Virtual Law Practice

Tag: Marc Lauritsen

  • Virtual Lawyering In the News & Upcoming Presentations

    Online posts and podcast:

    Jim Calloway and Sharon Nelson have published a new podcast on The Digital Edge entitled “Virtual Lawyering Goes Mainstream.”  Calloway and Nelson discuss ways that virtual lawyering is starting to take off within the legal profession. 

    Over at the Slaw.ca blog, Sharon Nelson and John Simek has a post entitled “The Virtual Lawyer Stampede.”

    Jim Calloway also discusses virtual lawyering on his practice management blog under the post “Virtual Law Offices Are Becoming a Real-World Alternative.”

    Live Presentations:

    I will be participating in three events at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco in a couple weeks that are related to virtual law practice.  

    • August 5th, Thursday, 10:30am, 20/20 Vision: The Impact of Technology and Globalization on Ethics for the 21st Century Lawyer. This is a panel discussion in which I will be touching on cloud computing and virtual law practice.
    • August 5th, Thursday,12:30 to 2 pm, Legal Rebels: 10 Ways to Build Your Perfect Practice and Career.  I will be attempting to give a 6 minute presentation of 20 slides on a topic related to elawyering.
    • August 6th, Friday, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., The Virtual Law Firm: How to Build Your Practice in An Online World.  I will be presenting with Will Hornsby, Richard Granat and Marc Lauritsen at this session.

    Update (via elawyering blog):  

    eLawyering Task Force Meeting, Saturday, August 7, 2010, Hilton Hotel, Union Square, 9:00 – 11:00 A.M.Open Meeting
    National Conference of State Bar Presidents, Joint Workshop 3A – Keeping Pace with the Evolving Practice of Law

  • 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?

  • Virtual Law Practice Teleconference and Live Audio Webcast

    This upcoming Thursday, December 17 at 1pm EST, Richard Granat, Marc Lauritsen and myself will be co-presenting a CLE teleconference and live audio webcast entitled “The Virtual Law Firm: Benefits, Costs and Ethical Pitfalls to Avoid.”  It is sponsored by the American Bar Association LPM Section and the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education.

    From the program description, the topics that will be covered include:

    • What is a “virtual law firm”
    • The benefits of delivering legal services online
    • The web architecture for a virtual law firm
    • Online applications, such as web-enabled document automation
    • Ethical issues in the delivery of online legal services, including confidentiality, security, unauthorized practice of law, client identification, conflict of interest checking and client authentication procedures
    • Criteria of vendor selection
    • The costs associated with setting up a virtual law practice
    • Marketing your brand and virtual law practice online

    If  you are interested in virtual law practice or are operating a virtual law firm, please consider joining us for this session.  In addition to some really practical advice on this form of delivering legal services using technology, the session will also provide 1.5 hours of CLE credit in most states.  Have any specific questions you would like answered during the conference?  Please drop a line in the comments section below or email me.

    UPDATE: The teleconference had a really nice turnout and we received great questions from the audience both on the phone and online. I believe the recording of the CLE and materials will now be available for purchase from the ABA at some point.

  • 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.

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