1 00:00:06,443 --> 00:00:12,957 Welcome to LawNext PR, the podcast where we put a spotlight on the latest news coming out of the legal tech industry. 2 00:00:13,011 --> 00:00:22,058 This is Bob Ambrogi, and in each sponsored episode of LawNext PR, I interview a legal tech company about its latest news and developments. 3 00:00:22,379 --> 00:00:34,760 Today, our topic is Thread Legal Software's launch of its version 3, introducing a modern UX, kanban task management, an integrated matter calendar, enhanced time tracking, and 4 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:36,791 streamlined document management. 5 00:00:37,683 --> 00:00:44,450 Joining me to tell us all about this, is Estera Orsolic, operations lead at Thread Legal Software. 6 00:00:44,793 --> 00:00:46,465 Estera, welcome to the show. 7 00:00:46,465 --> 00:00:48,369 Hi Bob, great to be here. 8 00:00:48,398 --> 00:00:49,554 Very nice to have you. 9 00:00:49,554 --> 00:00:59,158 Before we get into talking about the news, for the advantage of listeners or viewers who may not be familiar with Thread Legal, why don't you start by telling us about the company 10 00:00:59,158 --> 00:01:00,319 and what you do? 11 00:01:00,655 --> 00:01:02,195 Absolutely, happy to. 12 00:01:02,195 --> 00:01:15,990 So we are a company that has a case management software which has been built on over 20 years experience of a previous case management software as well. 13 00:01:15,990 --> 00:01:23,073 we do provide a software for in-house legal teams as well as law firms 14 00:01:23,081 --> 00:01:32,084 to manage their cases and really streamline their work to focus on what they need to do best, you know, serving their clients. 15 00:01:32,084 --> 00:01:37,088 So as a company, we are very committed to constantly evolve the product. 16 00:01:37,088 --> 00:01:48,153 And this is where our new release comes in, which is based on a number of years of feedback from our clients and also doing user research. 17 00:01:48,153 --> 00:01:56,625 and you know, from the experience of the previous software, revision of what works best and what we want to make better. 18 00:01:57,358 --> 00:02:00,587 You mentioned 20 years, is that how long the company has been in business? 19 00:02:00,836 --> 00:02:08,943 Yes, so we have had the previous case management software over 20 years and so we are going further from that. 20 00:02:08,943 --> 00:02:15,359 There's been a couple years now with Thread specifically and yeah, we're excited for many more. 21 00:02:15,359 --> 00:02:19,237 And you said that your users are both in-house and law firms. 22 00:02:19,237 --> 00:02:24,908 Are they primarily larger law firms or is there a particular type of law firm that you serve? 23 00:02:25,092 --> 00:02:38,612 So we do have a few large law firms with over 20, 30, even 100 users, but we do have a large number of smaller law firms as well. 24 00:02:38,612 --> 00:02:42,752 So that would probably be the primary client base. 25 00:02:43,179 --> 00:02:45,052 And where are your customers? 26 00:02:45,052 --> 00:02:48,146 Are they all over the world or in any particular countries? 27 00:02:48,256 --> 00:02:58,837 Internationally, primarily we have had Irish and UK based customers, but we have had customers all over the world as well, including Latin America. 28 00:02:58,837 --> 00:03:03,953 There is a few in the US and also in a few African countries as well. 29 00:03:03,953 --> 00:03:07,278 So we are expanding even more internationally. 30 00:03:07,278 --> 00:03:13,463 We are looking to reach further markets and expand our customer base in the existing ones. 31 00:03:14,195 --> 00:03:20,855 You've given us kind of an overview of Thread Legal as a matter management solution, but could you give us more detail on exactly what that means? 32 00:03:20,855 --> 00:03:24,170 What is it the platform does for a legal professional? 33 00:03:25,780 --> 00:03:27,393 Yes, thank you for that question. 34 00:03:27,393 --> 00:03:33,883 So the Matter Management software is really there to help lawyers do their work easier. 35 00:03:33,883 --> 00:03:39,920 That has the document management, tasks management, all within the case itself. 36 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:44,071 So the Matter itself is where you can find all the information, all emails. 37 00:03:44,071 --> 00:03:48,676 any events that are happening, key dates, appointments and so on, all in one place. 38 00:03:48,676 --> 00:03:57,094 So it makes it a lot easier for lawyers to do the work that they need to do without worrying about any of those mundane tasks. 39 00:03:58,434 --> 00:04:01,771 And what is it that makes Thread Legal unique in the market? 40 00:04:01,771 --> 00:04:04,027 I mean, there's other matter management products out there. 41 00:04:04,027 --> 00:04:08,074 Why would lawyers want to use this one over others that are out 42 00:04:09,376 --> 00:04:16,376 Yeah, so Thread is the only case management software that is fully built on Microsoft 365. 43 00:04:16,616 --> 00:04:28,355 So this is something that gives all the users peace of mind that their data is secure, that they are in charge of their documents. 44 00:04:28,355 --> 00:04:32,915 So all the documents are stored on their Microsoft SharePoint. 45 00:04:32,975 --> 00:04:37,162 We are also ISO 27001 certified. 46 00:04:37,162 --> 00:04:41,796 and we are looking towards a SOC 2 type certification as well. 47 00:04:41,796 --> 00:04:49,610 So we do have a high regard for security, which is imperative for lawyers working on their cases. 48 00:04:49,968 --> 00:04:51,189 that all-important security. 49 00:04:51,189 --> 00:04:55,355 So, kind of my last question before we turn to the news you've announced this week. 50 00:04:55,355 --> 00:04:58,108 But what is the problem that you solve for lawyers? 51 00:04:58,108 --> 00:05:03,682 I what's the value proposition that you offer legal professionals through your platform? 52 00:05:04,994 --> 00:05:13,792 So in today's world, it's all about going digital and moving away from paper, but also about security. 53 00:05:13,792 --> 00:05:15,963 So Thread is fully remote. 54 00:05:15,963 --> 00:05:16,914 It's on the cloud. 55 00:05:16,914 --> 00:05:19,026 You can access it from anywhere. 56 00:05:19,026 --> 00:05:28,479 So whether that's in your office or if you're working from the court or maybe even from home, it is available to you to manage all the work that you need to do. 57 00:05:28,479 --> 00:05:31,721 easily but even more importantly securely. 58 00:05:31,721 --> 00:05:42,049 So as I mentioned, it's built on Microsoft, so it has that level of security that you need so that you have that peace of mind that all the work that you're doing for your clients 59 00:05:42,049 --> 00:05:43,251 is highly secure. 60 00:05:43,251 --> 00:05:50,057 It is also a matter management software that is in line with all the advancements in technology. 61 00:05:50,057 --> 00:05:58,968 So we do have an AI assistant within the matter management that you can use to help you with your research and compiling documents. 62 00:05:58,968 --> 00:06:06,487 So again, we just want to make that process of working on your cases smoother and more streamlined. 63 00:06:07,127 --> 00:06:08,259 That sounds great. 64 00:06:08,259 --> 00:06:11,204 let's turn now to the news you've announced this week. 65 00:06:11,321 --> 00:06:13,659 So you've just rolled out this version three. 66 00:06:13,659 --> 00:06:19,527 I have to ask when was version two, how long has version two been in place before rolling out this version two? 67 00:06:19,527 --> 00:06:22,632 mean, how long has it been since there's been a major change like this? 68 00:06:23,267 --> 00:06:27,807 Yeah, so I've been with the company now for over two and a half years. 69 00:06:27,807 --> 00:06:39,407 And when I first started, it was a couple months in that we released the version two, which was essentially the change of the platform, the background of it to make sure that 70 00:06:39,407 --> 00:06:42,687 it runs smoother, that it's more secure. 71 00:06:43,047 --> 00:06:48,027 So the URL had to change, which was a bit of a change for our customers. 72 00:06:48,027 --> 00:06:52,215 But what it ensured is that we can keep on progressing and developing. 73 00:06:52,215 --> 00:06:59,129 both from the back end and now with the new release coming a lot more functionality and front end changes. 74 00:06:59,129 --> 00:07:06,690 going to talk about a lot of what you've announced, but why don't you kind of sum up for us maybe the sort of the news from a from a high level and then we'll kind of dig down 75 00:07:06,690 --> 00:07:08,703 into some of the details of it. 76 00:07:08,703 --> 00:07:13,249 But what is it that you've just announced in terms of this new version three? 77 00:07:14,054 --> 00:07:14,604 Absolutely. 78 00:07:14,604 --> 00:07:17,577 So we are very excited for these changes. 79 00:07:17,577 --> 00:07:23,283 The first most obvious one that users able to see now in Thread is the design. 80 00:07:23,283 --> 00:07:28,185 So the front look and feel of Thread is a lot more modern. 81 00:07:28,185 --> 00:07:36,212 We have been consulting with an external design company to improve the user experience and user interface. 82 00:07:36,212 --> 00:07:38,025 So it's a lot more 83 00:07:38,025 --> 00:07:46,745 clean and really focusing on what you need to see, what you need to do, giving you only the information that you really want to focus on for the day. 84 00:07:46,745 --> 00:07:56,615 So that is the first high level that will improve how fast you can do things and also noticing what you need to know. 85 00:07:56,956 --> 00:07:59,143 The second thing is... 86 00:07:59,143 --> 00:08:05,253 just stop you on that and ask, I'm just curious, does that include navigational elements for the platform? 87 00:08:05,472 --> 00:08:06,732 Absolutely, yes. 88 00:08:06,732 --> 00:08:19,012 So just making sure that it's easier to navigate around and also intuitively know where you need to go to do something, whether that's creating a task, a document, checking on 89 00:08:19,012 --> 00:08:26,872 what are the upcoming dates, what are the upcoming tasks or calls that you need to go back to. 90 00:08:26,872 --> 00:08:30,412 So just making sure that your day-to-day is a lot easier. 91 00:08:31,387 --> 00:08:32,007 Okay. 92 00:08:32,007 --> 00:08:32,867 I didn't mean to cut you off. 93 00:08:32,867 --> 00:08:36,127 what's the, so the second, you were about to talk about the second feature. 94 00:08:36,574 --> 00:08:40,946 Yeah, so it comes in with the design as well, but that is tasks management. 95 00:08:40,946 --> 00:08:45,328 So making sure that it's a lot easier to visualize what you need to do. 96 00:08:45,328 --> 00:08:57,564 So we've introduced the Kanban boards where you can group your tasks by who it's assigned to, what status it's on, what's the priority, and also what the matter stage is. 97 00:08:57,564 --> 00:09:02,985 So as your stage is progressing, you might have a different number of tasks that you need to 98 00:09:02,985 --> 00:09:03,636 deal with. 99 00:09:03,636 --> 00:09:07,899 So this way you can actually organize them per stages. 100 00:09:07,899 --> 00:09:17,227 So you know you can only deal with those that you need to right now and you already can have those prepared for the next stage when the matter progresses. 101 00:09:17,674 --> 00:09:22,616 I assume it's kind of a drag and drop interface in terms of how the Kanban board works? 102 00:09:23,093 --> 00:09:29,910 So the tasks are created the same way, but you can then just click and choose which way you want to visualize them. 103 00:09:29,910 --> 00:09:35,542 And you can easily just click into them, whichever view that you're in to update. 104 00:09:35,542 --> 00:09:38,509 What else is new in this version three? 105 00:09:39,303 --> 00:09:43,687 Yeah, so we are very excited to bring in the Matter calendar. 106 00:09:43,687 --> 00:09:48,312 So the calendar in Thread is integrated with your Microsoft. 107 00:09:48,312 --> 00:10:00,798 The whole platform is built on Microsoft, so all your documents are stored in your Microsoft SharePoint, and your user login is your Microsoft login. 108 00:10:00,798 --> 00:10:12,257 So it does integrate with your outlook and you can now have a specific calendar within each matter where it only shows you the appointments and any key dates like court dates, 109 00:10:12,257 --> 00:10:14,840 hearing dates that are relevant to that matter. 110 00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:25,737 I'm curious whether in the matter calendars there is any ability to also see appointments for other matters of the team who may be working on, I mean, other members of the team who 111 00:10:25,737 --> 00:10:27,608 may be working on the same matter. 112 00:10:27,897 --> 00:10:29,357 Yes, absolutely. 113 00:10:29,377 --> 00:10:37,877 So any team member that created an appointment or a Q-date for that matter will be able to see that when they go into the matter. 114 00:10:37,877 --> 00:10:45,397 So the idea really is that you have everything that you need to know about every case whenever you go inside that matter. 115 00:10:45,397 --> 00:10:50,217 And that includes any events that would be visible in the matter calendar. 116 00:10:50,796 --> 00:10:51,699 Yeah, that sounds great. 117 00:10:51,699 --> 00:10:55,580 I know that another feature of this new version is enhanced time tracking. 118 00:10:55,580 --> 00:10:56,771 Tell me about that. 119 00:10:57,590 --> 00:11:05,730 Yes, it's one we're very excited about and it is something that we have enhanced from how it works already. 120 00:11:05,730 --> 00:11:18,384 We do have automatic time recording, manual time recording, but we've really brought that to a next level and really improved how the reporting of that works as well. 121 00:11:18,384 --> 00:11:22,648 So with the version 3 now, users are able to... 122 00:11:22,648 --> 00:11:30,155 automatically record their time against any call log, any event that they're working on as they're working on documents. 123 00:11:30,155 --> 00:11:35,662 So really just making sure that you don't have to worry about the time records. 124 00:11:35,662 --> 00:11:38,025 They're there for you in the background. 125 00:11:38,025 --> 00:11:48,045 And then at the end of your day or throughout your day, you can go into your daily time sheet and really have control of that time, how much of that you want to be billable. 126 00:11:48,045 --> 00:11:54,853 How much do you want to just keep track of that you have spent that time, but you may not want to charge your client for it. 127 00:11:54,853 --> 00:12:00,099 So we've really made it a lot easier and streamlined to have control of your time. 128 00:12:00,454 --> 00:12:07,695 Does automatic in that case mean actually creating the time entry or simply logging it that you can then later add to a time entry? 129 00:12:07,695 --> 00:12:09,997 It automatically adds the time entries. 130 00:12:09,997 --> 00:12:15,731 So there is a system in the background that starts and stops for specific actions. 131 00:12:15,731 --> 00:12:20,586 So for example, if you're creating a call log, you want to reach out to your clients. 132 00:12:20,586 --> 00:12:23,528 So once you start the call log, the timer starts automatically. 133 00:12:23,528 --> 00:12:27,670 When you've entered all the details into that call log, you finish the conversation. 134 00:12:27,670 --> 00:12:31,222 When you click save or end the call, the timer stops. 135 00:12:31,222 --> 00:12:34,938 and this time is automatically in your daily time sheet. 136 00:12:34,938 --> 00:12:41,228 So you don't need to do anything about that, but if you do want to edit, you can go there and make some changes. 137 00:12:41,899 --> 00:12:44,970 love that timekeeping is the bane of a lawyer's existence. 138 00:12:44,970 --> 00:12:46,214 Absolutely. 139 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:51,965 And then again, another of the new features I know that you've introduced here is enhanced document management. 140 00:12:51,965 --> 00:12:53,706 Can you tell us about that? 141 00:12:54,473 --> 00:13:05,934 Yes, so with the document management, what we have focused on is making sure that when you go into the matter, you can clearly see all of the documents that you need there in a 142 00:13:05,934 --> 00:13:08,797 focused area with very easy preview. 143 00:13:08,797 --> 00:13:14,942 You can just click on it to see what the document is without having to actually open the document. 144 00:13:14,942 --> 00:13:19,285 So you can have a glance look at what the document entails. 145 00:13:19,301 --> 00:13:23,605 There is a quick access to assign this document to another user. 146 00:13:23,605 --> 00:13:34,013 If you need them to approve or review this document, you can give it a status and you can easily see who this is assigned to, what is the current status of the document as soon as 147 00:13:34,013 --> 00:13:36,737 you open up the documents inside the matter. 148 00:13:36,737 --> 00:13:38,892 Estera, those are all the enhancements that I knew of. 149 00:13:38,892 --> 00:13:42,921 Are there other features that are part of this version 3 that you wanted to talk 150 00:13:44,023 --> 00:13:52,217 Yes, so what I wanted to mention as well is the reporting, which I mentioned earlier when it comes to time, but also other instances. 151 00:13:52,217 --> 00:14:01,014 So we are including a lot more reports than we've had before, such as viewing matters that maybe haven't been actioned in a while. 152 00:14:01,014 --> 00:14:06,038 So you can follow up with those users that are working on those to see what's been happening there. 153 00:14:06,038 --> 00:14:11,430 But also as we are introducing these changes on time, which is 154 00:14:11,430 --> 00:14:15,604 tracking what time is billable and what time you've actually spent working on it. 155 00:14:15,604 --> 00:14:19,389 We will see now reports that you can compare the two. 156 00:14:19,389 --> 00:14:23,272 So you can maybe, you know, revise, is this really worth my time? 157 00:14:23,272 --> 00:14:26,155 Maybe we're spending too much time here that we're not billing for. 158 00:14:26,155 --> 00:14:32,225 So it gives a lot more granular control again of time, but also the work that you're doing. 159 00:14:32,225 --> 00:14:34,907 and how much value this is bringing to your firm. 160 00:14:34,907 --> 00:14:45,967 So some of the reports are specifically, know, value for time spent or stagnant matters where you're able to see, you know, what still needs to be worked on. 161 00:14:47,206 --> 00:14:51,597 So I can tell from talking to you that you're excited about a lot of these changes. 162 00:14:51,597 --> 00:14:57,498 The question I want to ask is, what about for your customers, for the clients who use this software? 163 00:14:57,498 --> 00:14:59,031 What does this ultimately mean for them? 164 00:14:59,031 --> 00:15:05,928 What this means really is that we are making it easier for them to do their day-to-day work. 165 00:15:05,928 --> 00:15:10,363 We are improving the experience that they have with the software. 166 00:15:10,363 --> 00:15:20,333 So when you start your day, you know that you're looking at something a little bit more exciting, a little bit more color, making it a lot more intuitive and friendly to work 167 00:15:20,333 --> 00:15:20,634 with. 168 00:15:20,634 --> 00:15:24,339 What this means also is that again, it just improves 169 00:15:24,339 --> 00:15:31,035 how much value they get out of the work that they do, which I think is the bread and butter for most of us. 170 00:15:31,035 --> 00:15:35,959 And also it just gives that commitment that we are listening to their feedback. 171 00:15:35,959 --> 00:15:41,384 We are looking into making the changes that make a difference to them. 172 00:15:41,384 --> 00:15:42,735 And this is just the beginning. 173 00:15:42,735 --> 00:15:47,106 So the V3 release today is... 174 00:15:47,106 --> 00:15:58,087 a big change, a positive change, and there's a lot more smaller changes coming throughout the next couple of months, throughout the year, where we will be implementing even further 175 00:15:58,087 --> 00:16:00,909 changes based on the feedback that we are receiving. 176 00:16:00,909 --> 00:16:08,474 So this is kind of a baseline that we're doing now, and then there will be a lot more build on that. 177 00:16:09,047 --> 00:16:10,274 just beginning. 178 00:16:10,274 --> 00:16:11,388 This is just the beginning. 179 00:16:11,388 --> 00:16:16,885 Is there anything that your customers need to do or this has just been pushed out as part of the platform? 180 00:16:17,724 --> 00:16:25,688 It's just pushed out as part of the platform and we've mentioned this before with the version two, there was a little bit of change that had to be done. 181 00:16:25,688 --> 00:16:31,931 But in this instance, they will log in on the morning, which they'll see already now. 182 00:16:31,931 --> 00:16:37,073 The same way as they usually do, the platform is ready for everyone and it's available there. 183 00:16:37,073 --> 00:16:44,826 We do have a lot of education content around the new release to clarify any changes and guide them through 184 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:46,984 some of the new functionality as well. 185 00:16:46,984 --> 00:16:56,440 We will have webinars throughout the next days also to help all the customers really get familiar and start maximizing all the new benefits. 186 00:16:57,969 --> 00:17:00,891 Is there anything else you'd like to say about it that we haven't talked about? 187 00:17:02,297 --> 00:17:07,243 I would just mention again that we appreciate all the customer feedback. 188 00:17:07,243 --> 00:17:11,988 We do build the software based on our wider customer base. 189 00:17:11,988 --> 00:17:15,580 So we do want to make sure we keep getting the feedback. 190 00:17:15,580 --> 00:17:27,390 We're also excited for any new customers joining us and seeing how we can really provide a software for the workers and make sure that we make their work easier. 191 00:17:27,531 --> 00:17:31,920 And I also want to thank you so much for your time and for your questions as well. 192 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:33,232 Nothing else from me. 193 00:17:33,416 --> 00:17:35,473 thank you for coming on and telling us about this. 194 00:17:35,473 --> 00:17:39,835 It sounds really great and I appreciate the chance to meet you and talk to you. 195 00:17:39,835 --> 00:17:41,608 So congratulations on this. 196 00:17:42,043 --> 00:17:44,105 That does it for today's episode. 197 00:17:44,105 --> 00:17:51,869 If you enjoyed it, you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube at lawnext underscore PR. 198 00:17:51,910 --> 00:17:58,013 You can also find all of the episodes in the Lawnext Legal Tech Directory under the Resources tab. 199 00:17:58,013 --> 00:17:58,884 This is Bob Ambrogi. 200 00:17:58,884 --> 00:18:00,245 Thanks for watching.