Category Archives: Virtual Law Firm Practice

Comments on the emergence and evolution of web-based law practice technology.

Lawyers and Innovation: An Uneasy Alliance

Written on February 23, 2010 by Donna Seyle in Law & Social Networking, Uncategorized, Virtual Law Firm Practice, alternative billing, law practice management, legal technology, social media marketing, social networking
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Much has been written and discussed about the reticence with which lawyers approach the massive restructure of doing business as they knew it. Law school trains us to make legal arguments by following precedent, to rely on what has been decided before. Almost all lawyers have gone to work at law firms after passing the bar, and learn from an established institution how “things are done”. While this is true of other professions as well (i.e., the medical profession, and look at the mess they’re in), there is not one profession that is more risk-adverse than law. And since change involves risk, well. . .you get my point. And right now, lawyers have alot of change on the table.

In “Innovate Now?“, Michael J. Anderson writes: ”

When law firms finally realize that they are falling behind (minimal or non-existent profit growth, lower margins and/or declining market share), the first knee jerk reaction is to reduce costs and start to restructure. In law firms that usually means laying off associates and staff. The sad thinking seems to be that since there is little chance that we can increase the total number of billable hours, we had better share those hours among fewer people and those people should be the owners. For some strange reason we choose to keep the people who cost us the most and let go those who cost less and who will provide a better long term and short term future for the firm.”

That kind of response to today’s economic tsunami is both shortsighted and ineffective.  Clients are straight-up refusing to pay ludicrous hourly fees, so law firms are now faced with finding a different, or “alternative” billing model. This process involves a thorough review of the amount and nature of legal work necessary, the value this work will bring to the client, and complete accountability for and transparency of the work performed.

In order to implement this model, changes need to be made not in a knee-jerk reaction, but in a formalized review of the firm’s practice management that will reduce the risk economic loss in value-priced package. You must determine: 1) whether the work-flow methodology is the most cost-effective, and 2) whether the skills of each associate or staff member are compatible with the work assigned to produce the greatest efficiency. Is the firm just following the “way it was always done” map? Have you implemented practice management techniques to improve both the quality of work product and of work environment? Do you need to hire a Project Manager to oversee newly established procedures?  Asking these questions is the only way lawyers can begin to meaningfully and profitably design billing models other than the billable hour and rest assured they will not go out of business.

Then there is the massively influential rise of social media marketing. Blogging. Networking. Social engagement. Publishing. Webinars. Monitoring the results. Marketing has firmly embedded itself into the strange new world of web 2.0, and most lawyers didn’t even like web 1.0. Let’s just say that if social media where a person, s/he would not be invited to the firm’s Christmas party.

But you cannot afford to allow this aversion to affect your business decisions. If you don’t have the time to do it, hire someone who can. If you say you can’t afford it, ask yourself: can you afford NOT to do it?  Think about how much time and research was spent to determine where best to advertise to reach your target market. Well, guess where all those potential clients are now? Online. Go there.

All of this can be accomplished more easily by embracing technology. Technology is your friend. Research virtual law office platforms to find the one that fits best with your firm’s environment and transfer onto it.  Check out as many legal tech tools as you can. Used correctly, these tools can streamline your communications, case/document/knowledge management systems, automate your ediscovery compliance efforts and keep you updated, informed and on time for meetings. The time management and cost effectiveness can handily reduce your overhead.

To research the tech tools available, search legal IT sites such as TechnoLawyer.com, LegalITprofessionals.com and Mylegal.com (among many others) to learn more about how you can leverage technology to keep the bottom line intact.

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Lawyers: do you have time and resource management dilemmas that require creative solutions? Freelance attorneys and advanced technology are here to help. Take advantage of new and exciting ways to have both a successful law practice and a great lifestyle! Click here to contact me for a free consultation.

Legal Tech NY: Highlights and Postscripts

Written on February 4, 2010 by Donna Seyle in Law & Social Networking, Legal Research & Writing, Virtual Law Firm Practice, law practice management, legal technology, social networking
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Legal Tech NY is over, and for people like me, that’s tantamount to this being the day after Christmas. I was not able to attend, but thanks to dedicated tweeters, interviewers and networkers, I was able to track some of the event highlights. In addition, the broadcasting is not over, as bloggers continue to comment on a variety of newly-released tech tools, thought-leadership sessions, and much more.  Following is a compilation of the information I have been able to aggregate through twitter and other networking sites.

A great way to find and collect more information as it is disseminated is to follow the hashtag #ltny on twitter. Attendees continue to post new blog posts and recorded interviews to that stream as they are able to develop them. And if you’re not on twitter but would like access to that information, well, maybe now’s the time!

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve found:

  • There was the introduction of  ”the big 3″ innovations: Apple’s iPad, Westlaw’s new venture called WestlawNext, and, not to be outdone, Lexis/Nexis announcement of their collaboration and integration with Mircrosoft Office.
  • Check out Jordan Furlong’s take on the iPad in his post at law21.com, the iFuture. It’s an in-depth look at the product on its mobility, publishing and design capabilities. It also links to other relevant posts.
  • Here’s a review of  both WestLawNext and LexisNexis at law.com, also with links to further information and helpful screenshots.
  • Christy Burke as assembled many interviews on legalitprofessionals.com. These are one-on-one interviews with some of the most significant professionals at the show.  Legalitprofessionals.com is also an awesome website for information on what’s happening in the legaltech world.
  • A review of the new Saas Practice Management Application unveiled by Aderant at legalitprofessionals.com.
  • Great list of products displayed at the show by Sean Doherty at law.com
  • Read “Maximizing Your KM Investments at LegalTech NY” by Bob Saccone at HubbardOne.com
  • Reviews of the closing keynote speakers talk by Malcolm Gladwell, Lisa Sanders and David Craig on “The New Convergence of Intelligence,  Intuition and Information at legalcurrent.com and adriandayton.com
  • A terrific list of interviews with legaltech vendors at MyLegal.com

Within these sources are innumerable links to other sources of information that should keep you entertained for a few days or so. I know there’s lots more  stuff out there. So please don’t be shy about sharing any other posts/reviews/interviews/videos you come across in the comments. Enjoy!

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Lawyers: do you have time and resource management dilemmas that require creative solutions? Freelance attorneys and advanced technology are here to help. Take advantage of new and exciting ways to have both a successful law practice and a great lifestyle! Click here to contact me for a free consultation.

Lawyering in the Cloud: Where Do You Start?

Written on December 21, 2009 by Donna Seyle in Virtual Law Firm Practice, law practice management, legal ethics
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So you’ve heard all the great cost effective and time saving benefits of  managing your law practice online (also known as a virtual law firm), and you start researching your options. All of a sudden you’re reading articles that include words and concepts you have no comprehension of: Saas, Iaas, Paas, public clouds, private clouds. Mind starts spinning, eyes glaze over, and soon those well-known desktop applications and fax machines seem like old, comfortable friends. Let’s see if I can help you make sense of this.

The term cloud computing is really a  misnomer. Information accessible online is actually stored on servers, much like desktop data is stored on local drives, in-house servers or mainframes. The differences are scale, location and accessibility. Open source (i.e., accessible to anyone who has a web connection) servers, often called server farms, have massive storage capacity and can be located anywhere.  Additionally, companies who own the servers (like Google or Amazon) often share capacity when their demand exceeds or drops below their existing capacity. For lawyers, using open source web applications for storage create jurisdictional, security and chain-of-custody issues.

The terms Iaas (infrastructure as a service), Paas (platform as a service) and Saas (software as a service) refer to how the storage ability is delivered. The “as a service” concept refers to the user’s ability to call up the needed information on demand. The differences among these services is the degree to which your IT is involved in creating the applications. Large, international law firms often have dedicated IT departments who create the firm’s platforms and work directly with server capacity providers.  Saas providers actually create the application and either contracts with third-party servers or houses data on their own servers. (For a thorough analysis of these issues, read Legal Implications of Cloud Computing – Parts One, Two, Three and Four.)

Fortunately, there are many Saas providers that have designed platforms specifically for law firms. Each provider is unique in the services it offers and how their service functions. Some are strictly practice management tools. Others are full-service law firms which include the capacity to communicate and interact with clients through a secured portal. Still others include document automation assembly services in combination with legal direction.

It is clear that using open source platforms to communicate with clients and share documents is fraught with legal pitfalls. You have no information about or control over where the servers are located, creating jurisdictional issues. Nor do you know who is handling the data, creating authenticity issues. The data is unsecured, creating confidentiality and attorney/client privilege issues. For example, in U.S. v. Weaver, 636 F. Supp. 2d 769 (C.D. Ill. July 15, 2009), the court held that for a communication to be in “electronic storage,” the storage has to be either temporary or intermediate, or for purposes of backup protection. As these e-mails were already opened, the court concluded that the storage could not be temporary or intermediate. Accordingly, the question of whether the requested e-mails were in”electronic storage” boiled down to whether they were in storage for purposes of backup protection.

In order to avoid these pitfalls, it is necessary to investigate your hosting company to determine what security measures they employ, where their data centers are located and how they are protected. You need to determine their data retention policies and clarify what process will be employed to return data if the company goes out of business. If the hosting company contracts with third-party server companies, you need to know the terms of their agreement to be sure third parties are required to adhere to the guidelines necessary to protect legal data. The same information is necessary as these provides are now creating applications for mobile devices.

There are further issues which must be addressed once you begin to practice virtually. Because your communications with your potential clients may be conducted solely online, you need to take all necessary steps to establish the identity and residency of the person or entity seeking your representation carefully to avoid unauthorized practice of law. You must establish and clearly state the point at which the attorney/client relationship is created, and you must clearly define the scope of representation.

Although these efforts may seem daunting, the benefits of practicing online (which are listed in the article cited below) far outweigh the efforts to change how you practice law. Moreover, lawyers must move toward adopting these measures in order to stay relevant and retain a competitive edge. Stephanie Kimbro, in her article Virtual Law Practice: Taking All or a Portion of Your Practice Online, states:

The online demand for legal services and the number of people using the internet
to transact business is surging. During January, 2009 – one month alone – an estimated
4.5 million people searched online at one of ten websites seeking legal solutions.21

Although we cannot know the demand for web-based law practice, the clear trend is
toward e-commerce transactions. Consumers shop, bank, conduct business, and pay their
credit cards and taxes online. Per Forrester, ecommerce growth from 2009 to 2010 is
estimated at 13%, ($176.9 Billion) at a time when the National Retail Foundation
forecasts traditional retail sales will drop .5% in 2009.22 As one example of the increased
demand for legal services, in the 12 months ending June 30, 2008 business bankruptcy
filings jumped more than 41% and personal filings surged to 934,009, up 28% from the
previous year.23

To that end, the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section has created the eLawyering Task Force to discuss the evolution of online law. Recently, they have issued guidelines entitled Suggested Minimum Requirements for Law Firms Delivering Legal Services Online. Also, read Practicing in the Virtual Realm: A Framework for Delivering Legal Services Online for further guidance.

I hope this has clarified some of the issues you will face in your journey toward creating a virtual law practice, and provided you with resources to that will help make sense of what this movement is all about. Please post any further questions you have in the comments section and I will be happy to respond. In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday season!

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Lawyers: do you have time and resource management dilemmas that require creative solutions? Freelance attorneys and advanced technology are here to help. Take advantage of new and exciting ways to have both a successful law practice and a great lifestyle! Click here to contact me for a free consultation.
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