LEAP Legal Software

LEAP Legal Software is a privately held technology company that develops practice management software for the legal profession which includes legal accounting, document assembly, management and legal publishing assets.^[1][2] LEAP Legal Software provides a cloud-based legal practice management software to clients in Australia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand.^[1] LEAP is used by more than 61,000 users worldwide^[3] and it is developed by LEAP Dev.^[4]

LEAP Legal Software

Company type	Private
Industry	Software Development
Founded	1992; 33 years ago (1992) in Sydney, Australia
Founder	Christian Beck
Headquarters	Sydney , Australia
Area served	Australia Canada Ireland New Zealand United Kingdom United States
Key people	Christian Beck (Founder) David Hill (Non-Executive Director) Marcus Fletcher (Non-Executive Director) Mark Burgess (CEO of LEAP Developments, Director) Richard Hugo-Hamman (Executive Chairman)
Products	LEAP LEAP 365 (Software as a service)
Revenue	US$50 million (2019)
Number of employees	600+

The company is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

History

LEAP Legal Software was founded in 1992 by Christian Beck.^[5] In 2008, LEAP acquired LegalPax, a provider of automated forms and precedents to law firms in Queensland.^[6] At the beginning of 2010, LEAP launched a cloud software called LEAP Expedite.^[7] It also purchased BING! Software, a family law precedents business.^[8] LEAP Office 10 was launched at the NSW State Legal Conference in August 2010.^[9] In 2012, LEAP Expedite was replaced with a rewritten cloud product.^[7] LEAP began rolling out the cloud version of its software to law firms in Australia in January 2013.^[10]

LEAP expanded to the UK and US markets in 2014^[11] and 2015.^[12]

LEAP 365 was the first software-as-a-service legal application for the Australian market.^[13] LEAP 365 was released for the UK and US markets at an event at Yankee Stadium on September 12, 2016.^[8]

In 2019, LEAP entered into a joint venture with LexisNexis Legal Professional to operate PCLaw | Time Matters.^[10]

LEAP expanded to Canada in 2020 and to New Zealand in 2022.^[14]

In 2024, a Melbourne lawyer using LEAP's AI software was referred to complaints body after AI generated made-up case citations in family court.^[15]

Software

LEAP Legal Software's flagship product is LEAP, a legal practice productivity solution. The key features of LEAP include legal practice management, document assembly and management, automated matter types and forms, a client and contact database, file sharing, time recording, billing and trust accounting tools, and legal publishing assets.^[2] All LEAP data is stored in AWS (Amazon Web Services) in dedicated facilities around the world.^[10]

LEAP Legal Software introduced mobile app integration in mid-2013.^[16] In November 2021, LEAP created the LEAP App for iPad.^[17]

Integration with Microsoft

LEAP was integrated with Microsoft Office in 2002. In January 2016, LEAP completed an integration with the new Microsoft Office 365 software allowing complex document assembly to occur in the cloud rather than the desktop.^[18]

Awards

• Winner, “Best Software as a Service – USA (SMB),” 2021–2022 International Cloud Computing Awards Program, The Cloud Awards^{[citation needed]}
• Winner, “Overall Case Management Platform of the Year,” LegalTech Breakthrough Awards 2021^[19]
• Winner, Established Business of the Year Award and No. 1 in Law Category, Australian Digital Technology Awards 2021^[20]
• Australian Financial Review Top Ten Most Innovative Technology Companies, 2020^[21]
• Australian Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 in 2004,^[22] 2008^[23] and 2009^[24]

Leadership

• Christian Beck, Founder^[25]

Corporate development

Acquisitions

LEAP Legal Software has acquired several companies and brands:

• Law Perfect in 2007^[26]
• BING! in 2008^[27]
• LegalPax in 2008^[28]
• LawWare in 2012^[29]
• Peapod Legal Software in 2013^[30]
• Edgebyte in 2014^[31]
• Perfect Software (Perfect Books) in 2015^[32]
• Turbolaw in 2020 ^{[citation needed]}
• DivorceMate in 2021^[33]

Internal start-up: InfoTrack

Initially a division of LEAP known as LEAP Searching, InfoTrack was launched as a separate company in 2012 and has since been brought under the umbrella company of Australian Technology Investors.^[34][35] It had a reported annual revenue of A$144 million in 2015.^[36]