Lawyers who are members of the Maryland State Bar Association can now get free access to trust accounting and billing software, through a partnership between the bar and the law practice management company Smokeball. Under the partnership, all 18,000 members of the MSBA, which is a voluntary state bar, can sign up for free access [\u2026]<\/p>\n
Lawyers who are members of the Maryland State Bar Association<\/a> can now get free access to trust accounting and billing software, through a partnership between the bar and the law practice management company Smokeball<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under the partnership, all 18,000 members of the MSBA, which is a voluntary state bar, can sign up for free access to Smokeball Bill, Smokeball\u2019s trust accounting and billing software for law firms.<\/p>\n The partnership is similar to one I reported on in June<\/a> between Smokeball and the State Bar of Texas<\/a>. Since then, Smokeball has also entered into free product partnerships for its accounting software with the Alabama State Bar<\/a>, the California Lawyers Association<\/a>, the Colorado Bar Association<\/a>, and the Nebraska State Bar Association<\/a>, and the Virginia State Bar<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last year, The Florida Bar became the first state bar to provide all its members with free access to trust accounting software, after it announced an agreement with Nota<\/a>, a legal financial management company, to provide free trust accounting software to all 110,000 of its members.<\/p>\n Trust accounting remains a vexing task for many solo and small firm lawyers, who still often rely on manual systems such as spreadsheets. Poor accounting practices are a common cause of disciplinary complaints and malpractice claims.<\/p>\n