Redesigning the foundation: Grid system for legal workflows
I redesigned the PracticePanther Payments grid, a mission-critical workflow for law firms. The legacy grid was slowing product delivery, creating inconsistency, and forcing users into risky Excel workarounds, while driving high support volume and churn risk.
This project rebuilt the grid as a scalable foundation, reducing friction, improving reliability, and unblocking the product roadmap.
Reduced user churn linked to billing frustration
System-wide adoption across all core workflows
Increased engineering velocity for new features
Built trust in billing workflows for law firms
Payments sat at the heart of daily operations for law firms, but the grid behind it hadn't evolved in years. As features grew, the experience fractured, tasks slowed down, and simple actions became workarounds.
What looked like a UI inconvenience was actually a system-level bottleneck.
What powered every workflow had quietly become the product's biggest constraint. Attorneys couldn't trust the numbers, and billing coordinators were building Excel workarounds just to get through the day.
This wasn't a surface-level UI issue — it was a foundational design gap affecting every product area that relied on the same grid component.
The friction wasn't anecdotal — it showed up in time, tickets, and churn.
Across audits, interviews, and support data, the pattern was consistent:
Attorneys weren't trusting the product with their finances. This wasn't just UX friction — it was business risk.
The pain showed up as missed payments — but the root cause was structural.
I spoke with lawyers, paralegals and billing coordinators in 15 different firms.
Attorneys manage dozens of transactions daily, but basic actions like filtering or bulk edits took minutes. Simple tasks felt heavy and unpredictable.
"I don't have time to dig through filters that don't work. I miss payments and it throws off my whole day." — Solo Attorney
Billing coordinators needed totals and balances to be obvious and reliable. Hunting for critical financial information created anxiety around compliance.
"I need trust totals front and center. Hunting for them makes me worry we'll mess up compliance." — Billing Coordinator
New users struggled to find what they needed. Key actions were buried behind filters and menus, making everyday work feel harder than it should.
"I feel lost in here. I can't find things most of the time." — Paralegal
Payments wasn't the only place users struggled. The same legacy grid powered Matters, Invoices, and Contacts — carrying the same friction everywhere. Filters were buried. Totals were hidden. Bulk actions were hard to find.
Every workflow inherited the same constraints. Fixing Payments alone wouldn't solve the problem. We had to redesign the system once, for everything.
Attorneys weren't just "using a table." They were moving through different mental states — finding information, validating details, and acting quickly. So we redesigned the grid around three distinct modes of work, each supporting a different user intent.
Users need to quickly locate specific payments or filter large datasets.
Intelligent presets and custom ranges for rapid filtering.
Enhanced search with instant results and suggestions.
Select multiple items and apply changes in one step.
Save and share filtered views for recurring tasks.
Clear, contextual calls-to-action for common workflows.
Keep column headers visible while scrolling through data.
Financial summaries always visible for quick validation.
Efficient navigation through large datasets.
The final system was built component by component — each solving a specific pain point surfaced during research. Every piece was designed to work independently and as part of the whole.
Users can filter payments in seconds with presets or custom ranges.
Users can filter precisely and verify totals at a glance.
Users can focus on the data without distractions.
Users get clear feedback while data loads, so nothing feels stuck.
Users can manage payments confidently on the go.
The impact has been substantial. We tracked key metrics and within 6 months:
Redesigning the grid once for all workflows ensured consistency and reduced future engineering effort.
70% Excel usage showed us exactly where the product was failing — and what to fix first.
Making totals visible and reliable rebuilt user confidence in billing workflows.
Designing for Discovery, Efficiency, and Deep Dive ensured the grid supported real user behavior.