How a sole director in regional Australia built a practice that spans three countries, ditched volume-based thinking, and uses NetDocuments to deliver the legal work clients can’t do themselves.

About Belbridge Fleming Law

Belbridge Fleming Law is a regional firm based in Albury Wodonga, New South Wales, with 15 staff and four solicitors. Sole director Rob Meers has built a practice that operates across time zones by design — one senior solicitor works remotely from London, and the team has at various points worked from New Zealand and the ski slopes of Bulgaria. That flexibility isn’t accidental. It’s infrastructure.

The Challenge: Running a Distributed Practice from a Regional Base

For a small firm without a dedicated IT function, the technology needs to work from anywhere, reliably, and without friction. Meers needed a single source of truth the whole team could access simultaneously — whether they were in Albury Wodonga or abroad.

Why NetDocuments

The move from their previous document management system was smooth, supported by both the product and the team behind it. What Meers found was more than a file store — online accessibility, simultaneous document access, and a platform the whole practice could build around.

““It’s the central hub of everything. It’s what we need to work from, it’s a document management system. There are umpteen different practice management systems that you can utilise, but the document management system itself is the source of client record keeping. For us it’s about focusing on our clients’ needs.”.”

Rob Meers, Director, Belbridge Fleming Law

The Work That Matters

For Meers, growth has never been about volume — it’s about identifying what existing clients don’t yet have and need. NetDocuments’ complete document history makes that visible. It’s a philosophy that maps directly onto where the legal industry is heading: as clients become better educated and AI puts more information in their hands than ever, the work that genuinely requires a lawyer becomes more defined — and more valuable.

“Clients these days are better educated, have better access to information — AI is getting so much more information for clients. Programs like NetDocuments enable us to do the pointy bits that clients will value, and we get paid for value.”

Rob Meers, Director, Belbridge Fleming Law

People only need lawyers for things they can’t do themselves. NetDocuments helps Belbridge Fleming Law make sure that’s exactly where their time goes.

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Key Outcomes

• The flexibility to grow the practice without growing its complexity
• A distributed team spanning regional Australia and the UK working from a single, accessible platform
• A smooth transition from a legacy DMS, supported by the NetDocuments implementation team
• Simultaneous document access enabling real-time collaboration across the practice
• A complete client record that surfaces unmet needs and informs higher-value work