Robert Ambrogi Blog
Centerbase, a Dallas-based company providing cloud legal practice management software for mid-sized law firms, has has acquired Legalfit, a Kansas City company that provides web marketing and content management technology tailored specifically for small and mid-sized law firms.
Centerbase says the acquisition enables it to expand its practice management product — which already offers a broad set of billing, accounting and practice management tools — to enable mid-sized law firms to manage the complete client and matter lifecycle.
“It’s a huge step forward in our mission to power the growth of law firms,” said John Forbes, CEO and founder of Centerbase. “With Legalfit, we are able to provide our clients with a robust, scalable website content management system built specifically for their business, in addition to the practice management and billing suite we offer, bringing true end-to-end visibility of the entire client lifecycle.”
Read about Centerbase in the LawNext Legal Technology Directory.
Last August, Centerbase received a growth equity investment from Mainsail Partners, a growth equity firm that invests exclusively in fast-growing, bootstrapped software companies. Although the amount of the investment was not disclosed, Forbes told me at the time it was “really significant.”
Legalfit has developed a proprietary content management system that it uses to build websites that it says are easily customizable by customers and that drive strong SEO performance. Its sites include dashboards that provide customers with real-time data on their website’s analytics and rankings.
“Simply from a product and market standpoint, it adds so much value to our clients to unite these products and give mid-sized law firms the first client relationship management (CRM) tool that tracks the complete client lifecycle, enabling them to not only improve operational efficiency, but drive more business,” Forbes said.
Legalfit was founded in 2015 by Robert Zhou, an entrepreneur who previously developed end-to-end software solutions for self-storage facilities. More than 1,500 law firms use Legalfit, its website says.
“By combining the best-in-class websites and practice management software, this provides a unique opportunity to deepen product integration and accelerate innovation to help law firms grow faster,” Zhou said.
Today’s acquisition follows Centerbase’s acquisition last September of Family Law Software, workflow software for family law practices. Because family law firms often have paperwork-intensive intake processes, Centerbase says, Legalfit’s software will facilitate that process by enabling clients to fill out intake forms and get access to the client portal directly on their firm websites.
Evan Benet, Centerbase’s vice president of marketing, said the acquisition of Legalfit is a major step for the company in supporting the growth of its customers.
“By combining the back-office billing and practice management suite in Centerbase with a client facing website and marketing tool, we can offer firms a complete package that not only improves operational efficiency, but also enables them to drive new business and measure the impact of marketing efforts,” he said.
Founded in 2015, Centerbase’s primary customers are mid-sized law firms practicing in the areas of civil litigation, insurance defense, family law, and criminal law, but the firms also span such practice areas as business, employment, immigration, intellectual property, real estate, and others.