingly important. “We are often involved in projects involving a significant number of individual clients in, for example, a large-scale redundancy,” Cathy says.

“Clio is very helpful there, enabling us to get everything organised, diarised, and invoiced. When you’ve got those kinds of numbers, it’s important that the system behind it runs smoothly.”

Finally, when it comes to accessing information about billing and work in progress,  Clio’s reporting features make that simple. “It is a big advantage to be able to go into Clio to hit ‘reports’ for real-time information available by client, matter, fee-earner, or time period, or any combination of the above” Cathy, who acknowledges she is a bit tech-shy, says. “That is all easily doable even for the likes of me.”

Work-Life Balance

So what’s next for Ergo Law, especially in the era following the pandemic? “I think we’re probably in a world where we’re not all going to be in the office every day.  For now, we plan to just rotate it so that there’ll always be some people in the office and others working from home. That makes it more important to be seamless in terms of your IT and in terms of practice management.”

Case in point: When one of their solicitors, who is English-qualified, decided to move back down south to England in May of last year, she was able to continue working just as effectively as she had been previously. It’s not just helpful for big moves either; for daily work-life balance, Cathy says, it’s just as useful.

“Three of our staff, including co-founder Emma, have school-age children and the accessibility of Clio, including access on your mobile phone, means that you can keep on top of work priorities whilst being present for other commitments.”

That ability to be flexible, and to provide a strong work-life balance where staff are valued and accommodated, is important to Ergo Law’s founders. 

“Pre-pandemic, post-pandemic, I think any of our staff would say we offer a genuinely flexible working environment, and I think all of our staff appreciate that. Provided the work gets done and the clients are happy, we really don’t mind too much where or when you work. Clio has been good for that.”

To anyone who is thinking of striking out on their own or finding new solutions to how they work, the duo say to go for it. They hope that their story will inspire lawyers and others to think about how they can adjust their working patterns and practices to better fit the firm and its staff’s circumstances and needs.

Clio is designed to help firms of all sizes work in the way that’s best and most efficient for them. If you’d like to find out for yourself what Clio can do for you, the Clio team would be happy to show you.

Schedule a Demo