Small Law Firm Achieves Work-Life Balance and Elevated Client Services
Culberth & Lienemann LLP is a small employment litigation firm in St. Paul, Minnesota, with two partners and a paralegal. The firm’s primary business challenge is finding ways to compete with larger firms without becoming overwhelmed.
“Sometimes it’s like David and Goliath in our business,” said Celeste Culberth, Esq., one of the firm’s partners. “Our goals, like any other firm, are time management for greater efficiency and productivity while balancing work and life so we can maximize client service, run our business, and have quality family time.”
Culberth’s work on behalf of plaintiffs and as a mediator also means a lot of travel around the state. Carrying hefty case files on each trip is a burden she and her colleagues were looking to omit. They researched practice management solutions and found exactly what they were looking for in Firm Central® from Thomson Reuters. The cloud-based software provides 24/7 access to files from anywhere and on any device, whether it be a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
“We’ve always tried to stay current with technology and pinpoint strategies to keep our clients’ cases moving forward,” Culberth says. “Firm Central allows us to spend more time practicing law and less time on administrative work.”
Firm Central helps Culberth & Lienemann integrate calendaring, time-tracking, billing, documentation, research, and communications into a single, easy-to-use platform.
“The integrated approach was a big selling feature for us,” said Culberth. “We really looked at lawyer time, managing paper, and our investment in paralegal support. Putting that all together was compelling: the efficiencies outweighed the costs.”
“Once the practice of law went mobile, the business of law had to as well,” said Culberth. “Now, when I’m at a deposition or hearing, I trust that my documents are accessible whether they’re physically in my briefcase, or not. There’s less pressure to remember to bring every client’s files during travels.”
For those contemplating the switch to a cloud-based practice management system like Firm Central, a common stumbling block is perception. People think transitioning to the cloud is prohibitively complicated and time-consuming. But Culberth says her experience was quite the opposite, and that getting up and running on Firm Central was surprisingly fast and easy.
SMOOTHER OPERATIONS AND COST EFFICIENCY
Cost is another factor Culberth weighed seriously. To estimate the potential cost savings for her firm, Culberth analyzed the amount of time the firm spends on administrative and paralegal tasks, in addition to paper management, research, time tracking, and organization. They concluded that Firm Central helps the firm rely less on paper, integrate systems more, save time, enhance productivity, and access documents on the go from anywhere. What’s not to like about that when clients are the ultimate beneficiaries of smoother operations? Knowing Thomson Reuters support is there 24/7 is the icing on the cake.
“There was a comfort knowing that Firm Central is a Thomson Reuters product. We’re confident with data security, IT support, regular backups and retrieval, and document protection.”
“When you’re a small firm without an IT expert on site, we rely on Thomson Reuters support as if they were part of our team. They absolutely bring peace of mind to everyone in our firm knowing they are a phone call away to solve our issues,” said Culberth.
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ABOUT THE FIRM:
Culberth & Lienemann LLP is a small firm in St. Paul, Minnesota, with two partners and one paralegal on staff. The firm focuses on employment law, anti-bullying in schools, and civil rights litigation. The firm’s partners, Celeste Culberth and Leslie Lienemann, were both named attorney of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer Magazine in 2012 and 2016.
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