Running PCLaw (and other practice management) for Multiple Offices

LexisNexis PCLaw can be one of the more difficult softwares to use for a firm with multiple offices. There are a number of technical limitations - cannot be used over an internet connection, not supported over wireless (seriously - for relatively recent versions). Yet this can be solved a number of ways. Our Director of Legal Technology wrote a great article about remote access technologies. The trick is to treat your remote offices as remotely accessing PCLaw. They will need to connect via Remote Desktop/Terminal Services, or this is one of the most perfect use cases for Citrix. Time entry is a piece of cake when you just need to run a single application.

For the accounting team, they will often need to run multiple programs for check printing, reporting and more. Or if your practice management/billing software is more comprehensive, such as Aderant Total Office (ATO), you will need to integrate remote support for Microsoft Office and more. This can be more complex (but still very achievable) with Citrix, or require the user to work in a full remote desktop environment.

One final, but expensive, option is a high speed fiber-based MPLS network. These networks can be built between offices to guarantee a low latency connection between offices, similar to being in the same building. If your offices are geographically close (for example, Dallas & Houston TX), this can work great. It gets more challenging and expensive as physical distance increases.

A few of the applications we have implemented these types of solutions for:

• Lexis PCLaw

• Coyote Analytics

• Quickbooks (one of the most common!)

• Lexis Juris

• ProLaw