Virtual Law Practice

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  • And Now, For Something Completely Different

    And Now, For Something Completely Different

    And-nowA few years ago I told a friend and colleague that one day I would post this Monty Python reference on my social media accounts and that’s how they’d know I’d stepped away from the legal profession: “And now, for something completely different.” I didn’t know at the time when I would be posting this, but I knew the day would come around given the harried pace at which I’d been going.

    Maybe you’ve seen this popular TED talk called “The Value of Taking a Year Off?”  That’s what I’m up to right now.

    I’ve been suspiciously quiet over the past several months. I stopped posting on social media as much as I used to and am no longer providing talks to legal organizations. Speaking at the ABA Techshow in the spring after the release of the second edition of my Virtual Law Practice book was my last speaking gig for awhile. (Bowing out to a standing-room only talk is not a bad way to go.) I completed my one year fellowship at Stanford Law in June and produced a couple of research papers related to the use of gamification in law.  Unfortunately, Biglaw is not ready for this yet and legal services organizations lack the funding to support it. I am finishing up a final semester teaching online classes in social media and law practice management and tech for law students and the occasional auditing lawyer.

    I have written, researched, co-founded, created, evangelized, volunteered, taught, and counseled lawyers and others in the legal profession in various forms and mostly for free or petty amounts for the past ten years.

    So what’s the deal now? Why stop?

    I was originally motivated in my work by the idea that I could make an impact on the legal profession, educate lawyers to use technology to improve the delivery of legal services, and that I could help increase access to justice. At the core, I wanted to help people who couldn’t afford a traditional lawyer to get the help they needed. After fighting up-hill battles, winning a small handful of victories, and still seeing the pace of adoption and attitude change go at a snail’s pace, I’ve decided to stop trying, at least for awhile. I’m not helpful to anyone (lawyers or the people in our country who deserve legal assistance) when I’m in a state of cynicism and burnout.

    What am I doing right now?  I’m engaging in several interests focused on getting back to my core passions and attempting to cultivate new creativity in my life. (Of course, this is all on the side of being a mother to my two wonderfully active children and fiance to Ron Dolin, who is happily continuing his work on quality metrics for the legal profession with his project at Harvard Law.)

    In the spring, I took the well-respected Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course created by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I’m currently taking an eight-week course called Compassion Cultivation Training at the Stanford University Center for Altruism and Compassion. This Center boasts the largest donation the Dalai Lama has ever given to an institution outside of a Tibetan cause and is taught from a secular and scientific standpoint. Yes, there is solid science and research behind meditation and compassion. (While the practice itself is experiential, if you know me at all, you know I am also reading all of the research I can get my hands on, most of which takes me into the fields of neuroscience and psychology.) I am meditating daily and learning to control the flexibility of my mind. No easy feat, but the rewards are already showing.  I am on the look-out for a good week-long silent retreat in the near future.

    I’m also back to my bookbinding habits. I am a bibliophile and used to work on book repair and restoration. I have not been able to do this work since my children were born, around 9 years ago. That’s a long time to miss something. I am returning to bookbinding and taking courses at the San Francisco Center for the Book, the only center of its kind on the west coast. Before going to law school, I apprenticed in the basement of the Cincinnati Museum Center and learned the art of paper and book preservation there. I miss working with my hands and holding a tangible object at the end of the process. Ebooks just don’t smell or feel the same as a real book. Book bindings are a form of creative expression and it gives me peace.

    I’m also going to try writing again, but fiction this time. I’m going to do NaNoWriMo next month. I have downloaded Scrivener and am already in planning mode for November.  It will be a fun process to write for myself and to not have to worry about ethics committees or skeptical lawyers scrutinizing my work. My imagination will have full reign.

    I go hiking in the hills of Los Altos, meditate, and then let my mind run free. Trying to narrow in on a single idea or project right now would be detrimental to the process that I’m going through. Cultivating compassion is opening my heart up to the idea of common humanity and my place in that. Sometimes it’s a challenge to feel like I’m falling without any solid plans for what I will do next. But that’s part of this process too. Check out the TED talk on taking a year off. There is something to this.

    I am not sure when, how, or even if I will come back to the legal profession. Thanks to those of you who have worked with me over the past ten years and supported the endeavors to increase access to justice with technology, unbundling, and forms of virtual law practice.

    And now for something completely different….

     

     

  • Slides: Class from Law Practice Tech & Management Course

    I’ve been co-teaching a law school course this semester with Richard Granat called Law Practice Technology and Management for the Center for Law Practice Technology. The bulk of the class is online where we have the materials, such as recorded lectures, articles, videos and podcasts, for the students to go through in module format. Once a week, we hold a live session of the class where we go more in-depth into the topic in that week’s module or where we will expand off into something related to the topic, such as a demo of a technology tool or a virtual law firm simulation.

    The course is rich with content and the challenge has been narrowing that down to the core basics that we want the students to come away with. The final deliverable for this course is a business plan for a law practice that must incorporate the technology and other concepts that we have discussed in the course.

    Below is a sample of the slides from a live session that expanded on the topic of how to choose technology for your law firm. I wanted the students to know what an API was and how that might affect their selection, as well as how to look for the value of investing in a technology tool.

  • Three Years into My 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.

  • Interest in Virtual Law Practice Spreading Across the States

    Over the past month, I’ve heard from several attorneys who will be opening their own web-based virtual law practices.  The following states are on board now: SC, IL, VA, AK, GA, TX, MD, TN and KY.  Some attorneys are still in the process of speaking with their state bars about providing unbundled legal services.  One solo practitioner is working with a law professor to write a manuscript that addresses the benefits and potential ethics issues that may arise in operating a VLO.

    I’m excited about the growing number of VLOs, not only because I run a company that provides the web-based technology, but because most of the attorneys that I have spoken really see the value to the public of offering online unbundled legal services.  While many in the public can turn to Nololaw and Legalzoom for legal document drafting, these options do not provide the public with direct and personal communication with a licensed attorney.  A web-based VLO can provide this service and still keep the costs affordable for individuals who otherwise may not have been able to seek out an attorney. 

    Aside from generating additional online client revenue, the one thing I hear over and over again about why an attorney wants to open a VLO is because they are tired of spending more time working than living.  Sometimes the comment is coming from a law partner who is fed up after putting in years at one firm and missing out on his or her children growing up.  Or it’s from a newly graduated law student who does not want to end up like their overworked parents and wants to start out with flexibility from day one.  There are different stories, but the underlying tone is that these professionals love practicing law and want to find a way to stay in the legal profession without sacrificing their personal lives. 

    I’ve said before that I don’t think virtual law practice is for everyone, and the risk is no different than hanging your own shingle as a solo on a brick & mortar law office.  But if you really commit to the concept and the work that it takes to market it and to set up good practice standards for VLO management, then I believe virtual law practice can provide wonderful work/life balance for an attorney. 

    As for my own virtual law practice, this summer I am busy enjoying the benefits of running my own solo practice from home.  The third year of solo VLO practice has brought more referrals and returning small business clients my way.  It’s a sign that I must be doing something right.  I’ve also honed down the advertising and marketing techniques that work best with my VLO which I hope to share with VLOTech clients when they hang their virtual shingles. 

    I will be co-presenting another CLE session for the NC Bar Association at the end of September.  The session will be similar to the ABA TechShow’s popular “60 Websites in 60 Minutes.”  Some of the websites I am presenting would be useful to the virtual law practitioner so I will be sure to post those links and info. after the CLE presentation. 

    As always, this blog is for discussing virtual law practice, especially ethics and a technology issues in operating a VLO.  I welcome any questions or stories about virtual law practice that anyone wants to ask or share.

  • How Does a VLO Fit In With the Paperless Law Office Tech Trends?

    This is an excerpt from a post I made on the VLOTech website explaining how a virtual law office (VLO) fits into the trend of attorneys using technology to create more paperless law offices. As more of VLOTech’s clients go live with VLOs across the nation, the examples of virtual law practices will be clear. In the meantime, I’m saying forget about thinking outside the box to understand the virtual law office concept. Just don’t get in a box in the first place.

    In the past two years, the legal profession has seen the introduction of several web-based law practice management tools. These web-based systems focus primarily on time and billing management for attorneys. Separate systems are devoted entirely to online case management. Many attorneys seeking to have “paperless” law offices are creatively combining different web-based applications with software products, such as Adobe, to create a more digital law practice.

    VLOTech strongly supports this movement by the legal profession to use the most current technologies to provide better services to clients and to create more productivity and balance in the lives of legal professionals.

    Where do completely virtual law offices fit into this trend?

    To understand what VLOTech and it’s attorneys are envisioning and practicing, think one step beyond web-based practice management systems and tools. Look at the way other businesses successfully function in virtual reality worlds and how avatar-based forms of communication are breaking down the barriers of geographic location and economic limitations. Less extreme, think about how many people handle all of their banking and financial matters completely online without ever walking into a brick & mortar bank building to chat confidentially with a financial consultant. A virtual law office capitalizes on the secure web-based technology available to create the infrastructure of an attorney’s law office online. VLOTech provides the technology and each individual attorney or law practice uses it to design the virtual law practice that meets their needs.

    By the basic definition, a completely virtual law office (VLO) is a professional law practice that exists online through a secure portal and is accessible to the client and the attorney anywhere the parties may access the Internet. A VLO provides attorneys and clients with the ability to securely discuss matters online, download and upload documents for review and handle other business transactions in a secure digital environment. With a VLO, an attorney’s clients benefit from the convenience and accessibility. The attorney benefits from the flexibility of a virtual law practice, an online client and revenue generating software, and lower overhead associated with setup and maintenance of a nontraditional law office.

  • Screenshots of VLOTech Client Side

    I posted the manual for the client side of the VLOTech software on the VLOTech blog here. I am excited to share the new format with my own online clients. The software has everything that I have been using to practice law online for the past couple years at my own virtual law practice, but it also has some additional features that I think will make my virtual practice run smoother for me and my clients.

    One of the great things about the software-as-a-service model is that the software doesn’t require installs for every different version or patch. VLOTech can get input from the attorneys using the product to decide what aspects of the technology to develop next. Updates to the software are then just added to the existing clients’ systems. It’s development guided by the users which just makes good sense.

    We have a test site up and running for our first group of innovative attorneys to try out before they go live with their virtual law practices. The goal is to get an online demo on the VLOTech blog so that it’s available for everyone. For now, the focus is on supporting our first e-laywering pioneers. We now have attorneys from 21 different states who have expressed an interest in opening a web-based virtual law practice with VLOTech. There’s clearly something going on here.

  • New Website/Blog Complete

    VLOTech The new VLOTech website designed by G2WebMedia is online. Regular updates on the Company and VLOTech software and services will be provided to interested clients on the new website rather than by email. I will continue to blog here about my own experience with a virtual law practice and contribute to the VLOTech blog regarding the VLOTech software and services.

  • March Update on VLOTech and my Virtual Law Practice

    Sheryl Sisk Schelin, author of The Inspired Solo, invited me to write a guest post for her blog this week. Thank you to Sheryl for the opportunity to share my virtual practice with her readers!

    In other news, VLOTech is having its website professionally designed by G2 Web Media which is owned by Grant Griffiths of Home Office Lawyer fame. The website/blog should be up and running by the end of the month. The VLOTech company website will be a blog so that company updates and software progress can be posted quickly and archived in one spot. We’re also planning on having a faqs section which will address head-on the questions that we predict prospective clients and the public may have about SaaS, web-based applications and vlos in general.

    The Greater Wilmington Business Journal recently published an article about VLOTech and how the company is attracting attention across the nation from attorneys who are interested in setting up Virtual Law Offices.

    I’ve been asked to teach a CLE session at the GP/Solo/Small Firm CLE for the NC Bar Association this summer. My working title is “Virtual Law Practice: Technology and Ethics Considerations.” I’m looking forward to the opportunity to share my experience practicing law online and hopefully encourage more solo and small firm practitioners to look into the different technology options available that can enable them to create vlos or to take their practices remote.

  • Changes to State Tax Provisions Effecting Estate Tax Filing Timelines

    Effective July 1, 2006, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted this House Bill 1892, Session Law 2006-18, in an attempt to conform several state tax provisions to federal tax law.

    Of importance to estate law practitioners, the time required for a personal representative to file an estate tax return after he or she has been notified by the federal government regarding the amount of estate taxes owed has been changed from two years to six months.

    They’ve also changed the timeline for filing estate tax returns with the Secretary after a person receives notice regarding a state generation‑skipping transfer tax credit that was allowed.

    Something to watch out for if you are either preparing estate taxes for a client or advising them in that area. Here are the changes as posted:

    SECTION 3. G.S. 105‑32.8 reads as rewritten:
    § 105‑32.8. Federal determination that changes the amount of tax payable to the State.
    If the federal government corrects or otherwise determines the gross estate tax imposed under section 2001 of the Code or the amount of the maximum state death tax credit allowed an estate under section 2011 of the Code, the personal representative must, within two yearssix months after being notified of the correction or final determination by the federal government, file an estate tax return with the Secretary reflecting the correct amount of tax payable under this Article. If the federal government corrects or otherwise determines the amount of the maximum state generation‑skipping transfer tax credit allowed under section 2604 of the Code, the person who made the transfer must, within two yearssix months after being notified of the correction or final determination by the federal government, file a tax return with the Secretary reflecting the correct amount of tax payable under this Article.

    The Secretary must assess and collect any additional tax due as provided in Article 9 of this Chapter and must refund any overpayment of tax as provided in Article 9 of this Chapter. A person who fails to report a federal correction or determination in accordance with this section forfeits the right to any refund due by reason of the determination.”

  • Slow but steady…

    The payment and “ask an attorney” function of the website is still in the process of beta testing. We are trying so hard to make sure that everything is in compliance with the NC Bar and also easy to understand and use for the clients. Therefore, we are taking our time to make sure the site is done to the best of our ability.

    In the meantime, I have been practicing law locally from my home. I have worked on several estate planning projects and a small business setup. I thoroughly enjoy practicing law independently. The total responsibility for a legal matter motivates me much more than when I was practicing in firm and sharing different aspects of a legal case with several other legal professionals. With my home practice, I feel that I can take the time I need to so that I can focus on a client’s needs without having to worry about billable hours. I think it humanizes the practice of law more to focus on the client as a customer and not focusing on their legal matter in terms of how much time it will take you to work on it and what that will equate to in billable hours at the end of the day. So I am more optimistic each day that Kimbro Legal Services @ kimbrolaw.com will serve as a great way to practice law for me as an attorney who needs the flexibility to stay at home and care for her young child and at the same time provide quality legal services in a more customer-friendly method. Of course, I am prepared for the potentially negative feedback from traditional attorneys that I may receive once I start marketing the website and business. But I think by maintaining my professionalism online and in my marketing strategies and by making this website secure and safe for clients, I can convince other attorneys that this can be an alternative to the traditional, physical law firm.

    Once the website is completely operational, I plan on blogging on NC related legal matters related to the services I plan to offer. Please check back later in the summer.

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