PracticePanther Legal Software Reviews

Amazing program!

Comments: I bought this program when I first opened my practice about 2.5 years ago. I knew going into my own firm that I wanted a comprehensive client management tool. After spending hours online reviewing various programs, I decided to give the 30-day free trial a shot. I think I purchased the monthly subscription immediately after starting to use the program. Since that time, I have built on my knowledge, incorporating the MailChimp and QBO features first, then started learning how to streamline my document preparation through the template feature. What would have previously taken me multiple hours a week to manage, now takes minutes.

Pros:

PracticePanther is intuitive and very user friendly. It has a ton of features that expedite minuscule tasks and free up admin time. It syncs with all my favorite resources, like QBO, MailChimp, and Box, making communication with clients a lot easier and keeps routine mailings operational. If you use a lot of form templates, the template builder is a major time saver and cuts down on user error and oversights. I use this program every day in my law office and am very grateful for how easy it is. Even better, the customer support team is phenomenal. I rarely have any issues with the program (it is easy to use), but when I run into something I need help with, a quick message to the PP team is responded to within minutes and the problem is solved or at a minimum I am given an update and expected time of completion. I couldn't recommend this program more to a solo or small legal practice.

Cons:

Nothing, the team is constantly updating its software and programs that it connects to. They provide online videos to help and I frequently learn of new ways to use the program from regular updates by the team.

Taline Arthur's Review

Comments: Good customer support; software is very detailed and allows for customization.

Pros:

Workflows, ability to assign tasks to individuals, alerts when tasks are completed so person assigned to next tasks is aware to take action.

Cons:

Glitches; issues with Google Calendar sync.

Alternatives Considered: Clio

Reasons for Choosing PracticePanther Legal Software: Clio was not a robust as PP; PP allows to assign tasks, workflows, etc.

Switched From: Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: PP is more robust and includes many additional features.

Loved it at first, disappointed after 6 months

Comments: I purchased PracticePanther about 6 months ago, and I was initially very happy with it. I hadn't used a practice management software before, so it felt pretty life-changing. The platform felt intuitive and user-friendly, and it simplified everything from time tracking to billing. However, after 6 months of use (and data loss), I have become increasingly frustrated with PP and have finally made the (costly and inconvenient) decision to switch to Clio. There have been a lot of glitches with the platform and things that don't work intuitively. But the most frustrating and costly glitch occurred when I downgraded my plan to the "middle" plan, and it somehow deleted all the custom rates I had set for each matter. No one at PP could figure out why this happened or how to undo it, so I spent half a day re-reviewing engagement agreements, and re-creating new matter rates -- in addition to spending an hour or so on the phone with PP customer service and sending emails explaining the issue (and didn't even get a response). The "solution" PP offered was to upgrade me back to the higher level for one month (about a $30 value)! That provided absolutely zero benefit to me (I downgraded because I didn't need the features from the highest plan). The amount of money I've lost using PP has been in the thousands! I've switched to Clio now, which seems better so far.

Pros:

That it made time tracking and billing easy

Cons:

Too many glitches in the software that caused serious issues with my pricing and billing

Alternatives Considered: Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: The interface seemed more intuitive and seemed more geared toward transactional law (rather than litigation)

Happy camper!

Comments: I have used PP for several years. Developers were easy to contact in the beginning, but staff has grown and support does the job now. I usually have new staff up and running within a few days with the basics - calendaring appointments, invoicing, card payments, setting up new clients. Thank you for a great product that keeps improving!

Pros:

Ease of use - short learning curve, accessibility of support for problems and consideration of suggestions, frequent additions to functionality

Cons:

There were a few glitches in its early years that were a nuisance, but they appear resolved now. It is a little pricey for a solo firm, but it makes practice much smoother!

Alternatives Considered: Microsoft Outlook and Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: Fits my practice better, initial pricing per station, quality and content of product

PracticePanther is great for small law offices

Comments: I moved to PracticePanther from a larger, more expensive program. I really like the small footprint and the way it works. Customer service is fast and responsive. I have no meaningful complaints. It is a great program.

Pros:

It is nice to have the software online as SAS (Software as Service) as I dont have to worry about software updates. It is great to have my data from the program online as well so that I can log in, access my data, and work from anywhere I have internet access. Data is easily merged into Word docs. Billing is easy to do. It is a straightforward easy to use program that I would recommend to anyone.

Cons:

Like any online program, if the server is down or if I have no access, I am dead in the water. On rare occasion this has happened in court, but it is usually fixed very quickly.

Alternatives Considered: Rocket Matter and Clio

Reasons for Choosing PracticePanther Legal Software: There were changes to Time Matters that made it more geared for larger and corporate law firms. It no longer suited my needs. It got very expensive as well. I reviewed several other programs and used a consultant who recommended PracticePanther given my needs.

Switched From: Time Matters

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: PracticePanther met my needs and my workflow the best.

Worth the Investment

Comments: Other than some dissatisfaction with the billing and the email integration, I am very happy with the software. My clients love the text reminders for court dates and the ability to text a question to the office. The program provides many useful features for a reasonable rate.

Pros:

I like that all of our information for our cases is in one place which can be accessed at any time, anywhere, by all of our staff.

Cons:

The billing. The bills are confusing especially if a client has an outstanding balance, but no billable time for the month. The client's end up having multiple invoices to look to in order to see their charges and outstanding balance. When you prepare a bill for a month with no work completed that month the email they get says that nothing is owed. They have to open the past invoices to pay their bill. It would be nice if the client received one invoice each month which showed the total outstanding balance rather than the system sending them multiple invoices with different outstanding balances.

Alternatives Considered: MyCase and Clio

Reasons for Choosing PracticePanther Legal Software: The cost and the availability of texting reminders were the deciding factors.

Switched From: Amicus Attorney

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: Practice Panther had the most features for a reasonable cost.

PracticePanther is so easy, it feels like you're cheating!

Pros:

Everything. From the calendar to contacts, to matters to invoicing, this program has it all. The interface is easy and intuitive. I can usually accomplish whatever I want without trouble. When I have questions or don't understand how something works, PP has lots of online tutorials that include both video and text / image guidance. Very useful.

Cons:

When saving emails, there is a max file size when uploading attachments. Most of the time my attachments are too large to upload to PP.

Alternatives Considered: MyCase and Clio

Reasons for Choosing PracticePanther Legal Software: PracticePanther does everything that I used to utilize two programs to accomplish.

Switched From: Sage Timeslips and Time Matters

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: The interface is easy and intuitive. I can usually accomplish whatever I want without trouble. When I have questions or don't understand how something works, PP has lots of online tutorials that include both video and text / image guidance. Very useful.

PracticePanther is great for Law Firms!

Comments: We have been using it for a few years now and it has really streamlined a lot of our client management and billing and made it easy to function day to day.

Pros:

It is an easy to use software that makes client management and billing easier. I like the simplistic design/look of it and ease of use. It is very intuitive and there are multiple ways to go about accomplishing any task.

Cons:

I don't really have any "cons" to list. I really can't think of any.

Practice Panther is Perfect for Small/Medium Law Firms

Pros:

Ease of use. The platform is user friendly and we love that it is integrated with LeadDocket.

Cons:

There isn't anything that I really dislike.

Alternatives Considered: Filevine and Amicus Attorney

Reasons for Choosing PracticePanther Legal Software: Integration with other products and more capabilities

Switched From: PCLaw

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: We liked the look of the platform and ease of use. It is very easy to navigate.

Best in class legal software

Pros:

PracticePanther is a 360 solution for your law firm. Its built on a robust API that allows you to connect to other tools to increase your productivity.

Cons:

Similar to Clio, and other competitors, there is simply a lack of certain features, but the team is eager to learn of our needs and works to implement updates as quickly as possible.

Alternatives Considered: Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: PracticePanther is forward thinking and Clio seems to operate in a more defensive, retroactive manner.

It has been a year of disappointment

Comments: I am opening a new nation wide firm with a law school classmate and we are using another plat form because of the terrible experience we have had. The only reason we are still currently with PP is because of the expense and work involved in switching to a different platform. I have been completely unhappy with PP since we made the transition and I remain so.

Pros:

We like the client portal where we can send clients messages and documents. The software is not easy to use. The reports are not user friendly, they do not meet our needs. It is difficult to maneuver.

Cons:

I have to keep a separate data base for my clients because there is no way to print an envelope from PP. Our software automatically renewed annually and we had a staff member who left our company shortly thereafter. We decided not to replace the position. I contacted PP almost immediately thereafter and have been trying to get a refund of that user's account fees and after a month, they finally got back to me and they will not refund the annual subscription fee. So, if you are on an annual plan, you cannot reduce the number of user accounts you have. The three way trust account reconciliation is not a true reconciliation that complies with the Rules of Professional Responsibility, so we have to still reconcile using other software. The email sync only works with limited versions of Outlook. When we signed up, we were assured their customer service was top notch and the longer I am with them, the longer it takes to get answers. Many times, they will close my help tickets without answering the questions. If you leave a bad review for their company they will call and address the review immediately, but they will not address the underlying issue that resulted in the bad review. Despite me raising my concerns over the software, no changes have been made.

Personal Experiences

Comments: When the software works, it works amazing. The issue is it works only 30% of the time.

Pros:

Client portals and the ability to have certain payments be applied automatically.

Cons:

The reporting system is broken, and has been for 2+ years. Getting technical support is essentially pulling teeth, there will be months (6+) without response to simple tickets after they tried to deflect and then finally acknowledged issues. Consistently claim they added the new “feature requests” when fixing a bug such as the system doing math like: $1+$2 = $4,000 when it actually is $3.00. These are not feature requests - they are bug fixes. Despite reconciling our trust account monthly - there are data errors that their system has calculated incorrectly in the past, we have shown them via bank statements etc what the problem is and what transaction it is dealing with, and 2+ years later they still haven’t fixed it. Their Zapier integrations get triggered all the time when they shouldn’t be. They blame Zapier, but it is their software triggering the automation, Zapier isn’t just randomly doing it.

Great and improving all the time!

Comments: This is an update to a previous review I made. The folks at Panther are impressive. They've taken recommendations I and others have made and implemented them; they've quickly addressed issues I've had; and they are always courteous and responsive. The overall layout has vastly improved since my first review, and looks downright beautiful. We live by the search feature and it now works on custom fields. Custom fields can now also be listed in reports. You can now group custom fields so that you may show only those fields in a matter or contact that pertain to their specific situation. We have structured Panther so we can use it as a basic CRM...which is an immense work-flow savings for us. We asked for Dropbox integration and what they produced is perfect (considering the limitations of Dropbox). Time keeping is a snap and reachable from any screen. We asked to be able to a log call without assigning it to a matter, and they changed that so now we can. The tasking feature and its integration with the calendar is fantastic, I could not service so many clients without it. And the Panther folks have taken it on themselves to make some minor changes that have made the workflow of using the program much faster than in my previous review. I now can answer the question I posed in my earlier review of whether I love or hate Panther: We love it. I admit that it's not perfect (a couple of basic features in billing need to be addressed before I am willing to use that portion of the program), but Panther saves us many hours a week. I tried many firm management products before settling on Practice Panther, and I am glad I stayed with them. It's already better than the others, and it keeps getting better all the time thanks to their team. You cannot go wrong choosing Practice Panther. Final note: To my surprise one lawyer told me Panther seemed expensive. Really?! It seems well priced to me, and if you try to save a few dollars a month with some inferior product you will pay dearly for that choice in lost time.

Pros:

Beautiful layout, easy to use, functions as a basic CRM, matter and time management, and billing program all in one.

Cons:

Flat fee billing is not well thought out, and the billing module presents clients with a reckoning of my operating account as well as their trust account. (I understand Panther may have made the operating account info optional by now, or that is in their near term plan.)

PracticePanther

Comments: PracticePanther is like having a full time employee at a fraction of the cost without any employment law issues. I couldn't run my law firm without PracticePanther. The software is easy to use, the PP support is excellent, and the company is always rolling out new features to make running my law office easier and more efficiently!

Pros:

It's very hard to pinpoint what I like the most about PracticePanther since there are so many features I rely on for my law practice. I very much like that I can find everything related to a contact or matter in one place. All emails and their attachments, notes, documents, billing, payments, calendar, "to do" list (Tasks), time entries, and communications for a contact and matter can be found in PracticePanther. I use the templates and workflows on a daily basis, which save me time and keep me on track. With a simple click I can send an online questionnaire to a client that, once completed, is kept in the client account. The tags allow me to filter and label my contacts and matters any way I want. I use PantherPay for online payments which is very easy and shows all payments in the billing account immediately. I also like that new features are made available regularly - the software is always improving!

Cons:

1) Would like for clients to start, save, and continue an intake form at a later time and have them receive a copy of their answers after being submitted. 2) The timer buffers endlessly if the page has not been refreshed. I realize you are working on this. :-/ 3) If a client has a PP account with another law firm, that client cannot open a new account with my firm using that same email address. Is there a way to fix this? 4) Would love to have conditional/dynamic fields in the intake forms.

Simple sophisticated software that will simplify your practice

Comments: This is a complete solution for my practice. I am a single solo so the document automation, notes, time entries and billing are a great way to save time and effort.

Pros:

One of the best features of the software is not so much a feature but the logic employed in designing the flow of data. I have used a number of the more popular programs and can heartily recommend this as the best I have found. The ease of use makes it a top choice if you have staff that will use it. I am a single solo and it is not one of my concerns yet. But, I can't see anyone not understanding the flow of information. The automation is superb. Document assembly is easy and logical. One of the best features is the Forms generator. Email the form to your client or prospective client - they fill it out - and it goes right into your data. No need to waste time inputting names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and any other data you would like to have handy in your file. Tracking time is a breeze as is generating invoices, tracking retainer accounts, tracking trust accounts and more (I find the accounting component more than meets my needs). Over time you will come to rely on the information in the program over the physical file. It has become my organizational hub for all that I do.

Cons:

I would like to see a thick book explaining all the capabilities and limits. The support people are great and can answer any question - I just like to read it and push the software to its limits. I have used PP for some time - moving to another package for some time. At twice the price - it did less. In my brief time away the product dramatically improved & I am back and very happy.

Developer Issues

Comments: Overall the program is subpar. It is great for simple billing tasks but customer support response time is lacking and the developer has limited the software to basic usage. Every time I raise a question about something simple that is not available I get the standard "that is a developer question" Will be looking for other programs to utilize that are geared more towards our needs.

Pros:

The product is easy to manipulate and anyone can migrate through entering time.

Cons:

Their billing templates are not interchangeable. I have clients that use different placements for the law firm id/customer id. Contacted customer support (as there is an option to copy the template) to find out how to reverse the 2 columns and was told that it cannot be done and that he would bring it up with the developer. I highly doubt that that is the case since I never received any response back. This means that each month I have to go into the ledes file and reverse the numbers in the 2 columns. Very time consuming and not realistic if you have more than 1 client utilizing ledes billing. Also, their reporting is horrific as you cannot create your own customized report.

Great Product!

Comments: I recently switched to PracticePanther after 20 years using different version of Amicus Attorney. While Amicus helped me to keep my practice moving for years, the lack of continuing support for the product and meaningful changes caused me to start looking at alternatives. After researching the current crop of practice management programs and downloading several demo's, I ended subscribing to the PracticePanther team. The first reason I chose PP was the fact that I was able to create "workflows" that automate a ton of the tasks required for several practices areas. For example, a new misdemeanor criminal case can have the misdemeanor workflow that I created applied and all of the steps for the cases are automatically generated. The scheduling of the first client meeting, initial hearing, filing of our appearance, requesting discovery, sending discovery, attending the pretrial conference, plea meeting with client and change of plea hearing all become tasks or calendar events with just the touch of a button. My assistant then just needs to coordinate the dates for all of the auto-generated tasks or events in order to have the file completely organized. The workflow also assigns the responsibility for completion of tasks automatically to me or my staff so we all are reminded of what needs to take place next. The second selling feature for me was the automated email and text-message reminders that can be generated to the client (and to staff if desired). I like that I receive a text reminder from my dentist's office and wanted something similar. For all events that I create within the workflow, I can assign the reminder details. This has significantly lowered the number of no-shows that I have for office meetings and court hearings and reduces the staff time that was spent before calling to remind clients of court dates and meetings. The third key feature that I really wanted was the secure client portal feature. The portal allows me to hand incoming clients an Ipad to have them fill out their intake information that we would need to create a new client file. Once the client has completed the information on the Ipad, it automatically creates a new contact within the PP system and we can then easily generate a new matter if we are hired. For clients that we choose to work with, they are also sent an email invitation to open their secure portal, thus allowing them access to their online file within the PP system. Clients love it.

Pros:

Great tools, great automation, great customer support

Cons:

There are continuing areas that we could further automate to make the product even more amazing.

Why did I wait so long?

Comments: Until we found PP, we were posting our files in OneDrive and having to search for things that we should not need to. Quickbooks is inadequate for billing legal-type work and there was no way to run any kind of conflict check without making a spreadsheet and manually adding new clients and inquiries. Now, all we do is put everything in PP. There we can see the progress of our cases, billing, calendars, tasks assignments, project plans and do conflict checks based on more than just the case caption or attorneys. Each case has tag options for identifying the type of work we are doing or any other significant aspect of the case and we can use that also for finding things within the matter or inside our entire database. What's more, it works with OneDrive, so all of our documents are accessible within the program.
This is just what we needed and more...

Pros:

As a small practice, I needed to organize and implement an office management system that I could use if my assistant was not here. This software is the most intuitive, responsive and useful that I have tried...and I have test driven four of the top recommended products. I have everything I need in one package; whereas, other companies require additional packages to connect to email and form templates. The learning curve has been very small. Both of us here have not had any training yet and are up and running (for the most part) after only a week or so. Now we will be taking advantage of the great training videos and one-on-one training to hone our skills and use it to its fullest extent.

Cons:

So far, our experience has only been positive. Graphics are simple and somewhat old-fashioned, BUT they work great for finding things...that's what counts.

We have been very happy with the process and responsiveness of PP. Happy we took the plunge.

Comments: We are becoming more efficient and better able to service our clients at a higher level. It ultimately will allow me to market our firm even better. My team is getting very excited about it.
Everything has been positive thus far. There is a lot to learn on the software. As we have a lot of people working with the software at once, it results in people achieving knowledge quickly. However, that is to be expected with any practice management software. The good thing is that PP personnel are always there to help.

Pros:

We are just getting started with the software and have been implementing only for a few weeks. I will update my experience again in about one month. Although we were efficient, we were not hyper-efficient before Practice Panther. Also, although we are a very systematic firm with set processes, our significant growth made it impossible for us to sustain the systems without a practice management software. From what I have seen, Practice Panther allows us to become hyper efficient because of the following: 1. We are now able to input data one time rather than several times allowing our staff to work on more things and learn more substantive tasks. 2. Inputting information then populates forms and sets up matters. 3. We are able to task and monitor the tasks without relying on memory, sticky notes, pads of paper and task lists. 4. All of the information is now in one place without the need of navigating through various portions of our database. 5. Our clients are happy with the immediate availability and access to their documents without having to request it via email and the ability to communicate through the portal. 6. I believe that the system will allow us to increase capacity and scale our practice.Our model is simple. We try to make the experience for our clients seamless and effortless through the use of portals and constant access to the resources of our firm. The technology will allow us to compete against larger firms.

Love the product but technical issues are problematic

Comments: If you are a solo with a few clients and few files, it will work great. But as you grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to filter out the closed and unwanted files and clients.

Pros:

Super simply to use. The dashboard snapshot of a case if fantastic. You can see how much is trust, the next task, etc.

Cons:

I absolutely loved the software until issues began developing with how it syncs with Box. Files and documents would go missing. Every time we reached out to tech support we were told "user error." It didn't seem right. But then, after paying careful attention, we began to show it was NOT user error but the software remapping the location of various folders into places that we weren't looking. Half of the call was spent convincing tech support that it wasn't us, but them. They would then look into and find out that it was a software glitch.

A Comprehensive, Intuitive and Efficient Law Practice Management Project

Comments: It has been a great addition to our practice, has transitioned us from a primarily "paper" practice seamlessly, and, even after 18 months, I would recommend it.

Pros:

The product is very intuitive -- making it easy to use from the start. We had no problem transitioning our staff from the old system. We did not import our old data, so I cannot speak to that process. The other thing that I like about Practice Panther is the responsiveness of the customer service team, the availability of tutorials and other resources, and the willingness of Practice Panther to take suggestions for improvement and actually implement them.

Cons:

Conflicts checks are a little clunky, but they do run names through the entire system. Reports were difficult to navigate for me, but I'm sure there are tutorials for that. I was impressed by the fact that the company offered to prepare report forms for whatever we need that isn't already included.

Great Software but it has changed

Comments: This is a solid piece of software for a small office. It is a workhorse and handles law offices management with ease. The fact that it is in the cloud has greatly increased our ability to go remote and mobile through this pandemic.

Pros:

The organization of this software, entry systems and program itself are all easy to use and easy to train new employees on.

Cons:

When I originally bought this software, this company was pretty new. They were very communicative and very helpful. Since they have grown, they have lost some of their customer service. They have recently added new things which help their bottom line but aren't as customer focuses as they once were.

Alternatives Considered: Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: Price, ease of use and ease of install.

Practice Panther the Easy Way to Get Significant Advantages In the Market

Comments: Great!

Pros:

Ease of use, iphone ap, customer service, training videos, layout

Cons:

I honestly cannot think of anything I don't like

Alternatives Considered: Cleo Integration Cloud

Reasons for Choosing PracticePanther Legal Software: Difficult to use and update.

Switched From: Sage Timeslips

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: Price, use, presentation, support

Poor Customer Service Response or Follow-up

Comments: It's very - ehhh. I don't regret getting rid of our old timekeeping software, but I regret going with Practice Panther due to the lack of any real solutions from Practice Panther. I don't know if they really have an IT department to fix any problem that is presented them. I have serious concerns that they don't know how to fix the bugs in their own system.

Pros:

I like the set up and font size of Practice Panther. Once you get use to the functionality, it is easy to operate and understand.

Cons:

The customer service does not follow-up with any real responses other than "we are working on it". It has taken months of no real response to a very simple issue. I would say the inability or lack of IT people that can fix the bugs that exist in program would make me reconsider whether the investment in Practice Panther is worth it.

Fantastic software that will change your practice. Amazing customer support.

Comments: After spending months researching, and receiving demonstrations on, dozens of case management software options (using Capterra as a starting point), I finally decided on PracticePanther. We are now in the process of fully integrating all aspects of our practice into this software and we are continuing to find new features that will make our office more efficient. This and the customer support continually prove to me that I made the right choice. PracticePanther is easy to use and incredibly customizable. In that it is web-based, it is accessible from any computer or device with an internet connection. We use it to store all pertinent case information and contacts, and to calendar appearances, tasks, court and internal deadlines and reminders. We use the feature which allows you to create workflows so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time we want to establish/calendar the same set of tasks on a new matter. PracticePanther makes it easy to track time spent and expenses on all of our cases. Also, it allows all users to view and track the activity of other all other users, which minimizes the need to constantly follow up with other members of the firm regarding status of task completion. PracticePanther integrates with Box.com. So if you house your case files within Box.com you can access them directly through PracticePanther. Because of this, we are now integrating all of our files with Box.com so that we can use this feature. The prospect of having all case information, calendaring, AND the case file accessible from any device anywhere, is very exciting. There is a great feature that allows you to create fully customized intake questionnaires that can be sent to potential clients via a link. Once the potential client fills out the information it is automatically uploaded to PracticePanther. There are great demonstration videos and articles on their website which really help you to familiarize yourself with the product, although it's very easy to figure out on your own as it is extremely intuitive. However, the greatest part of PracticePanther is its customer support. It is always easy to get a hold of someone to answer your questions. Best of all is that they listen to your feedback and use it to improve upon their product with regular updates. I have seen many of my suggestions come to life in a short amount of time. They truly want to hear what you have to say in order to make their product better!