Virtual Law Practice

Month: May 2012

  • Paper on Regulatory Barriers to Multijurisdictional Virtual Law Firms

    Most of my earlier writing on this blog was geared towards the solo practitioner or small firm finding ways to deliver legal services online. But I would also get questions from practitioners in larger law firms and from practitioners who were licensed in multiple states and wanted to understand how they could use innovations in technology to work with clients across the country and internationally. Some lawyers were living overseas and were licensed in several states in the U.S. or they lived in one State here but were licensed in multiple jurisdictions and wanted to make sure they were in compliance with the rules of professional responsibility.

    So I wrote this paper “Regulatory Barriers to the Growth of Multijurisdictional Virtual Law Firms and Potential First Steps to their Removal” which the North Caroline Journal of Law and Technology at UNC-Chapel Hill Law School was kind enough to publish in their recent issue. As it turned out, I could have written a short book on this topic so I had to exclude almost everything related to international regulatory barriers and just focus on the U.S.  Saving my international research for another project I guess.

    If you have time to read nothing else, I’d recommend the first half with the background on virtual firms which provides several case studies and models of multijurisdictional virtual practices and what technology and methods of online delivery or collaboration that they are using. I’ve mentioned the following firms:

    – VLP Law Group

    – FSB FisherBroyles Legal

    – Heritage Law

    – Rimon Law

    – Axiom Law

    – Clearspire

    – Valorem Law

    – Burton Law

    – Hargrove Madden

    – McGrath & Spielberger, PLLC

    – Frame Legal

    – Harrill Law Firm

    Fair warning, most of the model rules I discuss in this paper will probably be at least a little modified by the ABA Annual Meeting in August. But hopefully some of my proposals at the end will strike a cord with someone out there. Comments always welcome.

    Abstract:

    The spread of disruptive technologies to the legal profession is changing the dynamic of how law firms are structured as well as  the value propositions associated with the delivery of legal  services.  The number of law firms with a national presence has grown due to the cost benefits  and efficiency of using cloud  computing.  New models for  expansion across jurisdictional
    boundaries are increasing.  However, the regulatory barriers to  create these new firm structures are numerous and costly.  This
    paper reviews the evolution of technology in multijurisdictional  firms and examines the primary regulatory barriers to their further  development.  A starting point for standardization of regulations is  proposed as well as potential first-steps to removing barriers to the  growth of multijurisdictional virtual law firms.

    The rest is here.  

     

  • Who Does the Technology Replace?

    Last month, I spoke at the annual conference for the IP Paralegal Institute in Cary, NC. The topic of my presentation was how to create an “eOffice” – to move away from paper and go digital. I started the talk with an overview of the legal marketplace for unbundled and online legal services and ended it with a look at where the profession will be in the next five years. I discussed decision-making systems like Neota Logic and document assembly and automation technologies as well as online case and client management systems that automate many of the functions of a law office.

    The final question from the attendees afterwards was a new one for me in the  Q&A, probably because it was the first time I had spoken to a room of paralegals rather than lawyers: “With all this technology, how many human bodies do you think it will replace in the law firm?” I guess my presentation had made a few of them nervous about their job security in the future. Likewise, when I spoke at Stanford Law a few weeks later I was asked at the end of my talk what I thought the make-up of a law firm would be five to ten years from now.

    Where do paralegals and other support staff fit into these new law firm models? (more…)

  • Technology in Legal Mentorship

    Below is an article that I wrote on the changing face of mentorship in the legal profession. I was asked to write it for a legal publication last year, but for space reasons they were not able to publish it. I think it’s an important topic so I’ll share. In this article, I focus on alternative forms of mentorship that take advantage of technology and the Internet to assist a new generation of lawyers who may have difficulty finding mentors upon passing the bar. Comments are always welcome.

     

     

  • Stanford CodeX Speaker Presentation Video

    Last week I gave a presentation at Stanford Law School entitled “Unbundling and the Future of Legal Service Delivery.” There was a good turnout and we had some great questions from the attendees at the end of the talk which I enjoyed.

    Thanks again to Stanford CodeX and the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession for inviting me out there to share my thoughts on these topics. I am introduced by Tony Lai, one of the founders of LawGives, a legal tech startup working with CodeX and StartX, that I also had the pleasure of spending time with while in Palo Alto. Below is the video from my talk.

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