The South Carolina Bar Association is hosting a session entitled “The Virtual Law Office: Making It Work for You”, Friday, March 12 at 9:00am. This session, taught by yours truly, will be a live webcast or if you are in Columbia, South Carolina, please join us at the Bar Center. In this three hour session, I’ll be covering how to start-up a virtual law office including both the practical how-tos as well as the ethical issues related to using technology to deliver legal services online.
Martindale Hubbell Connected is hosting a two week event on virtual law practice. If you are a member of Connected (a free social/professional networking site), join up with the groups Virtual Attorneys or Virtual Law Firm. If you are not a Connected member, then join us for the Twitter discussion. Here is a list of the scheduled events and participants:
Special Postings — guest blog posts by Bradley Clark, Donna Seyle, Alan Wernick, Carolyn Elefant, Stephanie Kimbro, and Richard Granat.
Live Twitter Discussion “Value Tweet” — hosted by Larry Bodine on March 16, 2010 at 12pm EST this discussion will explore the value that virtual firms provide to buyers of legal services
Webinar — starring Carolyn Elefant, Stephanie Kimbro, Alan Wernick, and Richard Granat on March 31 at 12pm EST.
ABA TECHSHOW, March 25-27th in Chicago, has several sessions on the paperless practice and practicing law in the cloud. Be sure to check out “Going Virtual with Web Applications: New Forms of Practice” presented by Will Hornsby and Marc Lauritsen. I’ll be attending the show this year if anyone wants to meet up. Send a note to @StephKimbro to connect.
The next Virtual LegalTech will be on March 18th from 9-5am EST. It’s a unique way to network online with other attorneys, attend educational sessions and check out the exhibitors. One session that might be of interest to the attorney with a virtual law practice: “Developing a Comprehensive and Legally Sound Social Media Policy.” You can hop in and out of this event throughout the day which makes it really convenient.
Know of any other upcoming events that might be related to virtual law practice?
Defining virtual law practice and the delivery of legal services online by licensed professionals is becoming ever more important as the market continues to fill with companies offering various forms of online legal services. Two of the biggest concerns that surround these companies include the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) and misleading the public. Many of these entities do not provide attorney review of the legal documents that they sale online and are coming up against strong criticism for this aspect as well some of their marketing techniques. For example, the Connecticut Bar Association has formed a task force to review the websites that provide unbundled online legal services. According to the task force, their primary concern is for the consumer’s safety. Last year the North Carolina State Bar’s Authorized Practice Committee also investigated the services provided by LegalZoom claiming they constituted UPL by non-licensed professionals.
Let’s be clear: the Internet-based legal services companies facing criticism do not provide the same level of quality or security of a virtual law office.(more…)
AZ Opinion 09-04 addresses the ability of an attorney to work with clients and deliver legal services online. The question presented in the opinion lays out the method that the inquiring attorney would use to securely deliver the documents to his or her clients online. In this case, the documents would be converted to “password-protected PDF format,” and the client would access those files for review over a secure site which uses “encryption and three layers of unique randomly generated alpha-numeric folder names and passwords.”
The AZ Bar pointed to the two related, existing rules of professional conduct which are the same rules that we have seen applied in other opinions related to virtual law practice: Competence and Confidentiality of Information. A previous AZ Bar ethics opinion has permitted electronic storage of law office data, including clients’ files (Az Ethics Op.05-04).
Here is what I love about this opinion. They allow for the proposed method of delivering legal services online to the client, but they recognize that this is not where it ends. From the Opinion:
However, the Committee also recognizes that technology advances may make certain protective measures obsolete over time. Therefore, the Committee does not suggest that the protective measures at issue in Ethics Op. 05-04 or in this opinion necessarily satisfy ER 1.6’s requirements indefinitely. Instead, whether a particular system provides reasonable protective measures must be “informed by the technology reasonably available at the time to secure data against unintentional disclosure.” N.J. Ethics Op. 701. As technology advances occur, lawyers should periodically review security measures in place to ensure that they still reasonably protect the security and confidentiality of the clients’ documents and information. (emphasis added)
This is clearly the best way that the state bars can address virtual law practice without preventing or discouraging innovation. The attorney practicing law online has the responsibility to stay current on the security issues involved in using the technology. If they are not able to do so for themselves, then they need to trust an IT professional or their SaaS provider to keep their system up to date and protected.
Happy New Year! I reviewed many of the virtual law practice news from 2009 in my last post. In this post I want to look forward to the year ahead by providing some news about my own virtual law office and upcoming speaking/sharing engagements.
2010 will mark year four of owning my own solo, virtual law practice. I opened Kimbro Legal Services in the winter of 2006 right around the time that I welcomed my daughter to the world. I remember being so excited about taking the leap into my own solo practice but also trying to ignore the negative comments that other attorneys had shared with me regarding the idea of making the practice completely web-based. And four years later, virtual law practice is something that is being embraced by the legal profession and expanding in innovation and technology way beyond what I had imagined back in ’06. I’m so grateful to be able to share my experiences with other attorneys and to assist them in setting up their own virtual law offices.
Looking forward to 2010, there will be several opportunities to share information about virtual law practices with others in the legal community. (more…)
This year has brought the legal profession closer to the acceptance of virtual law practice as a method of delivering legal services through the use of technology. Virtual law practices are improving access to and affordability of legal services to the general public. For legal professionals, practicing law online provides the flexibility to create innovative and unique law practices that provide improved work/life balance in addition to professional success.
In this post I wanted to review some of the online articles related to virtual law practice that came out in 2009. As more virtual law firms launch in 2010, expect to see the tone of these articles change to include more detailed discussions about technology and ethics issues involved in the delivery of legal services online as well as discussions about different structures of virtual law practices that are now in the planning stages. This might include multi-jurisdictional virtual law firms with interesting fee and management structures, using a virtual law office as a non-profit to provide pro bono legal services, “cost-co” type firms with registration fees, and other unique ways that legal professionals are envisioning the use of the technology to collaborate with attorneys and clients online.
I work mostly with other solos and small firms who are opening virtual law practices, but I have spoken with many other attorneys who envision collaboration with others to expand their practices beyond the solo or small firm realm. More legal SaaS products are also entering the market, each with a different focus and concept about what virtual law practice can be. It will be interesting to see what develops in 2010 not only in terms of what structures individual attorneys come up with, but what new features and functionalities the technology will bring. There are also major changes in the legal profession happening in the UK and abroad that may serve as an influence here in the States.
Along with many others, I see great potential for virtual law practice to even the playing field for access to justice in our country. Of all of the benefits, I think this may be the most important goal for the profession to keep in mind as it moves forward in defining and supporting the use of technology to deliver legal services.
That said, here is a list of virtual law practice in the news in 2009. I’m going to limit myself to mostly North American news here to keep the list manageable, but be aware that similar articles are popping up within other countries’ legal professions. I’m also posting both the negative and the positive articles on the topic and they are in no particular order.
It’s that time of year again to consider sending in your nominations for the ABA’s James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering. The Award is presented by the Law Practice Management Section’s eLawyering Task Force at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago at the end of March. My virtual law office, Kimbro Legal Services, was the recipient of the 2009 Keane Award and it was a great opportunity to share my VLO with the legal profession.
If you are or know of an attorney operating a virtual law practice and using technology to deliver legal services to clients, consider submitting a nomination for the 2010 Keane Award. More detailed submission information will be made available on the LPM site shortly.
The James I. Keane Memorial Award gives recognition to law offices or legal organizations that have developed legal service innovations delivered over the Internet. Thus, the focus of the award is the innovative delivery of personal legal services, with special attention given to firms and entities that serve both moderate income individuals and the broad middle class.
The recent screencast from lawtechTalk features cloud computing and your law practice. Attorney and law and tech blogger Nicole Black explores features of VLOTech, NKrypt and NetDocuments. You may watch the screencast for free for a limited time by contacting her. Nicole is a supporter of cloud computing or using SaaS in law practices but also discusses the necessity of attorneys to be educated regarding the technology, security and ethics issues that may arise in taking all or a part of your law practice online.
By now the word has circulated that the ABA Techshow website has posted the audio file from Richard Susskind’s keynote presentation at the ABA Techshow in Chicago earlier this month. I wasn’t able to attend the event and accept the Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in Elawyering. However, my husband, the programmer who designed my virtual law office software, attended to accept the award on my behalf. The presentation came with a lovely plaque that I will hang in my home office. Of course none of my online clients will get to see it, but I will have to find a way to “decorate” my VLO with some mention of the award.
Thanks to all of the Twitterers in the audience, I followed the presentation from home and got a good overview of the speech from tweets. Today I finally had time to listen to the ABA audio file of Susskind’s speech. He’s a very dynamic speaker which is something that you just can’t get from following a speaker on Twitter. I was also happy to hear that at the end they included the ABA Task Force’s presentation of the award to my VLO and my husband’s acceptance speech. Since I wasn’t there to accept it in person, it was nice to hear how it went.
In other news, my VLO received the Family Favorite Attorney Award for the third year in a row from the Wilmington Parent Magazine, a local parenting publication that many of my online clients read. This award means a lot of me because it comes from some of the individuals and families that I work with online. It has helped each year to build my confidence in my virtual elawyering skills and to generate additional client referrals. A couple articles were also published about my VLO in the NC Lawyer’s Weekly and other law-related publications. Hopefully all the attention will generate additional interest in virtual law practice and the delivery of legal services using technology.
Aside from my own virtual law practice, my company, VLOTech, received the 2009 Coastal Entrepreneur Award and was invited to meet with a panel of business experts to discuss the company. It was a great opportunity to learn from other entrepreneurs who have taken their dreams, accepted the risks and made it happen.
This spring has been a busy one both personally and professionally. My goal is to return to blogging more about actual virtual law practice in the summer months as things settle down a bit.
Last week I purchased a notebook, the Eee PC 1000H, for my virtual law practice and I want to recommend it for those attorneys taking their practices online. Since my law office is completely web-based, I have a number of different computers, including a PC and MacBook, which I switch out depending on where I will be working that day and what other programs I have installed on each.
I decided on the Eee PC because I’m not that fast at typing on a smartphone, and my laptop and MacBook, while not that heavy are still too big to comfortably sit in my lap while I work. The Eee PC is just the right size for me.
After I migrated over most of the data I wanted on the machine, I added TrueCrypt and set up the backup to an external harddrive. Basically, I stick in the Alltel wireless card and I’m good to go. Given that it is easily portable and I can type just as fast on it, I think it was well worth the under $400 that I paid.
Some of the drawbacks have included the need to attach an external cd drive in order to install software. The right side shift key is also a little off that of a traditional-sized keyboard so that has taken some adjusting to. Otherwise, I think it will be a valuable tool for my VLO.
Another benefit of this notebook is that I now have a backup Internet connection for my VLO. For anyone practicing with a virtual law practice, I recommend some form of secondary Internet connection if you do not trust what you currently use. Should the connection in my house become unreliable, I have the wireless card in my Eee PC as a backup and can just access all of my law office data and VLO that way. The wireless card is not as fast as the DSL at times, but it hasn’t been that noticeable so far when I’ve been using it around town.
Anyone considering going online with their law practice should check out these notebooks as an affordable mobile device. Have any other new hardware recommendations for the virtual law practice?
I’ve been preparing materials to teach a course on virtual law practice for Solo Practice University (SPU). Lawyers USA just published an article about SPU here. I hope some of my blog readers will join me for the virtual law practice course.
One of the topics I’m covering at the beginning of the course has to do with taking the leap from a traditional law practice management method into a virtual law practice. In helping others make the decision to go completely web-based with their solo or small firm or to add some virtual component to their law practice, I’ve been thinking about why I left my position as an associate in a small, traditional law firm to go solo with a VLO.
It’s been three years since I opened my web-based virtual law office, Kimbro Legal Services. In 2006, I hung my virtual shingle using the beta release of the VLOTech virtual law office software. As with any business, after a couple years you realize that your goals and expectations have changed from when you launched, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the support I’ve had from other attorneys and from the great public response over the past three years.
Reasons why I initially formed my virtual law practice:
1. The birth of my first child. I wanted to work from home and spend as much time with her and my family as I could. Childhood is a short time and I didn’t want to miss it.
2. From my experience in the small firm, I noticed that there was a clear market need for individuals of middle income and moderate means to be able to conveniently access and afford legal services. Yet many of them were going to their office supply store and buying legal kits or purchasing LegalZoom documents online. They weren’t consulting an attorney for the guidance they needed because they were 1) afraid they couldn’t afford it, or 2) were just too intimidated to sign a traditional engagement letter with an attorney and put up a sizeable retainer.
Those were my main reasons for opening my VLO. Three years later my reasons for practicing with a virtual law practice are the same, but I have some added observations and experiences that reinforce my decision.
1. Clients want this. The general public response to the VLO in the past three years has been amazing. My clients appreciate the convenience and accessibility to legal services. They have their own homepages on my secure VLO where they can drop me a note at any time, upload and download documents, fill out online forms, pay their invoices, review their invoices, etc. I think the ability for them to access their own case files and review our work together helps them to feel more in charge of their legal needs and more connected with me as their legal representation.
2. Client revenue has come in from across the state. I have not had the collection problems that I was warned about by other attorneys when I first opened my solo practice. I expected it to be a big hassle and in three years I’ve been limited to two or three small collection issues that were not that difficult to resolve. Clients receive their invoices online. They pay me online. We set up recurring billing or payment plans. Maybe it’s the convenience of the invoice being online or maybe it’s being able to pay by credit card. Whatever the reason, ease of collections has been a pleasant surprise.
3. Attention to customer service results in client loyalty They don’t really teach you this in law school, but running a law practice requires business skills. I stopped trying to act like an attorney and instead focused more on being a good business owner. This has made all the difference in the world. I relate to my clients on personal levels through our dialogue on the VLO. I take the time to address all of their concerns and questions with patience and it has resulted in a growing client base for my virtual law practice.
4. Virtual law practice in some form is the way our profession is headed. If you haven’t already, read Richard Susskind”s End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services. The traditional law office will not cease to exist, but it may find ways to incorporate a virutal law practice component to address the needs of its clients and to facilitate attorney online collaboration. In the past three years, I’ve been overwhelmed with the number of attorneys who support web-based virtual law practice and who see it’s benefits for the public as well as the legal profession. It’s a growing trend in our profession that would be foolish to ignore.
As I’m working more with other attorneys through VLOTech to set up other virtual law practices, I’m spending less time on my own VLO. Fortunately, we just opened up a new VLO in North Carolina where I can refer some of my online clients and we are in the process of launching another VLO, a multi-attorney firm in NC, this week.
Three years may not seem like a long time to have been in business, but considering the novelty of the concept when I started and how popular virtual law practice is becoming now, I’ll give myself a birthday pat on the back for taking the leap.