A business phone app for lawyers
EzyBiz LEX puts a second, business number on the mobile a lawyer already carries. Clients ring and text that number, your personal one stays private, an answering service takes the calls you cannot, and every call is written up and filed to the matter. It runs on iPhone and Android.
Most lawyers in small firms end up giving clients their mobile number, because that is the phone they actually answer. It works until the calls arrive at dinner, the texts sit in a personal message thread nobody else at the firm can see, and a client's instructions exist only in a call log on one person's phone. A business phone app fixes the first problem by giving the lawyer a second number on the same device. EzyBiz LEX goes on to fix the other two, by answering what the lawyer cannot and putting a record of every call and text on the matter.
What the app does on the phone you already have
A business number of your own
An Australian mobile or landline number, live within minutes, or the number you already use ported across. Calls to it ring in the app, separately from your personal calls.
Calls out show the business number
Ring a client from the app and they see the firm's number. Your personal mobile is never on their screen or in their contacts.
The matter on screen before you answer
With contacts synced from Smokeball, an incoming call shows who is ringing, which matter they belong to and the last note, so you answer already knowing why they are calling.
Texts on the same number
Client texts arrive on the contact's timeline beside their calls. A reply is drafted for you, and you read it and send it, so nothing goes out that you have not seen.
One tap to change who answers
Available, Screen or Unavailable, set from the Home tab between a hearing and a meeting. In Screen the service finds out who is calling and why before your phone rings.
The day laid out
Callbacks owed and consults booked sit in the Agenda tab, and in Smokeball's tasks and calendar for firms connected to it.
A second handset, a second SIM, or an app
All three give a lawyer a number that is not their personal one. They differ in what happens to the call afterwards.
| A second handset | A second SIM or eSIM | A business phone app | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A separate number for clients | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| One device to carry | No | Yes | Yes |
| Who answers when you cannot | Voicemail | Voicemail | An answering service, in the firm's name |
| A record of the call | The call log on that handset | The call log on your phone | A summary, a transcript and a file note |
| On the matter file | Only if you write it up | Only if you write it up | Filed to Smokeball or SharePoint for you |
| If the lawyer leaves | The handset comes back, the call history does not | The number is often in the lawyer's own name | The number and its records stay on the firm's account |
The first two columns describe a second mobile service from a carrier in general terms. The third describes EzyBiz LEX.
A second SIM solves privacy and stops there. The calls still go to voicemail when you are in court, the texts are still on one phone, and the file note is still yours to write. For a firm, the last row matters as much as the others: a number that clients have saved should belong to the practice.
The part a SIM card cannot do
When a call to the business number goes unanswered, the EzyBiz LEX answering service picks it up in your firm's name. It tells the caller the call is being transcribed, says it is automated if anyone asks, and takes what a firm needs from a legal call: who is ringing, who is on the other side, what the matter is about, any date that is close, and what the caller wants to happen next. It books a consult if you allow bookings, and it never gives advice.
A push notification arrives with the summary. The file note and the transcript are in the app, on the Smokeball matter as a completed task, or in your SharePoint library under the contact, with Clio filing in development. The call you took yourself is written up the same way.
Marcus Bell called about the contract for the sale of his cafe in Berwick. The buyer's solicitor has asked for settlement to be brought forward to Friday 16 October and he wants to know whether he has to agree. He is free after 3pm today on this number. Existing client, matter Bell, sale of business. No advice was given.
One subscription, bought in the app
A$79.99 a month per lawyer with GST included, through the App Store or Google Play, with no contract and nothing charged per call. The number, the answering service, the summaries, the texts and the filing to Smokeball and SharePoint are all in that price. A sole practitioner subscribes in the app, and a firm adds lawyers from the EzyBiz Teams web console so that the numbers sit on one account. See pricing and numbers and porting.
Questions about the app
No. The business number lives in the EzyBiz LEX app on the phone you already carry, on iPhone and Android. Calls to the business number arrive in the app, and calls you make from it show the business number to the person you are ringing.
No. Calls and texts made from the app come from the business number, so your personal number stays private and a client who saves your number is saving the firm's.
Yes, on mobile numbers. Texts arrive in the app on the client's timeline next to their calls, and are logged to the matter once the firm is connected. Replies are drafted for you from the conversation, and you read them, change what you want and send them. Landline numbers use a shared SMS sender.
The answering service takes the call in your firm's name, says it is automated, and takes an intake or a message. You get a push notification with the summary, and the file note is on the matter in Smokeball or in your SharePoint library.
The app chooses the call path for each call. On Wi-Fi or good mobile data it uses VoIP, and where there is no usable data it falls back to a normal phone call over the mobile network.
In a firm with more than one lawyer, the owner buys and assigns the subscriptions from the EzyBiz Teams web console, so the numbers and subscriptions sit on the firm's account. A lawyer who leaves hands the subscription back, and the number stays with the firm.
Yes. Port it into the app at no charge, and it keeps working with your current provider until the day it moves.
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