Virtual Law Practice

Tag: Facebook

  • NC State Bar Journal Covers the Online Legal Professional

    Attorneys practicing law online and licensed in North Carolina may be interested in checking out the fall issue of the North Carolina State Bar Journal.  Several of the articles in the issue cover topics related to attorneys creating online presences, including avoiding ethical risks for law firm websites and using social networking, such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging. 

    As with most state bar publications covering topics related to technology, at least one of the articles comes with a stern reminder to follow the Rules of Professional Conduct and advises attorneys to consult with the ethics counsel at the State Bar before attempting to use any social networking as a marketing tool.  Wise advice.  I’ll freely admit that I took advantage of the ability to call the ethics hotline a few times both while working at a small firm and when I first went out as a solo with a virtual law practice.  The service is anonymous and a great way to get the reassurance and confidence you might need before taking any action.  There are more formal methods of getting written ethics advisory opinions, but being able to make a quick phone call for small matters, many of which may just be affirmation of good common sense, is a valuable service from the Bar. 

    With the lines between the personal and professional being so thin with many popular forms of online social networking, it’s good to know you can check with someone from the Bar who handles ethics issues on a daily basis.  It’s a “measure twice, cut once” philosophy and serves well for any professional placed in a position of trust by members of  the general public.

  • State Bar Regulation of Online Lawyer Communication

    I have been fielding questions lately about the recent lawsuit filed in Louisiana regarding the Louisiana State Bar’s new proposed Rules of Professional Conduct and how they may affect blogging and other online social networking.  Attorneys operating virtual law practices tend to use blogging and other online communities in their daily law practice for the purpose of client development as well as to network and collaborate with other attorneys. 

    As I’ve worked with other attorneys nationwide to set up virtual law offices, I’ve been reading through different state’s bars rules of professional conduct and ethics decisions related to electronic communication and advertising.  Every state seems to have a different understanding of how attorneys are using the Internet in their law practices.  Sometimes it’s an archaic understanding and at other times it’s just not informed enough from a technology perspective to provide the guidance to attorneys as it was intended to do. 

    The new proposed Louisiana rules regulate lawyer advertising on blogs and other social networks and will go into effect in April of next year.  The lawsuit, brought by a Louisiana Construction Law Firm,  challenges the constitutionality of Louisiana’s new rules claiming that they will restrict free speech.  The full text of the Complaint is here.

    An attorney in the firm filing the lawsuit is active in online communities and forums.  He is a member of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other popular social networking sites.  He operates an educational blog about the construction industry and construction law.  As a blogger, he posts comments on other blogs and writes guest posts.
     
    The most interesting claim made in the complaint is that each incidence of “speech,” each blog post, each tweet, would have to be run by the Louisiana Bar prior to posting and would cost $175 per review.  Wow.  That might be doable for BigLaw, but would certainly not be cost-effective for a solo practitioner.  How could you make timely blog posts if you had to run it by a review team before posting?  I will be interested to read the response to this particular claim.   

    I’ve read Kevin O’Keefe’s opinion about the new proposed Louisiana rules and the lawsuit on his blog.  He seems to think the whole issue is being blown out of proportion and the rules will not be any threat to blogging.  O’Keefe is probably right. 

    What interests me more about this lawsuit and the proposed rule is the way that state bars are trying to draft rules that regulate their attorneys’ use of technology to communicate, not just to advertise their law practice, but to provide the delivery of legal services.

    Most of the rules and regulations that exist for each state bar related to electronic communication are out of touch with the technology that their attorneys are using.  Many ethics opinions and rules of professional conduct restricting attorney advertising through electronic methods were written when email was still new.  Most haven’t been updated since the mid-1990s.  

    In addition, the rules and ethics opinions that I have read seem to be out of touch with the general public they are intended to protect.  Maybe I’m off base here, but I think it’s past time that the legal profession reevaluates the experience and ability of the general consumer to find and retain legal services.  Yes, there will always be unscrupulous attorneys out there who will use online advertising to mislead the public.  However, there could be a better balance of 1) education on the part of the state bar regulators regarding the technology used by attorneys in daily practice and 2) addressing the public’s demand for affordable and convenient access to legal services through electronic methods.   

    I’ll be watching to see what happens in Louisiana.  In the meantime, I’m still compiling a state by state list of rules of professional conduct and ethics opinions that relate to an attorney’s use of technology in daily practice.  I’d like to provide this as a resource for attorneys wanting to practice with a virtual law office to see how their state bar as well as neighboring state bars have addressed the delivery of legal services online.

  • Attorneys Scared of Web 2.0? ABA Journal Article Says Yes.

    The September issue of the ABA Journal ran an article entitled Web 2.0 Still a No-Go: Lawyers Slow to Adopt Cutting-Edge Technology. I’ve been wanting to blog about this article for a couple weeks now because I think any virtual attorney should find it interesting. The article consisted of three pages of charts showing that attorneys are starting to use more technology in their daily law practices, but they are not jumping to it at the rate that the general public has been over the past five years.

    Only 2% of attorneys maintain a law blog and only 15% of lawyers have joined a social network. Attorneys use technology to receive information, but its primarily through news websites (79%) or by email newsletters (59%) and discussion lists (40%). Only 10% use RSS feeds and 6% use podcasts. Even more disturbing, only 30% use their firm’s intranet, extranet or website to communicate and receive information.

    What are you folks using? A phone, a fax machine and snail mail?

    Did these statics surprise me? A little, but they shouldn’t have. Attorneys are by training a skeptical bunch. Nevertheless, the statistics in this ABA Journal survey make our profession seem like a close-minded and archaic bunch compared to the general public. And this is at a time when we should be working to improve the image of attorneys as progressive professionals who are ready to serve the public and stand for justice in the legal system.

    Yes, my perspective is a bit skewed considering how I operate my own solo law practice. I run a virtual law office from my home and work with other attorneys and clients who make the most of the technology that is available to us. So it is difficult for me to understand why an attorney would not make use of the evolving Web 2.0 applications that are now available to them. Check out the list of useful websites from my last post and the CLE presentation last week. Many of these sites are for useful Web 2.0 apps that can have an impact on your practice.

    It doesn’t make practical sense to hold back on Web 2.0.  Why?

    1)  The general public is not holding back. These are your clients. Attorneys serve their clients. In the end, it is all about customer service. Your clients use these technologies to communicate with co-workers, family and friends across the nation. They enjoy the convenience and affordability that the technology provides for them. Ignoring these trends in the general public will keep your law practice in the dark ages. You may retain a clientele that enjoys receiving snail mail and can’t use email to save their life, but don’t expect that clientele to hang around forever.

    Can you be efficient, convenient and affordable? Will you work with me using the technology that I use on a daily basis and not talk down at me just because you are a professional?

    This is what your clients want. Instead of buying a lovely new set of chairs for your reception area, invest in the technology that will make your practice run smoother. Start simple. Learn to use your email, buy a scanner and start storing your docs online, learn basic backup techniques for your systems. Learn about encryption and security. Try setting up a virtual law office, using web conferencing, hiring a virtual paralegal, connecting with others on Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn, Facebook, Legal OnRamp, etc. Find ways to connect with other attorneys through the technology. It will benefit your clients and your law practice.

    2)  In this dark economic climate, why wouldn’t you want to lower your law office overhead? Not only can some of these Web 2.0 applications make your practice more efficiently, many of them are free or the cost is low enough to receive a fast return on investment. Lower your overhead and pass the savings along to your clients.

    3)  Take a second look at the life of a typical attorney. Do you have a life outside of your practice? One positive statistic in the article was the indication that more attorneys are using mobile devices. In two years the number of firms providing attorneys with BlackBerrys or iPhones has increased from 49% to 76% in two years. 72% of attorneys under the age of 40 are using mobile devices.

    That’s perhaps positive progress. It’s either being used to bill more hours while on the go or to make more time for a personal life by using the flexibility of not having to be tied down to a physical office. That work/life balance detail wasn’t in the survey, but at least the option of more flexibility is there to those attorneys through the use of mobile devices and Web 2.0 apps.

    That said, I recognize that change is never easy, and for a solo practitioner it can be a scary leap. But in my opinion, not understanding Web 2.0 and keeping up with current technology is a much bigger risk. Here’s looking forward to an ABA Journal Article that shows other attorneys agree with me.

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