Case Study: Smith & Co Solicitors recommend the WillSuite Integration

Background

Rachel Brinkley is the Deputy Head of Private Client at Smith & Co Solicitors, a law firm with offices in Ipswich and Felixtowe that provides expert legal services with a personal approach to client care, wills, trusts, estate planning and probate. Rachel and her team are responsible for the drafting of estate planning documents, client communication, estate administration and probate.

To maintain efficiency and consistency, Rachel adopted the WillSuite app within LEAP,a purpose-built integration designed to streamline the creation of wills, LPAs, Severance of joint tenancy and other estate planning documents directly within the LEAP platform.

The Challenge

Before using WillSuite, the team relied on more manual drafting methods, which often required duplicating client information across different systems and templates. Managing these workflows was time-consuming and made it difficult to ensure accuracy across multiple documents.

When asked about the amount of time WillSuite saves over more manual drafting methods, Rachel explains:

“I'd say off the top of my head at least 50% because the amount of time you'd have to go through to populate all that information in Word with people's addresses and full names and relationships and then moving clauses around and things, it's at least a 50% time saving I would say. And in terms of LPAs, it takes about probably 75% of the time out of it, because it's just so swift and that it's so straightforward to use.

Why the LEAP WillSuite App?

WillSuite was introduced as part of LEAP’s growing suite of integrations aimed at private client professionals. For Rachel, the attraction lay in its seamless automation, logical structure and ease of use for junior team members:

“It’s straightforward and easy to follow. There’s a bit of legal jargon in there where you need it, and I’ve found that the junior members of the team that I’m up have got on with it quite well. So overall it’s intuitive.”

The WillSuite App works directly within the LEAP platform, automatically populating key client data from matter records into will and LPA templates. This eliminates repetitive data entry, reduces the risk of error, and speeds up the entire drafting process.

Rachel adds:

“I think it's really handy in the way it works, the information comes across really quickly. And when you’re drafting a Mirror Will, that’s got to be at least a 75% time saving in my opinion, because it does it for you and you’re just checking it.

Implementation and Support

Smith & Co Solicitors found the setup process straightforward, with minimal disruption to day-to-day work.

“I've trained at least two people, so I've got a solicitor that's retraining from a different area, and I've also got a graduate solicitor apprentice and they picked it up really quickly. I think the key to the onboarding especially is it's straightforward, it's easy to understand. And for somebody who's maybe a bit reluctant to try something new because it is so straightforward, they've picked it up really, really well and really easily.”

Impact and Results

Since adopting the WillSuite App, the team has seen measurable improvements in the amount of time spent drafting Wills and LPAs vs previously manual methods like using a template.

Rachel expressed that drafting Wills using WillSuite is 50% faster, drafting LPAs is 75% faster and the mirroring feature across the board is 75% faster than using a more manual method.

Handling Complex Wills

Rachel notes that the integration is particularly valuable for firms handling complex or unusual Will scenarios:

“And the unusual client situations, I think every client is unusual sometimes with what they say sometimes, I’ve seen everything I really have. But I’d say I think it’s a good piece of software and it can handle the unusual scenarios.”

Conclusion

For Rachel Brinkley and the team at Smith & Co Solicitors, the LEAP WillSuite App has delivered a clear and lasting impact. It saves a considerable amount of time and helps Rachel’s department continue to deliver an outstanding client experience, all from within the familiar LEAP environment.

When asked if Rachel would recommend the WillSuite to other LEAP users or other private client professionals, she replied:

“I certainly would. I’ve had different experiences in different firms, some with firm templates, some with software, and we used to use in this firm a piece of software which it looks like it was designed in the 90s or the 2000s. It was really old and clunky, so I was saying actually that there must be something better out there, so when we found out about WillSuite, I was quite keen to start using it. It’s been really easy to use and It’s worked really well for our firm and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to somebody else.”