Legal accounts was first, practice management was second, case management came with the property boom and then stalled.. The next "big thing" for law firms is going to be CRM.

We are trying to get law firms to "break the chain" when thinking about CRM.  What we mean by this is stop thinking that buying an "off-the-shelf" CRM solution is the only way to go.  Goldmine, Sage ACT!, CRM4Legal, Interaction, they are all good products, but in some respects once you go down this route you are "chained" to the application, just like you are with your existing practice management system.   When was the last time you phone up your legal accounts software vendor and asked for a quick fix, or a "small" customisation.  I bet the answer was not "No problem, draft a quick spec, we'll cost it up and have it done in four weeks".  Nope, the answer was "Great, thanks for the feedback, we'll try and get that done in Version 6.2.x.y".

With respect to law firms we describe CRM as "recording the total activity from the day a client first contacts the firm through to the day you send out your last bill"...and we hope that that "last bill" day never comes.

Typically you will be looking towards your accounts/case management software vendor for support in this area. However, acquiring the right CRM software is only half the story. What you do with your CRM application once you've got it is the key to a successful CRM strategy.