Running a Law Firm on Linux

Case management. I use "cliniccases" which does most of the work but it is geared towards law clinics and does not have "billing". That can be improved but that's something.

What do you use for crm ? Is that self hosted too ?

There are softwares like cryptpad that solves collaborative editing problem for those used to google docs.

I use mailinabox for my emails and that has been quite great.

Libreoffice all the way. It has improved immensely. The import export to docx is becoming better and better.

I use a network shared drive to host all clients data, working papers and such. I have been thinking of " nextcloud" but I do not see the benefit.

The drafting of documents won't be a problem with libre office. You can send a PDF to the client.

But working with other lawyers/parties could be a challenge. I am not certain how Libreoffice could handle a 500 page memo being worked by 50+ people including thousands of track changes/comments. I even stumble upon bugs in MS Word while working on such documents.

You also need a reliable compare tool to generate redlines.

Video conferencing is also important. You may access zoom/teams through web but it won't be as convenient as the desktop client.

For an independent lawyer / small-mid sized office, linux may work. But for large companies the tooling may not be there.

For example is there an easy way to clean metadata off of documents in Libreoffice, are there any compare tools, drafting assistants etc.?

And if you're doing any litigation, the e-signature systems (dongles) also need to work reliably.