Former JAG Officer Pleased With Upgrade To Amicus Attorney 7

Cites advanced email integration and the new interface as favorite features

James A. Soukup established his practice in 1989, after spending eight years as a navy JAG officer. He practices family law for the most part but he’s also been known to do some probate and estate work. His practice management software tool of choice is Amicus Attorney, which he’s been using since installing Version III in 1998.

“I went to Amicus originally because it was partnered with Corel at that time and I liked the way it was set up,” the solo practitioner says. “So I ended up buying it.”

He then upgraded with every subsequent version, taking advantage of the program’s evolution, which included significant progress in the way Amicus handles e-mail.

Amicus Attorney 7 integrates with Outlook so thoroughly that Outlook’s e-mail view actually appears within Amicus. All the features and folder structure of Outlook e-mail and all Amicus information is at the user’s fingertips. E-mails can be tracked, automatically cross-referenced to files and made available for one-click billing.

“It’s rare for me to get a client that doesn’t have e-mail,” he adds. “So with everyone having e-mail, it helps me a lot to be able to immediately find any e-mail I’ve sent to them or they’ve sent to me. Being able to track client e-mail through Amicus is a real bonus.”

The benefits of Amicus 7 don’t end with its advanced e-mail integration. Mr. Soukup cites the new user interface as particularly valuable, since it’s optimized to navigate anywhere in the program with just a few mouse clicks.

“I like the interface of Version 7 better than in previous versions,” he says. “It seems that I can both put in information and pull up information in Version 7 easier and faster. And to me, Version 7 seems to have a lot more right-click options to do things.”

He also relies heavily on the program’s “to-do” feature as well as its client-centric calendar.

“I use it to keep track of what’s coming up and also to keep track of what’s been done,” he says. “That’s critical, not only for court hearings but also for projects, letters … everything that needs to go out at a certain time.”

The Amicus Attorney calendar provides comprehensive scheduling to manage appointments, tasks, deadlines (and more) for lawyers and everyone in the entire firm. It offers the ability to create and save customized calendar profiles, identify and schedule shared resources, plus there’s a handy date calculator. Users can even automate their court docketing.

When asked to sum up how Amicus Attorney 7 helps his practice, Mr. Soukup has no hesitation:

“Upgrading to Version 7 was definitely worth it for me. I access Amicus literally hundreds of times during the day, and as I become more comfortable with Version 7, I very much like what I can do with it.”