Washington Maritime Law Firm Uses Boxtop to Gain IT Confidence

Blue Water Legal is a maritime law firm with eight to ten staff members. Located in Edmonds, WA, Blue Water Legal is different from other firms that do workers’ compensation or personal injury cases, as their focus is specifically on helping injured maritime workers.

Blue Water Legal wanted a cloud solution to enhance their IT. They also needed access to a support team for both day-to-day issues as well as strategic guidance. In 2021, Blue Water Legal chose Boxtop to meet all their IT needs.

Challenges

Blue Water Legal is owned by attorneys Amanda Peters and Amie Peters. Lacking an IT department of their own, Amanda and Amie functioned as their firm’s “pseudo-IT department,” but they quickly found that was not an efficient or effective solution. Blue Water Legal used IT consultants when major technology issues arose, but they lacked solid IT guidance and day-to-day support. Amie says they felt like they were constantly updating or replacing hardware without any real benefits to the firm.

Working remotely is nothing new to Blue Water Legal. Even prior to the pandemic, Amie traveled a lot, so she was already comfortable logging in from outside the office. However, there were some flaws in their setup. Amie says, “Whenever I would be traveling, I would have to log out of what I was doing and log back in. If something did not save properly, that is hours of work lost, and we bill hourly so that is money we cannot get back.” When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and all staff went remote, more issues became evident. If one of the staff was having problems with equipment or a connection, Amie or Amanda were the ones to troubleshoot, which was difficult with people working outside the office.

Security is always a concern for Blue Water Legal due to the nature of the firm’s clients and became even more vital when staff began working from home. Blue Water Legal used an outside company to help with the monitoring of their cybersecurity, but the firm was not happy with the relationship as response time was often delayed weeks or even months for simple issues. As they continued to grow, Amanda says, “We knew we needed a partner who could deal with our IT so we could focus on what we do best, and that is practicing law.”

Approach

Blue Water Legal was familiar with Tabush Group and Boxtop. Having attended several Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG) events, they had a chance to meet and hear Darragh Fitzpatrick, Partner & Executive VP at Tabush Group, talk about cybersecurity and technology. Amie mentioned she also spoke to several WILG members who are also clients of Tabush Group, and they gave high praises.

Blue Water Legal saw the many benefits Boxtop offers. They could achieve increased productivity by not worrying about losing their work. Boxtop would also provide the firm mobility and security, enabling attorneys and staff to work anywhere and on any device. Blue Water Legal was no stranger to the cloud either. The firm was an early adopter, implementing a cloud-based case management application several years ago, knowing that someday they would likely move everything to the cloud. When the firm began exploring Boxtop, Amanda says, “It made our decision easier to move to Boxtop. From a technology perspective, it seemed to be a good fit with where our firm was already headed.”

Results

Amie says the onboarding process to Boxtop was smooth and easy. “Tabush Group worked around our schedule. It was a busy time for us, and they went at our pace.” She mentions the migration was a straightforward, well-documented process with little disruption to their firm. “Tabush Group was great at implementing what we wanted regarding specific applications, too. We wanted to keep a lot of our software, like Egnyte and TimeCamp, and Tabush Group heard those requests and set us up for success.”

Boxtop addressed several challenges that Blue Water Legal faced. First, it gave them access to a responsive and capable IT team and a help desk for any issues. Amanda says, “Our staff can connect with anyone on the support team and feel confident they get the help they need in a timely manner. It takes the responsibility out of our hands.” Amanda adds, “Our dedicated Client Manager regularly checks in and offers proactive recommendations. And if we have a question, the response time is incredibly fast.”

Boxtop provides flexibility, mobility, and business continuity. Amie says she appreciates that she can start working from her house, and when she then goes to the office, she can pick up right where she left off and not worry about losing or redoing anything. “Plus, all the previous network issues are no longer a problem, and now we can focus on just our work and not our IT.”

Boxtop provides enhanced security for Blue Water Legal. Boxtop is built with enterprise-level encryption, firewalls, and malware protection. Amie says, “The regular cybersecurity training and updates Tabush Group does for its clients are helpful and it gives our staff access to subject matter experts in the cybersecurity field. We really enjoy the test phishing emails Tabush Group sends out. It allows us to look for areas of improvement in the education of our staff.”

With the help of Boxtop, Blue Water Legal has been able to gain access to an IT support team allowing them to increase productivity, attain mobility with flexibility, and improve their security.