Virtual Law Practice

Tag: LinkedIn

  • Twitter and the Virtual Law Office

    I’ve been using Twitter on almost a daily basis since last summer as @StephKimbro.  I started using it out of curiosity and am at over 1400 updates.  I have met many new people both in the legal profession and in other industries through Twitter.  Like anything else online, it requires savvy filtering skills.  I use TweetDeck to help search and filter tweets. 

    Many blog posts have gone up about attorneys using Twitter for networking, marketing and client development.  I’ll list a few below for reference.  Since my virtual law office clients are online and more likely to be using Twitter themselves I wanted to give the application more time before blogging about it to see how it could have an impact on a virtual law practice.

    So far, no new online clients as a direct result of using Twitter.  The difficulty is in narrowing in on my online client base here in North Carolina.  My Twitter network knows no jurisdictional boundaries which I am held to by my law license.  While I have a good number of North Carolina followers, the number of Twitter users is still not touching the general public enough that my posts about my law practice are reaching potential consumers of the online legal services that I provide.  Of course, I am not directly advertising my services through tweets, just posting about what I am working on at the time on my VLO.  I use other forms of online advertising that are targeted more towards my NC client base, but Twitter is just not able to tap into that base as easily— not yet.  

    That said, if I were able to connect with a prospective client through Twitter, I would immediately have to send them to my VLO to continue online communication.  Even the use of direct messages through Twitter conveys via unencrypted email and would not be a secure method of conveying sensitive attorney/client communications.  I would worry that a less sophisticated client might send a tweet with confidential information to me and the rest of the online world before I would have the chance to warn them.  I know other attorneys have written about these concerns and some refuse to use Twitter at all for that reason, but I still think the benefits for the legal professional outweigh any risks.  I’m keeping my eye out for a state bar ethics or advisory opinion to specifically discuss the use of Twitter.  Clue me in if you’ve read one.

    The value of Twitter for the virtual law practice is obvious — connecting with a network of other legal professionals on a closer level.  I have gotten to know many attorneys, virtual assistants, legal software providers and law practice management advisers through Twitter. Sure, I have a LinkedIn, Facebook and other social and legal networking accounts, but Twitter lets me get a glimpse into the daily lives of these people and likewise, they occasionally see tweets about my family and my daily musings.  Tweets help to humanize the online networking process.  

    For some attorneys operating a virtual law practice may seem isolating if they are working from a home office or other remote location on their VLO.  Twitter helps them stay connected to legal news and the opinions of other legal professionals across the world.  I have asked my Twitter followers for general advice on law practice management in the past and received useful insights.  Likewise, I have been able to share tips about VLOs and virtual law practice with others. 

    The network of virtual attorneys and virtual law firms on Twitter is growing which is helping to spread the word about VLOs and the delivery of legal services online.  Here are some VLOs on Twitter:

    @Olea_LLP

    @TimFerraris

    @FrameLegal

    @PattiSpencer

    @Debrina

    In conclusion, I don’t think using Twitter has much of a benefit of pulling in clients directly to a VLO.  However, it is a great tool to use for networking and learning from other legal professionals and a way to continue to grow the online presence of a virtual law practice.  As more of the general public joins Twitter, it is possible that the general advertising of a VLO website and services through tweets will over time help an attorney to grow his or her online client base.  

    Here are a list of some popular blog posts that have gone up about the use of Twitter by legal professionals:

    Twitter 101 For Lawyers, Nicole Black (@nikiblack)

    145 Lawyers (and Legal Professionals) to Follow on Twitter, Adrian Lurssen (@jdtwitt)

    Lawyer Marketing with Twitter, Steve Mathews (@stevematthews)

    Lawyer Marketing with Twitter has Arrived, Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe)

    How to Use Twitter as a Lawyer, Grant Griffiths (@grantgriffiths)

  • Top Ten 2008 Developments in Virtual Law Practice

    Happy New Year!  The following is my list of the top ten developments in the delivery of legal services using technology that have happened in the past year.  Please feel free to expand on this list in the comments.  I’m also including at the end my predictions for virtual law practice in the new year.

    1.  Richard Susskind’s book, The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, is published.  The book discusses “disruptive technologies” that allow attorneys to provide legal services online.  Susskind predicts that attorneys who adopt rather than resist these changes in the technology used to deliver legal services will prosper as the profession adapts to marketplace changes.  The public’s need for affordable and accessible legal services will drive the legal profession’s use of technology to meet this demand.

    2.  State bars and other professional legal organizations offer CLEs and sessions geared at teaching attorneys best practices and security standards for using technology in their law practices.  Popular topics include email security, online backup solutions for law office data, minimizing metadata and using scanners to decrease the use of paper.  See the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center’s website for a list of 2008 articles.  In addition to increased law and technology management education in the profession, several state bars provide specific ethics decisions with approval for virtual law offices (VLOs) and/or allow for attorneys to provide unbundled legal services online.

    3.  More attorneys turn to piecemeal technologies and free online apps to collaborate with each other and their clients online.  Basecamp, Google Docs, Adobe ConnectNow, Webex, GoToMeeting, and Dimdim are a few of the popular web-based tools.  

    4.  New web-based, software as a service (SaaS) law practice management products launch, including Rocket Matter and Clio.  Popular legal blogs and listservs discuss the pros and cons involved in the use of “cloud computing.”  The discussions center on the security and backup concerns with a hosted system.

    5.  VLOTech sets up web-based, virtual law offices (VLOs) in Alabama, Maryland, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia with more VLOs planned in Alaska, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and North Carolina for the upcoming year.  The technology aims to provide attorneys with the flexibility to operate a completely online law office or to combine the technology with a traditional law practice and offer unbundled legal services online.  “VLO” becomes a more recognized term for a web-based virtual law practice and elawyering.

    6.  Virtual Law Partners opens its doors as the newest example of BigLaw using technology to allow its attorneys to work remotely and collaborate on legal cases.

    7.  LegalZoom comes under fire over filing fees that the legal document service company charges to online clients, in particular in relation to the filing of trademark applications with the USPTO.  Critics of invention submission companies and of companies that provide form-generated legal documents in general spoke out about what they saw as the potential misleading of the public by online companies offering legal services where an attorney was not involved in reviewing the final legal product. 

    8.  With more attorneys practicing law using mobile devices and relying on electronic forms of communication with clients and other attorneys, management of electronically stored information (ESI) became more of a concern.  Solos and small firms are expected to understand e-discovery and ESI management in their daily practices.  Check out the archives of the EDD Blog co-authored by Bob Krantz and Jeffery Fehrman.

    9. Larger numbers of attorneys adopted popular online social networking tools to meet up with others in the legal profession.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Legal OnRamp, JD Supra and other sites connect attorneys with each other and prospective clients. 

    10. Some useful law and tech/practice management blogs came online this year, including Law 21, Above and Beyond KM, 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, and Law Practice Matters, among others.  Blogging continues to grow as an attorney marketing tool and is used as a method of providing the public with basic legal information and resources. Law blogs remain a method for attorneys to educate themselves and network in their individual practice areas.  The Louisiana State Bar’s proposed rules of professional conduct touch on attorney blogging, social networking and other forms of online attorney communication causing some concern and originating in a lawsuit from attorneys in that state. 

    My predictions for virtual law practice in 2009:

    1.  Attorneys will continue to question web-based, hosted software providing law practice management tools. However, companies providing SaaS legal products will band together to establish standards regarding the security of their products for the benefit of the legal profession and the reputation of the companies and the saas business model. 

    2.  The ABA will move forward with proposing standards or policies for the delivery of legal services online. The eLawyering Task Force as well as the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services will both play a critical role in establishing these guidelines.

    3.   Attorneys hit hard by the downward economy will seek out ways to minimize their law practice overhead using technology.  Some will use piecemeal software solutions to minimize overhead in law office administrative tasks. Others will consider opening completely web-based VLOs to get rid of the law office lease and expand their client base statewide or nationwide depending on their practice areas.  

    4.   More attorneys will realize that customer service is the key to growing a successful practice and that the public is demanding more efficient and convenient legal services through the use of technology.  This will prompt more attorneys to provide unbundled legal services online to clients either as the sole form of virtual law practice or in addition to their traditional law office practice.

  • 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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