Virtual Law Practice

Month: October 2009

  • “In the Meantime…” — Temporary Operation of a Virtual Law Office

    Over the past year I’ve spoken with attorneys who have been laid off from Biglaw firms and are seeking new positions or attorneys who have just passed the bar and are having trouble finding a position to launch their legal careers.  Both groups of individuals are working hard to establish or reinvent themselves within the legal profession and are seeking my advice about using a virtual law practice as a way to do this. They want to operate a solo virtual law practice “in the meantime.”

    Solo virtual law practice is not for everyone, and while I love the independence that it provides me, I recognize that other attorneys have different goals for their legal careers. Therefore, I try to give useful advice that would apply to the attorney’s individual goals and circumstances.

    Can a virtual law practice be used effectively in between phases in an attorney’s career — from firm to firm?  Will the attorney be able to take the virtual law practice with him or her when that dream legal job comes along?  Will it pay the bills if the attorney is only going to be delivering legal services online on a temporary basis?  If the attorney is a newly graduated attorney can he or she work online and learn an entirely new practice area of law without having worked in an actual law office? 

    These are difficult, but critical questions for attorneys in such situations to ask before embarking on a virtual law practice. I’ve combined some of my responses to these questions below. (more…)

  • Susskind Predicts: “Disaster Ahead for Lawyers Unwilling to Change”

    Richard Susskind, author of The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, has written a guest post for the Legal Rebels blog entitled “Disaster Ahead for Lawyers Unwilling to Change.”

    Susskind looks at changes in the profession as well as the impact that the economic recession has had on our clients.  He mentions disruptive technologies as another factor that will force legal professionals to find more innovative ways to provide legal services or face the consequences of losing their practices to the competition who will find ways to embrace the circumstances.  

    In my opinion, his arguments are supportive of virtual law practices.  A virtual law practice is a practical way for attorneys to meet the demands of the public for the online delivery of legal services while finding creative ways to collaborate with other attorneys, pool resources and streamline the delivery of legal services online. 

    Here is the comment that I posted to the article:  The changes are going to be consumer-driven. As the owner of a web-based virtual law office for going on almost four years, I have gotten significant feedback from the public indicating that they expect more affordable and accessible legal services from attorneys. The technology is available to allow legal professionals to step up and meet this consumer demand in a way that is ethical, avoids malpractice risks and provides quality legal services similar to what has been provided in a traditional brick & mortar practice. 

    I agree that in order to remain competitive attorneys will need to find ways to provide services to the public that acknowledges that most clients now have access to a wealth of legal information online.  We have to find responsible methods of educating the public that our services are important and that cutting and pasting sample online legal forms or going with cheap online forms without attorney review is not in their best interest.

    Attorneys should seize these changes as a great opportunity to revive the respect for the profession through innovation and entrepreneurship that serves the public as well as the legal professional. 

    If you are considering virtual law practice, whether as a solo or working with other attorneys to form a virtual law firm, you should read this article.  It’s definitely motivational.

  • Online Drafting Resources for your Virtual Law Practice

    One of the most useful methods of teaching yourself how to draft legal documents is to read a variety of samples.  If you’re a virtual solo, you may not have had the previous experience of a traditional firm’s files to learn from.  And let’s face the truth — your client has most likely gone online and searched through a variety of free online forms first to figure out 1) how hard it would be to do themselves, or 2) to compare the pricing of the many cheap, online legal forms for sale without attorney review.  With a virtual law practice, you will be better equipped than most traditional attorneys to compete with these companies, but it’s always good to know what your clients are investigating as alternatives to your services.

    I’m posting below a short list of sites that provide samples of legal documents.  It’s always an option to purchase state-specific documents for use in your own virtual law practice.  However, as we all know, not every client’s legal situation is going to be the same so learning to build on those drafting skills is key. 

    Once you have drafted a collection of legal forms and documents, you can keep them in your virtual law office for future editing and use with new clients who have similar legal matters.  This helps to streamline the delivery of legal services online.

    As another option to collecting samples, many state bar associations will have practice area specific or GP/Solo/Small Firm online forums to help you connect with mentors.  Just ask on the listserv if anyone is willing to share a sample legal document and see what you can collect. 

    Listed below are several online resources that let you access and review sample legal documents.  When I first opened my virtual law practice, I used some of these sites to find items, such as client intake forms, sample engagement letters and different small business contracts.  The best samples are not the blank forms, but the many business legal documents that have been made public. 

    I’m absolutely not saying you should copy and paste any of these free legal documents to create your own, but it does help the drafting process if you have the chance to read a variety of different samples and get a feel for the language used with different legal circumstances.   

    JD Supra:  Part marketing and networking opportunity, part repository of form documents.  JD Supra hosts thousands of legal documents submitted by the lawyers who drafted them.

    Legal OnRamp:  This is a lawyer networking site where attorneys contribute content and participate in online forums and groups. 

    OneCLE:  This is a great site for reviewing sample business contracts.  Contracts that have been made public are posted and categorized by area of business law.

    Findlaw’s Free Sample Legal Documents

    Get Free Legal Forms site

  • Spreading the Word about Virtual Law Practice

    Many of you have read the news that VLOTech, the company co-founded by my husband and I, was acquired last week by Total Attorneys (TA), a Chicago-based company providing services and products to legal professionals.  The acquisition is going to be great for clients of VLOTech as well as other attorneys considering virtual law practice.  Check out the post by Richard Granat over at his eLawyering blog about the news.

    Joining forces with TA means that 1) my husband now has the ability to work with other programmers who speak his language and can bounce ideas around with to further develop our vision of the virtual law practice software (I may use the tech but coding is all greek to me), and 2) that I will be able to continue to educate on the topic of virtual law practice and share my experiences and the benefits of this form of law practice management with others.  Over the past couple years, we have gotten wonderful feedback on the VLOTech software and have an exciting development list.  Joining with TA will provide us with the resources to develop the software into the vision that our attorney clients have been and continue to build with us for the software.

    One of the great things about joining up with TA is that they are encouraging me and giving me the freedom to continue writing about virtual law practice and in doing so to continue to remain balanced in the information that I share.  I am writing a book for the ABA’s LPM Section on virtual law practice and will continue to practice law from my NC virtual law office.  In the spring I’m looking forward to attending the Get a Life Conferencefor TA as well as speaking at other state bar association CLE programs.  All of these experiences will help spread the word to the legal profession about online law practice, the delivery of legal services online and the benefits that it provides to attorneys and the general public.

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