Last July, I reported here that Box, the file-sharing and collaboration platform, was making a ramped-up push into the legal industry. Today, Box followed up on that news in a big way, announcing new integrations with 22 mobile and web legal platforms, a major new e-discovery integration, and a special promotion through the American Bar Association Advantage program that gives ABA members 50 GB of free file-sharing space in Box.

Legal launchBox will integrate with a range of practice management, time and billing, legal research, productivity and trial apps. The full list of these is below. Some of these integrations are available now via the Box Apps Marketplace, while others will become available in the first quarter of 2014.

In addition, Box is entering into a partnership with Guidance Software to offer its EnCase e-discovery platform to Box customers. EnCase will integrate with Box in a way that will allow law firms and corporate counsel to search, collect and preserve electronically stored information maintained in Box. EnCase will be able to scan Box for relevant ESI and then use Box to provide centralized access to data.

Through the ABA Advantage program, Box is offering ABA members 50GB of free space for file storage and sharing. The offer is good only for ABA members and only for those who are not currently Box subscribers. Eligible ABA members can claim the free space at this link.

Box now integrates with iManage via Intapp.

Box now integrates with iManage via Intapp.

One other Box announcement today is that it will be integrated with the iManage document management system via a bridge using Intapp’s Integration Builder. For law firms that use iManage, the integration will allow them to extend their DMS to the cloud securely via Box, enabling their members to access documents from mobile devices and collaborate via Box.

Earlier this week, I spoke with Nitin Gupta, the former lawyer who is director of the professional services group at Box, who said that Box is working towards the goal of providing a strong cloud-collaboration platform that will serve all segments of the legal profession — large firms, small firms and corporate counsel. Towards that end, integrations with legal-tech vendors and partnerships with bar groups will be key, he said.

Integration with Legal Apps

Here is a complete list of the platforms with which Box will integrate:

Practice & Case Management

  • Rocket Matter, a legal billing and law practice management software for small and mid-size law firms.
  • Amicus Attorney, a legal practice management software. Users of Amicus Cloud will be able to view and work with their Box documents directly from within Amicus.
  • FastCase, a legal research platform. Fastcase will integrate Box into its printing utility so that users can save results directly to the cloud.
  • Lex Machina, a legal analytics platform for IP lawyers.
  • DirectLaw, a virtual law platform. The integration will allow DirectLaw subscribers to access any files they have stored in Box through their DirectLaw attorney dashboard. They can also transfer legal documents and other content created in DirectLaw to their Box account.

Timekeeping & Billing

  • Chrometa is a time and billing software that automatically captures and organizes time. Through the Box integration, Chrometa users will be able to save their invoices directly to their Box account.
  • Bill4Time is a cloud-based time and billing software serving both small and large professional service firms. Bill4Time will be integrating its core web application with Box.  In the near future, the company plans to integrate Box into its full suite of apps, including: mobile apps, iPad app, and HTML desktop app.
  • SimpleLegal provides an ebilling platform where companies can receive, manage, and pay all their legal bills.

Access to Lawyers

  • Avvo is an online platform that has ratings, reviews, and disciplinary records for lawyers in every state.
  • UpCounsel, a service for businesses to find attorneys. UpCounsel plans to use Box within its “workspaces” that sit between lawyers and clients on the UpCounsel platform with the aim of creating a more efficient interaction between clients and lawyers. Box will be used to exchange, review and store documents. Both lawyers and clients will be able to connect their existing Box accounts to import files into the UpCounsel workspaces.
  • Plain Legal  PlainLegal is a platform that helps connect businesses with lawyers. Through Box, lawyers and clients will be able to securely view and collaborate on confidential documents. Plain Legal will also integrate Box Embed and Box APIs to provide secure file sharing for lawyers and clients.
  • LawPal helps connect startups with experienced lawyers. Through the Box integration, LawPal will provide lawyers easy access to users’ documents for storage and retrieval.
  • LegalReach describes itself as the world’s largest legal network connecting attorneys, corporate counsel and consumers. Through the Box integration, LegalReach will provide document storage for attorneys and their clients.

Courtroom

  • TrialPad is an app for preparing and presenting trial presentations. Now, TrialPad has added support for Box to allow storage and transfer of case materials. Users can browse their Box account directly from within TrialPad and bring in individual files, file folders, and zip files. In addition, users can save annotated copies of their case materials back to their Box account.
  • iJuror, a juror selection app.
  • LawPavilion Plus, an app that helps legal practitioners better organize their legal matters.
  • TrialDirector organizes documents, videotaped depositions and graphics for courtroom presentations and jury trials.

Productivity

  • iClient is an app that helps lawyers manage all of the clients for their law firm.
  • Legal Viewer is a PDF viewer designed to support the review of hyperlinked and other PDFs on the iPad.
  • Doc Scan Pro is an app that allows lawyers to scan all of their documents with an iPhone.
  • Parallels is an app that allows lawyers to organize the important dates in the storyline of a case. With the Box integration, all the spreadsheets that integrate Parallels with Casemap will be stored on Box.

Of the integrations I’ve listed, the ones currently available are DirectLaw, Chrometa, Bill4Time, Plain Legal, TrialPad, Lora Courtroom, iJuror, Law Pavilion Plus, iClient, Legal Viewer, Doc Scan Pro and Parallels. The integrations with Guidance Software and iManage are also available now. The rest will become available in the first quarter of 2014.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.