Virtual Law Practice

Tag: Carolyn Elefant

  • Upcoming Events in March Related to Virtual Law Practice

    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?

  • Residency Requirements and the Virtual Law Practice

    I’ve been reading with interest the case of Attorney Ekaterina Schoenefeld who filed a lawsuit against the State of New York claiming that by requiring an attorney to maintain a physical law office in the state, New York law discriminates unconstitutionally against attorneys who are out-of-state.  Schoenefeld is licensed in California, New York and New Jersey and claims she was not aware of NY’s residency requirement before taking and passing the NY Bar Exam.   Law.com has a detailed article on the case and Carolyn Elefant over at MyShingle.com wrote a rousing post in support of this solo attorney’s plight.

    I do not know if in the case of Schoenefeld the attorney was planning on operating a virtual law office, but her intent was clearly to provide legal services pertaining to the law of each of the states for which she obtained a law license. This is a similar situation faced by attorneys wanting to open virtual law offices.  They may choose to reside in a state in which they do not hold a law license or to provide legal services of one state while maintaining an office in another.  The technology allows them the flexibility to deliver legal services online and choose where they live and work.

    In my opinion, residency or physical office requirements, which exist for some state bars, are an example of an out-dated restriction on the legal profession that could use some updating to reflect changes in law practice management.  If you feel like reading up on some examples of residency requirements, see New York’s §470 of Judiciary Law, Missouri State Bar Informal Advisory Opinion Number 970098 regarding Rule 5.5;   Tolchin v. New Jersey Supreme Court, 111 F.3d 1099 (3d Cir. 1997); Lichtenstein v. Emerson, 674 N.Y.S.2d 298 (App. Div. 1998);  Parnell v. West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, 110 F.3d 1077 (4th Cir. 1997) or Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 600.946 (the attorney must show intent “either to maintain an office in this state for the practice of law, and to practice actively in this state, or to engage in the teaching of law”).

    These residency requirements focus on the attorney “actively practicing law within the state.”  How should this be interpreted if the attorney physically resides in one state and actively practices law from a virtual law office providing the legal services pertaining to the laws of another state?  He or she is actively practicing law, just not physically within the state.  Residency requirements make more sense to me when they are restricted to attorneys who are handling litigation in that state and will be expected to make court appearances.  But if they are drafting state law contracts and handling IP projects for NY clients while living in NJ or CA? 

    Does the attorney need to run a physical law office or reside in the state in which he or she practices law?  It probably depends on the attorney’s practice area and client base.  For those practices in which it does make good business sense, then the residency requirements place a significant burden on the attorney trying to startup a virtual law office that is located out-of-state.  It seems a very geo-centric and out-dated rule in a society that has become increasingly more global and interconnected through technology. 

    I’d love to hear others thoughts on residency requirements whether related to a completely virtual office or a traditional law practice that is integrating a virtual law office to expand into multiple jurisdictions.

  • Social Networking Policies for a Virtual Law Practice

    Last week I gave a brief presentation for the Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project (LSNTAP) about developing policies for online social networking. While researching for the presentation and round table discussion, it occurred to me that having a policy in place for social networking is a wise idea for a virtual law practice. Considering that a great deal of the marketing and professional networking for a virtual law practice is going to be handled online using social networking tools, it makes good sense to establish a policy for your practice whether you are a solo practitioner or a medium-sized online law practice with virtual assistants.

    If you haven’t already, please check out Carolyn Elefant’s ebook Social Networking for Lawyers: The What, Why and How.  This is a good resource regarding the use of social networking for legal professionals and could be useful for developing your own social networking policies for a virtual law practice.

    Here are some social networking policy suggestions from my presentation that can be applied to a virtual law practice: (more…)

  • List of Sites Containing Tips to Market a Virtual Law Office

    In a recent blog post, I discussed how an attorney with a VLO can attract paying, online clients to a VLO.  As promised, below is a list of websites and blogs that provide useful marketing tips and resources for solo and small firm practitioners.  This list only includes sites that provide marketing resources and tips.  I could build a long list of other services and sites that an attorney could join in order to market his or her virtual law practice,  such as sites that help to raise the SEO of the VLO website or blog.  Hopefully, the sites listed below will point you towards many of these online tricks of the trade. 

    Most of the resources below are geared towards a traditional law practice and some of them are not even related to the legal profession specifically, but with a little creativity the tips found in them could easily be used to market a virtual law office.  If I had oodles of free time, I would love to explain in detail how each of these sites and resources can be useful to a virtual law practice.  Instead, I’m just putting it out there and inviting everyone to explore and use their imaginations.  Or better yet, if you become befuddled, contact the folks that run these blogs in person.  Some of them are really kind, helpful individuals who are attorneys themselves and contain a wealth of valuable information and experience to share.  As always, I welcome suggestions to add to this list.  

    [Tip: Since most of these sites are blogs, it might save time to check out their categories section or run a search on their site specifically for marketing tips.]

    Sites with Tips on Marketing a Virtual Law Office”
    1.  Lisa Solomon’s Legal Research and Writing Pro Website and Blog 

    **Lisa is hosting an upcoming teleseminar, PR 101 for Lawyers: How to Write Direct-to-Consumer Press Releases That the Media Will Also Love.  This will take place on November 18 and will be presented by Joan Stewart, a/k/a the Publicity Hound.  Details for this are on her website.

    2.  The Publicity Hound Blog & Tips of the Week Ezine

    3.  Susan Cartier Liebel’s Build a Solo Practice, LLC

    4.  Grant Griffith’s Home Office Warrior, Home Office Lawyer and Blog for Profit 

    5.  CopyBlogger

    6.  ProBlogger

    7.  Guy Kawasaki’s How to Change the World

    8.  Carolyn Elefant’s My Shingle

    9.  Ed Poll’s LawBiz Blog & Ezine

    10.  Stem Legal – “Building Web Profile for the Legal Industry”

    11.  The PR Lawyer

    12.  Law Marketing Blog 

    13.  Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs

    14.  Legal Marketing Blog

    15.  Brett Trout’s BlawgIt

    16.  Ben Glass’s Great Legal Marketing blog

    17.  Gary Vaynerchuk‘s blog

    Resource to Join

    Solo Practice University  (Opening soon, this web-based educational community will provide online courses related to marketing law practices.)

  • How Will Virtual BigLaw Affect Solo/Small Firm VLOs?

    It was predictable that BigLaw would find a way into the world of virtual law practice. This week’s most popular legal news article was the introduction of Venture Law Group’s new law firm concept, Virtual Law Partner. This new virtual law firm has the goal of becoming BigLaw for the virtual practitioner and boasts of creating partners out of firm members who will have the flexibility to set their own rates and work their own hours. They will receive 85% of what they are billed under this scheme.

    The question: How will the launch of Virtual BigLaw affect solo and small firm virtual law practitioners?

    The answer may depend on the marketing techniques of the Venture Law Group both in luring newly licensed attorneys and bringing in clients for each individual partner’s virtual practice. One question is whether the partners in this virtual BigLaw firm are responsible for retaining their own clients or whether the firm assists their individual efforts. 

    The affect of Virtual BigLaw on solos and small firm VLOs may also depend on the company’s ability to influence the ABA and other State Bars as far as standardizing rules of professionalism in virtual law practice. It is certainly something I intend to follow closely in the coming months. 

    While the Venture Law Group’s Virtual BigLaw Firm does not appear to seek clientele out of lower & middle income America, if other Virtual BigLaw Firms crop up, then this could have an impact on solo and small firm VLOs.  One of the benefits of operating a VLO as a solo practitioner is that it allows me to compete on some level with the larger firms who are able to set up shop in just about every small town in my state. My VLO allows me to expand my client base and provide services to more lower and middle income individuals who might otherwise not go to a traditional law office for a variety of reasons (billable hour, intimidation, inconvenience, etc.).

    One of my hopes in starting my own VLO and in forming VLOTech was that I could work towards changing the bad opinions that many in the public have about attorneys. Sure, I want to have a successful career and make a good living, but I also want to show the world that there are alternative ways of practicing law that make legal services more affordable and accessible to the public. I wonder what impression Virtual BigLaw will make.

    Personally & professionally, I found it annoying that the head of this venture spoke in several interviews as if he invented virtual law practice and the idea of better work/life balance for attorneys through technology. He may have some major connections in the VC funding and legal world, but he did not invent virtual law practice or elawyering. My thanks to Carolyn Elefant for pointing this out in her Legal Blog Watch post “Are Virtual Law Firms Really a New Idea?”

    Attorneys have been practicing law online for years with different combinations of the technology available at the time. Web-based, software as a service (SaaS) business models are fairly recent to the mix. In my mind, virtual law practice is a collaborative effort of many individuals in the legal profession and the IT field. We learn from each other and create various methods of virtual law practice.

    Every attorney seeking to practice law online will need to decide which form of virtual law office they want to join or if they want to hang their own virtual shingle. Some attorneys may want to focus on form-generated legal documents while others may want to combine a VLO with a traditional litigation practice.   The type of VLO, the services it offers and how it operates, depends on how the attorney wants to set it up.  And now attorneys who want to join a Virtual BigLaw as a partner may have that elawyering option as well.

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