Virtual Law Practice

Tag: online clients

  • Clearing Up the Terminology Before TECHSHOW

    TECHSHOW is here.  Some of the buzz this year is related to cloud computing, SaaS and web-based technologies that take aspects of law practice management online.  There are a lot of terms thrown around when discussing these topics.  One of them is “virtual law practice”.  We are bound to hear this phrase several times during TECHSHOW in various contexts.  Other terms, including VLOs, VLPs, virtual law offices, virtual law firms, online law offices, web-based or web-enabled law offices, are used to describe different methods of elawyering. However, when they are used, they are often not used to mean the actual delivery of legal services online to clients. 

    Elawyering is defined by Marc Lauritsen, the co-chair of the ABA’s eLawyering Task Force as

    all the ways in which lawyers can do their work using the Web and associated technologies.  These include new ways to communicate and collaborate with clients, prospective clients and other lawyers, produce documents, settle disputes and manage legal knowledge.  Think of a lawyering verb — interview, investigate, counsel, draft, advocate, analyze, negotiate, manage and so forth — and there are corresponding electronic tools and techniques.

    Check out the eLawyering Task Force’s website for more white papers and links to info about different elawyering methods. 

    When you ask attorneys to explain in detail what they mean when they say they have a “virtual law firm,” they may describe different combinations of elawyering.  However, from firm to firm there is usually a great deal of difference in the web-based technology they are using and each firm’s purpose for that technology in the scheme of their law practice management.

    So why try to limit the definition?  After all, when we try to cage something in there is the risk that this discourages future innovation and development of new forms of elawyering.  The key is whether the attorney is actually delivering legal services online to clients.  It should matter greatly in our profession for malpractice and ethics concerns.  If they are, the standards for daily use of web-based technology will be higher than if the technology is not being used to handle sensitive attorney/client data.  In other words, it should matter to their clients and their state bars whether they are delivering legal services online to clients using unencrypted methods of delivery and software products without the benefit of user agreements developed for the needs of legal professionals. 

    A virtual law practice involves the delivery of legal services to clients securely over the Internet by way of a client portal — whether the virtual law practice is completely web-based or integrated into a brick & mortar law office where the attorneys see in-person clients as well as their online clients.  Regardless of what web-based technology is used, the law firm is working with the client from the beginning of the legal representation through to the payment and rendering of legal services.   

    When discussing these issues, let’s be clear about what is meant by a “virtual law firm.”  It may be a paper(less) law office and the technology may be used for aspects of law practice management, but it is not virtual law practice.  When the practice of delivering legal services online to our clients is commonplace, as it will become in the near future, these distinctions will seem ridiculous.  But for the time being, they are important to keep us all on the same page.

  • Family Favorite Award Winner for the 4th Year in a Row

    I’m excited to announce that my virtual law office has won the Wilmington Parent Family Favorite Award under the category of “attorney” for the fourth year in a row!  (more…)

  • Reminders for Avoiding Malpractice in Virtual Law Practice

     

    This past Friday I attended a Law Practice Management Section Council meeting at the NCBA Bar Center.  This is the first meeting I’ve attended in person. Usually I am on conference call and booming my thoughts to the group via voice box.   Thanks to the Chair, Lee Rosen, these meetings are about the least boring I’ve ever been in and worth the two hour drive up to Raleigh. 

    At each session, we have an educational “mini-CLE” for the council members.  This past Friday’s mini-CLE was presented by Mark Scruggs of NC Lawyers Mutual which provides services to attorneys licensed to practice in North Carolina.   Mark engaged us in a great “refresher” session on the top malpractice issues and how to avoid them.  Many of these tips are ones that every attorney knows by heart, but it can’t hurt to occasionally review the basics. 

    For the attorney with a virtual law practice, it might good to review these rules and put them in the perspective of how they apply to the use of technology to deliver legal services online.  Here are some of the reminders for avoiding malpractice that Mark discussed.  He did not talk about virtual law practice, but I’ve added here below how I thought they related to an attorney practicing law online.  These tips were based on those issues for which his company sees the most malpractice claims filed. (more…)

  • Contributing to the Lawyerist

    I’m happy to announce that I will be a contributor to the Lawyerist.com blog. Here’s my intro post. An article on unbundling legal services with a virtual law practice should post sometime next week. If anyone has requests for topics related to virtual law practice that they would like for me to cover on this blog or as a contributor to Lawyerist, please drop me a line.

  • Recent AZ Bar Ethics Opinion Discusses eLawyering Methods

    The Arizona State Bar has published Ethics Opinion 09-04 “Confidentiality; Maintaining Client Files; Electronic Storage; Internet” in December 2009.  This opinion will apply to attorneys operating virtual law practices within the AZ Bar jurisdiction and is similar to the NC Bar 2008 Formal Ethics Opinion 5, Web-based Management of Client Records published July 2008.  In fact the NC Formal Ethics Opinion 5 is cited in this new AZ opinion.

    AZ Opinion 09-04 addresses the ability of an attorney to work with clients and deliver legal services online.  The question presented in the opinion lays out the method that the inquiring attorney would use to securely deliver the documents to his or her clients online.  In this case, the documents would be converted to “password-protected PDF format,” and the client would access those files for review over a secure site which uses “encryption and three layers of unique randomly generated alpha-numeric folder names and passwords.”

    The AZ Bar pointed to the two related, existing rules of professional conduct which are the same rules that we have seen applied in other opinions related to virtual law practice: Competence and Confidentiality of Information.  A previous AZ Bar ethics opinion has permitted electronic storage of law office data, including clients’ files (Az Ethics Op.05-04). 

    Here is what I love about this opinion.  They allow for the proposed method of delivering legal services online to the client, but they recognize that this is not where it ends. From the Opinion:

    However, the Committee also recognizes that technology advances may make certain protective measures obsolete over time.  Therefore, the Committee does not suggest that the protective measures at issue in Ethics Op. 05-04 or in this opinion necessarily satisfy ER 1.6’s requirements indefinitely.  Instead, whether a particular system provides reasonable protective measures must be “informed by the technology reasonably available at the time to secure data against unintentional disclosure.” N.J. Ethics Op. 701.  As technology advances occur, lawyers should periodically review security measures in place to ensure that they still reasonably protect the security and confidentiality of the clients’ documents and information. (emphasis added)

    This is clearly the best way that the state bars can address virtual law practice without preventing or discouraging innovation.   The attorney practicing law online has the responsibility to stay current on the security issues involved in using the technology. If they are not able to do so for themselves, then they need to trust an IT professional or their SaaS provider to keep their system up to date and protected.

  • 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.

  • Technology eReport: Setting Up a Web-Based Virtual Law Office

    Check out my article in the November issue of the ABA GP/Solo & Small Firm Technology eReport: Setting Up a Web-based Virtual Law Office.  From the article:

    Consumers are actively seeking more affordable and convenient access to legal services over the Internet. Due to the cost of traditional legal services, they are turning to cutting and pasting together sample online legal documents or purchasing cheap legal forms online without the benefit of attorney review. The economic recession has further hastened this trend. To address consumer demand, more attorneys are opening web-based virtual law offices (VLOs) or adding a VLO to an existing traditional law firm structure to deliver legal services to clients online.

    There are different ways to define and structure a virtual law practice. Simply put, a virtual law practice is a professional law practice where an attorney is able to work with clients over the Internet through a secure portal from the establishment of the attorney/client relationship through to the payment of and final rendering of legal services. The technology used to create and maintain a VLO is a software as a service (SaaS) hosted system, often referred to as practicing law “in the cloud.” To set up a virtual law practice, an attorney should be aware of a number of practical and ethical considerations discussed below.

  • 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.

  • Does Your Virtual Law Practice Need a Phone Number?

    When I first opened my virtual law office almost four years ago, I wanted to handle every aspect of my practice online.  With most of my client base, this worked fine and was what they preferred as well.  I have an estate planning and small business setup practice and the majority of my clients are in their late twenties through late forties.  However, I have a large number of clients over the age of 50, many of whom are retirees or who are interested for a variety of reasons in getting their estate planning in order for an affordable price and in a way that is convenient for them.  (more…)

  • Response to “Ethical Pitfalls of Virtual Law Practice”

    This past week an article came out in Lawyers USA Online entitled, “Ethical pitfalls of virtual law practice.”  The article discusses some of the ethics risks that exist in this form of law practice.  However, there are a number of safeguards and smart practices that an attorney may engage in to avoid these “ethical pitfalls.”  While the article quotes a handful of solutions, it does not cover all of the different options and resources that are available to attorneys who are concerned about these risks.  (more…)

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