Client Matter Files

Client matters are the building blocks of your practice – you open a file for each. Everything you do and everything you bill revolves around these files. Amicus Attorney understands this. It makes all your files and all the file content instantly accessible, better organized and much easier to use.

By just clicking on a file you can see all the associated people, appointments, tasks, documents, emails, phone calls, time spent, expenses, bills and more. Plan the next steps. Organize the work. Review the history. Report to your client. Everything is at your fingertips.

Files are a tremendous organizational tool. They help you see everything that you are doing in the context of any given client matter. For example, you send & receive hundreds of emails. They are all in your inbox or sent items. But there are so many of them! If you want to see just the ones related to the Widgetco matter, go to its File – there they are. All the Widgetco documents are there too. As is everything else. So you can work in context, knowing that anything you do will appear anywhere else it needs to, and will be available to everyone else who is working on the file as well.

Unlimited Custom Fields

In addition to the many standard types of information organized by Amicus Cloud, users can keep track of anything else they want, and everything else they want, on any client matter file.

Amicus Cloud has an unlimited number of custom fields, available in any form – date fields, number fields, text fields, drop-down lists (with editable selections), checkboxes, and more. Each type of file can have a different selection of custom information, according to what is appropriate for that type of legal work.

It provides an unprecedented amount of flexibility to the end user and is really easy to use. Anyone can add custom information to a file “on the fly” when they think about it, so the capabilities are very real for everyone.

Calendar

Managing your schedule is a constantly moving target – or should we say juggle? So Amicus makes it fast and easy. Visual & intuitive. It works the way you do. Flexible views. Appointment reminders. Convenient group scheduling. Privacy settings. And so much more…

Users can share appointment details and control the level of detail visible to each firm member. They can
also give rights to other firm members to schedule appointments on their behalf – the way an assistant
might do for an attorney. They can even get audible appointment reminders, including one that sounds
like a sophisticated human assistant.  The features are endless.

Of course the Amicus calendar is fully integrated with your client files. Anything on it appears in your files, and vice versa. Which very much enhances its power.

It’s integrated with your time sheets too. When an appointment is over, with one click you can get a time entry for it. With everything filled in. So your calendar translates into revenue.

You probably have many calendars. There’s one in Outlook on your PC or iCal on your Mac. There’s another on your smartphone. Another on your iPad. Here’s the great news: your Amicus Cloud calendar appears on all of those! For example, when you enter an appointment on your Android phone, it instantly appears in Amicus Cloud as well. If someone sends you a meeting invitation, the minute you accept, it not only goes into your Outlook, it is in Amicus Cloud as well. Drag and drop an appointment to a different day in Amicus Cloud, and it changes in those other places as well.

Freedom to work the way you want to.

Tasks

There is always an endless list of things to do. Worse, there are so many deadlines! Constant realities in the practice of law. Staying on top of them is vital. Amicus Attorney can be a big help with both.

It’s your choice about how you want to get organized. You can plan what needs to be done on each of your client files. The tasks appear on the file they relate to, and also on your central list. Or you can start with the big list, and have confidence that your tasks will appear on their files as well. Delegate tasks, and then call up a list of all tasks for an associate on your shared files. Keep track of how they’re progressing.

When you mark something done, Amicus will offer to do a time entry for you. A reward for your hard work!

You probably already have To Do lists in different places. There’s one in your Outlook. The Reminders app on your iPhone is really good. You may use that on your iPad as well. Here’s more good news: the Task list in Amicus Attorney appears in them all! So you have one list of things to do on all those devices – which makes it hard to forget!

Here’s an example. Using Amicus Attorney you create a task for reviewing some documents sent to you by your client. You take the documents home and read them the next evening. Checking your phone you see the same reminder about those documents, and with great pleasure mark it done. The next day, as soon as you log into Amicus, it not only knows that you have completed that task, it reminds you to do a time entry for it! Better organization, anywhere you go – and you capture more billable time as well.

Freedom to work the way you want to.

Contacts

The most important aspect of your practice is the people with whom you work. Amicus helps you keep track of them, contact them and keep in touch. It’s easy to organize your contacts.

You probably already have several address books. There’s one on your smartphone. There’s one in your Outlook. Maybe another on your iPad. You need to keep all those coordinated. And now we are adding a fourth? Relax! Amicus Attorney will coordinate contacts on all those devices, so you can have a single address book everywhere you go.

For example, let’s say your secretary opens a new file, and enters the client’s information on the file ( unlimited customizable fields available). That evening, you want to call the client. You pick up your smartphone, and the contact information is already there! A few weeks later your colleague uses her Outlook to add a new email for that client. You see it the next time you log into Amicus.

Freedom to work the way you want to.

Phone Calls

It’s an electronic world. So much happens by email. But at the same time, as lawyers we need to talk to people, not just use a keyboard. Many of those conversations happen on the phone. Sometimes too many!

Unlike an email, talking on the phone doesn’t leave a written record of itself. And records of what is being said are often very important in the practice of law. Amicus helps. It makes it easy for you to keep notes of calls and store them in the client matter Files they relate to. It automatically times Phone Calls for billing purposes, and helps you manage your voice mails and phone messages as well.

While you’re talking on the phone, with a single click you can remind yourself of what is going on in the File. Everything at your fingertips – never be ambushed by a phone call again!

Need to follow-up on something that was said? Just click to create a task – most of it is filled in for you. Or click to create a callback reminder – for yourself or someone else. Your assistant can use this to manage your messages, and it’s a big help with voicemail too!

When the call is done, with one more click you create a Time Entry for the call. Again everything is filled in. So easy!

All your phone calls and messages can be seen in a list. A powerful tool for knowing who has been calling, whom you have to call back, and what is being done. With a glance you can make sure there’s a time entry for every call. And of course every call is recorded on the File it relates to as well.

Imagine that – your phone calls, under control.

Documents

Our lives are filled with documents. Contracts. Deeds. Mortgages. Pleadings. Transcripts. Filings. Registrations. Wills. Forms. So many more. All so important to the practice of law.

Amicus Cloud gives you tremendous help at managing your documents. Click to attach a document to the file it relates to in Amicus. The document is immediately stored on that file. In the cloud. Which means you can find it whenever you need it, wherever you are, on any computer or iPad. Anyone else in your firm who is working on that file can see it as well. It is secure and backed up.

Organize your documents into sub-folders (e.g. “pleadings” or “correspondence”). Or organize them by category (e.g. deeds or retainers). Or both.

Search through all your documents to find anything you need. Just like Google® – but without the advertising. Find any word in any document on any file. Vaguely recall that sometime in the past you gave an opinion concerning “nimbus lex praxi”? Find it again in a flash.

Drafting a legal document can be a multi-step process. Each version of the same document is saved separately in Amicus, so you can go back to any previous revision you need to.

Much more than a public online storage system like Dropbox®. Document management. In your secure, private practice system.