While attending the recent ABA spring conference of the General Practice/Solo, Young Lawyers, and Law Practice Divisions, I popped into a presentation by Karoline Buck and Emma Raimi-Zlatic of Thomson Reuters and Smokeball, respectively.
As many know, Thomson Reuters and Smokeball recently announced a partnership to marry TR legal research and AI capabilities with Smokeball’s practice management platforms.
What’s unique about the partnership is that it’s an attempt to better reach small law firms and solo lawyers. According to the Smokeball press release announcing the partnership, “the partnership connects the business and practice of law for small to mid-size firms…” The TR press release echoes this: “we’re giving legal professionals in small firms something that hasn’t existed in the market until now. “
Since many conference attendees were from small law firms, were themselves solos, or were young lawyers just starting out, it was a good place for TR and Smokeball to talk about their “law firm in a box concept” which was the title of their presentation.
The Partnership
Smokeball has historically been all about the small law firms and solo market; according to the press release, its user base is predominantly firms of between 2 and 30 people and solos. It offers a wide variety of practice management tools and materials.
Raimi-Zlatic relayed that Smokeball is unique in that it offers both state- and practice-specific tools for its customers. It also has an automated time tracker tool that they claim is unique. I have written about this tool before: it automatically tracks and records time which enables timekeepers to devote more energy to the practice of law and less to recording what they are doing.
Thomson Reuters, of course, is a giant in the legal tech industry. Its history goes back to Westlaw and its compilation of the headnotes that many of us relied on in doing research back in the old days. Thomson Reuters still offers a digital version of Westlaw, now called Westlaw Advantage, Edge, and Precision along with its Practical Law Tools and its AI tool Co-Counsel among others.
Features and Benefits
Both Buck and Raimi-Zlatic stressed that the goal is to enable the TR and Smokeball systems to talk to each other “in a box.” The idea of course is to enable practitioners to access both the sophisticated legal research tools of TR and the wide range of practice management tools that Smokeball offers so that practitioners can use both systems side by side and throughout cases and matters.
It enables a one-stop place for both needs to be met instead of firms trying to get both to work with one another on their own. That’s particularly a problem for small law firms and solos who don’t have the resources of much bigger players.
In addition, solo lawyers and those in small firms by necessity have to spend a lot of time on administrative matters. There is no one else to do it. But that time isn’t billable nor is it for the benefit of clients. It’s a sinkhole.
By combining programs and directing energies to these lawyers, it could be a real benefit since it enables them to be stronger on the research side and spend more time on client work and less on administrative matters. In doing so, the presenters stressed that the collective resources would enable the small firm practitioner to better compete with their larger brethren. And it’s no doubt true that large law firm lawyers often look down on those from smaller firms. But tools like this, in the words of Raimi-Zlatic, “level the playing field.”
As might be expected, it’s a work in progress.
What’s Different
The partnership is the latest effort to better tie the legal research and substantive side of the business to the administrative side. We saw this with Clio’s acquisition of the legal research provider, vLex. We saw it with the LexisNexis “partnership “with Harvey and with its integration with the document management provider NetDocuments.
But the difference here is that TR and Smokeball say their partnership is purposefully directed toward the smaller law firms. While Clio has historically directed its product stack to smaller law firms, it now has a bigger vision in mind and is targeting Biglaw, as I have previously written. Harvey has historically marketed to Biglaw (although that may be changing). The LexisNexis partnership seems more geared to Biglaw as well as does the integration with NetDocuments.
So, the TR and Smokeball effort feels unique and timely as smaller law firms are struggling to compete with bigger law firms with more resources. If that’s truly what they plan to do, I commend them for it.
Of course, there are advantages to the partnership for both TR and Smokeball. TR has tentacles in hundreds of law firms, law schools, and the judiciary circle. Its tools are offered to law firms big and small. But smaller firms often worry about the cost of what TR offers. Perhaps by combining with Smokeball, it hopes the combined platforms will be more palatable to small law.
Smokeball, on the other hand, is a much smaller player. In fact, when Buck and Raimi-Zlatic polled the room, most attendees said they were TR customers while only one person volunteered they were a Smokeball customer. So, the partnership will introduce Smokeball to a better-known brand and a broader range of customers.
Some Risks
But as I have discussed before, these kinds of combinations do pose some risks to users. If you buy the integrated systems to get both, leaving one or the other later becomes time consuming and costly since you have to replace a platform. If the cost goes up and/or the service goes down, you could be left in a tough spot.
Plus, it’s hard to know exactly what is meant by the concept of partnership or integration, for that matter. It’s hard to gauge the permanence of the arrangement when you have no clue as to the terms. And that permanence is important when selecting a vendor, especially one that’s going to offer both legal and administrative platforms.
So to some extent it’s buyer beware. Ask questions.
Nevertheless, a Step in the Right Direction
But given those risks, what TR and Smokeball are doing is still commendable. Solos and small firms make up a huge segment of the legal marketplace. They are frequently ignored and undervalued by the legal community and vendors. So, to see two players offer something just for them that would empower them is refreshing.
But for their sake, let’s just hope they do what they say. From being involved in TechShow where many attendees are from small law, I know they ask hard practical questions since they are not only buying the products, they are the users as well.
Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and writer. He publishes TechLaw Crossroads, a blog devoted to the examination of the tension between technology, the law, and the practice of law.
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