Today’s Legal Technology section over at Law.com has an article about the increasing number of solo practitioners who are profiting from going virtual. As I’ve blogged about in the fall of last year, operating a virtual law office is a great way for a solo or small law firm to compete in this difficult economy. The general public, our clients, are seeking more affordable legal services and they want the convenience of using technology to acquire those services. After all, being able to take care of your legal needs at 1am without having to take time off of work or arrange for child care saves money as much as a reduced legal fee.
I have noticed an increase in my virtual law practice since last October and many of my online clients are forthright about why they decided to come to my VLO instead of going to a traditional law firm. My clients are scattered across the state so at the same time that I am helping my clients, I am also helping my law practice by being able to expand my client base and compete with traditional solo practices in my state.
Working with VLOTech to set up other attorneys with virtual law practices and seeing the increase in interest in the web-based technology assures me this is a trend that is not going anywhere anytime soon. Check out some of the newest VLOs in my links to the right.
The Law.com article talks about virtual law practices that communicate through email (usually unencrypted and not secure), phone and Internet but does not really give us the details on what technologies these virtual law practices are using. The focus is also on collaboration virtually between attorneys rather than online attorney and client communication. Let’s hope data security is a primary concern for these practices with whatever technologies they are using to deliver legal services. Expect to see future articles that focus more on attorney/client online communication to deliver legal services online.
You know, it’s funny. I’ve been a big fan of online services and when I went out on my own, my wife kept pushing me to go virtual. I resisted for a year until I realized that I was virtual without trying. I had a virtual server. I use a crap load of online services. I travel to my client’s homes with my lap top so i can set them up on site and give them the face to face that they like. It’s amazing. What’s even more amazing is I can call my attorney friends and access my server to deal with any issue that comes up. I’m not sure if the big firms will get it but I sure do.