HoudiniESQ is a new web-based practice management system that can be hosted on Windows, Mac, or Linux and used from any browser. It has the potential to completely redefine legal practice management systems by handling data and features in innovative ways. It installs quickly and pricing is based on the number of users. The interface is designed like a Mac program and focuses on customization of records and related "events" to provide a holistic view of matters.

1. www.technolawyer.com
TechnoFeature
TM
Practice management and technology articles written by experts.
Review: HoudiniESQ: Practice Management
in Your Private Cloud
Seth Rowland, Esq.
February 23, 2010
cently released HoudiniESQ, a REINVENTING THE INTERFACE
HoudiniESQ practice management system that HoudiniESQ doesn’t look like any-
www.houdiniesq.com works entirely in a browser. It’s a thing you have ever seen on a Mi-
TechnoScore: 4.0 database, Web server, document crosoft Windows PC. Even though
1 = Lowest Possible Score; manager, email manager, calen- it runs entirely in a browser, it also
5 = Highest Possible Score dar manager, and private cloud, doesn’t look like anything you
all wrapped in one. It works in any have ever seen on the Internet.
A
browser and can be installed on Houdini defies easy categoriza-
nd now for something any platform, including a hosted tion. It is a cross between Apple
“completely different” platform. It can also use any da- OS X, Solaris, and something en-
in law firm practice tabase or none at all. tirely new.
management — Houdi-
niESQ, a new practice manage- HoudiniESQ has the potential to
ment system developed from completely redefine what a legal HoudiniESQ has the potential
LOGICBit. You can host Houdi- practice management system is,
niESQ on a Windows, Mac, or how it should handle data, and to completely redefine
Linux server, and use it in any what it should do. what a legal practice
Web browser. Sounds good, but
how well does it work? In this INSTALLATION AND PRICING management system is,
TechnoFeature, practice man- HoudiniESQ installs in five min- how it should handle data,
agement and document assem- utes, seriously. You can download
bly specialist Seth Rowland, Esq. HoudiniESQ from the Web site. and what it should do.
takes HoudiniESQ for a spin and Once you register and receive a
presents his findings — in consid- license code, you are ready to go.
erable detail as always. If you are a solo practitioner, you LOGICBit recommends running
can use the software “for free.” If your browser (Internet Explorer,
INTRODUCTION you have more than one user, then Safari, Chrome, or Firefox) in full-
What if you could build your own you pay a one-time base “server” screen view. When you do, you
practice management system to fee of $792, and an annual per are presented with a desktop
your specifications? What would user fee of $96. If you want LOG- empty of all icons except a single
happen if you could “reinvent” ICBit to host your database, you’ll launch bar along the top left of the
practice management? What pay a monthly fee of $48/user per screen. From here you can launch
could you imagine if you had no month. your matter dashboard, your mat-
obligations to an installed user- ter manager, your calendar, your
base? What if the constraints I installed the software on a fairly email, and your integrated chat.
of “Microsoft Windows” design powerful desktop machine (Win- Yes chat. HoudiniESQ is a Web-
didn’t apply to you? What would dows Vista 64 custom-box with a based system built in the age of
you do if you were given a “sec- quad-core processor and 8 GB of social media; it includes instant
ond” chance? RAM). I ran a brief wizard, defining messaging and services such as
a localhost (Web server). After I Twitter.
Frank Rivera was the “architect entered details about my firm, the
of Time Matters World Server” (a system sent a registration email It is fair to call HoudiniESQ the
version of LexisNexis’ Time Mat- message to LOGICBit. I then had first case management system
ters that works in a Web-brows- to wait until I got sent a license built for the Mac. You can install
er). He has since started his own code to start playing with the soft- the server on Windows, Mac OS
company, LOGICBit, which re- ware. X, and Linux. But HoudiniESQ
Copyright © 2010 PeerViews Inc. All rights reserved.

2. www.technolawyer.com
TechnoFeature | Page 2
TM
functions much like a Mac pro- documents, notes, research, HoudiniESQ has all the related
gram. The installer is the program, email, timeslips, etc., each in their record types you would expect
in one self-contained unit; it works own data tables. from a full-powered practice
out of the box once licensed. The management system, with many
navigation appears as a floating Depending on the case manage- useful innovations. What differs
bar that spawns “fly menus.” In- ment program, you may be stuck is how they are managed “under
formation is presented in translu- with the fields defined by the soft- the hood.”
cent windows that blend into the ware developer, or you may have
background and you can resize varying ability to add or configure Second, HoudiniESQ supports
them by dragging on the bottom- custom fields for matter and con- unlimited, three dimensional cus-
right corner. tact records. For example, Time tomization. Rather than “form
Matters, Amicus Attorney Premium styles” that mask a fixed database
For someone as embedded in the Edition, and AdvologixPM offer ex- table, HoudiniESQ enables you to
PC-World as I am (though I have tensive ability to customize, with add unlimited custom fields on a
dabbled with my son’s MacBook), customizations controlled by prac- contact, matter, or event. Each of
it is a new experience. I found my- tice type or classification code. these records has a “type” and a
self having to “rethink” how I use a “status.” For each type, you can
computer; a bit of a culture shock. And while related records can be define custom fields and des-
Most Mac users will likely get it in- displayed in a “chronology,” they ignate custom statuses for that
stantly. are in separate database tables type. Then, for each status on
which limit your ability to address a type of record, you can define
There are graphic icons that iden- and present these records as a custom fields.
tify all the features of the program “whole” on a matter. In Time Mat-
in picture menus. I recommend ters, you can display a timeline, If you change the record type or
watching all the videos and at- use power views to aggregate the status, the data in the custom
tending the daily demo given by lists in one HTML window, or use fields on the prior type or status is
Frank at 1 PM EST each day, for the related records tab. In Amicus preserved intact. This means you
this is a really powerful program. Attorney you have the chronology can build “phases” into a mat-
Much of the power is hidden in the brad. In AdvologixPM, you have ter, with separate fields for each
interface unless you know what configurable “sublists” on the pri- phase.
icons to click to unlock it. mary account, matter, or contact
record. MATTER DESKTOP, MATTER
DASHBOARD, AND ELMO
HoudiniESQ has all HoudiniESQ changes the para- There is a lot to this program. One
digm. First, it is truly three di- of the most innovative is the mat-
the related record types mensional. There are matters, ter desktop. It functions much like
you would expect from contacts, and events; that’s it. All the matter journal in Time Matters,
related records are “events” and which likely inspired this feature. It
a full-powered practice in a single table. They are events displays boxes or widgets, with in-
management system, with in the sense that they occur at formation from all related records.
a particular time and endure for It differs in that you can resize,
many useful innovations. a particular time. HoudiniESQ is move, hide, and completely con-
“event-centric.” Everything a law- figure each widget. As you change
yer does is “billable.” the matter, the data instantly up-
COVERING THE BASICS IN A dates and you can act upon it.
NEW WAY Rather than triggering a timeslip,
Most matter management sys- the event itself is the timeslip. There is a separate matter dash-
tems are three dimensional. There Since everything you do is an board, also configurable. The dif-
are matters, contacts, and related event, you can view everything ference is the “desktop” requires
records. Both matters and con- on the Group Calendars. Most you to select a matter in the search
tacts have a basic pre-defined set people will leave the default to menu. The dashboard enables you
of fields. Related records are of- show only calendar events on to see a list of all your matters in a
ten fragmented into events, tasks, their calendar. column, and then display the most
Copyright © 2010 PeerViews Inc. All rights reserved.

3. www.technolawyer.com
TechnoFeature | Page 3
TM
important information. The “de- views, as well as group calendar- now, you can either create print-
tails” page includes Events, ToDos, ing. While the calendar is an ex- able views or use the powerful
and related Contacts, generally the citing technical achievement, in API (Application Programming In-
most important information on a its implementation, it is not much terface) with your own report de-
file. There are also bottom tabs that different than the other practice signer to build reports.
give you access to all the other re- management systems; it gives
lated records and details, such as you what you expect it to give. As a document assembly special-
documents, billing, email, etc. ist, I look at document and data
However, the HoudiniESQ cal- work flow. I am very happy with
The desktop can also include endar does offer some innova- the unlimited custom fields. How-
ELMO, a feature sort of inspired by tive features. You can quickly ever, at present the ability to use
the red furry Sesame Street char- filter by event codes (filtering those fields is limited to merge
acter. In the world of HoudiniESQ, tasks, events, and all other date- templates using Microsoft Word’s
ELMO is a window into your up- stamped related record types). limited merge capability in a tool
coming events and tasks that up- Further, each user can have mul- that is under development. There
dates regularly throughout the day. tiple overlapping calendars. For are plans to build a Web-based
In other words, a tickler (get it — example, you might have a work RTF editor that includes drag and
tickle me Elmo). calendar and a private calendar, drop fields, but it too will likely be
with the former being public to limited to merge data, rather than
INTEGRATED SEARCH your other firm members. Rather rule-based document assembly.
The backbone of HoudiniESQ is than switching calendars, you can There are ways to use the API to
Houdini IRIS, the Information Re- display them together in a sin- get data from HoudiniESQ, but
pository and Indexing Service. gle calendar view. And because at present no easy tool exists for
This search engine, designed HoudiniESQ is Web-centric, you mapping data to a HotDocs an-
by Rivera, is responsible for the can synchronize your calendar swer file, or sending the data to
product’s lightning speed in find- with Google Calendar. DocXpress, Exari, or ContractEx-
ing records and displaying related press.
records. Search is not an after-
thought, but an integral part of the You can have an office HoudiniESQ’s billing components
system. handle basic billing, invoicing,
with Macs, Linux, and trust accounting. The invoice
You can use Boolean operators and PCs using the same builder is quite sophisticated,
AND and OR as well as the wild enabling you to drill back to the
cards * and ? in your search. practice management source records. The system, at
Searches can be case-sensitive. system without Bootcamp present, however, lacks supports
You can search globally or desig- for alternative billing structures.
nate specific fields. You can spec- or internal warfare. I also did not see options for
ify ranges. You can designate cer- batch-processing of bills on multi-
tain terms as more important than ple matters, as found in dedicated
other terms. You can use fuzzy NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS billing systems for example.
searches. You can limit it to your Realize that HoudiniESQ is a new
data, your firm’s data, your docu- product. While it has attracted a CONCLUSION: OVERALL RATING
ments, or you can expand your number of high-profile customers, HoudiniESQ represents such a
search out to eDiscovery (docu- some gaps exist. radical departure in design from
ments and email) or the Internet, the other practice management
to Google Scholar or Lexis for le- HoudiniESQ lacks a robust report systems that it is hard to rate.
gal case research. designer. You can create all sorts Some of its features are far ahead
of views and displays and print of any other system currently
GROUP CALENDARING them with a clean style sheet. available. And other features are
The main innovation on the calen- But you cannot, at present, cre- still clearly under development.
dar is that it works in a browser ate a custom report with group- At present, I would give it a Tech-
like a desktop application. It sup- ings and subtotals. I am told such noScore of 4.0 on a scale of 1.0
ports daily, weekly, and monthly a designer is on the roadmap. For to 5.0.
Copyright © 2010 PeerViews Inc. All rights reserved.

4. www.technolawyer.com
TechnoFeature | Page 4
TM
If you are a Penguin-devotee or a same practice management sys- ters users. After all, Time Matters
Mac fanatic (solidly in the “I hate tem without Bootcamp or internal was built to look and feel like Win-
Microsoft camp”), you will love warfare. dows Outlook. I think the industry
HoudiniESQ. This is a practice is ready for change and we are
management system for you with LOGICBIT’S RESPONSE happy to oblige.
all of the features of a Windows- We invited LOGICBit to respond
based system, without Windows. to this TechnoFeature. Chief Ar- “I would like to thank Seth Row-
No need to envy your PC col- chitect Frank A. Rivera responded land for taking the time to really
leagues any more. as follows: dive into our product’s feature
set and sharing his professional
If you are a “PC” and want to live “Not just for Apple lovers. Many opinion. We look forward to ad-
a little bit on the wild side, Houdi- Windows users find our product’s dressing his concerns and our
niESQ might be the product for look and feel as well as our ap- products shortcomings, espe-
you. You can be as mobile as you proach to practice management cially those related to document
like. You can have an office with refreshing. A large percentage of automation and assembly in the
Macs, Linux, and PCs using the our clients are former Time Mat- very near future.”
Seth Rowland, Esq. was named TechnoLawyer Consultant of the Year in 2002 for his contributions to TechnoLawyer on
the subject of document assembly and law practice automation. He is a nationally known technologist whose company,
Basha Systems LLC, has helped many law firms build customized practice management and workflow solutions. Please
feel free to visit his blog for the latest on document assembly and practice management.
Contact Seth: sgr@bashasys.com
About TechnoFeature
TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that offers in-depth reporting by leading legal technology and practice management
experts, many of whom have become “household names” in the legal profession. It’s in this newsletter that you’ll find
TechnoLawyer’s oft-quoted formal product reviews and accompanying TechnoScore ratings.
Copyright © 2010 PeerViews Inc. All rights reserved.