500,000 U.S. Lawyers Now Have Free Access to Trust Software through Bar Partnerships with Smokeball

Trust accounting remains one of the most dangerous pitfalls for unwary lawyers. Far too often, lawyers — particularly those in solo and small firms — still rely on manual methods for maintaining and reconciling their client funds accounts. As a result, trust account violations are a frequent source of professional disciplinary cases for lawyers, in some states accounting for half or more of all attorney discipline.

For that reason, it is a particularly notable milestone that some 500,000 U.S. lawyers now have free access to trust accounting and billing software, thanks to partnerships between a growing number of state bar associations and the law practice management company Smokeball.

It was just last June when Smokeball announced the first of these partnerships, entering into an agreement with the State Bar of Texas to provide all 111,000 of its members with free access to Smokeball Bill, Smokeball’s trust accounting and billing software for small law firms.

Since then Smokeball has entered into similar relationships with another nine state bar associations, extending access to its software to some half a million U.S. lawyers, or nearly 40% of the 1.32 million active U.S. lawyers.

In addition to Texas, bars that offer the benefit are: the D.C. Bar, the New York State Bar Association, the California Lawyers Association, the Virginia State Bar, the Maryland State Bar Association, the Alabama State Bar, the Oklahoma Bar Association,  the Colorado Bar Association, and the Nebraska State Bar Association.

Smokeball says it hopes to add more bars to this roster and is currently in talks with several. 

Smokeball, like other major practice management providers, already had affiliate relationships with most bar associations offering their members a discount on its full platform.

Removing A Barrier to Access

In an interview with Ruchie Chadha, president, Smokeball U.S., and Jane Oxley, chief revenue officer for Smokeball globally, Chadha said that Smokeball originally launched Smokeball Bill as a standalone product, separate from the full Smokeball platform, for smaller firm lawyers who wanted a simple way to manage their trust accounts, send bills, and get paid.

But the company began to believe that access to a billing platform that would enable them to do their accounting compliantly was something lawyers “should just have,” Chadha said. “So we turned to the bar associations to be partners with us to help us remove that barrier to access.”

It is a win-win for the bars and for Smokeball, Chadha said, noting that bar associations are always looking for ways to better support and serve their members, and they see compliance as a top issue.

“For us, it’s what we do, which is take down as many obstacles as possible so that law firms and attorneys can practice law, which is what they really want to do, not worry about being compliant with their trust accounting,” Chadha said.

Of course, the fact that 500,000 lawyers are eligible for the offer does not mean they will all take advantage of it. The software is designed for use by lawyers in smaller firms, and many of those bar members are likely to be in larger firms or other types of organizations.

Smokeball declined to provide the exact number of lawyers who had so far signed up for Smokeball Bill through the offer, but Oxley said that it is “thousands” of firms.

“The feedback that we’ve had from the bars is that they’re thrilled with the feedback they’re getting from their members, because the members are very grateful to have access to this offering,” Oxley said. “It’s still early days, but it’s creating a lot of goodwill and it’s fulfilling a genuine need as well for the bar associations and the members.”

In working with the bars, Oxley said, it became clear to Smokeball that, beyond the issue of access to software, many lawyers have problems with financial literacy. For that reason, in addition to offering free software, it is also provide bars with access to training materials and webinars relating to financial literacy.

Win Win Win Win

To Chadha’s description of this as a win-win for the bars and for Smokeball, I would add a third win, for the lawyers, and maybe even a fourth, for their clients. With free access to this software, lawyers should be equipped to better maintain their trust accounts and billing, and possibly reduce the numbers of trust account violations and related disciplinary cases.

As Trey Apffel, executive director of the State Bar of Texas said when its partnership was announced last June, “Equipping all Texas attorneys with this innovative software will empower them to efficiently manage their trust accounting compliantly and spend more time practicing law. This offering supports all Texans, allowing them to benefit from the power of technology.”

What’s in it for Smokeball? Well, besides good karma, there is always the possibility of an upsell. Lawyers who start on Smokeball Bill may eventually find they want a full practice management platform, with a full array of features. And when that happens, who are they likely to call?