How The LTP Supported This Virtual Law Firm After the Pandemic

Introduction

As Lupl’s Director of Asia-Pacific, I recently had the pleasure of hosting a series of webinars with our early adopters and partners in Singapore, to chat about the Legal Technology Platform (LTP) and legal tech.

Our first guest is Luo Ling Ling, founder and Managing Director of the law firm Luo Ling Ling LLC. Ling Ling started the firm in 2020 and since then has not only weathered the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic but come out the other side managing a medium-sized law firm.

They now deal with a variety of cases ranging from various practice areas including commercial to litigation, to shareholder mediation, to criminal law – and through it all, they have relied on technology to power their processes.

Ling Ling was an early adopter of the LTP and since then has been keen to share her experiences with others. The following is a summary of our chat, I hope you enjoy reading it!

What problems were you looking to solve with the LTP?

When I started my firm, I was doing all my admin using Microsoft Office, with a bit of help from a case management platform. While they were fine for the basic business side of things, when I started to expand my team I found that they were not quite doing the job.

The LTP has helped me overcome the challenges of managing a larger team in several ways.

Task Delegation

As a virtual firm, we have never had any physical assets (folders, books, sticky notes, etc) to remind us of tasks, and Clio and Microsoft had little in the way of group management and tasking tools.

With the LTP, on the other hand, every member of the team is able to create and delegate tasks to others and also assign multiple people to one task. This has made management so much easier.

Internal Communication

Before the LTP, we relied on WhatsApp group chats, which were insecure and did not integrate well with our matter documents.

Now we have a matter management platform that has its own internal messaging function to make collaboration between us easy. Even with a team as small as ours, I cannot stress enough the importance of good communication!

Matter Management

The matter templates found on the LTP are a game-changer. The case management software we were using before just did not have the industry-specific tools that we needed to help us deal with legal matters.

Thanks to the LTP’s matter templates, we have now standardized processes and developed template documentation for a variety of cases. This has not only made collaboration easier but has also helped us to produce higher-quality work for our clients.

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Ultimately, the LTP made our workflows much simpler and streamlined. By using a professional tool, I feel my virtual law firm has the support it needs to grow for future ventures.

What are some things you’re looking forward to the LTP developing?

One of the things I love about the LTP, powered by Lupl, is how they are a solutions provider who really listens to feedback. The LTP has already done so much for my firm, but there is always room for improvement!

I’m looking forward to…

• Improvements to document integrations: Currently, you can integrate the platform and link it to OneDrive / Sharepoint (and other common document management systems (DMSs)), but you cannot see the sub-folders when you access your account from within the LTP. It is going to be great when the full experience is available…
• Full linkage of practical matters like invoicing, time recording: Having everything in one place is essential for running a virtual law firm, and while the LTP already has so many things altogether, the day when we don’t have to use any third-party apps will be a welcome one!
• Even more matter templates: As I’ve already mentioned, the matter templates that Lupl provides are brilliant, so my team and I are excited to see what comes out next – I would especially like a template around, for instance, sentencing procedures in criminal law endorsed by the relevant authorities. The more we can deliver on matters that have been standardized by the government and public institutions, the better.

Note from Marcus: We are proud to support integrations with many fantastic tools, check out our pricing page to see how the LTP can fit into your existing tech stack.

Any advice for firms thinking of adopting The LTP?

Stop thinking about it, and just give it a go!

Okay, I might be a little biased, but if I were to offer some more practical advice, I’d say primarily that it’s important to think about your long-term hiring plan and how many matters are coming up for your firm. Choosing the right pricing package based on these future projections – and not on what you have right now – is essential for making sure your firm is ready for any future expansion.

If you’re a small firm or sole proprietor then, I would also recommend adopting the LTP as a virtual correspondence file management system. When you do not have as many clients as an enterprise-level firm, you really do not need masses amounts of cloud storage – this can get very costly especially on common platforms like Microsoft or Google that revise their prices regularly. The LTP has plenty of unlimited online storage and can be securely accessed on any device quickly and easily.

My last piece of advice would be around mentorship and junior apprenticeship schemes. I have found the task delegation functionality to be really useful for tracking the work and progress. Furthermore, encouraging them to use the matter templates can be a great way of consolidating their learning around certain types of cases.

Closing Thoughts

I want to once more thank Ling Ling for talking to us and providing such valuable insights for us to take on board.

As virtual law firms become more popular, we want lawyers online to feel that the LTP is a space uniquely suited for their professional needs and one that will grow with them.

In addition to the features discussed, Lupl has:

• A clear UI designed by legal professionals.
• The ability to pin external documents and information to matters so that all the files for a matter are in one place.
• Cross-organization collaboration that allows approved users outside of your firm to view and edit documents.

See how Lupl can simplify your matters and transform your workflows – book a demo today!

Marcus has over 10 years of experience in the legal world as a practitioner, mediator, trainer, and Assistant Adjunct Lecturer at the National University of Singapore. He is passionate about bringing the legal profession the tools they need to succeed and is now Lupl’s Director of Asia-Pacific. You can follow him on LinkedIn here.