25 Years of LAWFUSION

UK News

12
Jul
2018

Editor

2018 marks a milestone year for Select Legal Systems Limited, authors of LAWFUSION, as they celebrate 25 years of delivering first-class legal practice management software and services to UK law firms.

It’s always interesting when you find out how some of the successful businesses we all know today began life. For instance Amstrad (Alan Sugar Trading) started from the back of a van in the late 60s selling car aerials. Richard Branson started his business empire from the bowels of a church in their crypt where he launched a student magazine with a £300 loan from his Mum. Even US giants Apple started life in a garage where they secured their first order for 50 computers to a local retailer.

Well it seems Select Legal Systems Limited is no exception, as they themselves started from very humble beginnings. From the back bedroom of a terraced house in Hull, to be exact.

In 1993, after leaving one of the main legal software players of the 80s and 90s, Steve Dixon and Mike Craven quietly established Select Legal Systems Limited and conscientiously started building a software system now known to the legal profession as LAWFUSION, which has become the business system of choice for hundreds of UK law firms.

From day one, LAWFUSION was built on four key promises, to which the Directors and the Select team are still true today: 1) the software should be flexible 2) the software should be intuitive 3) the support should be outstanding and 4) the system should be excellent value for money.

Steve Dixon (co-owner and now Sales & Development Director) and Mike Craven (co-owner and now Finance & Support Director) focused on software development in the early days, working very closely with some of the best law firms in their fields, slowly perfecting their art. Some would argue the legal software market’s best kept secret and by the end of year five they had just 30 very happy and loyal clients, many of which remain with them today. The company grew steadfastly for the next 10 -15 years but really came into its own when they implemented a new sales and marketing strategy in 2011 which enabled them to achieve 100% growth, as they doubled in size between 2012 and 2017, increasing turnover from £1Million to over £2 Million in that five year period. This rate of growth continues and in 2018, LAWFUSION’s 25th year, as Select Legal systems Limited has become one of the most trusted technology partners to law firms in the country.

Some key achievements along the way have been:

• Select Legal Systems was the first legal software supplier to deliver text messaging from case management.
• They were one of the first to offer an online case tracker which enables the clients of law firms to track the status of their own cases via a secure internet connection.
• Cloud Computing for Law Firms– The company is one of only two suppliers in this market to have achieved ISO 27001 Security Certification for best practice in data security.
• Select was one of the first to offer a cloud computing option for law firms.
• Select Legal Systems offer a very extensive library of proven workflow charts for many areas of law, from conveyancing to wills and everything in between.
• Team LAWFUSION is particularly proud of its crime modules and legal aid functionality, which is often described as second to none by law firm users.
• LAWFUSION is a fully integrated suite of software which means all of its modules are of course integrated with each other in the truest sense of the word, but also Select Legal has a great reputation for offering key integrations to other key, third-party tools and applications, and for embracing new integration requests.

Mike Craven, co-owner and Director said, “We’re incredibly proud of LAWFUSION and our team here at Select Legal Systems right across the board. We take pride in looking after our clients, it’s a people thing, we are committed to doing our very best for to make sure they all get the very best out of LAWFUSION.”

Steve Dixon, co-owner and Director said, We are well known for our efforts in staying ahead of the game with market demands to ensure we provide everything a law firm needs to thrive. For example with our civil litigation costs management module, in response to the Jackson reforms, with auto-production of precedents H, R and S we have been in front of the competition all the way. Also our family billing suite is another great example of this – it provides everything a family firm needs and has been well received by many users. Then of course there is our commitment to the LAA’s requirements for legal aid firms which continues to be a key focus for development, as we have a lot of firms relying on us for this. I think our achievements remaining on top of market demands such as these has been one of the main factors of our success over the past 25 years, and something we will continue for the future.”