A phone system for law firms that files every call to the matter
LEX Phone is the lawyer's phone system: it answers when you can't, and files every call to the matter. Each lawyer has a business number in an app on the phone they already carry, calls ring with the client's matter on screen,
A general business phone system is built to move calls between extensions, and it does that well. A law firm needs a business phone solution built for lawyers, because a call to a lawyer is part of a matter. It has a client attached to it, sometimes a deadline, and afterwards it needs a file note that says who rang, what was said and what happens next. Most phone systems stop at the call log and leave the file note to whoever has ten minutes at the end of the day, and they have nothing to offer the caller who rings while the lawyer is in court. This page sets out what a legal phone system has to do, and how LEX Phone does each part.
Six things a legal phone system has to do
A law firm can tell whether a phone system was built for it by asking what is on the matter file five minutes after a call ends.
Tell you who is calling, and about what
Contacts sync from Smokeball, so an incoming call shows the caller's name, the matter they belong to and the last note on it before you answer. You pick up knowing where things stand.
Reach the lawyer wherever they are
The line is an app on the mobile the lawyer already carries, on iPhone and Android. Calls out show the business number, so a personal mobile stays private, and where there is no usable data the app falls back to a normal call over the mobile network.
Answer when nobody can
In court, in a conference or finished for the day,
Write the file note
Every call becomes a summary and a transcript shortly after it ends, with any close date on the first line. Calls a lawyer answered are written up too, so a call taken between hearings is still on the file.
Put the record on the matter
A completed task on the Smokeball matter with the file note, or a Word document in the firm's SharePoint library under the contact. Clio filing is in development. A call that cannot be matched to one open matter waits for a tap and is never filed to a guess.
Keep the texts with the calls
Text messages on the business number sit on the same contact timeline as the calls and are logged to the matter. Replies are drafted for the lawyer to read, change and send, and nothing goes to a client on its own.
One line, three ways to take the day's calls
Each lawyer sets their own line from the Home tab of the app, and the change applies from the next call.
Available
The call rings your phone as normal, with the caller's matter on screen. If you do not pick up,
Screen
Unavailable
The detail of each mode, including what the caller hears, is in the three call modes.
A general phone system and a legal one, side by side
| A general business phone system | LEX Phone | |
|---|---|---|
| Where a call rings | A desk handset or a softphone, by extension. | The lawyer's own mobile, in the app, on their business number. |
| What you see before answering | The caller's number, or a name from the address book. | The caller's name, their matter and the last note, once contacts are synced from Smokeball. |
| A call nobody takes | Voicemail, or a queue. | |
| After the call | A call log entry. A file note if someone writes one. | A summary, a transcript and a finished file note, written for every call whether a lawyer was on it or not. |
| On the matter | Depends on an integration, and usually on the lawyer completing a step after the call. | Filed automatically to the Smokeball matter or the SharePoint library, with Clio in development. |
| Changing who answers | Forwarding rules and a time-of-day schedule. | One tap per lawyer: Available, Screen or Unavailable. |
| Price | Per user, often with handsets, call bundles and setup on top. | A$79.99 a month per lawyer, GST included, with nothing charged per call and |
The left column describes general business phone systems as a category. For named products, see the comparison pages.
Named comparisons are on their own pages: LEX Phone and VXT for firms weighing two legal phone products, and the best phone systems for law firms in Australia for the wider field, ranked, including which ones connect to Smokeball, LEAP, Clio and Actionstep.
Keeping the phones you have
LEX Phone does not ask a firm to pull out its desk phones. A firm with a reception desk and handsets can leave all of it in place and give each lawyer a LEX Phone number for the calls and texts clients make to them directly, and from that day the calls a lawyer cannot take are answered in the firm's name and filed to the matter. The firm sees what the service does with real calls before deciding anything about its main line.
A firm without a phone system, or one whose lawyers already live on their mobiles, takes a dedicated Australian number for each lawyer in the app, mobile or landline, live within minutes. An existing number can be ported across at no charge, and it keeps working with the current provider until the day the port completes. Both routes are set out in numbers and porting.
One price per lawyer, and a two-minute setup call
LEX Phone is A$79.99 a month per lawyer with GST included, billed through the App Store or Google Play. The number, the summaries and transcripts, SMS, and filing to Smokeball and SharePoint are in the one price, with Clio filing included when it launches, and
Setup is a two-minute phone call with the assistant, which asks about the firm's practice areas, hours and the topics it should not discuss. An owner or manager connects Smokeball once for the whole firm.
Phone system questions firms ask
Both, in one subscription. Each lawyer has an Australian business number in the LEX Phone app, calls ring on the phone they already carry, and
Yes. On Wi-Fi or good mobile data the app carries the call over VoIP. Where there is no usable data, such as a court corridor or a basement car park, the app falls back to a normal phone call over the mobile network, so the call still connects. The lawyer does not choose between the two, the app picks the path for each call.
No. LEX Phone runs in an app on iPhone and Android, on the phone each lawyer already carries. A firm that wants handsets on desks keeps its existing system for those, and each lawyer has a LEX Phone number on their mobile.
Yes. Port it across at no charge, and it keeps working with the current provider until the day it moves. The main number can be directed to whoever the firm nominates, and each lawyer also has their own number so that calls, texts and the filed record stay with the person the client is dealing with.
Smokeball and SharePoint are live. In Smokeball every call becomes a completed task on the matter with the file note, and in SharePoint every summary and transcript becomes a Word document under the contact. Clio filing is in development. LEX Phone does not file into LEAP or Actionstep, and for firms on those systems the summary stays in the app with a push notification after each call.
It transcribes them and does not keep the audio. On calls the answering service handles, the voice provider deletes its copy within a day, and a call you answer yourself is recorded only until it has been transcribed. The caller is told at the start of the call that it is being transcribed and can ask for that to stop. The transcript is deleted from our storage once it has been filed to the firm's own system, or after three months when there is nowhere to file it.
A$79.99 a month per lawyer with GST included, billed through the App Store or Google Play. The number, the summaries and transcripts and the Smokeball and SharePoint filing are all in that price,
See one call go from ring to file note
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