Sarah Stoddart

Vitality Law is a Brisbane based law firm that provides expert legal services in healthcare, small business, and property matters. Sarah Stoddart, the Director of Vitality Law Australia, is an avid user of Smokeball. Sarah shares some of her favourite Smokeball features and highlights how the software has been instrumental in enabling her firm to achieve exceptional growth and success.

Hear how Sarah is running her best firm

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What is one success story that wouldn’t have been possible without Smokeball?  

The overall growth of my law firm wouldn't have been possible without Smokeball. As a fully remote firm with staff in various locations, Smokeball has been instrumental in our success to date, especially when it comes to onboarding new team members. With Smokeball, everything is located in the same central place, making it easy to install the software on new equipment and monitor what everyone is working on. This allows us to delegate tasks efficiently and keep workflows organised. In just over two years, Smokeball has played a crucial role in the growth of our firm, proving to be an invaluable tool for us.

What do you love most about Smokeball and its features?  

There's so much I love about Smokeball! One of the most important aspects for our firm is the Communicate platform. As a fully remote team, we rely on Communicate to keep our inboxes clear while still allowing us to have matter-related discussions or general chit-chat that would usually happen around the water cooler on a Monday morning.

The invoicing and trust accounting features have been a game-changer for me. They're so user-friendly that invoicing and trust accounting tasks don't end up at the bottom of my to-do list. Instead, I can easily complete them and get them out of the way.

Lastly, Smokeball's workflows are excellent for delegation. As the Director, it's great to have visibility over where everything is and who's working on what. This makes it easy to stay on top of things and ensure that everything is running smoothly.

What advice would you give on switching practice management software?  

Before you start exploring legal practice management software, my first piece of advice is to create a list of what you need from the software. Determine what features are essential and which ones would be nice to have. This step is crucial because it helps you understand what you are searching for. After creating a list, you can look at different software demonstrations and decide which one works best for you. If you're thinking about making a change, it's better to do it sooner rather than later. The longer you wait, the more challenging it becomes. You should embrace a system that simplifies your life before it's too late.

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