Virtual Law Practice

Tag: ABA eLawyering Task Force

  • Accepting Nominations for Excellence in eLawyering Award

    The ABA eLawyering Task Force is accepting nomination forms for the annual James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering.

    The award is given to a lawyer who has developed innovative legal service delivery over the Internet. The focus of the award is on the delivery of personal legal services, especially those that serve individuals of moderate to middle class means. Nominees may be individual lawyers, a law firm, or any other organization that delivers legal services to individuals.

    Last year’s Keane Award recipient was Orange County California Legal Aid Society for their development of Legal Genie. The year before that, Lee Rosen, owner of Rosen Law Firm, was the recipient. The award is presented at a special ceremony at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago on March 30, 2012 and comes with other perks such as publication about the award recipient in Law Practice magazine and other LPM Publications.

    Do you know of a lawyer, law firm or other organization that deserves nomination? Self-nomination is accepted as well. The deadline is February 15. The criteria for nomination and the form for submission may be found on the elawyering task force website.

  • December ezine on elawyering

     

    The December issue of Law Practice Today is focused on elawyering with articles from myself and fellow ABA elawyering Task Force members discussing different forms of elawyering.

    My article is a basic “get started with elawyering” introduction.  Here is an excerpt:

    It is not necessary to convert to a completely paperless law office in the clouds in order to benefit from different methods of elawyering. Most lawyers would prefer to get their feet wet first and then gradually find ways to take portions of their practice digital – whether that means moving to cloud-based applications for certain tasks or something smaller in scope, such as the use of a virtual paralegal or virtual assistant. There are a few simple first steps that a lawyer might take to getting started with elawyering…..read more

    Other articles in this issue include:

    Expand Your Solo or Small Firm Practice Using Client Portals, by Donna Seyle

    Document Assembly Over the Internet, by Richard S. Granat

    Dancing in the Cloud, by Marc Lauritsen

    An Update on Governing Cloud Computing, by Will Hornsby and Joseph Duffy

    The Potentials and Perils of a Virtual Law Practice, by Ed Poll

  • Accepting Nominations for the ABA Keane Award for Excellence in ELawyering

    If you are an attorney or law firm that uses technology in innovative ways to deliver legal services to your clients, please consider filling out a nomination form for the ABA’s Keane Award for Excellence in ELawyering.  Or if you are aware of an attorney or law firm that deserves recognition for the innovative use of technology to deliver legal services, please consider nominating them. 

    From the Task Force website:

    The purpose of this Award is to give recognition to law offices that have developed legal service innovations that are delivered over the Internet. The focus of the Award is on 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.

    More information about the Award and the nomination criteria is here.  The Award is given out by the eLawyering Task Force at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago usually following the keynote speaker (and I’m thrilled to say this year that speaker is Professor Larry Lessig!)  Nomination forms are due January 14, 2010.

  • ELawyering and the Future of Legal Work CLE

    The ABA eLawyering Task Force will be presenting a CLE at American University Washington College of Law on October 21, 2010 from noon – 1:20pm, entitled “ELawyering and the Future of Legal Work“.  I will be joining co-panelists Blair Janis, Marc Lauritsen and Ronald Staudt in a discussion of elawyering and its impact on the future of law practice.  The program is free and open to law students and practicing attorneys (it costs a little if you need the CLE credit).  If you are in the D.C. area, please join us.  The question and answer sessions at the end of these presentations are always fun and a great opportunity to hear from local attorneys about how they may be using virtual law practice and other elawyering methods to deliver legal services.

  • Happy New Year – Going on Year 4

    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…)

  • Minimum Requirements for Delivering Legal Services Online

    Co-chairs of the ABA eLawyering Task Force, Marc Lauritsen and Richard Granat, have submitted a draft set of minimum requirements for delivering legal services online which was published in this month’s Law Practice Today.  As a member of the Task Force, we have discussed these minimum requirements as a set of guidelines that attorneys will be able to turn to when they are interested in forming a virtual law practice .  Once approved by the ABA’s LPM, these requirements may be used by different state bars as a way to guide attorneys in their states who are forming virtual law practices.  You may check out the minimum requirements posted in the article and the Task Force welcomes comments and reactions to the document through their listserv. 

    Keep in mind when reading these minimum requirements that the idea behind them is to provide guidance, but not to be too specific in ways that might stifle future innovation in the delivery of legal service.  The topics covered include website architecture, ethics issues, statement of terms and conditions, retainer agreement acceptance, online payment of legal fees, protecting client confidences, and security certification.

  • ABA’s Excellence in Elawyering Award Accepting Nominations

    The ABA’s eLawyering Task Force has announced that it is accepting nominations for The James I. Keane Memorial Award.  This annual award gives recognition to law offices or legal organizations that have developed legal service innovations delivered over the Internet.  According to the Task Force, 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.

    From the Task Force’s website:

    “The Jim Keane Award is named for James I. Keane, the founding Chair of the ABA eLawyering Task Force. The Task Force was created in 2000, when ABA President William G. Paul, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, took the unusual and creative step of asking a Section to assume responsibility for one of his presidential initiatives, namely an examination of ways that lawyers could use the Internet and other electronic resources to deliver legal services to people of moderate means more efficiently and effectively.”

    To learn more about eligibility requirements for the award or to submit a nomination, click here.

  • 60 Websites to Check Out – From the Practical Skills CLE

    Last week I co-presented a CLE session at the NC Bar Center with Lee Rosen, of Rosen Divorce Law fame, and Erik Mazzone, the Director of the Center for Practice Management at the NC Bar. The conference was the Bar’s Annual Practical Skills CLE which is geared towards newly minted attorneys and others wanting to brush up on practical lawyering skills. The presentation was titled 60 Websites in 60 Minutes, and the goal was to share useful websites with the attorneys in the audience along with throwing in some fun, stress-relieving sites.

    My 20 websites focused on open source or shareware applications that could be useful to an attorney opening a solo or small firm practice and wanting to keep their overhead down. I also tried to focus on security for the mobile attorney, such as Truecrypt or PCTool’s free, secure password generator. Here is the list of websites that were presented. I’ve thrown in brief descriptions under the ones that I covered.

    60 Websites in 60 Minutes – 2008 NC Bar Practice Skills CLE

    Google Maps

    Jott

    Truecrypt
    Truecrypt is free, open-source disk encryption software. There are multiple uses for this software, especially for the mobile attorney. For example, create an encrypted drive containing sensitive data and place it and Truecrypt on a USB key. When you use a laptop to practice law remotely, mount the encrypted file as a drive on your temporary computer and use the file system like a normal drive. When you are done, unmount the drive and the only thing visible left on the USB key will be the encypted file. So if you loose your USB key or it is stolen, all they will be able to see is the encrypted file.

    Cornell Legal Research Engine

    iStockPhoto

    Firefox 3+ No Scripts
    Firefox 3 is the safest web browser to use. Add NoScripts to the program and it’s even better. If you are using web-based apps to practice law, I recommend switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox 3 with add-on security.

    VLOTech

    SugarSync

    Thunderbird
    Thunderbird 2 email application has superior security and privacy features, including phishing protection, industry leading junk mail filters, and support for user privacy and remote image protection.

    Grand Central

    PB Wiki

    Open Office
    OpenOffice.org is the free open source version of Microsoft Office. It includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and other applications. It runs on PCs and Macs which makes it useful if you are collaborating with others. It has easy to use applications, great compatibility with other programs and you don’t have to buy a new version to install each time it has an update.

    Wakerupper

    Jing

    Zaba Search
    ZabaSearch is a website that provides contact information for just about anyone you are trying to locate. The site claims to contain three times more telephone numbers and addresses than the White Pages Directory. Good for investigating.

    Evernote

    Elance

    PCTool’s Password Generator
    PCTools.com provides a secure password generator. You can specify password length, phonetics, letters, mixed case, numbers and punctuation.

    WordPress

    Google Analytics

    7 Zip
    7-Zip is open source software you can use to compress large files. A useful tool if you need to email or upload a larger file to a client or counsel.

    LinkedIn

    Comodo

    Product Wiki
    Productwiki is a free product review site written by consumers. Includes software, computer, electronics products reviews and more. Shows competing products and pros and cons for each.

    Google Docs

    TinyURL

    DaFont
    Designing a logo or letterhead for your law practice or looking for an eye-catching font to use in a presentation? Dafont.com has a large directory of free fonts for install on your Mac or PC.

    Alltop

    DimDim

    Twitter
    Twitter has become a popular social networking site for attorneys. You can follow individuals as well as different news and business organizations, such as the ABA Journal or Legal Voices, which follows twitter commentary from the legal industry.

    Public Library of Law

    Project Draw

    Second Life Bar Association
    If you are interested in learning about the developing legal system in the virtual reality world, Second Life, or if you just want to meet up with other tech-savvy lawyers from across the world, consider attending a meeting of the SLBA at the Second Life Justice Center. Free CLEs and other legal conferences are being held at the center on a regular basis with speakers who are in the top of the IP and Cyberlaw fields.

    Todoist

    Soocial

    Uncyclopedia
    Strictly for stress relief, Uncyclopedia is a parody of Wikipedia with over 100,000 humorous encyclopedia-style entries created by users. Check out the entries related to the legal profession or feel free to edit an entry for a creative writing break.

    Google Calendar

    37 Signals

    Solo Practice University
    Solo Practice University is a new web-based educational community for attorneys that teaches the “practice of law” and fills in the gaps that law schools tend to ignore, such as the practical, how-tos of running a law practice. Teachers will include law professors and legal professionals and the courses will be a combination of media from web conferences to podcasts and ebooks.

    Goog 411

    Pandora

    Home Office Lawyer
    Home Office Lawyer is a popular law blog written by Grant Griffiths, a Kansas Family Law Attorney, who runs his law practice from a home office. Home Office Lawyer as well as Grant’s other blog, Home Office Warrior, have great information on the latest technology and other law practice management tools that can help an attorney run a home-based law practice or lower their law office overhead.

    Chrome

    Manager Tools

    Legal OnRamp
    Legal OnRamp is a lawyer networking site where attorneys contribute content and participate in online forums and groups. Members may use the site to meet other attorneys worldwide who specialize in a particular area of the law or join in the OnRamp marketplace to find out about new client opportunities.

    Lojack for Laptops

    Duct Tape Marketing

    Adobe Connect Now
    Adobe ConnectNow, currently in Beta, is a great way to interact with other professionals from your computer. The application is free and you may use screen sharing, chat, notes, audio and video to hold online meetings. If you are planning on using a virtual or remote legal assistant, this might be a great way to handle an orientation or training. The security may not yet be there with this application, so I would not recommend using it for communicating with clients at this stage in its development.

    JD Supra

    NewsGator

    Open Congress
    OpenCongress combines official government information with related news and blog coverage. If you want to find out the story behind a bill, this is the place to go.

    Clipperz

    Law Practice Matters

    ABA eLawyering Task Force
    ABA’s Elawyering Task Force is part of the ABA Law Practice Management Section and provides an introduction to the increasingly popular trend of using technology to provide legal services online. Even if all you are doing is setting up a web site for your law office, this is a good site to visit for practice tips.

    Delicious

    Presentation Zen

    Techmeme
    Techmeme is popular website that can keep you up to date with technology and trends that can help you run your law practice and your life. Focusing on the practical application of technology in daily life, it combines the best tech stories of the day into an easy-to-scan page with 24/7 updated content.

    Stay Happily Married

    Kiva

    Major Geeks
    MajorGeeks is a trusted website that provides downloads for your computer that will repair, back-up, and protect your system. Check out the anti-virus and backup downloads.

  • Online Law Office Receives Local Press

    The Wilmington Star News ran an article in the Business Section regarding my online law practice and the VLO software. (You may have to register to view the article.) The article neglected to mention all of the ABA or North Carolina Bar resources supporting virtual law offices. So, I’m posting that information below just to supplement the article.

    “The highest leadership of the ABA knows we need a catalyst for lawyers to adapt and flourish in the new technology-driven economic order. The Internet presents us with unparalleled opportunities and powerful new tools to provide legal services. Innovative law firms and web-based companies (many run by lawyers) have already cast off — successfully — into these uncharted waters. They have set up web sites that go far beyond a list of partners, practice areas and a map to the law firm.”

    —American Bar Association Law Practice Management Section: E-Lawyering Task Force

    According to the American Bar Association’s E-Lawyering Task Force,

    “[l]awyers… are exploring the new Internet landscape. These lawyers have the vision to see a wholly new market of un-met legal needs.”

    —American Bar Association Law Practice Management Section: E-Lawyering Task Force

    A 2003 American Bar Association’s Report of the Modest Means Task Force stated that

    One method by which attorneys may improve the fairness of the American legal system is to provide limited legal services “to people who cannot afford ‘full-service’ representation.” The North Carolina Bar Association and other state bars, including Maine, California, New Mexico and Maryland, support attorneys who provide “unbundled” legal services.

    —Handbook on Limited Scope Legal Assistance, A Report of the Modest Means Task Force, American Bar Association, Section of Litigation, 2003 and “Unbundled – A New Way to Practice,” North Carolina Bar Association, CLE Manuscript, May 24, 2002, featuring Alice Neece Mine, Assistant Executive Director of the North Carolina Bar Association responsible for Professional Responsibility and Ethics matters.

    As detailed in the findings of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee for the Delivery of Legal Services:

    “The unmet legal needs of consumers are well documented and dramatic.”

    —“Improving the Delivery of Affordable Legal Services Through the Internet: A Blueprint for the Shift to a Digital Paradigm”, Hornsby, William, American Bar Association’s Standing Committee for the Delivery of Legal Services, November 30, 2006

MENU