PracticePanther Legal Software Reviews

Pros

Before PracticePanther we had started an Excel spreadsheet to log our contacts for conflicts checks. We created a joint email account with Gmail so our email would be centralized and that also gave us a central calendar that we all had access to in order to set appointments, record deadlines, etc. We also created a Dropbox account for file storage.

While everything was low cost or free, all the parts felt scattered. PracticePanther pulls it all together in one beautiful, user-friendly interface. Now, instead of having to pull up 5 or 6 different apps/websites, we are able to pull up just one site and have everything right there. All of the components of PracticePanther are really easy to use. The entire program is designed for efficiency and ease of use. Color-coding allows you to see and understand your financial details in mere seconds. Tasks, events, and timekeeping are easy.

Cons

I would like to see the software integrate with more programs. Quickbooks is great, but my brain works better with Wave Accounting; LawPay is great, but being able to integrate with PayPal also, would be even better. However, these are minor things and not worth seeking a different program I like as much as Practice Panther. I had shopped around quite a bit before choosing Practice Panther; I doubt I would find anything I like as much.

Hands down, our favorite thing about PracticePanther is the superior support staff. If you have a problem and leave a message after hours in the chat box, you get a response generally within the hour. There is also training videos and a help center that will help you find the help that you need.

Pros

I love how seamless this software makes my practice. It is so user-friendly. The client portal is wonderful, and I love how the accounting features are organized. Customer service is amazing. The templates feature saves me countless hours. The tasks feature really keeps me on track. I love how you can link relationships, create emails that sync automatically with the matter, and create events that send text notifications to clients. The support is quick and always friendly and helpful. The e-signature feature is also really cool.

Cons

(1) the phone app should be able to have multiple timers up at once, so you can go back and forth between working on different projects, like the desktop version.
(2) The "history" section at the bottom of matters should include time entry descriptions. I cannot stress that enough. I do not use the "history" section at all as it is currently operating, but it would be invaluable if that one change was made! If time entry descriptions were included, the "history" section would actually tell me the history of the work that's been done on the matter.
(3) We need a better text integration that's part of Practice Panther, so that clients can text us through the software, or something like how we can create a new email that links with the matter, but for texting.
(4) Company contacts - love the idea, but when you link a subordinate member of a company contact to a matter, the only email address you can actually auto-populate is the number one contact of the company contact. It's very annoying. I've had to create separate individual contacts for all the members of a company contact. Like for court services, I would like to be able to have all the employees of court services under the Court Services company contact, and then be able to link the particular officer assigned to supervise my particular client. But right now I have to link the court services company contact AND the individual contact to be able to send emails to the correct officer.

Alternatives Considered

Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

I felt like Practice Panther was just as good as Clio, but more cost appropriate for my smaller firm. Also, I liked that I always have the option to figure things out myself, or with a virtual helper, instead of having to call support. The same was true with the purchasing experience. I didn't get bombarded with phone calls, but I knew someone would be available to speak with me if I wanted to have a conversation. I felt that spoke volumes to the kind of company you are and the understanding and respect you have for your customers' time.

Pros

The product is easy to use and navigate, allows for detailed input and storage of necessary information, and allows for the best time tracking.

Cons

I don't have any cons with the software.

Pros

I like using it - it's easy to use and people on my team enjoy it too. Easy for billing and time managements, which is primarily what my law firm uses it for. We have had it since about 2018, and overall, I'm satisfied with the functionality. I haven't tried any of the competitors so I don't know how it compares.

Cons

Customer support is highly inadequate. I've had an issue with uploading billing entries and costs onto invoices on my iPad. It can only be done on a computer or laptop, but it doesn't work on iPad. When I open an invoice to edit it, and click on the link that states "add unbilled time, expenses and flat fees" to upload the billing entries and costs, nothing happens and therefore they can't be added to the invoices. It's frustrating that this feature doesn't work on iPad as I can do everything else on my iPad. I informed Practice Panther of the issue over a year ago, gave them technician access probably over ten times, talked to customer support on the phone repeatedly in the course of months as well as exchanged dozens of emails with multiple customer support reps - and nothing. Eventually, they failed to resolve the problem and stopped getting back to me. Notably, over a year later, the issue is still UNRESOLVED. So although I enjoy the software overall, I find their customer support inadequate and it hinders my business that I still can't add the billing entries to my invoices whenever using the software on my iPad.

Alternatives Considered

Clio

Pros

Look and experience became one in every of our figuring out elements to align with PracticePanther. It's exceedingly smooth to use, and maximum of your facts is to be had on every occasion you want it. In immigration law, there are a variety of very vital dates and data to hold music of, so being capable of create all of the custom fields we wanted became a large win. I additionally love how smooth it's miles to hold music of our bills. We can mechanically music who made the payment, after which comply with up with every person we nonetheless want to get hold of from. Giving our clients greater transparency actually indicates that we will use generation to enhance our services.

Cons

There are very few things I don't like about this software. One of the most important things when you want to switch editions is that you have to go back to the customer profile and then back to the editions before switching to a new one. It's very time consuming because you have to wait for it to load.

Pros

Price - either $59/mo or $49/mo if paid the year in full.
Fee to bill clients on-line: $.20 per transaction plus 1.95%
Workflow customizable - Yes, you can customize the workflow on different case-types.
Activity Log - easy access history.
Create Contact on the fly as creating matter - easy to create a Contact during the process of creating a matter.
Intake form for new clients - Yes, can put a link on your website so new clients can fill-out a new client form, and that info will auto fill into the client's PP account.
Time tracking timers - you can have multiple different timers open and running at the same time and assign them.
Mobile App - there is no mobile App, but the site is mobile optimized.
E-file integration - there is No e-file integration.
Color assignments - there are up to 6 colors that you can assign to parties & roles.
Task customizable - Yes, you can customize task flows.
Easy to create and merge documents - Yes, it's very easy to create and merge documents with the program.
PDF-auto convert - No, it cannot auto PDF convert a document.
Create documents that can merged - Yes. This program makes it easy to create documents that can be merged.
Support - Yes, support seems to be free.
Notify client when upload a document - Yes, you can notify a client a document gets uploaded that you want them to review or be aware of.
Email syncing - very good syncing with Gmail and Outlook.
Emails linked to a matter - Yes. Easy to link emails to a matter.
Client Portal - Yes.

Cons

The only thing that kept me from staying with PracticePanther, is that MyCase allows you to be able to set future billing to go out to a client(s) and forget it.
PracticePanther has a bit of a 'workaround' if you get the client's Visa/Debit card on file, but many times clients are uneasy giving you their card number.
With Criminal Defense clients that need to make monthly (or future) payments on a retainer amount, MyCase allows you to set-up future dates where a client will be emailed a bill, which they can tap on a button and pay on-line. This is the main thing that made me go with MyCase.
But if not for that, I would have stayed with either PracticePanther or Smokeball. Smokeball had/has the slickest software for being able to send emails from (either) Outlook or Gmail, and a small window at the bottom allows you to connect that email to a matter. Smokeball's software also made/makes it very easy to sync a Word document with a Client/Matter.

Alternatives Considered

MyCase and Smokeball

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

I ended up going with MyCase because it has the auto future filling of clients. But if MC didn't have that, I would have gone with PracticePanther or Smokeball.

Pros

PracticePanther is a 360 solution for your law firm. Its built on a robust API that allows you to connect to other tools to increase your productivity.

Cons

Similar to Clio, and other competitors, there is simply a lack of certain features, but the team is eager to learn of our needs and works to implement updates as quickly as possible.

Alternatives Considered

Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

PracticePanther is forward thinking and Clio seems to operate in a more defensive, retroactive manner.

Pros

The invoicing and time tracking features on this software are my favorite. Very easy to keep track of my time using the online and mobile timer. Easy to edit, generate and track invoices and amounts due.

Cons

I wish it had a built in calendaring/docketing feature.

Pros

PracticePanther is the first application I open up on my computer every morning! I look at my matters, and then what is scheduled on my calendar. Billing and invoicing is so easy with PracticePanther, and its integration with Quickbooks makes it a valuable piece of software for my business!

Cons

I wish updating document templates was easier. It seems that I have to update the document template on my computer and then upload it again into PracticePanther. If there is a way to just update the template in PracticePanther that would be great!

Pros

I love integration from other applications

Cons

The difficult nature of adding multiple clients to the same case.

Pros

We like the client portal where we can send clients messages and documents. The software is not easy to use. The reports are not user friendly, they do not meet our needs. It is difficult to maneuver.

Cons

I have to keep a separate data base for my clients because there is no way to print an envelope from PP. Our software automatically renewed annually and we had a staff member who left our company shortly thereafter. We decided not to replace the position. I contacted PP almost immediately thereafter and have been trying to get a refund of that user's account fees and after a month, they finally got back to me and they will not refund the annual subscription fee. So, if you are on an annual plan, you cannot reduce the number of user accounts you have. The three way trust account reconciliation is not a true reconciliation that complies with the Rules of Professional Responsibility, so we have to still reconcile using other software. The email sync only works with limited versions of Outlook. When we signed up, we were assured their customer service was top notch and the longer I am with them, the longer it takes to get answers. Many times, they will close my help tickets without answering the questions. If you leave a bad review for their company they will call and address the review immediately, but they will not address the underlying issue that resulted in the bad review. Despite me raising my concerns over the software, no changes have been made.

Pros

Helps me manage my solo practice all by myself. My clients are satisfied with their client portal and ability to send me messages.

Cons

I would like to be able to make payment plan invoices for my clients, so I do not have to remind them to pay every month. Most clients would not want to set up automatic payments, so with payment plan invoices, it would help alot and relieve the burden of reminding clients every month, that a payment needs to be made.

Alternatives Considered

MyCase and Clio

Reasons for Choosing PracticePanther Legal Software

Product deleted some of my info and there was no one to help.

Switched From

Volody Case Manager

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

The many possible integrations and ease of use.

Pros

This software is intuitive, easy to navigate and very user-friendly. Tech support is promptly available and they are very patient. Practice Panther continues to make improvements on the software and they listen to their customers feedback. They have fixed our issues with our calendar being very slow to load. It's fast now and working very well.

Cons

There are still room for improvement in terms of features and functions. (1) The format (layout) of the calendar is not user-friendly for mid to large firms with more than 10 employees. Everyone's events are scattered across the calendar and overlap with each other which makes difficult to identify availability for specific staff. Events are displayed with different colors assigned to each staff. It's hard to follow 10+ different colors on computer screen and it is definitely not working for staff who are color-blind. It's really difficult to see who has appointments at each hour throughout the day. We suggested to have columns for each staff so that it only takes a glance to identify who is available when, just like how calendars are in Time Matters from Lexis Nexis. (2) Sorting function for customized fields is not available unfortunately. What makes this software great is the customization you can make to fit it to your exact needs. However, customized fields are not sort-able, and without the sorting function for the customized fields, data is not as valuable and usable as it should be. As a legal administrator who manages the data and runs productivity report for legal staff, we are currently spending a lot of time downloading the information from the software to MS Excel, sorting and manipulating the data in Excel, and finally coming back to the PracticePanther to make necessary changes within the software. (Continues to overall experience)

Pros

The software sure does “look” nice. But it really missed the boat on some of the more nuanced features of a law practice. For example, when applying a discount to an invoice, the discount must be applied to the total invoice (fees AND costs). Discounts cannot be applied to just the fees. Why in the world would any attorney want to apply a discount to client costs advanced on behalf of the client??? When I inquired about this, their answer was “just put in a discounted custom rate for the matter”. This response is completely unacceptable since I may only want to apply a discount to one invoice rather than all work done on the matter! This is just one small example of the half hearted attempt of this company to make a legal management software. This is just one of several problems with the “features” of the software. The timers are always so buggy. The software is just not refined at all. None of the features were well thought out. It’s like the programmers decided “Hey! This is a cool feature to add!” But never really fined tuned any of them to a fully functioning feature that could work well. They all sort of work to only about 50-60 percent functionality. It should not come as any surprise, though, since neither the founders nor anyone else on the management team has any experience in the legal industry. The company would be well served to hire some actual attorneys to advise them on how to fine tune their software to make it a truly great legal software.

Cons

The lack of any real understanding of the nuances of a legal practice by the founders and creators of the company and software.

Pros

Before PracticePanther, there was no aggregation of data that would allow me to analyze in real-time how we were performing, and we were leaving a lot of pennies on the table because of it. We were able to take an outdated, paper-based reporting system and modernize it. This allowed us to get a clear picture and make adjustments as needed. In a world where there is more remote work, it becomes more important than ever to be able to track those things so that your business is maximizing its profitability and efficiency with its employees.

Cons

The most stressful part for us was getting all the data into the system in a format that would work. Once it’s in there and rolling, it cuts down on so much work. There’s a little pain upfront, but you’ll find that with any software like this, that it takes a bit of time to get it right, once it’s in there you really do wonder how you lived without it.

Pros

The product is easy to manipulate and anyone can migrate through entering time.

Cons

Their billing templates are not interchangeable. I have clients that use different placements for the law firm id/customer id. Contacted customer support (as there is an option to copy the template) to find out how to reverse the 2 columns and was told that it cannot be done and that he would bring it up with the developer. I highly doubt that that is the case since I never received any response back. This means that each month I have to go into the ledes file and reverse the numbers in the 2 columns. Very time consuming and not realistic if you have more than 1 client utilizing ledes billing. Also, their reporting is horrific as you cannot create your own customized report.

Pros

What I loved about this software is that it is very complete. It allows you to have a database of all your clients with all the information you will need to work on their case. Also, time tracker to track work time for every client. It doesn't only do that, it allows you to issue an invoice and send it to clients. In addition to this, the program allows to create matters, this makes it very easy to track the work and very useful because every client we had could have several matters open. The task assignment is amazing and the calendar features incredible. The support I received whenever I had an issue, was very good quality.

Cons

What I didn't like was that it has an amazing sync with your dropbox and email BUT if you deleted any matter the whole folder in dropbox erased. So, if we deleted something just to close the case it would be deleted from our database in dropbox. We as lawyer, needed to keep files for at least 3 years.

Pros

As a small practice, I needed to organize and implement an office management system that I could use if my assistant was not here. This software is the most intuitive, responsive and useful that I have tried...and I have test driven four of the top recommended products. I have everything I need in one package; whereas, other companies require additional packages to connect to email and form templates. The learning curve has been very small. Both of us here have not had any training yet and are up and running (for the most part) after only a week or so. Now we will be taking advantage of the great training videos and one-on-one training to hone our skills and use it to its fullest extent.

Cons

So far, our experience has only been positive. Graphics are simple and somewhat old-fashioned, BUT they work great for finding things...that's what counts.

Pros

Other than it being a "one stop shop" and the ease of accessibility, I have been impressed with Practice Panther's ability to respond to my specific needs. A significant amount of my work is for unions and clients with multiple matters. Initially, Practice Panther was unable handle invoicing and billing for an individual contact with multiple matters. However, I approached them with my needs and they created a "fix" to their system within a week. They also followed up to ensure that I was satisfied. I was certainly impressed by Practice Panther's speed and attentiveness.

Cons

I am still trying to learn all of the ins and outs. I need a bit more tutelage on the nuances. At times, customer service may not answer all of the questions, however, they have been very responsive to my needs once I call or make them known.

Pros

The customer service reps are always available (through the website/app!) and are extremely flexible as far as meeting individual requests. The software overall is very intuitive and once the basic information is inputted, training other attorneys and staff is easy. The PracticePanther reps even offered to help with training and do individualized training as necessary!
The iphone app is simple yet you can do everything on it you need to - right from court. I never have to worry about missing court dates or even reminders to review certain files or specific documents because in less than a minute I can have a task set, reminders set, and it will popup as I set it. The calendar syncs with Google Calendar and they imported all of our client contacts from Quickbooks Online, saving us many hours of data entry.
We are getting into the more advanced functions like templates, workflows, and other automation and that's really where the software shines. You create the custom fields, you choose what information is important for every matter, and you can add-on as you are creating matters. The flexibility and ease of access to everything - including client files from DropBox, which can mirror any network - is unrivaled.
Really happy we went with PracticePanther. The amount of time saved having customer care/customer service always available is invaluable. Highly recommended for law firms of all sizes.

Cons

Still working on getting the office transitioned from a paper filing and calendaring system to online. So the one suggestion I would have is to maybe have an app for the calendar that is independent from the phone app - similar to google calendar.
Also, there should be a way to turn the default settings to "Do not email assignees" when a workflow is applied. But that's a tiny suggestion. Overall no major complaints.

Pros

I really love every aspect of this operating software. It saves me time, and frustration. It is also accessible from anywhere, and extremely easy to use.

Cons

There is nothing that I do not like. When I find something that can be "improved" such as adding sound to reminders... they added it into the software.

Pros

The organization of this software, entry systems and program itself are all easy to use and easy to train new employees on.

Cons

When I originally bought this software, this company was pretty new. They were very communicative and very helpful. Since they have grown, they have lost some of their customer service. They have recently added new things which help their bottom line but aren't as customer focuses as they once were.

Alternatives Considered

Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

Price, ease of use and ease of install.

Pros

At this point, nothing. They are not responding via telephone nor their support online

Cons

My header changed and no state or zip code now appears. I did nothing to change it.

Pros

Integrations with Gmail and WealthCounsel have been absolutely critical and it is so easy to send a client an electronic invoice/receive an online payment. I also really enjoy the workflow function - this is amazing for task tracking and automatically tracking deadlines. Another great feature is the Activity Dashboard that keeps you on track with daily activities.

Cons

It takes a bit to fully immerse yourself in this software and utilize all functions. The template function is a LOT but once you do it a few times you can figure out the ins and outs.

Alternatives Considered

Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software

It seemed smaller and easier to manage