Coleman Watson was working long hours at a large firm for years when he realized it wasn’t a good fit for him to work endless hours with almost no personal time. He was certain it was time to start his own litigation and intellectual property law firm.
On a mission to save time and run his law firm efficiently and effectively, Watson made technology integration a priority. He experimented with various technology tools and eventually chose a practice management software that simply didn’t work for his practice because it created more problems than it solved. Disappointed but not discouraged, Watson returned to the hunt for technology tools that would help him run his law firm smoothly. That’s when he found Smokeball, and it was Smokeball’s Outlook integration that was impressive.
A Refined Process
Before discovering Smokeball, Watson had resigned himself to opening 5 to 7 files at once and toggling back and forth between documents and forms. And he wasn’t alone, many small law firms are in the same situation. Fortunately, for Watson, it’s now easier than ever to save time on his discovery quests because Smokeball bundles all emails (sent and received), documents, and forms related to a specific matter into a single digital file. “Just by virtue, having emails filed against the matter automatically Smokeball cuts down a lot of my admin time every day.” Watson says.
It would take Watson 4 to 5 hours to draft documents but now with Smokeball’s document automation tool, it allows him to create documents in only 10 minutes. He’s reported that Smokeball has increased his productivity by 30-40% overall.
Mobility at Reach
Since Watson is in and out of the office frequently, he finds the Smokeball Mobile App incredibly useful. The ability to access his matters across various devices such as his phone while at home and iPad while in court has helped Watson’s productivity tremendously. One of Watson’s favorite Smokeball features is the Client Success Team. His technology problems usually get resolved in 2 minutes because no matter where he is—at home or in the office—the Client Success Team can remotely access his device and fix issues immediately. Watson opened over 100 matters in 2016 and has seen many benefits to having a paperless office. Having Smokeball in the palm of his hands at home, in court and on his desktop allows Watson to access all his matters from anywhere
