LEAP

Avantages

The system is better for large firms with IT specialist.

Inconvénients

Waste of money if you a a small firm or sole practitioner.
Have to reinvest in a system that is compatible with the software, costing additional 2k
External trainer rubbish as you have to book time and it’s rushed if you do not know windows.
You have to purchase top ons. That is more costly so your package could run into the thousand.
Read the contract and if not happy make sure you cancel.
Once your subscription finish you will not have the availability to gain access to your client files.
If you are tied in and try to negotiate you will be ignored and you have no resolution
BECAREFUL BEFORE YOU SIGN THIER CONTRACT.

Avantages

The product is mature and provides a complete law practice package including document storage, time reading, billing, trust accounting and matter management. Remote access is available and there are nice mobile app features available.

Inconvénients

Alot of functionality is heavily promoted in LEAP marketing materials but requires additional premium third-party licenses.

LEAP has a rigid pricing structure. There are no categories for admin staff vs fee earners etc. This means you must purchase a full license including precedent subscription for every staff member including casual and part-time staff.

Technical support has declined dramatically in the past 6 months. We have waited over a week to have a support ticket acknowledged. Matter remains unresolved two weeks later. There is no transparent ticketing system for technical error. You are pushing onto the online chat which currently has wait times over an hour and the end result is to lodge a support ticket.

Implementation was poorly handled with poor communication.

Avantages

Easy access to all firm data, including accounting and client matters.

Inconvénients

Not fully functional on Apple or Mac platform.

Avantages

Let's be honest, LEAP is aimed mid to large sized businesses. It doesn't really cater for us smaller players in the market. With this in mind, it's primary aim is case management and deployment/delegation to others. It offers many features and add-ons from outside apps but very few were ones I was already existing.

Inconvénients

LEAP's software is difficult to manage, not very intuitive. Cumbersome for a so-called leading software provider. 8 months in, there are many features I do not use/nor require. Integration with other apps such as Willsuite has been a frustrating experience to say the least with many issues still unresolved.

Sadly, LEAP's customer service is woeful. No helpline, they just direct you to self-help videos or request you to email support. It can take days for them to respond, a complete joke when you have work and clients waiting for vital documents.

Avantages

My favorite feature in LEAP is the ability to manage trust accounts with accuracy and complete compliance with IOLTA standards. The integration with Quickbooks has eliminated the need for duplicate entries which increases accuracy and guarantees the integrity of the data. Also, LEAP's numerous features that facilitate communication (notes, e-mail tracking, phone logs, calendar) allow for any user to access the program and be able to get a real-time status of the matter.
LEAP's support system is another favorite feature. I can chat with support, open a case, schedule support or research through LEAP University and the Community pages.

Inconvénients

Occasional failures in bulk printing and contact management can be frustrating.

Avantages

Trust accounting is solid and reliable and support was good.

Inconvénients

The contract is terrible. You cant exit early even if you ask nicely. They will not let you out and WILL chase you and WILL send a collection agency after you and threaten to damage your credit rating. Its also very very expensive to get your data in a usable form when you leave.

Avantages

Client account and month end reports. These provide an excellent tools for management to keep on top of Month End reporting and reconciliation reports. I also liked that you can send an email from within the software and it will open up and send from outlook.

Inconvénients

Task management and time recording. Also customer service is poor as help is not readily available. When the software first took over LOLA, there was good customer service support but slowly that diminished.

Avantages

Easy to learn, navigate and obtain the information needed . Simple features such as being able to convert large amounts of documents into a single PDF document within seconds is so helpful.

Inconvénients

Like any other software Leap has its flaws. Often won’t open Word or Excel documents that are saved onto Leap. Can not add any attachments from Outlook straight onto Leap ( it has to be added onto desktop then onto Leap, which can be time consuming). Other than that, I am happy with Leap.

Avantages

More user friendly than PCLAW in terms of being able to locate info regarding a client

Inconvénients

Does not handle the accounting side of the operating account

Avantages

The product is easy to use but is way more robust for the needs of a small office

Inconvénients

No customer support when you need it. They do not offer phone in Tech support and your "ticket" can go unassigned for hours

Avantages

integrates perfectly with word and outlook as if you can't notice the difference but the relevant buttons are there

Inconvénients

cant use on mac unless you install parallel or bootcamp

Avantages

I like being able to search for the item I am looking for.

Inconvénients

Difficult to use invoicing system, I am not able to generate the invoices/

Avantages

[sensitive content hidden] is great at document automation

Inconvénients

Support is all on the web.....hard to get a human voice

Avantages

Detailed reports are easy to produce and it's easy to share files between LEAP and local storage. It's also very easy to learn for people with varying tech skills.

Inconvénients

The customer service: I made 4 or 5 attempts to have the same issue resolved, and each time the LEAP customer support would offer the same solution did not work. I was told an engineer would call me back on 3 occasions, and each time I gave them a 1 hour window during which I would be unavailable. Each time their Engineers called within the one hour window and each missed call means starting the process from square one.There is no option to export/save time recording into an Excel compatible format - only hard-copy or save to PDF. This has added hours to time spent preparing a Schedule of Costs as each entry has to be added and updated manually.Transitioning from our old system to LEAP was far from smooth. Many matters were not transferred and most of those which were had time recording missing or numerous mistakes, resulting in us combing through a lot of our files to correct these mistakes.The bugs and errors are innumerable - the Microsoft Office Add-ons do not seem to function properly at all, with different issues arising for each of Office 365, 2019 and 2016.Most cloud services auto-deletes or encrypts locally stored data. With LEAP, all data and docs accessed by a user are stored locally in a folder without encryption or auto-deleting, meaning that anyone with access to a device using LEAP could browse through all documents and client info a user has accessed without logging in to LEAP or using LEAP at all.

Avantages

There are lots of forms in the library to choose from, time keeping software, easy to use and the online support system is great.

Inconvénients

The only thing i dont like its very costly.

Avantages

The system is easy to use and navigate, and if there are any issues the team is always on hand to assist through various different means.

Inconvénients

The case management system can sometimes be slow to load.

Avantages

I liked Leap as it did a great job and everything that was needed. The UCPR forms and templates they have were very handy.

Inconvénients

It was very expensive, from memory over $600/month/user, and locked in on a 3 year contract too. Very restrictive, which is why we moved.

Avantages

The meeting with Kudzai was really informative and the system has many advantages, which were well explained by Kudzai.

Inconvénients

They were just a few things we felt that the system was lacking with law connect: 1. The inability to send emails out of the law connect system and the fact that all documents would be in different places. So, only attachments to client's would be on law connect but the emails would be elsewhere. It would be useful if you could also send all things from one place on the law connect app so that it is easy for us and the clients. 2. Unable to open downloads on the law connect app, would have to be in leap.

Avantages

The contact and matter cards are the best part of the CRM.

Inconvénients

I disliked that several of the advertised features were not actually included once I already signed into a multi-year contract. Under the contract we were supposed to have immediate access to the client portal, it took over 6 weeks for the portal to be "setup." This resulted in a weird state of limbo regarding the transition. I also had concerns that they advertised a workflow procedure, but once we tried to use the workflow we were informed that it was only available in the UK, and no one could provide an estimate regarding when it would be available in the US. I'm also concerned that they require a third party to install the applications. Although the installation took about 15 minutes for each computer, the installer stayed active in one our firm computers for over 12 hours. When we asked about this potential data breach concern, no one followed up with us for weeks, then we were told "its ok nothing happened." That is a serious data breach issue.

Avantages

LEAP allows you to customize your matters and templates and reduces time in various case areas. Their customer service is excellent, they are always available to help with any issues and/or look into the issue and guide you to the solution. I like the LEAP is constantly improving and cares about how the product can be an asset to law firms. They take the time to review suggestions and always work with you to improve not just the software but how our firm can take advantage of every feature to improve the quality of our cases and time.

Inconvénients

Sometimes the software has glitches, but LEAP always fixes the issue right away, so it's not too much of a burden. The other feature that would be great is if LEAP allowed you to edit expenses once entered. The operating account feature could be a little more flexible with entries because you cannot make any edits once you hit save. Our previous software allowed us to make description edits and even transaction edits when it was time to submit an invoice to the court.

Alternatives envisagées 

Clio

Pourquoi choisir LEAP 

Case file and template features that previous software did not offer.

Pourquoi passer à LEAP

We knew more practitioners in our area using LEAP, and it had great features.

Avantages

You have absolutely everything you need for a file in one place, i.e. documents/correspondence/financials. Having everything in one place makes the job so much easier and time management is easy.

Inconvénients

When some updates are installed, features and screens change which we are not informed fully about. This has meant it has taken time to find the features which have moved.

Avantages

When using the case management it is so easy to use from start to finish on a file, opening, setting up folders, using precedents, setting up cards for businesses and people. Also when posting funds received or disbursed is so easy and using it in conjunction with Xero for Office Accounts.

Inconvénients

The only negative I would say is that there is no option for a telephone message on a Client's file. I have been directed to use the New Comment tab but this isn't at all helpful for telephone messages, you fill them in and they "eventually" get to the person they are for, also the notifications come up for everyone in everyone's notification lists which is time wasting. In our business Telephone Messages are critical to receive immediately and if there was a proper tab for Telephone Messages on a Client's file which would flash up to the fee earner that would be better as they would immediately know about the call and also it would be recorded on the file

Avantages

LEAP is reliable, functional and easy to use. It is as simple as that.

Inconvénients

There are some efficiency points that could be included. Development seems to have focused on certain areas at the detriment of others e.g. conveyancing vs disputes. Some features may have not been thoguht through for use in practice.

Alternatives envisagées 

Clio

Pourquoi choisir LEAP 

Osprey was woeful in every regard - unreliable (losing documents), difficult to use (hard to navigate) and inefficient (time recording was very convoluted). This is a function of it being entirely cloud-based which is to be avoided.

Pourquoi passer à LEAP

Clio was too similar to Osprey. Emis was being left behind.

Avantages

Creating matters, attaching documents and emails to the matter, keeping a string of notes is key, as opposed to pulling the file. I want to pull the file less by being more diligent in using the software. Will be nice to communicate and transfer date with the program. I think that will be key with future generations.

Inconvénients

The integration was a pain, but it was on my side with Time Matters and my computer company. That was a me and not you thing.

When you create a matter and even when I chose the areas of law that I practice some of it was not there and we have to force the program by entering a type of law differently. For instance, it took us awhile to figure out how to enter Estate Administration which is the main thing I do. Most lawyers in PA and I suspect elsewhere use the Decedent's Name to identify and find the file. LEAP does not and you have to remember the name of the Executor for a search. If they don't have the same name, I think we had to do something a little different. For criminal matters there are some simple areas that aren't an option.

It seems like some fields we don't need and some would be more helpful, if they were available. The one that comes to mind is the Sale of Real Estate.

Avantages

Integration, ease of use, seamless remote working, Client contacts are collated and communication with Clients is simplified and streamlined, essential time recording is completed with ease. Access to documents is market leading.

Inconvénients

Transfer form an old case management system did present some technical issues. This was minor drawback and limited to set up only.

Avantages

There are so many things I like about leave. It really is hard to pick one thing. I would say being able to do almost everything through LEAP. I also love being able to work at home when I need too. It's GREAT!

Inconvénients

I know that they are continuing to work on this issue, but getting forms for our State and making different types of Law this is more familiar with our office. For example we do a lot of mediation.

Avantages

As with any new product, there have been challenges and an adjustment period. Most features are easy to use, but there are some that need perfecting. Entering time, entering clients and phone calls is fairly simple.

Inconvénients

The document preparation process is not as effortless as one would hope. The margins are often and issue, transferring data does not always seem intuitive and MS word often has to be repaired. The critical dates section could be improved by making it easier to enter personalized information for the matter. The calendar could be improved so that it is simpler to add appointments without using the MS Office calendar.

Avantages

Document automation and forms for various areas of practice increase productivity.

Inconvénients

Billing system feels incomplete, calendaring in this program is basically non-existent as Outlook is where the calendar is stored. The calendaring has caused many issues and resulted in missed appointments. Additionally, there is no dedicated section for phone messages and makes it difficult for the attorneys to check messages without bouncing from file to file and reading the "comment" which contains a phone message.

Avantages

We had never had a cloud based management system before, so considering that we made this change within the year of the pandemic hitting, the value to that feature is priceless; you can print directly to LEAP; easy integration with outlook (even though Outlook itself is not my favorite); The staff tries to be very helpful, although they do not always follow up if they dont have any answers for you; Leap has a few versions of docs that we feel are improvements over what we were using; Billing features.

Inconvénients

We are in Massachusetts and cannot access E-File features with the courts through Leap; The system has lost address information and the capability to input it into many of our contact cards; Many document fields are inadequately set-up (maintain default names, refuse to accept checked boxes, skip sections); Invoices are confusing and do not specify the funds are received from retainers; invoices do not have a feature which specifies who has generated the billable hours (name of legal team member); does not show size of documents; not user friendly with copy/paste feature; only connects to one singular Quickbooks account (so you cannot interface with both operating and IOLTA accounts).

Avantages

Customer support is top notch - accessible and knowledgeable.
LEAP does a nice job of organizing clients and allowing us to search for clients.
I appreciate that all documents can be saved right in the matter and that emails sent from within the program are saved in the matter.
We are a smaller firm, so there are several features that we don't need/use.
Balancing the trust account is a breeze!

Inconvénients

I would like a client's phone number to be more readily accessible. Why can't it be displayed on the Details & Correspondence tab when the matter opens?
I prefer to have the billing and accounting in one place. While on the surface, it seems a nice feature to "push" to QuickBooks online, it is confusing as LEAP is pushing transactions while QBO is pulling transactions from the bank account. Balancing the operating account is cumbersome and time consuming.
While I appreciate being able to save emails in the matter, I don't like that it saves EVERY reply or forward thereafter. I should be able to choose whether or not the ensuing emails are saved.

Avantages

I love that the mobile app for LEAP looks and performs as if you were at your desktop computer. I also find that the time entries and billing aspects could not get any easier.

Inconvénients

What I am not liking about LEAP is when in LEAP and prepare an e-mail to anyone, it is not obvious where the subject line is pulling from. As I am a new user, I am currently waiting on my next training to use this feature because I find it more difficult to have the program put in an incorrect subject line and then have to change it every time I prepare a new e-mail. I would prefer that when entering information into LEAP that it say "e-mail subject line" or something that indicates where LEAP automatically gets this information from.

My second con is that we are an insurance defense firm LEAP assumed that we were a plaintiff firm. What that means is that now I must go into each of our cases and change the information as our "client" is not the plaintiff.

Alternatives envisagées 

Clio

Pourquoi choisir LEAP 

We wanted a more detailed and mobile friendly cloud based program. PCLaw has a cloud based program but that I was not the program we were using.

Pourquoi passer à LEAP

Because Lexis gave LEAP a great review.

Avantages

My personal favorite attribute to this software is the technical support behind it. The helpdesk at LEAP is by far the most proficient, responsive, respectful, diligent, and most importantly, the helpdesk with the most overall proficient technicians responding. Every technician I have every worked with, and I ask questions to them almost as often as if they were in my office sitting with me, has a comprehensive knowledge of the entire software. If there has been a unique issue, they have always solved it within minutes. They are truly amazing.

My next favorite attribute is that the software becomes more useful and powerful with every piece of information you fill out. It requires the users to put the information into the system, but once it's there, what you can do with the information is where the dividends pay off. Clerks will spend far less time doing clerical work. Attorneys can draft better documents repeatedly in order to maximize time.

Next, is the document automation. It is continually being developed as we continue to work. Being able to generate large documents that can be used repeatedly at a substantial fee is a valuable asset.

I think my partner, who keeps our books, would say that the push over to Quickbooks feature is the best. It is timesaving and allows less room for error.

Inconvénients

The accounting methodology is different from the US methodology causing a greater learning curve during the transition to LEAP.

Alternatives envisagées 

MyCase et Clio

Pourquoi choisir LEAP 

We need software that required less in house tech support. We needed document automation. We needed a software that kept better financial records. We needed software that was more integrated with other types of applications. We needed LEAP!

Pourquoi passer à LEAP

First, LEAP started with their customer service from the very beginning whereas some of the other companies above just told me to watch their demo when I reached out. LEAP sent to very professional sales representatives out to see me and show me their product in person and answered my questions. This has not stopped since my purchase. It's just different people answering the questions. As far as features go, there was only one or two features another program had that LEAP did not and the LEAP had that the other did not. The Quickbooks integrations was a key feature as a small firm. Time is money. In summary, it came down to one or two features and the invaluable customer service they provide.

Avantages

Leap has a very good document library which is why we initially selected leap. However, this is probably the best feature.

Creating templates is also easy as is some of the accounts features. However, it does not have a general accounting facility - so you'll be paying extra to Xero for that.

Inconvénients

Tasks - it is heavily reliant on MS Outlook. If you do litigation, imagine note being able to access or edit tasks allocated to one of your fee earners and that fee earner is off. What do you?

When it comes to diarising tasks, you will be spending more time accepting assigned tasks than actually earning any fees. As an example, on a litigated matter i could have up to 20 directions that i need to comply with. my assistant will set a 14, 7, 2 and on the day reminder (this is a laborious task in Leap). thats 4x20 (80 tasks). i then receive 80 emails i need to open, accept and save (imagine how long that takes). The task is then saved in my out look tasks. No one else can access or edit or delete. This is stuck in outlook and in the matter!

So if i leave - and i have 100 files, thats 800 tasks that no one can access - they will have to troll through the file and set the tasks again. You see the problem! we learnt the hardway.

There is no adequate reporting - so you want to find out how many files you have with a particular supplier/referrer. You can find that out but you can export that into excel . you want to run that report - a third party app will cost you more.

Avantages

I really liked this billing system. I found that it was not overly complicated to use, and it had all the functionality I needed (plus some additional functions that I could have used, but didn't venture into). The billing software was previously TurboLaw before Leap purchased it, and the price was very reasonable for the product provided - reasonable monthly fee for relatively simple software base.

Inconvénients

When Leap purchased TurboLaw they more than tripled the monthly fee after just a few months. At that point, I went searching for a new billing system because it was too expensive for my small firm, and in my opinion, too expensive for what it had to offer. As a solo practitioner, I did not need anything fancy or expansive, and unfortunately Leap took this option away from me when they purchased TurboLaw.

Avantages

The Leap Support team is outstanding. The learning curve is steep for the software, but once you learn it, together with the outstanding support and availability of the support team, it is invaluable.

Inconvénients

the learning curve was rather difficult, although, in fairness, we were learning remotely and at the very beginning of the covid shutdown.

Alternatives envisagées 

Clio

Pourquoi choisir LEAP 

it was time.

Avantages

Cloud based system, easy to use, lots of online help using the Leap community or the Leap University for online video tutorials, also the connection to Xero Accounting system

Inconvénients

Hard to think of any think really, all seems to be pretty good i must say, of course at first it's all very new & strange but then it always is no matter who we would have chosen

Avantages

the detailed cards for the plaintiff, defendant, opposing counsel, etc.

Inconvénients

This software is not user friendly and complicated to learn/use.

Avantages

Billing and Time-Keeping are Excellent features. You will bill more hours and be much better equipped to keep track of your time

Inconvénients

Huge learning curve. But well worth it.ime

Avantages

The Leap platform is easy to use and form templates are customisable as are presidents. Accounting can be linked to most financial platforms, we use Xero which works well. Customer support is what is should be, responsive and easy to access. Online training guide and user forums solve most issues with minimal time and effort. The introduction of Customer Success Managers to provide personal support, who are accessible is excellent. If you use the system as designed, a CRM platform you will obtain true benefits in workflows and costs.

Inconvénients

Mobile access to Leap is good on Apple phones but has limited functionality on Android phones. This is a failing. Perversely Leap does not work well on Apple Macs but is excellent on Pc's?
Other legal system providers do not appear to have this as an issue with their android aps development, android being the predominant and growing platform in the UK.

Avantages

I don't know how we ever managed without LEAP. It is user friendly, has a wealth of features and makes my working life that much easier.

Inconvénients

It would be handy to log commission structures for consultants on each matter for example but this is not a deal breaker.

Alternatives envisagées 

Clio

Pourquoi passer à LEAP

Ease of use, features.

Avantages

At first it was good, helps a lot but the renewal is the problem

Inconvénients

I liked the software up until I had to renew. the renewal was inappropriate and possibly fraudulent.

Avantages

That it centralizes all of the activities regarding a case file into a matter folder ie client information, emails, documents, ect.

Inconvénients

It does not have a centralized telephone log. I receive many phone calls from people for which I do not have a matter set up and there is no place to log these calls in LEAP. Even for those calls that pertain to an established matter, the notification system is poor and you have no way to keep track of these calls separately. Also LEAP has no integrated calendar. Instead it uses Outlook, but it doesn't link back to the matter. For me, these two shortcomings are what caused me to decide to cancel my subscription to LEAP. Also the matter type descriptions are limited and there are several types of cases that I handle for which there is no matter type in LEAP. And you can't create your own.

Avantages

Leap is easy to use and integrates perfectly for your firm, whatever size. Great online support service available.

Inconvénients

I cannot fault Leap. I have had no issues whatsoever.

Alternatives envisagées 

Clio

Pourquoi choisir LEAP 

Proclaim was very difficult to use

Pourquoi passer à LEAP

I had already been with Leap and the system had no faults. Although Clio may have been slightly cheaper, I was happy to pay for a service I was happy with.

Avantages

It might take a bit getting used to and when first creating a matter it takes a lot of data input, but once you get through that it makes everything you do on that matter in the future faster and easier.

The forms generated pull from those data points and helps to speed up the process of writing everyday documents and even some motions in trial practice.

It is a good place to store large files are larger cases in the cloud so that they do not clutter your office.

Whenever I have an issue, customer support reaches out in the same day and resolves my issues.

Inconvénients

I wish it handled a few more file extensions as some of our digital files would not upload correctly and we would need to reference such external media in addition to the use of LEAP to view everything on a certain matter.

Avantages

We moved case management systems to Leap as part of an overall review of our IT systems. Using it in conjunction with Office 365 meant that we very easily had the tools at hand to adapt to remove working during the Covid-19 pandemic. The app and online versions are a helpful back up way to access content if away from the office. One of the most useful things we gained by switching to Leap was the opportunity to search in document content - not just in a matter, but throughout the whole database. The option to run reports and for all staff to have access to key reports is also very helpful.

Inconvénients

As with any system, there are some quirks that you have to get used to understanding. It can also sometimes feel a little disjointed when it comes to seeking IT support in that the first port of call is a chat assist box, rather than a telephone number that you can call.

Avantages

it's just so user friendly and the "how to" articles are very helpful.
it's integrates brilliantly with Xero.
Info Track is a real time saver for conveyancers and cuts down the accounts work in reconciling the LR account - also far less likely to miss picking up a search on a bill.
the integration with the forms is also fantastic
the "print to LEAP" feature also saves a lot of time

Inconvénients

create or tailor own reports would be useful
when attaching forms to emails, it would be good to have them running from new to old within the folder
create own work types
it's a shame LEAP ties you into a 3 year renewal deal.

Avantages

Info can be accessed anywhere. All client information is in one place.

Inconvénients

Billing features and reporting features are limited and confusing

Avantages

Billing and time keeping, email, the mobile app, case and document management,

Inconvénients

The lack of available categories for matter types tgst reflect aspects of real law practice in Illinois

Alternatives envisagées 

Clio

Pourquoi choisir LEAP 

User unfriendly

Pourquoi passer à LEAP

Leap was more comprehensive

Avantages

This software is great for being able to access on the go. You’re able to login online and access documents from anywhere that you have internet access. This works well for potential remote employees.
The forms and templates is also very helpful. I appreciate the intuitive PDFs created by LEAP.

Inconvénients

The LEAP software is sometimes too intuitive. I wish there was an option to exclude in network emails from being included in a Client’s case file. It would make the interface less crowded. Especially in a small firm, most of our office is CC’d on email correspondence. Therefore, each recipients email is included in the Client’s file. I wish that would be fixed or there was an option to identify in network emails.

If there is… oops! Show me the way!

Avantages

The basic features of LEAP are very user friendly. Time keeping/management is great.

Inconvénients

The emails get saved in various places - would be better if they automatically went into one place. Misc. errors when opening Adobe pdfs. The formatting of documents is sometimes difficult to edit.