Video chat that saves directly to your legal matters

In April we officially released Communicate, our free application built directly into Smokeball that allows law firms to quickly chat with one another, other law firms, and their clients all in one space. It functions like a client portal, as well, securely linking client matters and documents for rapid sharing without file size limits.

In our latest update we’ve made Communicate even stronger by integrating it with the most popular video chat application on the market: Zoom.

Law firms can now replicate face-to-face communication with colleagues and clients alike without existing the Smokeball application. Zoom calls can be requested and received in once place, and best of all: they link directly to relevant matters, meaning that files and saved conversations all end up in one place for later use and billing.

Because of COVID-19 and the current circumstances, businesses are often required (or strongly urged) to work from home. Most have already transitioned to working from home, and those who have not yet done so are practicing a “closed door” office environment where they no longer take in-house client visits or walk-ins.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, many firms never had to face a remote working situation before, so video conferencing is a new tool that is imperative in maintaining face-to-face client contact.

With these video conferences, firms will need to manage the meetings in their calendars and create time entries for their meetings as well. Tracking these meetings involves setting a timer and manually describing the meeting, assigning a matter, and entering the time spent after each meeting.

However, we’ve put everything in one place. Smokeball’s new Zoom integration provides a seamless way to continue day-to-day work with an integration with Zoom to allow users to:

• Add meeting links to their Smokeball Events
• Start their meetings from Smokeball
• Accurately track their time spent in Zoom meetings
• Save video meetings (where applicable)

Even after firms and clients reemerge from the pandemic, this option to hold and record meetings virtually is sure to be an asset that will remain popular. With our latest release—and putting Zoom directly into Communicate—Smokeball has added to a lawyer’s toolbox of how she can conduct business without sacrificing productivity.

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