Paying full Clio. Using a third of it.
Clio is one of the most capable practice-management suites on the market. It's also priced per seat and built broad — for every practice area at once. Solo immigration firms often pay for a wide platform and live in one corner of it.
We’re Protomated. We help solo and small immigration firms run their practice on tools sized to how they actually work.
Let’s be fair to Clio: it’s a serious platform. Case management, billing, document handling, scheduling, client portal, a deep integrations marketplace. If you want one suite to run an entire firm and you’ll use most of it, Clio is a reasonable answer. We’re not anti-Clio.
But Clio is priced per user, per month, and it’s built to serve every practice area — which means a solo immigration attorney is often paying full freight for a platform they use a slice of, while the parts that matter most to immigration work (WhatsApp intake, dormant-client follow-up tuned to USCIS timelines) still aren’t there. If that’s you, the question isn’t “is Clio good” — it’s “is Clio the right shape for a one-person immigration practice.”
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | LegalContext | Clio |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | LegalContext flat, whole firm | Per user, per month |
| Cost as you add staff | Unchanged | Rises with every seat |
| Built for | Solo & small immigration practices | Every practice area, all firm sizes |
| WhatsApp & SMS intake | Built in | Add-on or third-party integration |
| Dormant-client follow-up | Tuned to immigration timelines | Manual / general-purpose |
| AI features | Included in the operations layer | Clio Duo — separate paid add-on |
| Replaces case management? | No — runs alongside Clio | It is the practice-management suite |
Why teams pick LegalContext
Flat pricing, not per-seat
LegalContext is $29/mo solo and $79/mo for a 2–5 attorney firm — whole firm, flat. Add a paralegal next year and the price doesn't move. No per-user multiplier.
Shaped for immigration, not everything
Clio serves every practice area, so nothing is tuned to yours. The operations setup we build is immigration-specific — WhatsApp intake, follow-up keyed to status renewals and naturalization timelines.
A roadmap, not a migration
You don't have to leave Clio to fix what's missing. The free assessment shows the gaps; we layer modern intake and follow-up on top of whatever you run today.
Frequently asked
Should I cancel Clio?
Not necessarily. If Clio is running your billing, documents, and matters well and you use enough of it to justify the per-seat cost, keep it. The gap for immigration solos is usually the operations layer — intake and follow-up — which can run alongside Clio. The free assessment tells you whether it’s a layer-on-top fix or a bigger rethink.
How is this different from Clio Duo?
Clio Duo is Clio’s own AI add-on, priced per user and tied to the Clio interface. The operations layer we set up is immigration-specific and works regardless of which case system you run — useful if you’re on MyCase or PracticePanther too, or if you’d rather not deepen a single-vendor dependency.
What does the alternative cost over a year?
LegalContext is $948/year flat for a solo ($29/mo), and $79/mo at the firm tier — whole firm. Clio, billed per seat across tiers, typically runs well above that for a multi-person firm. If you already pay for Clio, adding the operations layer is an addition, not a replacement — and the assessment helps you decide if that’s the right call.
Does it handle WhatsApp intake?
Yes. Immigration clients reach you on WhatsApp, often in another language. The intake we build captures WhatsApp, SMS, email, and web forms in one screened queue — something Clio leaves to add-ons or integrations.
We're a 3-attorney firm. Does the math still work?
Often better. Per-seat pricing punishes you for having staff; flat pricing doesn’t. At the $79/mo firm tier the whole practice is covered. We’ll run the actual numbers against your current Clio spend during the assessment so it’s a real comparison, not a guess.