Litigation Heroes: Webb & Taylor, LLC

Webb & Taylor: How Centralizing Information Enabled Firm Expansion

When medical malpractice and personal injury firm Webb & Taylor decided to expand by adding a second office, the first order of business was to centralize case information and streamline business processes to accommodate team members in multiple locations. 

Webb & Taylor has served Georgia clients for more than 30 years, receiving numerous awards in recognition of superior legal work. As the firm continued to experience success, the partners decided to open a second office in Atlanta, Georgia. As exciting an event as this was, transitioning to a multi-location firm entailed a whole new set of challenges and would require a great deal of preparation for things to go as smoothly as possible.

Setting Priorities

During evaluations, Webb & Taylor identified two main challenges that would need to be addressed in preparation for its expansion—centralizing institutional information and improving internal communications.

With multiple locations, accessibility to necessary firm information and case files was an essential priority. Up to this point, the firm had been utilizing multiple solutions, each satisfying various individual needs, such as financial management, case related information, contacts, and more.

“We wanted a central managing system so anyone could access case information and so there wasn’t duplication of effort,” partner Brandon Taylor shared. “Because time is so precious in our field, there is a necessity for live, up-to-the-minute accuracy of information that can be accessed at any time, from anywhere. Thus, we knew we needed a cloud-based solution so our staff would have immediate access to essential information irrespective of time and location.”

Another priority for Webb & Taylor was to streamline internal communications. Due to the decentralized system, sharing case information was becoming cumbersome, disjointed, and inefficient. Paper memos distributed around the office were still the primary means of sharing information on a case. Further, a great deal of cross-training was required and knowledge transfer was slow.

“For example,” Taylor continued. “If a case team member needed information on a particular case, they would need to check four different systems and, likely, would still need to go talk to a particular person to get the specific details they needed.”

Taking Action

After defining these priorities, the firm began evaluating several cloud-based case management solutions. Shortly into this process, Taylor read an article in the Daily Report about an Atlanta attorney who had recently launched his own legal tech company, offering “a unique practice management system” for litigation attorneys.

“The timing was perfect,” Taylor explained. “I found the article intriguing and reached out to CaseFleet to learn more. The idea of working with a local company was particularly attractive, as we would be able to connect in person when necessary, as well as knowing the firm was supporting a local startup.”

After a thorough review of several systems, including Amicus and Clio, Webb & Taylor determined that CaseFleet was the best option for the firm.

“CaseFleet was the most user friendly option and most closely met our firm’s needs, and being modular, we would be able to scale it as our needs grew,” commented Taylor. “We were also impressed by the availability of the CaseFleet team for technical support and troubleshooting. A lot of bigger companies’ support teams are in another state or country, and getting timely tech support is difficult, near impossible. With CaseFleet, the tech support is right here locally in Atlanta.”

Of particular concern to Taylor was the possible business disruption during implementation, but with both the firm and the CaseFleet team working together, the migration was completed in an amazingly short time span. Migration began on a Friday and three days later on the following Monday, the firm was live on the new system.

Finding Resolution

“There was no delay in the benefits to the new system. Using CaseFleet, our productivity went up immediately,” reported Taylor.

Because case information is now so readily available, team members can know up to the minute what is going on with a particular case. Moreover, firm processes and organization have improved on the whole.

“In particular, we use the task feature all the time,” commented Taylor. “That has really helped us organize and prioritize our daily workload. My assistant is able to keep my task list updated, and anyone at the firm can add a task to my list if it is something requiring my attention.

“In terms of accountability, our new process is helping us plan better and more accurately as a firm and individually. At staff meetings, we will display CaseFleet on the conference room TV, go through all our cases together, and make updates to cases during the meeting in real time. It really has become a much more streamlined process, and we have more certainty of the accuracy of our case notes.”

Webb & Taylor have also been able to overcome one of the biggest hurdles firms face with new technology: adoption. Taylor’s paralegal, Sherry Thornton, finds the new firm technology very intuitive. “If you have a staff that isn’t tech savvy, they can still figure CaseFleet out pretty easily after spending just a little bit of time in the software.”

Epilogue

With the technology infrastructure in place, Webb & Taylor have been able to successfully expand its practice to include a second office. Additionally, the firm has continued to provide CaseFleet with invaluable input on the product, often working directly with the development team.

“The program has continued to evolve as we’ve used it,” Taylor shared. “CaseFleet is very responsive to suggestions and has welcomed our participation in the product design aspect. This is the program we use all day, all the time. So the value has been very real.”

CaseFleet CEO and FounderJeff Kerr has also seen positive results from Webb & Taylor’s partnership. “Working with Webb & Taylor has been a wonderful experience for the team at CaseFleet. They are great lawyers, with strong supporting staff, and a forward-thinking outlook on legal technology. Their early feedback on CaseFleet resulted in numerous improvements and enhancements, and we look forward to working with them in the long term.”