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Everything you need to get started in the Smokeball community. Learn how to connect with Smokeball experts and other legal peers near and far.

17 Topics

kuhrich
Smokeball Team
kuhrichSmokeball Team
published in Run your best firm

Did you miss the Automations CLE?

Automation can sound overwhelming, but Jordan Turk and Chelsey Lambert broke it down into three manageable parts in their recent CLE, which you can watch here for free. They also connected automation practices to ethical considerations. Afterall, automating one's practice doesn't just save time, reduce errors, and alleviate stress; it also helps ensure excellent client communication, protected information, and other top ethical concerns.Here's how they broke down automation opportunities across a firm:Getting the workLead generation Intake SchedulingDoing the workDocument automation Workflows Utilization reports Unified calendaring Expense trackingBilling the workCapturing time Invoicing Payments Profitability reportsDon’t try to tackle all these areas at once! Think about where you're losing the most time and money, or where you’re experiencing the most stress. Prioritize automation at those points and build from there.Smokeball's free Getting Automated guide walks you through the abo

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kuhrich
Smokeball Team
37 minutes ago
Ben
Smokeball Team
BenCommunity Manager
published in Run your best firm

Introducing the CEO of the Family Law Education Network of AustraliaAsk an Expert

@AmandaLittle  is the CEO of the Family Law Education Network of Australia (FLENA) a  network built specifically for Australian Family lawyers looking for wellness support, great FCFCOA ready Precedents, CPD training, a family law community and a whole lot more.We’re lucky enough to have Amanda sharing her family law precedents as part of our new Precedents Marketplace. Subscribing through the marketplace also gives you access to everything else that a FLENA membership provides. If you’re interested in signing up, but would like to know a little more about FLENA then this is the space to get the details you’re looking for. Ask away in the replies below!  

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G
13 days ago
kuhrich
Smokeball Team
kuhrichSmokeball Team
published in Run your best firm

Are your robots underperforming?

Despite working for free, never getting tired and always showing up on time, robots still need to be set up for success—they require an occasional check-in!  Automation, or “the robots,” is really just using specialized technology to quickly complete common legal tasks. It will never replace key components of the work: problem solving, mentoring colleagues, advocating for clients, or other things that drew you to the work. Automation will ensure you’re not burning hours on repetitive and tedious tasks.   Take back your time In our free CLE Embrace the Robots: Automate Law Firm Tasks + Grow Your Practice on November 15, we’ll help you take the next steps in automating your firm. But to do it, we need to know where you’re stuck.  We’d like to know your answers to any or all of these questions: What non-billable tasks are holding you up? What repeatedly appears on your to-do list and kills your profit margin? What tasks would you like help automating?

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Sara Sultan
Community Manager
24 days ago
Sara Sultan
Community Manager
Sara SultanCommunity Manager
published in Run your best firm

Learn how Smokeball is making life easier for family law professionals

Lead intake is a vital part of any family law case. Smokeball has partnered with Settify, a comprehensive family law intake and lead generation tool. Settify helps firms capture information from prospective clients and create a clear overview of the case, including a concise timeline of events and balance sheet of assets. On Friday, Nov 4, join Senior Trainer Sara Sultan for a 30-minute training webinar. She'll demo how Settify allows you to send intake forms to your client for completion and how that information then seamlessly creates a matter in Smokeball. With Settify you can also use a customized button on your site to generate more leads; educate clients earlier with Settify's intelligent AI; and focus on relationship-building, with much of the info gathering already out of the way before your first meeting. Settify is currently available for Illinois firms only.

281
atharkhan
1 month ago
kuhrich
Smokeball Team
kuhrichSmokeball Team
published in Run your best firm

Recognize your favorite paralegal

There's no end to the ways that paralegals contribute to law firms. In celebration of National Paralegal Day (Oct. 23), we’re honoring paralegals who go above and beyond every day.  Now through Friday, November 4, nominate your paralegal for their chance to win great prizes and bragging rights! Just fill out this short submission form, including the name of your paralegal and a short description of how they go the extra mile for your practice.  We’ll select one grand prize winner and nine runners-up, to be announced November 14. The 2022 National Paralegal Day Winner will receive a $250 Amazon gift card, a giant personalized tin of Garrett's popcorn (Chicago's favorite!) and a blog feature on Smokeball’s website. We can’t wait to read your submissions!  

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kuhrich
Smokeball Team
1 month ago
Ben
Smokeball Team
BenCommunity Manager
published in Run your best firm

Get your questions answered: How to get actionable data from firm insights in SmokeballAsk an expert

We’re about to go live with a webinar on how to make the most of the data Smokeball gathers and shares with you about how your firm is running.  Ask your questions hereWe’re on standby to help you put the lessons learned in this webinar into action. Whether you’d like help using firm insights in Smokeball or you’re not sure how to interpret the data, this is the place to get help.  

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M
Smokeball Team
1 month ago
Emma
Smokeball Team
EmmaSmokeball Team
published in Run your best firm

Access a Library of Professionally Crafted Australian PrecedentsAsk an expert

We are excited to introduce Marketplace Precedents, a new Smokeball subscription-based add-on service* that connects you to a library of professionally crafted precedents, forms, and reference materials authored by experienced practising lawyers throughout Australia.@Lucy Byrne and @Kim Thai  recently joined us to showcase how Marketplace Precedents can help your law firm:- Save hours drafting legal documents from scratch and get a head start on building your precedent library.- Build Legal IP and experience as fast as larger firms.- Leverage high-quality precedents authored by practice area specialists who have been doing it for decades.- Ensure compliance and peace of mind.- Reduce precedent maintenance- The partners we work with are contracted to ensure precedents are always kept up-to-date. Watch now and learn more: Still have questions? Share your questions in the replies below, we’d love to help. *This service is currently only available to Australian Smokeball Customers

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Emma
Smokeball Team
1 month ago
E
Smokeball Team
emily142Smokeball Team
posted in Run your best firm

I love the Firm Insights Tab!

As a former Smokeball user myself, I did not discover or utilize the Firm Insights Tab in Smokeball until I had been using Smokeball for over a year. Yikes!The Firm Insights Tab is available for the account owner, but if the account owner would like other firm members to have access to this tab they can reach out to the firm’s SB account manager.Here is one of my favorite webinars covering Firm Insights: Using Firm Insights to Manage Your Business Enjoy!

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E
Smokeball Team
2 months ago
Ben
Smokeball Team
BenCommunity Manager
published in Run your best firm

Rethinking Culture + Hiring After the Great ResignationAsk an Expert

Members of the great resignation are hunting for the flexibility and balance that firms like yours can offer. This is a great opportunity to attract talent that in the past would have been snapped up by a big brand corporate firm. Chat to an expert about how your firm can make the most of the great resignation. Ask your questions now@Jordan Turk will join us after her webinar to answer your questions about hiring and culture in small firms. Do you need to know if your salary offering is competitive?  Are you having trouble staying connected with your remote team?​​​​ Would you like to try outsourcing to virtual assistants?​​​​​​​​​​This is the place to find answers!​​​​​​Just type in your question below! Feeling shy? ​Ask your question anonymously Watch Jordan’s WebinarRegister for Jordan’s webinar and learn:The ethics of law firm recruiting, interviewing and hiring How expectations around work have changed for the legal profession How law firms can hire their top choice for a role - e

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Ben
Smokeball Team
2 months ago
kuhrich
Smokeball Team
kuhrichSmokeball Team
posted in Run your best firm

Medical record retrieval woes?

Hey PI attorneys, If retrieving medical records drains a significant portion of you or your staff's time and energy, I want to make you aware of Smokeball's integration with YoCierge. Right now, your firm might be calling every medical provider, tracking down the right person, individually requesting records, wasting time on follow-up, saving incoming records to the file, and more. Instead, you could hand this off to YoCierge who manages it all and saves all associated records directly to the related Smokeball matter. A laborious, multi-step process streamlined and humming in the background without your oversight! Zach Meeks of Meeks Impact Law says, "The YoCierge integration is critical to my practice. I will never go back to having an employee manually enter records." You can hear from Zach and Sette Law paralegal Kristine Stapleton directly in this webinar recording. They're joined by Smokeball senior trainer Sara Sultan who walks you through the Smokeball-YoCierge integration, demo

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kuhrich
Smokeball Team
2 months ago
Ben
Smokeball Team
BenCommunity Manager
published in Run your best firm

Ask an expert: get help marketing your firmAsk an expert

Marketing can be an expensive, time consuming effort that struggles to pay for itself. It doesn’t have to be that way.This is your chance to ask an expert how to market your firm.   Ask your question now @Mel at Loyalest joins us to answer anything you’d like to know about marketing for small law firms. Are you not sure what the best approach is for marketing your firm?  Do you need some help making sure your Google Business Profile is set up correctly?  ​​​​​​ Not sure where to start or if you even need marketing for your firm? Just type in your question below! Feeling shy? ​Ask your question anonymously Watch Mel’s WebinarWatch the recording of Mel’s webinar now and learn how to:Avoid spending marketing dollars where you shouldn't in the first 5-10 years Focus on one place where more genuinely interested clients can discover your services Monitor your efforts in one place (that is free!) to learn what is working and what isn't; and Spend as little as 5 minutes a day on high-yielding

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Ben
Smokeball Team
2 months ago
zac.meyer
Community Manager
zac.meyerCommunity Manager
published in Run your best firm

Get a better view of your firm using Reports [webinar]

For all who might have missed the webinar on reports (it is just finishing up report card season after all), here is a report on the Reports in Smokeball Desktop.

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D
Smokeball Team
5 months ago
HunterSteele
Smokeball Team
HunterSteeleCEO at Smokeball
posted in Community guide

Welcome to the new Smokeball community

Hi all!Welcome and thanks again for joining the new Smokeball community. We really are very excited to have you here.Smokeball’s Core purpose is all about Community. This space we hope is one that brings everyone together to celebrate, collaborate and help each other supporting this purpose.Check out the links below to start exploring our new space. Introduce yourself here Ask questions and share answers here Learn more about how to navigate and use the new community here  Feel free to send me a message at any time if you have any questions, suggestions or if you just want to say hi! I would love to connect.All the best!Hunter

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HunterSteele
Smokeball Team
5 months ago
Ben
Smokeball Team
BenCommunity Manager
posted in Community guide

Moving to the new Community- Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome to the new Smokeball community! This post covers all the important information about the move to this new community space.Is there something else you’d like to know that isn’t covered here? Scroll down, click reply and let me know! ContentsWhat’s changing in the Smokeball community?  How do I access the new community?  I can’t sign in to the web version of the smokeball community How do I make a post in the new community?  What is happening to the current Smokeball community?  What happens to my profile and posts in the existing community?  What about my Smokebucks?  What can I do in this community?  What’s changing in the Smokeball community? We have designed it to make it easier to connect with our team, other Smokeball clients, and legal experts from around the world.   The best news is, we’re making it simpler to join from the Smokeball app – there's no need to sign in each time you want to connect to the community. The new community will also be available online so, it can

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Ben
Smokeball Team
5 months ago
Ben
Smokeball Team
BenCommunity Manager
posted in Community guide

How to earn Smokeball badges, ranks and rewards

Earning badges, ranks and rewards  There are many ways that we recognise the amazing support of Smokeball community members.The only way to discover all the possible badges, ranks and rewards, you will need to get out there and create posts, answer questions and help other members.  BadgesThere are many badges that you can earn for helping others in the Smokeball community, we’re adding more all the time. Some badges, like the founding member badge  can only be earned if you joined the community in the first month.Other badges can be awarded at any time. For example the Smokeball Power User badge, awarded to those who have mastered Smokeball.  Ranks The more posts you make and the more questions you answer, the higher rank you will achieve in the community. Spoiler- How to earn the Smokeball Genius badge:One of the highest ranks you can currently earn in the community is the “Smokeball Genius” rank. To achieve this you will need to: -Reply to 50 conversations-Answer 20 questions - and

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Ben
Smokeball Team
6 months ago
Ben
Smokeball Team
BenCommunity Manager
published in Community guide

Our Community Guidelines

We want to keep this Community a positive and constructive place. Much like real life, our guidelines are in place to help make this happen. Click “Show content” for details on what we mean by each guideline and what will constitute a breach of that guideline.  Read the full terms and conditions for the Smokeball community here. 1. Keep it respectful. You must only use the Community to post, send and receive messages and material that is appropriate and related to the purpose of the Community.You also agree that any comments or content you post are, to the best of your knowledge, accurate (if fact) and genuinely held (if opinion). Any posts, comments, images, documents, polls or other content you may share in the Community which are outside the purpose of this community, offensive, aggressive or overly negative, false, misleading or spam may be removed by a Smokeball team member.2. Keep it professional.  If you would not say or do something in a face to face conversation, then don’t do

580
Ben
Smokeball Team
6 months ago
Ben
Smokeball Team
BenCommunity Manager
posted in Community guide

Getting started in the Smokeball community

This Community has been set up for Smokeball users to ask questions, share solutions, and connect with each other.If you're new to communities; read on for some quick tips and tricks that will help you get started!  ContentsThis is an international community Asking questions, starting conversations and topics  Our guidelines  ​​​​​​​Smokeball community categories and how to use them Earning badges, ranks and rewards  This is an international communityThe Smokeball community is a space for Smokeball users and legal practitioners from around the globe. Different versions of Smokeball for different parts of the world Just like our legal systems; Smokeball has different functions that are tailored to the jurisdiction and legal framework in which different legal practitioners operate. This means that some discussions might relate to a part of Smokeball that isn’t available in your area, or has a different name.  Asking questions, starting conversations and topics  There are two types of top

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Ben
Smokeball Team
6 months ago

Badge winners

Show all badges
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