Case Study: The Law Offices of Ryan E. Gilbert, LLC Powers Up With Rocket Matter
by Tim Baran
Ryan E. Gilbert, a litigator, is a member of the New Jersey and New York bars. His firm, The Law Offices of Ryan E. Gilbert, LLC, focuses on criminal defense, family law, and complex civil litigation.
After working for years in a large law firm, Ryan started his own practice in 2009. He began by working out of his friend's office and grew from there. The first thing he did was buy a smartphone and, not wanting to deal with IT issues, purchased an Apple laptop.
To The Cloud
After using Microsoft Word and handwriting time slips, Ryan knew he needed to get a program to manage his workflow of cases and clients. He toyed the with the idea of locally installed software, but decided that cloud-based systems were the way to go. He tested a few models and chose Rocket Matter, which mirrored the functionality of the home grown system that he had during his years at a large law firm.
It was a no brainer. Rocket Matter was quick, smooth and intuitive. I love the clean user interface.
In addition to using Rocket Matter to manage his case workflow, Ryan signed up for Dropbox, the popular document synching and backup tool. Since Rocket Matter allows users to associate Dropbox folders with client files, Ryan was able to organize his paperwork alongside his matter and billing information. "Rocket Matter allowed me go paperless."
The ability to open a file on the spot and quickly conduct due diligence to avoid conflicts has made for a less stressful and much more productive day-to-day experience. "I love the quick and easy time entry and invoicing and calendar auto-synch to my mobile device."
And because of the operational improvements facilitated by Rocket Matter, Ryan expanded his hourly-based work. As a result, revenues increased. Submitting time slips required by the courts became a breeze. According to Ryan:
"Rocket Matter is fast. Revenue is much greater because I can now shoot out an invoice immediately."
Core Features and Beautiful Design
Among Ryan's favorite features are the Dashboards, where you can get a quick overview of everything going on in a law firm at a glance. User Dashboards allow attorneys to see quickly their billable information, calendar, and to-do list at once. Matter Dashboards show all things occurring in a given case, including related contacts, billed time, upcoming deadlines, and tasks. Billing Dashboards provide instant insight into the financials of a firm, including unbilled time, client account balances, and more.
"I appreciate the easy navigation and uncluttered, clean design. It's visually appealing. It draws you in."
Ryan is a firm believer that technology is a huge equalizer for solo attorneys and small firms, and that Rocket Matter plays a key role in allowing him to compete with larger law offices. A few additional tech tools in Ryan's tool belt include the Fujitsu ScanSnap, the iPad app iAnnotate, and Dropbox.
Be like Ryan! Take a tour of Rocket Matter at your convenience and see how you too can be paperless and efficient.