Virtual Law Practice

Tag: online communication

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)

May 5, 2009
Spring Virtual Law Office Update

By now the word has circulated that the ABA Techshow website has posted the audio file from Richard Susskind’s keynote presentation at the ABA Techshow in Chicago earlier this month. I wasn’t able to attend the event and accept the Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in Elawyering. However, my husband, the programmer who designed my virtual law office software, attended to accept the award on my behalf. The presentation came with a lovely plaque that I will hang in my home office. Of course none of my online clients will get to see it, but I will have to find a way to “decorate” my VLO with some mention of the award.

Thanks to all of the Twitterers in the audience, I followed the presentation from home and got a good overview of the speech from tweets. Today I finally had time to listen to the ABA audio file of Susskind’s speech. He’s a very dynamic speaker which is something that you just can’t get from following a speaker on Twitter. I was also happy to hear that at the end they included the ABA Task Force’s presentation of the award to my VLO and my husband’s acceptance speech. Since I wasn’t there to accept it in person, it was nice to hear how it went.

In other news, my VLO received the Family Favorite Attorney Award for the third year in a row from the Wilmington Parent Magazine, a local parenting publication that many of my online clients read. This award means a lot of me because it comes from some of the individuals and families that I work with online. It has helped each year to build my confidence in my virtual elawyering skills and to generate additional client referrals. A couple articles were also published about my VLO in the NC Lawyer’s Weekly and other law-related publications. Hopefully all the attention will generate additional interest in virtual law practice and the delivery of legal services using technology.

Aside from my own virtual law practice, my company, VLOTech, received the 2009 Coastal Entrepreneur Award and was invited to meet with a panel of business experts to discuss the company. It was a great opportunity to learn from other entrepreneurs who have taken their dreams, accepted the risks and made it happen.

This spring has been a busy one both personally and professionally. My goal is to return to blogging more about actual virtual law practice in the summer months as things settle down a bit.

April 24, 2009
Virtual Law Office Listed as a “Law Firm Website That Works”

The April edition of the ABA Journal published an article entitled Law Firm Websites That Work. Under the category “Virtuality”, my virtual law practice is described along with illinoisdivorce.com.

The article consulted a list of panelists to provide suggestions for law firm websites that are productive in the categories of branding, solo, innovation, virtuality, all business, and youth appeal. Take a look at these websites and the marketing techniques and services they offer their clients. There may be ways to integrate aspects of several into your own ideas for a virtual law practice website.

March 25, 2009
Metadata – NC Bar Proposed Ethics Opinion

A proposed ethics opinion by the NC State Bar covers the review and use of metadata. The proposed opinion dated January 22, 2009 states the following conclusion,

…a lawyer must use reasonable care to prevent the disclosure of confidential client information hidden in metadata when transmitting an electronic communication and a lawyer who receives an electronic communication from another party or another party’s lawyer must refrain from searching for and using confidential information found in the metadata embedded in the document.

The concern with metadata is that it may reveal privileged or confidential client information. With even basic computer skills, if you know how to look for metadata, it’s easy to obtain information about who wrote a document and when and to find detailed notes and information embedded in the document.  Attorneys must observe “reasonable care” to protect and preserve confidential information when they are using forms of electronic communication.

Likewise, when receiving an electronic communication, the opinion states that the attorney should not actively seek out metadata. This is in line with ethics opinions issued in recent years by the NY State Bar followed by other state bars and backed up by the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility.  Visit the ABA’s Legal Tech Resource Center for a complete list of Metadata Ethics Opinions in each state.

How does metadata relate to a virtual law practice?

With a web-based virtual law practice, the attorney may be transmitting documents to clients and other attorneys in digital format by uploading documents for review or in allowing uploads to the virtual law office from another attorney or client. Depending on the file format being transferred online and the circumstances, metadata may be embedded in those files.

Accordingly, the virtual law practitioner should use metadata removal programs on their applications immediately before uploading them to the VLO.  Microsoft and even Open Office have metadata removal programs and techniques available for their software suites. Another option is to convert the files, such as Word, Excel, OpenOffice, and PowerPoint, to PDF before uploading them to the VLO. However, some online clients may not be able to edit the application on their computers as a PDF. So if the purpose of the transfer is to allow your clients to add anything to the document, then conversion to PDF may not be the best method of avoiding metadata. Another free option would be to convert the document to Rich Text Format (RTF) but this would most likely create layout and formatting problems and not be worth it.

There are metadata removal applications from a number of companies, including Workshare, Payne Consulting Group, Esquire Innovations, Inc. or iScrub. Depending on the virtual practice, an attorney may want to invest in an annual license for these programs just to avoid any malpractice risks.  Given the availability of these programs and methods, it is clearly the responsibility of the attorney to ensure that he or she has removed any metadata from a file before uploading it to the VLO and sharing it with clients and other attorneys.

How a virtual law practice may help prevent malpractice risks from metadata

If an attorney is required to use reasonable care to protect their client’s confidential, then should attorneys be using unencrypted email to communicate with clients and to transfer documents as attachments? The risks involved in using email are well-known and the attachments sent through email may contain metadata if not carefully cleaned.

Even more of a security risk are the use of public email accounts, such as those provided by gmail, hotmail and yahoo.  If there is a safer option that is easily available to transfer information securely, then doesn’t this proposed NC State Bar ethics opinion and others like it require that the attorney use “reasonable care” to seek out a safer method?

With a virtual law practice, the attorney can tell their client that the attorney is acting in the best interest of the client by refusing to communicate and transfer legal documents via email. The attorney can explain that using the web-based VLO is the safer way for the client to interact with the attorney and that even more communication tools are available to the parties through this method.

I have done this with my online clients and once they understand that the technology is no more complicated than email, and safer to protect their confidential legal matters, they are excited to have 24/7 access to their own homepage and legal case files. Rather than emailing me their private legal issues on unsecure email or attaching documents for me to review, they are able to post on the discussion thread to me their legal issues and all of it is contained in their case file for future reference. Likewise, if I’m working with another attorney on a case file, he or she may send me a private note using the same method which will show up on the case file rather than being sent through unencrypted email.

The risks of malpractice from metadata embedded in documents may be limited by the use the secure online communication inside a VLO. The attorney and client may conduct all of their legal work securely online. Rather than having multiple folders containing draft documents in email attachments, the client’s online case file after drafts have been completed may be limited to the single legal document controlled by the attorney who may then use a method of removing metadata when transferring it back and forth to the client or another attorney for review.

While a VLO may not remove all of the malpractice risks associated with metadata, it can help legal professionals comply with ethics opinions requiring “reasonable care” and to help them protect their client’s confidential information when using electronic communication.

March 16, 2009
Tech Review – Keeping in Touch with Clients Outside the VLO

Check out my tech review of iContact that came out in the Law Practice Today Webzine this week. I handle all confidential communications and transactions between myself and my clients through my virtual law office. However, iContact is a service that I’ve used to send newsletters and updates to clients regarding specific areas of law or about my virtual law practice in general. The tech review discusses ways that you can use the application to keep in touch with clients and to help continue your relationship with them even after the final legal product has gone through the VLO.

February 19, 2009
New Toy for the Virtual Law Practice

Last week I purchased a notebook, the Eee PC 1000H, for my virtual law practice and I want to recommend it for those attorneys taking their practices online. Since my law office is completely web-based, I have a number of different computers, including a PC and MacBook, which I switch out depending on where I will be working that day and what other programs I have installed on each.

I decided on the Eee PC because I’m not that fast at typing on a smartphone, and my laptop and MacBook, while not that heavy are still too big to comfortably sit in my lap while I work. The Eee PC is just the right size for me.

After I migrated over most of the data I wanted on the machine, I added TrueCrypt and set up the backup to an external harddrive. Basically, I stick in the Alltel wireless card and I’m good to go. Given that it is easily portable and I can type just as fast on it, I think it was well worth the under $400 that I paid.

Some of the drawbacks have included the need to attach an external cd drive in order to install software. The right side shift key is also a little off that of a traditional-sized keyboard so that has taken some adjusting to. Otherwise, I think it will be a valuable tool for my VLO.

Another benefit of this notebook is that I now have a backup Internet connection for my VLO. For anyone practicing with a virtual law practice, I recommend some form of secondary Internet connection if you do not trust what you currently use. Should the connection in my house become unreliable, I have the wireless card in my Eee PC as a backup and can just access all of my law office data and VLO that way. The wireless card is not as fast as the DSL at times, but it hasn’t been that noticeable so far when I’ve been using it around town.

Anyone considering going online with their law practice should check out these notebooks as an affordable mobile device. Have any other new hardware recommendations for the virtual law practice?

February 11, 2009
Three Years into My Virtual Law Practice

I’ve been preparing materials to teach a course on virtual law practice for Solo Practice University (SPU). Lawyers USA just published an article about SPU here. I hope some of my blog readers will join me for the virtual law practice course.

One of the topics I’m covering at the beginning of the course has to do with taking the leap from a traditional law practice management method into a virtual law practice.   In helping others make the decision to go completely web-based with their solo or small firm or to add some virtual component to their law practice, I’ve been thinking about why I left my position as an associate in a small, traditional law firm to go solo with a VLO.

It’s been three years since I opened my web-based virtual law office, Kimbro Legal Services.   In 2006, I hung my virtual shingle using the beta release of the VLOTech virtual law office software. As with any business, after a couple years you realize that your goals and expectations have changed from when you launched, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the support I’ve had from other attorneys and from the great public response over the past three years.

Reasons why I initially formed my virtual law practice:

1. The birth of my first child. I wanted to work from home and spend as much time with her and my family as I could. Childhood is a short time and I didn’t want to miss it.

2. From my experience in the small firm, I noticed that there was a clear market need for individuals of middle income and moderate means to be able to conveniently access and afford legal services. Yet many of them were going to their office supply store and buying legal kits or purchasing LegalZoom documents online. They weren’t consulting an attorney for the guidance they needed because they were 1) afraid they couldn’t afford it, or 2) were just too intimidated to sign a traditional engagement letter with an attorney and put up a sizeable retainer.

Those were my main reasons for opening my VLO. Three years later my reasons for practicing with a virtual law practice are the same, but I have some added observations and experiences that reinforce my decision.

1. Clients want this. The general public response to the VLO in the past three years has been amazing. My clients appreciate the convenience and accessibility to legal services. They have their own homepages on my secure VLO where they can drop me a note at any time, upload and download documents, fill out online forms, pay their invoices, review their invoices, etc. I think the ability for them to access their own case files and review our work together helps them to feel more in charge of their legal needs and more connected with me as their legal representation.

2. Client revenue has come in from across the state. I have not had the collection problems that I was warned about by other attorneys when I first opened my solo practice. I expected it to be a big hassle and in three years I’ve been limited to two or three small collection issues that were not that difficult to resolve. Clients receive their invoices online. They pay me online. We set up recurring billing or payment plans. Maybe it’s the convenience of the invoice being online or maybe it’s being able to pay by credit card. Whatever the reason, ease of collections has been a pleasant surprise.

3. Attention to customer service results in client loyalty  They don’t really teach you this in law school, but running a law practice requires business skills. I stopped trying to act like an attorney and instead focused more on being a good business owner. This has made all the difference in the world. I relate to my clients on personal levels through our dialogue on the VLO. I take the time to address all of their concerns and questions with patience and it has resulted in a growing client base for my virtual law practice.

4. Virtual law practice in some form is the way our profession is headed.   If you haven’t already, read Richard Susskind”s End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services. The traditional law office will not cease to exist, but it may find ways to incorporate a virutal law practice component to address the needs of its clients and to facilitate attorney online collaboration. In the past three years, I’ve been overwhelmed with the number of attorneys who support web-based virtual law practice and who see it’s benefits for the public as well as the legal profession. It’s a growing trend in our profession that would be foolish to ignore.

As I’m working more with other attorneys through VLOTech to set up other virtual law practices, I’m spending less time on my own VLO.   Fortunately, we just opened up a new VLO in North Carolina where I can refer some of my online clients and we are in the process of launching another VLO, a multi-attorney firm in NC, this week.

Three years may not seem like a long time to have been in business, but considering the novelty of the concept when I started and how popular virtual law practice is becoming now, I’ll give myself a birthday pat on the back for taking the leap.

February 2, 2009
Congrats to the Virtual Courthouse

Congratulations goes out to the Virtual Courthouse for receiving the 2009 ABA Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access. Each year the ABA gives out the Brown Award to recognize projects or programs that have addressed the need for legal services to members of the public who are in the middle class or of moderate means. The project must not only have exhibited an innovative solution to delivering legal services to the public but also be replicable for others in the legal profession. Since this year’s winner provides an unique virtual solution to a specific area of law practice, I thought I’d share it with this blog’s readers.

The Virtual Courthouse provides an online method of dispute resolution. According to its website the Virtual Courthouse “enables parties to submit disputed claims, responses and supporting material in digital form for resolution by a neutral provider of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services. These ADR services can include arbitration, mediation, neutral case evaluation or a settlement conference by members of a panel of neutrals.” There are screenshots of the technology on the website, but not many details regarding data security or the actual technology behind the solution.

This company is a good example of how attorneys are finding ways to integrate different forms of virtual law practice into their traditional practice methods to provide the public with access to more affordable and convenient legal services. If your practice includes ADR and you have considered adding a virtual component to your practice, then you may want to check this out.

The ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services also recognized Heisler, Feldman, McCormick & Garrow, PC and Have Justice Will Travel for their law practice methods.

January 28, 2009
Update to Virtual Law Practice eBook

Please check out the latest, updated version of my free eBook, Practicing Law Online: Creating a Web-based Virtual Law Office. Because the technology behind virtual law practice is changing at a rapid rate and because new state bar advisory opinions on the topic are starting to emerge, I plan on updating the eBook at least every six months.

For this latest update, I conducted some additional research online through the Cornell University Law School’s American Legal Ethics Library which has a great state-by-state comparative analysis of the ABA’s Model Code. There were some new state bar advisory opinions that related to third-party service providers, online backup and retention of law office data, email, online advertising and other technology related topics. I included these in the different sections of the eBook relating to ethics and malpractice issues in virtual law practice. I’m sure there are more formal and informal opinions from state bars out there that I did not find.

Please share if you have any experience presenting technology-related law practice management questions or formal advisory opinions to your state bar. I’ll post them on the blog and add the information to the eBook — with a hat tip to the sharer, of course.

January 19, 2009
Attorneys Discuss Virtual Law Practice

Check out two blog posts discussing virtual law practice from Chuck Newton and Jay Fleischman, both attorneys who use technology to practice law outside a traditional law office. Newton’s post Is Virtual Virtually Impossible? prompted Fleischman’s post An Open Response to ‘Is Virtual Virtually Impossible?’

As I commented on Newton’s blog, I believe there is room in our profession for many different law practice methods, including virtual law offices, whether they are completely web-based or integrated into a traditional law office setting.

Fleischman’s post discusses the definition of the word “virtual” and whether it is the appropriate term to use. When I was considering what to call my own web-based law office and we were evaluating the name for VLOTech, we looked at all of the existing terms that came close to describing the method of practicing law securely over the Internet, such as elawyering, online law practice, online legal services, web-based law office, online unbundled legal services, etc.

The term “virtual” and the connotations it brings may depend on an attorney’s concept of how the Internet can be used to recreate real world environments. Virtual can also mean a software representation of something physical. A virtual reality world is a software representation of the 3D physics of the real world. Virtual machines, such as VMWare or Virtual PC, are software representations of physical hardware. Virtual law offices are software representations of a physical law office, including front office, backend office and even secretary.

What we intended to convey by the term VLO or virtual law practice was that this method was a way of recreating an entire law office environment on the Internet. Second Life, for example, is a virtual reality world; a digital world accessed completely online. Likewise, my VLO is a complete virtual law office accessed online. My waiting room, my conference room, my filing cabinets, my copy machine, my law library, etc. are all in one place online.

Since I started my own web-based practice I’ve worked with other attorneys who are using technology to run both a traditional law practice and a web-based law office. As long as the technology used to practice law over the Internet protects the general public that we serve, it should not matter what method or combination of law practice methods legal professionals use to get their work done. There will always be clients and attorneys who prefer certain methods over others. It doesn’t make one type of attorney more or less of a professional.

My prediction is that in the next ten years attorneys will continue to run into more clients who expect them to use web-based methods of communication to provide legal services. Look even further down the road and expect to see attorney avatars having online conferences with their clients’ avatars. While some attorneys already have law offices in virtual reality worlds, the security is not there yet for attorney/client confidentiality and the general public is not quite at that level of comfort with the concept.

I certainly don’t think traditional face-to-face lawyering will ever disappear. However, attorneys operating VLOs and those practicing law online are at the forefront of an increasingly useful and popular law practice method.

December 20, 2008

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