During the COVID-19 outbreak, one legal tech company is looking to throw a lifeline to lawyers or legal organizations that need finances or guidance to migrate some of their practice to the cloud. 

Today, cloud-based practice management platform Clio announced it has committed $1 million to its disaster relief program to assist lawyers' transition to remote work. Part of the program includes free or discounted Clio licenses and software onboarding and implementation support.

Clio noted that while financial status will be an important factor in determining if an applicant will receive free or subsidized licenses, it won't be the only factor. Other factors to be considered include the urgency in which the applicant needs to become operational in the cloud and the needs of their clients.

Clio's disaster fund also includes hosting joint webinars with the American Bar Association and various state and law societies it's previously worked with. Clio will target content to those associations' members and provide insights regarding remote service delivery challenges, according to the company.

Participants interested in subsidized licenses fill out a form on Clio's website and explain why they need assistance for migration to the cloud. Clio will evaluate submissions and provide assistance on a rolling basis, the company said. Although Clio is geared toward the solo and boutique market, the desire to shift to the cloud is the main criterion for selection.

"[With] the urgency around COVID-19 we should do everything we can to make cost a non-issue. There's also a wide amount of lawyers that have a solid financial footing but need help navigating this change, they need the know-how and playbook [too]," said Clio CEO and co-founder Jack Newton. 

He added, "The fund is not at the scope or scale to help individual law firms to continue operating their business but help their transition to the cloud and allow them to get their feet under themselves."

To be sure, Clio has launched its disaster relief program previously after the 2016 wildfires in Alberta, Canada, and in 2017 in response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Unlike other disasters Clio has responded to, COVID-19 has no boundaries and its scale is impacting all lawyers' practices internationally, Newton said. 

Indeed, the recent shift to remotely working has been dramatic for some firms—but not all. For the firms that haven't included remote access and cloud-based tech into their business continuity plans, mandated closures have caught them off guard. In turn, the need for cloud adoption is no longer a drill for solo practitioners or large law firms, Newton said.