Obiter vs. LEAP
LEAP is the dominant practice management platform for small and mid-size UK firms. Obiter layers AI automation on top of the inbox — and can run alongside LEAP without any migration.
Choose Obiter if…
- ✓ Your biggest admin burden is the email inbox
- ✓ Fee earners are missing billable time from email and calls
- ✓ You do legal aid and want automated LAA/CCMS compliance
- ✓ You want AI to draft replies — not just file emails
Choose LEAP if…
- → You need a comprehensive document production library
- → Your matter workflows are highly structured with precedent forms
- → You want an established, all-in-one billing and accounting system
- → You want dedicated UK legal support teams
Feature comparison
| Feature | Obiter | LEAP |
|---|---|---|
| AI email classification | ✓ Every email, automatically | ✗ Not available |
| AI draft replies | ✓ Ready in <30 s | ✗ Not available |
| Automatic time recording from email | ✓ 100% capture, no manual entry | ✗ Manual entry required |
| UK LAA/CCMS billing automation | ✓ Built in, full CCMS library | ~ Via third-party add-on |
| SRA-compliant audit trail | ✓ Immutable, AI vs. human attributed | ✓ Audit logging available |
| Document production library | ~ AI-generated drafts | ✓ Extensive UK precedent library |
| Matter management | ✓ Full pipeline | ✓ Full pipeline |
| Client portal | ✓ Included | ✓ LEAP Client Portal |
| Accounts & billing | ✓ Via Xero / QuickBooks | ✓ Native billing & accounts |
| AML/KYC | ✓ Integrated workflow | ✓ LEAP AML add-on |
| UK data residency | ✓ AWS eu-west-2 | ✓ UK hosting option |
| Database-per-firm isolation | ✓ Every client | ~ Shared environment |
| AI trains on your data | ✗ Never | ~ Not specified per firm |
| Runs alongside existing PMS | ✓ By design — no migration | ~ Migration typically required |
| Setup time | < 1 hour to first AI action | Days to weeks |
| Pricing model | Per fee earner, flat | Per user, module pricing |
✓ = included ✗ = not available ~ = partial / add-on. Verify all details directly with each vendor.
LEAP is great at what it does — Obiter adds what it doesn't
LEAP is a mature, full-featured UK legal practice management system with strong document production, billing, and matter management. If you're on LEAP and it's working, there's no reason to migrate away from it.
Where LEAP has a gap — and where most of its UK users feel the pain daily — is the email inbox. LEAP files emails to matters and has some workflow automation, but it doesn't classify every inbound email by billing type, it doesn't generate draft replies, and it doesn't automatically create time entries. Fee earners on LEAP still spend 2-3 hours per day managing email manually.
This is exactly what Obiter is built to solve. Rather than replacing LEAP, Obiter connects to your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace inbox, classifies and drafts responses to every email, records the time automatically, and pushes billing entries to LEAP or your accounting system. The two platforms complement each other.
The migration question
Most Obiter customers on LEAP don't migrate away. They run Obiter on the email layer while keeping LEAP for matter records, document production, and billing. If you do eventually want to move everything to Obiter, we support CSV import of matters, contacts, and time records — but it's not a prerequisite for going live.
What does it cost?
Obiter (5 fee earners)
£645/month
Professional plan · 5 seats · all features included
- ✓ AI email automation
- ✓ Automatic time recording
- ✓ LAA/CCMS billing built in
- ✓ Client portal
LEAP (5 fee earners)
~£800–£1,200/month
Typical 5-user UK practice · per-module pricing · estimate only
- ✓ Matter management
- ✓ Document production
- ✓ Native billing & accounts
- ~ AI (add-on pricing)
LEAP pricing is based on publicly available UK estimates. Contact LEAP for accurate pricing for your firm size and modules.
Use Obiter alongside LEAP
Keep LEAP for matter management. Add Obiter for AI email automation. No migration, no disruption — just fewer hours lost to the inbox.