Managing a Criminal Law Firm with Clio
Your days are spent in and out of the courtroom, your car is a second office, and the notification light on your phone is always flashing. As a criminal defense lawyer, your time is precious. Your razor-sharp wit needs to be focused on protecting your clients and winning cases, and not on keeping track of files, court dates, and administrative tasks. You need a practice management solution that is as agile and quick as you are.
Clio helps criminal lawyers organize their case files, store and review evidence, and manage their firm’s finances. Clio’s practice management software is the mobile tool that travels with criminal lawyers from the office to trial and back.
Clio’s case management software
Clio’s advanced features for criminal law firms
Complementary tools available to criminal lawyers
One criminal lawyer’s successful use of Clio
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Instructors
Joshua Lenon
• Lawyer in Residence at Clio
• Attorney Admitted in New York
• @JoshuaLenon
Brad Clark
• Lawyer, Admitted in Kentucky
• Founder, Clark Law PLLC &
Unconvicted.com
• @UnconvictedKY
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Agenda
• What we know about criminal law attorneys
• Clio’s features for criminal law practice
• Advanced Clio use cases for criminal law firms
• Clark Law PLLC & Unconvicted.com
• Questions
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That government hires lawyers to prosecute and defendants
who have the money hire lawyers to defend are the strongest
indications of the widespread belief that lawyers in criminal
courts are necessities, not luxuries.
- Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963)
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Heavy Caseload for Defense
Carries ten to twelve open
cases at any time, the
majority of which are DWIs,
reckless driving charges, and
other misdemeanors.
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Texas attorney should handle
an annual full-time equivalent
of no more than:
• 236 Class B Misdemeanors
• 216 Class A Misdemeanors
• 175 State Jail Felonies
• 144 Third Degree Felonies
• 105 Second Degree
Felonies
• 77 First Degree Felonies.
Washington State limits per
attorney per year
• 150 Felonies
• 300 Misdemeanor cases
• 80 juvenile cases
• 1 Active Death Penalty Trial
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The average caseload per
prosecuting attorney across
all full-time offices was
94 felony cases.
Source: BJS, Census of State Court Prosecutors’
Offices, 2001 and 2007.
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Standard 4-5.5 Special Attention to Immigration Status
and Consequences
(a) Defense counsel should determine a client’s citizenship
and immigration status, assuring the client that such
information is important for effective legal representation and
that it should be protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Counsel should avoid any actions that might alert the
government to information that could adversely affect the
client.
Source: AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION Fourth
Edition of the CRIMINAL JUSTICE STANDARDS for
the DEFENSE FUNCTION
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CJIS Data
Criminal Justice Information
Services Division (CJIS) provide timely
and relevant criminal justice information
to criminal justice agencies.
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CJIS Data
CJIS Security Policy shall
always be the minimum
security standard and local
policy may augment, or
increase the standards, but
shall not detract from the CJIS
Security Policy standards.
Requirements:
• Security awareness training
• Background checks
• Formal audits
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Accessible Lead Generation
Clients get:
• Free Screening
• No Need to Take Off
Work
• Information 24/7
– App
– Blog
– Videos
Lawyer gets:
• Permission to Contact
• Client led Data Entry
• Much More Efficient
Screening
• Access to a Greater Pool
of Potential Clients
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Once they agree to retain us,
we paste their information
into a separate spreadsheet
(Josh is right, there is a better
way to do this). This triggers
the creation of a Contact and
Matter in Clio based upon the
data from the spreadsheet.