Making the Switch from LAWbase to LEAP: Tips from Stallard Law

Stallard Law are a Nelson-based law practice specialising in the areas of property law, business and company law, and personal law including trusts, wills, and estate administration. The small and vibrant team are led by Jeremy Barton, and office manager Nikki Hamill shared with LEAP the following insights from their LAWbase transition.  

Why Stallard Law made the switch from LAWbase to LEAP 

“We had been a LAWbase firm for more than a decade so were likely to keep using it for longer, if the situation had allowed. We looked at a couple of other systems and decided that LEAP has the best offering, including great incentives for the transition.” 

“One of the best things about LEAP is that it is a document management system as well, unlike LAWbase.”  

As an all-in-one solution, LEAP has a completely integrated document management system experience. This means seeing all the matter details in the same screen as the documents. Because it is all in the same system authors can review the financial summary and review drafts at the same time.  

“We also like the ability to have templates populated with information from LEAP which saves a lot of time.”  

There are hundreds of documents already automated by the LEAP team which correspond to the common MOJ forms, per the court requirements.   

“One of the other draws for us is the add-on apps you can use in conjunction with LEAP such as AML Compliance, ID Verification, LawY and InfoTrack.”  

AML Compliance provides integration with GoAML that draws the information from the transaction as well as the CDD data contained in LEAP, significantly reducing data re-entry.  

ID Verification and InfoTrack saves time through the integrated online ID Verification which populates into the requisite places back in LEAP. It also automatically generates the cost recoveries on the matter, ready to be billed without manual entry. This also reduces the risk of missing them.  

LawY is an integrated AI-powered research tool that allows for quick look up of legal information and drafting. The added benefit is that AI-generated responses can be submitted to real NZ lawyer verifiers on retainer with LawY. This creates a library accessible to LEAP firms for quick and verified answers to common legal research questions posed in practice.   

“Whilst we haven’t used all these yet, we do intend to take advantage of them in the future.” 

Tips to note before for your transition from LAWbase to LEAP 

To those considering the move to LEAP from LAWbase, the Stallard Law team have the following suggestions from their experience: 

• Make sure you know exactly what is required: The LEAP team along with implementation partners will provide project management support throughout the transition process. This involves going through a comprehensive initial meeting and follow ups to assist firms to ensure you are across the transition process. Obtaining clarification at this point is critical to avoid disappointment.  

• Make sure you have a great IT team/company assisting you: Technical issues can crop up during the transition process. Stallard Law and LEAP recommends having a great IT team to support you through the transition process as it will make a huge difference.  

• Be prepared for a different approach to accounting: LEAP is a dual ledger system. This means that the trust and office accounting are run on separate ledgers. The trust account is reconciled on date of entry as opposed to date of transaction.  

• On IBD accounts: “LAWbase used to have a ‘double-entry’ system where it would update both trust account and IBD account when doing transactions. In LEAP you have to manually do both sides,” noted Nikki. This is set to change with new updates facilitating a double-entry system to post both into the IBD and Trust ledgers to save time. This is scheduled to be released in 2025.  

Throughout the LEAP journey, support is provided by LEAP through the team of dedicated Client Success Managers. Learn more about this service and support that comes part and parcel with LEAP here.