As more legal service providers become technology developers, it's no surprise that their tech products are being paired with the more manual and bespoke offerings. In fact, it's often their biggest selling point. And it's what drove Lexicon, which for over a decade has been providing practice management support for family law firms, to become one of the newest entrants to the legal tech market.

This week, the company announced the launch of its eponymous legal practice management platform for law firms, which comes bundled with legal support services. The platform is the expansion of an older practice management platform Lexicon built internally for one of its clients, and the company's first public technology offering.

To be sure, with many practice management products already on the market, Lexicon will have its work cut out for it. But the company is betting its focus on user interface design and a more holistic end-to-end service is what law firms need.

What it is: Lexicon is a practice management platform that offers billing, client intake, document management, matter management, and record and timekeeping capabilities. Firms can use each of the functionalities as much or as little as they chose, and customize them to meet their particular demands. Lexicon CEO Scott Brennan said that "within each practice management area, you can have a workflow that is completely separate from the other practice management areas."

He explained, "When you set up a matter, you select the matter type, and that will automatically populate the document management systems with the folders you know you need for that practice area. And it will automatically put you on a path where you see the workflow for that type of work. [But] because not every case is a cookie cutter, you can still chose, as the attorney or paralegal, to skip around within that."

Users are also able to customize their own individual dashboards, while firm administrators can limit what certain users see and access.

The Lexicon platform further looks to accommodate law firms by integrating with what Brennan called "ancillary services," essentially human resources, information, and accounting systems. The idea is to allow firms to use their preferred systems alongside the Lexicon platform.

Beyond technology: To be sure, Lexicon is not just a technology offering, but a service one as well. As of its launch, Lexicon will include three distinct support services: "Virtual Receptionist," which sees Lexicon staff managing a firm's calls; "Marketing Solutions," where Lexicon manages a firm's marketing; and "Recruiting," where Lexicon supports or manages a firm's hiring process.

Brennan said while each of the services can be used without the Lexicon technology platform, the services "go really well with the software." With Lexicon's client intake feature, for instance, "we can actually see your attorneys' availability and schedule an initial consult. We can look at the matter type that the potential client is calling about, then we can actually tell [the attorneys]."

Competition: Lexicon joins a long list of practice management platforms law firms can already chose from, including Clio, Firm Central, Litify, Law Ruler, AdvoLogix, Tabs3, and Amicus Online, just to name a few. However, Brennan believes Lexicon differentiates in two key ways. The first is the platform's user interface, which he called "very clean, very easier to understand," and a big advantage in this "complex area of business."

When considering the competition, he added, "I don't know that I would say I feel like I'm always even in the same software bundle when I move from one part of their software to the other."

The second differentiator Brennan sees is Lexicon's support service offerings, and "the fact that they can be fully bundled in with the software you buy and customized to your firm. I get excited about it because I see how powerful it's been for our other clients."