How LS Family Law streamline legal practice administration with SILQ Founded in 2018 by Principal Leith Sinclair, LS Family Law focuses almost exclusively on high conflict matters, securing business through word-of-mouth. Leith began using SILQ in 2024, after finding her current legal practice management system no longer served her needs. That platform had become more expensive and less aligned with sole practitioners. Leith recalls that licensing suddenly jumped to require a minimum of three licences, even though she only needed one. More critically, she found that when Queensland Law Society (QLS) Trust examiners raised issues, her previous provider either could not or would not modify the system to comply. That experience crystallised the pain point: she needed practice management software that was not just feature-rich, but also responsive, accessible, and capable of supporting evolving Trust accounting expectations in Queensland. Enter SILQ. How does SILQ solve the challenges of running a family law practice? A study conducted in October 2022 revealed that small practices (1-4 principals) made up 93% of the Australian legal landscape with a whopping 84% being sole practitioners. That number has been steadily rising as legal practitioners move to smaller firms or branch out on their own for better work-life balance and flexibility. Just like Leith, who became a sole practitioner to better balance working and parenthood. As a sole practitioner running a high conflict family law practice in Queensland, Leith uses SILQ legal practice management software to simplify administration, support Trust compliance and free up more time for complex client work. Now, using SILQ, Leith spends less time in the back office and more time "on the tools" with clients. Leith's biggest constraint is time. At the time of writing, she currently has 17 people on a waitlist for initial consultations: "All of them will take at least an hour on the phone." She is also dealing with a Court system under pressure and clients who expect continuity of representation in complex, detail heavy disputes. "When you're a sole practitioner, clients want to know who will represent them." She notes being double listed in Court. "Client tolerance [for a different practitioner in the Court environment] is probably quite low, particularly in high conflict matters. Plenty of potential future clients are happy to wait until I am available rather than choosing a different lawyer." Against this backdrop, administrative work and Trust compliance can become overwhelming if not handled efficiently. To stay client-focused, Leith deliberately keeps her business model and systems simple. She relies on a bookkeeper who is also a CPA and an accountant who is also a lawyer. SILQ's integrations with Xero and other well-known software solutions, including Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, NetDocuments , AplyID and InfoTrack to name a few, help all parties seamlessly complete their work, tying everything together. Why choose SILQ over other legal practice management systems? LS Family Law chose SILQ because it combines certified Trust accounting , accessible design for sole practitioners and genuinely responsive Australian based support . For a time poor sole practitioner dealing with complex, high conflict family law matters, those factors mattered more than headline pricing. Leith had "heard about SILQ ages ago" , but initially misunderstood that it was not suitable for Queensland Trust accounting. Colleagues clarified that SILQ did meet the necessary requirements. Trust account responsibility rests always with the Director or Principal of a legal practice. Therefore, it is crucial for Directors to be across the software in which data is entered - output quality rests upon input quality. SILQ onboarding and support with a real person, locally What's more, when seeking dedicated onboarding and resolving issues, Leith found SILQ to be easy to contact and very open to aligning the software to her needs and Law Society requirements. "I've never heard [from SILQ] that can't be done , which is so reassuring," says Leith. "I can't write software code, and I need service providers to adapt their services to suit my business when, and where, necessary." Instead, what stood out with SILQ was accessibility and support. Leith highlights the impact of her onboarding manager: "The support and the onboarding, particularly from Keith ... they really went well above and beyond." SILQ took exports from her previous system and did the heavy lifting on migration, even making adjustments in the background where needed. From there, training was hands-on and practical. SILQ's Onboarding Manager Keith spent, "probably the better part of two days actually giving me training," Leith recalls. The learning experience was intentionally flexible rather than rigid. "He would just casually show different ways to do the same thing that just kind of planted the seed," she says. That approach built confidence. "There wasn't a linear or a certain way I had to remember to do each task. I could click into different things and go and approach it from different angles, which is good." For a busy sole practitioner, being able to "just start clicking buttons" and work things out is critical. For Leith, price was not the deciding factor. Though she admits, "What is extra wonderful about SILQ is that their pricing is extremely competitive." Instead, she values a provider whose goal aligned with her own efficiency and compliance. In her words, with SILQ "there's a really different attitude, you know, that let's go and do this." How SILQ improves Trust compliance, administration and your day-to-day practice SILQ has simplified LS Family Law's Trust accounting, reduced external examination preparation from hours to minutes, and streamlined everyday tasks like timesheets, invoicing and cost notices. The system now underpins bookkeeping, accounting and matter management without adding unnecessary complexity. SILQ reduces the time taken to prepare for external Trust audits: From 4 hours to 30 minutes One of the clearest measurable improvements Leith has experienced when using SILQ is in external Trust examinations. Before SILQ, preparing for an examination could take around four hours. With SILQ and her current systems in place, Leith estimates that the latest audit "took me probably about 30 minutes this morning." She credits this to having "all the systems in place nicely" and to SILQ's structured workflows: "You can't stuff it up. It's so sequential." Trust accounting itself has become far more manageable. Leith describes SILQ Trust processes as "straightforward" and notes that when anomalies appear, "it's a user error, it's not SILQ". She also appreciates SILQ's flexibility in responding to specific Queensland requirements, including formatting invoices to comply with Regulation 58 guidelines. "When I was being onboarded with SILQ ... I didn't like how my invoice was looking with regard to formatting for the Regulation 58 notice. SILQ ... found a way to do it," she says. That contrasted with six years of trying and failing to achieve the same outcome in her previous system. Most used SILQ features : Matters and time sheets Day-to-day administration is likewise streamlined. Time entries are central: "Time sheets are what we use the most," Leith says, highlighting that she likes to keep her timesheet open in the background, so it is "easy to go and enter it." Matter dashboards give her an at a glance view of a file and make standard tasks simple: "Matters are good because you get the whole dashboard and you can just go and do what you need. For example, I've got to do a cost notice today ... I go to one screen and I just type it all up. It's really easy." Financial integrations SILQ also underpins LS Family Law's broader financial workflow. Leith's bookkeeper uses SILQ's award-winning bank feeds and reconciliations, while her accountant handles higher‑level oversight . "All of that gets done. I can't remember the last time I logged into Xero because it's all integrated," Leith says. Importantly, her external team found SILQ intuitive, even though they had not used it before. "That is a really good litmus test," she notes. "If your bookkeeper or accountant complain about a system, then you know that there's a problem with it. If they go, 'It's really easy', you can't really ask for more." Best thing about SILQ: Accessibility, simplicity and support that solves your problems When asked to name the single best thing about SILQ, Leith initially answers "simplicity" before refining it to "accessibility" . "The accessibility for the user on a practical day-to-day basis, combined with the support that you get is phenomenal." Unlike previous providers where extra help meant booking and paying for consulting time, Leith describes SILQ's support as "kind of instant" and focused on solving problems rather than deflecting them. For LS Family Law, the result is more than just smoother workflows. SILQ allows Leith to keep her practice model lean, maintain high standards of Trust compliance and preserve her limited time for what matters most: working on complex, high conflict family law cases and connecting with the clients who trust her with it. SILQ will grow with you As Leith sums up, SILQ is "a very simple bit of software" with "potential for growth". "It's very suitable for those larger firms as well," thus making SILQ a strong, future‑proofed choice for all Australian law practices.