Practice Management Company Clio Says It Will Heighten Its Focus On Mid-Sized Law Firms

The legal technology company Clio, which started 16 years ago as a law practice management platform tailored to solos and small firms, said this week that it will now heighten its focus and investment on technology for mid-sized law firms of more than 20 employees.

“In an era where technological advancement defines business success, mid-sized law firms face unique challenges in the legal market,” said Jack Newton, Clio’s founder and CEO. “Big law firms are making major investments in AI, and smaller, more agile firms are pacing ahead in adoption. Mid-sized firms must look ahead to an industry dominated by AI to ensure their future technology needs are met.”

More than 1,000 mid-sized law firms already subscribe to Clio, the company says, and it will now more heavily invest in products tailored to this market.

In conjunction with this announcement, Clio released its 2024 Legal Trends for Mid-Sized Firms report, which finds a significant discrepancy in the adoption of cloud-based legal practice management software between mid-sized and smaller law firms.

Only 27% of mid-sized law firms are using cloud-based products compared to 73% of smaller firms.

That signals a potential gap in AI readiness and technological integration across the mid-sized segment, Clio says, asserting that cloud-based practice management products can be a critical first steps for firms seeking to position themselves to implement AI.

Last fall, Clio announced that it would be launching Clio Duo in 2024, a proprietary generative AI tool that will be natively built into all Clio products, beginning with Clio Manage.

Clio says the first generation of the product will provide:

• Personalized recommendations to help prioritize task completion and work efficiency.
• Reminder prompts for pending bill approvals and overdue tasks.
• Bill generation based on activities related to a specific client.
• Document summarization and generation of simple documents.
• Matter overviews for improved client communications.
• Conversations with Duo to gain insights on the firm’s business performance, or to better understand

“Our commitment goes beyond software,” Newton said. “It’s about empowering mid-sized firms to thrive in a competitive legal landscape by providing the tools and knowledge they need.”