Needles vs CounselLink

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Our analysts compared Needles vs CounselLink based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Legal Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Needles Software Tool
CounselLink Software Tool

Product Basics

Needles is a flexible solution aimed at enabling law practices to streamline their firm operations. It provides numerous templates to build configurable workflows, daily checklists and schedules. Firms can maximize billable hours using its time and expense tracking modules. It allows firms to manage and collaborate on documents and cases with ease. Its personalized dashboards provide greater practice visibility.

Users can leverage pre-built or custom real-time reporting modules to gain granular insights into different practice facets. Firms can opt for its cloud-based Neos offering to enable remote access to all its functionality. Hosted on Microsoft Azure, it provides robust security, data backups and an API for seamless integrations.
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LexisNexis CounselLink is a cloud-based software that helps corporate departments and law firms manage their legal operations. It offers a range of features to manage matters, invoices, vendors and reports in one place. Its powerful analytical and reporting capabilities enable teams to make data-driven decisions and optimize performance, resulting in better client outcomes.

Centralizing matter and invoice management helps reduce administrative burdens and focus on higher-value work. With the ability to track budgets and spending, businesses can better allocate resources and mitigate the risk of overages.
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Linux
Android
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Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
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On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

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In Person
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Videos
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Documentation
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Live Online
Videos
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Email
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Chat
FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
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FAQ
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Ensure Accurate Documentation: Eliminate human errors or omissions by creating document checklists. 
  • Abundant Reporting Options: Offers multiple reporting modules categorized by legal matter and practice areas. 
  • Enhanced Security: Clients can choose to maintain an in-house database for maximum security. 
  • Personalized App Experience: Customize apps based on the firm’s requirements. 
  • Implementation Support: Trained professionals guide the implementation process and provide hands-on help whenever required. 
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  • Comprehensive Analytics and Reporting: Legal departments can analyze expense data and make informed decisions. Generate reports on various metrics, including spend by matter type, matter status and vendor.
  • Robust Collaboration Tools: Collaborate with vendors, outside counsel and other stakeholders in a secure and centralized platform. Ensure that everyone is on the same page and can stay up-to-date.
  • Enhanced Matter Management: Track progress, store documents and manage deadlines. Automate workflows and provide alerts to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
  • Optimized Spend Management: Gain visibility into legal fees, enforce billing guidelines and optimize billing rates. Identify cost-saving opportunities and get real-time budget tracking capabilities.
  • Efficient Vendor Management: Manage vendors, including law firms and other legal service providers. Track vendor performance, enforce service level agreements and ensure compliance with billing guidelines.
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  • Task Management: Stay on top of pending tasks, deadlines and important events with fully configurable workflows, synchronized Outlook calendars and automated daily checklists. Receive and broadcast important updates with firm-wide scheduling and communication portals. 
  • Document Management: Encourage employees to collaborate on and share documents, globally in real time. Identify documents using keywords, prepare files for e-Signatures and choose customizable rich templates from industry-specific case libraries. 
  • Firm Insights: Leverage real-time reporting and analytics on business health. Use the configurable dashboard to create custom reports, data and metrics, monitor business processes and identify valuable assets. 
  • Data Management and Security: Secure your data with centralized data storage that eliminates redundancies and automatically backs up all documentation. Organize and store files with the PDF Template Wizard and import data in bulk via CSV files. 
  • Time and Expense Tracking: Track time effortlessly with the help of the Outlook add-in for any device, including mobile devices. Log expenses in real time, eliminate errors and omissions and automate internal audit logs. 
  • Client Management: Improve customer satisfaction via the self-service portal with over 99% uptime. Address client inquiries, process reimbursements and payments and update case details seamlessly. 
  • API: Implement low-code integration of third-party extensions or create new integrations entirely using the API-based architecture. Directly integrate with Microsoft Office 365, OneDrive, QuickBooks, DocuSign and Lexitas. 
  • Security: Secure data, documentation and digital access with Microsoft Azure. Get 24/7 security from cyber attacks and ensure business continuity with biometrically-secured physical data centers, remote-hosted servers and advanced data encryption. 
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  • Work Management:
    • Collect and Organize: Use legal requests to establish a centralized work intake source that meets specific requirements. Create custom fields that capture information unique to the department's needs. Configure the homepage to focus on what's most important and organize documents in a central repository.
    • Track, Audit and Report: The work tasks feature helps manage deadlines and maintain compliance with processes. Use the budgets module to plan legal spending and save costs. Assess the work status of law firms and internal staff and prevent any circumvention of business rules using audit trails. Get 80+ standard reports to analyze work and customize reports to organize and present data.
  • Financial Management:
    • Paper Invoice Processing: Capture all expenses with invoicing service. Convert all non-LEDES format invoices, including PDFs and paper, into electronic invoices.
    • Smart Review: Examine and categorize all line-item invoice charges with proprietary AI-enabled technology to comply with billing guidelines. Save time and money with automatic error flagging and adjustments.
    • Invoice Review: Automate invoice processing, audit electronic and non-electronic invoices, and include non-CounselLink reviewers with external invoice review.
    • Advanced Accounting: Manage budget, discounts, accruals and reserves to stay on track within preset thresholds.
    • Allocations: Easily assign invoice spend to one or more accounts by setting up allocation codes and applying allocation templates to any matter.
  • Vendor Management:
    • Vendor Profiles and Scorecards: Use law firm profiles and scorecards to gain comprehensive insights into the firm's performance. Analyze legal spending, matter distribution and timekeeper-level billing with visualizations. Rate and score law firms for better vendor selection.
    • Fee Structure: Invoice for legal work by negotiating fee agreements with law firms. Be equipped to handle all types of alternative fee arrangements.
    • Diversity Survey: Assess the vendor's diverse talent pool. Collect and track diversity information to increase accountability.
    • Rate Analysis: Compare and evaluate performance by establishing, monitoring and enforcing timekeeper rates. Visualize historical time comparisons for better insights.
    • Billing Guidelines: Simplify onboarding by creating and publishing billing practice documentation and allow law firms to accept before invoicing.
  • Contract Lifecycle Management: Draft better contracts, expedite authoring, streamline negotiation and analyze executed contracts. Manage all contract-related work with one tool, featuring real-time collaboration, workflow automation and actionable analytics.
  • Analytics:
    • Interactive Dashboards: Optimize the user interface by tailoring dashboards with relevant metrics.
    • Reports: Use standard and customized reports to make strategic decisions supporting organizational goals.
    • Benchmarking Database: Evaluate fair legal rates and compare department performance.
    • Trends Report: Gain insights for better decision-making and analyze legal market dynamics over time with guiding metrics and expert contributions.
  • Legal Hold: Automate and simplify legal hold obligations by identifying, notifying and communicating with document custodians. Create an auditable record and maintain control with customized tools and templates for communication, surveys, reports and web pages.
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Product Ranking

#4

among all
Legal Software

#47

among all
Legal Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 164 reviews
Good User Sentiment 12 reviews
85%
of users recommend this product

Needles has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 85% when considering 164 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

76%
of users recommend this product

CounselLink has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 76% when considering 12 user reviews from 1 recognized software review sites.

4.7 (12)
n/a
4.2 (22)
3.8 (12)
4.2 (98)
n/a
4.3 (32)
n/a

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Functionality: Its time-tracking, billing and accounting functionalities meet the modern-day requirements of the legal industry, according to 65% of users mentioning this element.
Ease of Use: According to 69% of users who reviewed this aspect, the platform is intuitive and easy to use.
Reporting: 67% of users who reviewed this feature said that it provides plenty of customizable options.
Task Management: Regarding this feature, 75% of users found it helpful to track tasks and meet deadlines.
Training: 75% of users who reviewed this element said they’re satisfied with the knowledge base and training resources.
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Intuitive Interface: CounselLink is recognized for its user-friendly design, which simplifies navigation and overall user experience, even for those who are new to the platform.
Streamlined Billing: The platform streamlines the process of generating and managing client invoices, allowing for easy upload of billing entries and linking relevant client and matter details.
Invoice Tracking: CounselLink provides transparency into the invoice status and payment process, allowing users to track their invoices and anticipate payment timelines.
Client-Matter Linking: Users can easily link client information to specific matters, ensuring quick and convenient access to relevant data.
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Integrations: It provides limited integration options, according to 60% of users mentioning this aspect.
Speed and Performance: According to 100% of reviews about this feature, the platform’s performance sometimes suffers under heavy workloads.
Cost: All the users who mentioned this element said it’s more expensive than its competitors.
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Slow Performance: Users have reported experiencing slow loading times and delays between actions within the CounselLink platform, impacting productivity and user experience.
Time and Expense Entry Challenges: Some users find the process of entering time and expenses cumbersome and not as user-friendly as other features, potentially leading to inaccuracies or frustration for legal professionals.
Customization Limitations: Tailoring CounselLink to specific business processes or integrating it with certain existing systems may require additional coding or professional services, potentially adding to the overall cost and implementation timeline.
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Needles provides all the functions expected of a modern legal practice management solution, including matter and document management, mobile time tracking, reporting and task supervision. It offers an efficient task management module, but it’s important to note that some users experienced difficulty editing entries in the legal calendar. According to reviews, the platform is difficult to learn, but the product training and support team are helpful in getting past the initial hurdle. Finally, the intuitive UI and exhaustive features make it a capable contender, but only for companies with a budget to justify the extra cost.

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Can CounselLink link arms with your legal team to boost efficiency and transparency? User reviews from the past year suggest a qualified "yes," but with some caveats. CounselLink garners praise for its user-friendly interface, with reviewers consistently highlighting its intuitive design and ease of navigation, even for those new to legal software. This accessibility is crucial for legal teams who need to quickly adapt to new technologies without extensive training. Users also appreciate CounselLink's robust billing management capabilities, particularly its ability to streamline invoice creation, submission, and tracking, which significantly reduces administrative burden and accelerates payment cycles. However, some users have reported that CounselLink can feel sluggish at times, with slow loading speeds impacting productivity. This is a recurring complaint that LexisNexis should address to ensure a seamless user experience. Additionally, while CounselLink's integration with eBillingHub is generally viewed positively, some users find the need for separate websites for certain clients cumbersome and counterintuitive. This fragmentation of access can lead to confusion and disrupt the otherwise streamlined workflow that CounselLink aims to provide. CounselLink's strengths lie in its user-friendly design, efficient billing features, and comprehensive reporting capabilities, making it a valuable asset for legal teams seeking to enhance operational efficiency and gain better visibility into their financial data. However, the occasional slow performance and the somewhat disjointed experience with client-specific websites are areas that LexisNexis should address to solidify CounselLink's position as a top-tier legal management solution. Overall, CounselLink is best suited for legal departments and law firms of all sizes looking to streamline their operations and improve financial transparency, particularly those who prioritize ease of use and efficient billing processes.

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