Last month, Dallas family law attorney Michelle May O’Neil was featured in a Small Law Lifestyle article for her passion of photography outside of practicing law. From that interview, we discovered that Michelle is also the co-author of two family law titles, and co-creator of three family law mobile applications (apps). Learn more about the content of each app and the impact they have on her family law practice.

For Michelle, the idea to develop apps happened right around the time the iPhone was gaining popularity.  She bought one for herself and was disappointed in all of the games available and lack of apps geared toward adults. She brought the topic up with her CPA who is a forensic accountant in divorces and together they wondered, “What sort of an app can we come up with related to what we do?”

So between Michelle as the divorce lawyer and her forensic accountant, they brainstormed ideas for apps.  It was also at this point that they decided to go into business together.  At first they thought it would be a money-making venture, but soon realized apps are not the way to go for making a lot of money. Instead, they were motivated to come up with ideas to simply help clients involved with family law related issues.

App Content

They thought of many ideas, but decided to work on them one at a time – starting with Cost and Prep, then Estate Divider, and most recently ParenTime. Cost and Prep was the easiest and quickest to develop – released in 2010. The app lists all of the documents that clients need to assemble for their divorce lawyer.  It also serves as a calculator to help figure out divorce expenses that people don’t typically think about such as two houses, two sets of clothes for kids, transportation costs, parking at your lawyer’s office, etc.

Estate Divider was released later in 2010. This app is a calculator spreadsheet primarily used by attorneys for division of assets. For example, you enter the car value and the amount of debt owed on the car.  This exercise can be done with all assets and debt before allocating them accordingly.  The app has the flexibility to play around with various scenarios. There is even an alimony calculator if someone wants to use alimony to offset a property division to make the overall division fairer.

The most complicated app, ParenTime, was just released last month.  It is an interactive calendaring app for parents in different households to better keep track of possession schedules.  If both parents are attached to the app, they can easily communicate changing weekends and such. It is supposed to be a way to help reduce conflict and the amount of time working with a lawyer. The ParenTime app has the standard Texas possession schedule loaded, but it also has the ability to create custom schedules, so users from other states can still use this app to enter their schedule.

Impact on Family Law Practice

The apps are a way for Michelle to differentiate her services from other law firms. She has heard from clients that they were a distinguishing factor in her favor when choosing who to hire.  People like that Michelle is on the cutting edge of technology, and on top of happening topics for family law. According to Michelle, “It seems to have made a difference in clients distinguishing what we have to offer verses a law firm down the street”.

To learn more about these apps for your family law clients, visit www.divorceapps.com.

About the author – Michelle O’Neil