A 120-year-old firm building for the future

For more than a century, Robertsons Solicitors has served clients across South Wales from its Cardiff headquarters. Today the firm employs around 70 people across residential conveyancing, family law, commercial property and private client services.

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Under Managing Director Chris Barber, Robertsons is also evolving. The firm is investing in technology, expanding into new specialisms and positioning itself for continued growth.

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Recent developments include the launch of specialist teams in areas such as military claims and education, reflecting the firm’s ambition to broaden its expertise while maintaining the high level of client service it is known for.

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Technology plays a central role in that strategy. For Chris, modern law firms need tools that support both internal efficiency and excellent client experience. “We’re always thinking about how we can improve the way we operate,” Chris explains. “The right technology helps us grow while making life easier for both our clients and our team.”

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Rethinking how clients pay

One area where Robertsons saw a clear opportunity to improve was payments. Before 2025, the firm relied on a generic payment gateway combined with manual bank transfers. Payments had to be identified on bank statements and reconciled manually against matters.

The process was far from ideal.

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“It was quite clunky for clients,” Chris says. “The experience wasn’t particularly user-friendly, and from an internal perspective it created unnecessary work.”

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More importantly, those tools were not designed specifically for the operational realities of law firms. Chris wanted something better: a system designed for legal workflows that would make it easier for clients to pay and simpler for the firm to manage the process. In 2025, Robertsons adopted Legl to modernise its payment infrastructure.

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The change immediately transformed the client experience. Instead of navigating manual bank transfers, clients received a secure link allowing them to complete payments instantly via card, pay-by-bank or digital wallets.

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For Chris, the importance of digital wallet payments was obvious. “I don’t even carry a wallet anymore,” he says. “I use Apple Pay wherever possible. That’s how people expect to pay today - quickly, easily and securely.” Bringing that same experience into legal services made payments significantly easier for clients.

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The further advantage of this focus on client experience is that clients started making payments much faster than they had done previously. 

A new opportunity during the Actionstep migration

While Legl’s payment tools had already improved the payment experience, Robertsons’ next major technology step unlocked even greater value. When the firm decided to migrate its practice management system to Actionstep, Chris recognised an opportunity to connect the firm’s operational systems more tightly together.

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Because both Legl and Actionstep are cloud-native platforms built with modern APIs, integrating the two systems could eliminate several manual workflow steps. “Moving to a fully cloud-native, API-driven system opens up much more flexibility,” Chris explains. “You can connect systems together properly instead of operating in silos.”

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The integration between Actionstep and Legl allowed Robertsons to do exactly that.

Creating a seamless workflow

With the integration in place, custom payment requests can now be embedded directly into invoices generated in Actionstep. When an invoice is raised, the client automatically receives a secure, Robertsons branded Legl payment link.

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Key information including client details, matter references and payment amounts flows directly between the systems. This eliminates the need to manually copy information between platforms or re-key data.

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The result is a significantly smoother process for both lawyers and the accounts team.

Chris explains,“now everything is connected, which removes steps and simplifies the process. Reconciliation has become much faster.” Instead of manually reviewing bank statements to match payments against matters, the firm now benefits from clearer payment tracking and structured data flowing through the system.

Faster payments and valuable insight

The improvements are visible not just in workflow efficiency but also in payment performance. Clients can now complete transactions in seconds, using the payment methods they already rely on every day such as ApplePay or pay-by-bank.

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The result has been a dramatic acceleration in payment times.

“I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to data,” Chris says. “It’s powerful to see from Legl’s insights dashboard that our average payment time is just two hours. I’m keen to keep a pulse on those firm-wide metrics.”

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The Legl dashboard has helped Chris to get insights on what cash is coming into the firm and thinking about planning for the months ahead. He explains,“it’s useful to see what’s coming through and understand how payments are moving across the firm.”

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This real-time visibility helps leadership keep a close eye on financial performance while giving the accounts team clearer oversight of payment activity.

Bringing the firm on the journey

Implementing new technology across a law firm is never just about the systems themselves. For Chris, change management was a critical part of the process. Moving to Actionstep and introducing new API-driven integrations meant guiding the team through a period of transition.

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“Change is always a challenge,” he says. “Some people naturally prefer the way things were done before. The key is to bring colleagues on the journey so they can understand the benefits for the firm and their own day-to-day work.”

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“Once people see how it improves workflows and helps our clients, they quickly understand why it’s worth doing.”

A modern technology foundation for growth

For Robertsons, the integration of Legl and Actionstep represents more than just a payments improvement. It is part of a broader commitment to building a modern, connected technology infrastructure that supports the firm’s continued growth.

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With new specialist teams emerging and expansion plans underway, having flexible, integrated systems will be increasingly important. “We’re a firm with a long history, but we’re always evolving,” Chris says. “Having cloud-based systems that connect properly gives us a strong foundation for the future.”

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By modernising its payment infrastructure and integrating it directly into its practice management system, Robertsons has created a solution that benefits both clients and staff with faster payments, simpler workflows and a better overall experience.