Virtual Law Practice

Tag: online legal services

  • Paper on Regulatory Barriers to Multijurisdictional Virtual Law Firms

    Most of my earlier writing on this blog was geared towards the solo practitioner or small firm finding ways to deliver legal services online. But I would also get questions from practitioners in larger law firms and from practitioners who were licensed in multiple states and wanted to understand how they could use innovations in technology to work with clients across the country and internationally. Some lawyers were living overseas and were licensed in several states in the U.S. or they lived in one State here but were licensed in multiple jurisdictions and wanted to make sure they were in compliance with the rules of professional responsibility.

    So I wrote this paper “Regulatory Barriers to the Growth of Multijurisdictional Virtual Law Firms and Potential First Steps to their Removal” which the North Caroline Journal of Law and Technology at UNC-Chapel Hill Law School was kind enough to publish in their recent issue. As it turned out, I could have written a short book on this topic so I had to exclude almost everything related to international regulatory barriers and just focus on the U.S.  Saving my international research for another project I guess.

    If you have time to read nothing else, I’d recommend the first half with the background on virtual firms which provides several case studies and models of multijurisdictional virtual practices and what technology and methods of online delivery or collaboration that they are using. I’ve mentioned the following firms:

    – VLP Law Group

    – FSB FisherBroyles Legal

    – Heritage Law

    – Rimon Law

    – Axiom Law

    – Clearspire

    – Valorem Law

    – Burton Law

    – Hargrove Madden

    – McGrath & Spielberger, PLLC

    – Frame Legal

    – Harrill Law Firm

    Fair warning, most of the model rules I discuss in this paper will probably be at least a little modified by the ABA Annual Meeting in August. But hopefully some of my proposals at the end will strike a cord with someone out there. Comments always welcome.

    Abstract:

    The spread of disruptive technologies to the legal profession is changing the dynamic of how law firms are structured as well as  the value propositions associated with the delivery of legal  services.  The number of law firms with a national presence has grown due to the cost benefits  and efficiency of using cloud  computing.  New models for  expansion across jurisdictional
    boundaries are increasing.  However, the regulatory barriers to  create these new firm structures are numerous and costly.  This
    paper reviews the evolution of technology in multijurisdictional  firms and examines the primary regulatory barriers to their further  development.  A starting point for standardization of regulations is  proposed as well as potential first-steps to removing barriers to the  growth of multijurisdictional virtual law firms.

    The rest is here.  

     

  • Who Does the Technology Replace?

    Last month, I spoke at the annual conference for the IP Paralegal Institute in Cary, NC. The topic of my presentation was how to create an “eOffice” – to move away from paper and go digital. I started the talk with an overview of the legal marketplace for unbundled and online legal services and ended it with a look at where the profession will be in the next five years. I discussed decision-making systems like Neota Logic and document assembly and automation technologies as well as online case and client management systems that automate many of the functions of a law office.

    The final question from the attendees afterwards was a new one for me in the  Q&A, probably because it was the first time I had spoken to a room of paralegals rather than lawyers: “With all this technology, how many human bodies do you think it will replace in the law firm?” I guess my presentation had made a few of them nervous about their job security in the future. Likewise, when I spoke at Stanford Law a few weeks later I was asked at the end of my talk what I thought the make-up of a law firm would be five to ten years from now.

    Where do paralegals and other support staff fit into these new law firm models? (more…)

  • Release of iPad App for Virtual Practice

    Today, the Apple Apps Store has released the Total Attorneys practice management platform’s iPad and iPhone app.  This clean app allows a lawyer to operate a law practice from the iPad and/or iPhone with secure access to the virtual law office platform. Case and client management features are all integrated into the app, and it syncs with the full browser version of the software. It is free for lawyers who have subscribed to the Total Attorney’s platform ($1/month for the service).

    When I logged in for the first time, everything from my virtual law office was pulled in. I can view my tasks, agenda, documents, case files, contacts, leads, and billing. There is a central dashboard to show me recent activities and tasks that are marked due for today. There is also search functionality with filtering by type so that I can quickly find the files or client information that I need. There is also a timer at the top of the app that allows me to track my time. Even though I don’t use the billable hour, it’s still great to be able to record time spend on a web conference with a client or call that can be recorded into their digital file. This is really a clean, beautifully designed app that I will probably end up using more than the full browser version of the system.

    Congratulations to the team at TA who were involved in making this happen (this especially includes my hardworking programmer husband who kept me informed of their progress along the way)!  There has been much discussion about how lawyers need to be careful about using mobile devices for elawyering. I believe a secure system like this that carries over the encryption and other security measures from the full version is the safer way to go if you are a lawyer who intends to work directly with clients and/or with their case files or other lawyers on a cloud-based system.

  • Burton Law Expanding Virtual Firm Model in NC

     

    For awhile now I have been interested in learning about virtual practice models that go beyond the purely web-based model that I operate. Over the past year, I’ve been talking to Chad Burton, the founder of Burton Law, LLC, to understand his firm’s structure and how it uses technology to operate. Burton Law launched at the beginning of 2011 and is based in Ohio. They offer legal services in several practice areas, including business, data privacy, dispute resolution, estate planning and probate and intellectual property.

    What impressed me the most about this virtual law firm was that it does not have the traditional law firm hierarchy. Many of us who are solo practitioners became so because we had less than stellar experiences with the traditional firm structure of partners and associates – not to mention the billable hour requirements and other firm policies that did not allow us the flexibility we needed to serve our clients.

    Burton Law’s virtual firm structure is unique because the attorneys are all “members” of the firm. There is a manager, but no partners. The often
    least-liked aspects of operating a practice are taken care of by the firm, and the lawyers can focus on delivering quality services to their clients. (more…)

  • Law Student Survey Related to Online Legal Services

     

    Please take a minute to fill out this brief survey.  It will help out a team of law students who are researching how people use online services to fill their legal needs.

    This law student team is part of the Law Without Walls program. I’m serving as an Entrepreneur Advisor this year and have been encouraged by the participants and their eagerness to think outside of the box to come up with their “project of worth.”

    Law Without Walls is a great legal education initiative that pulls together academics, entrepreneurs, practitioners, and law students and takes an international and interdisciplinary approach to learning. I’ve met with the team online using Google Hangouts and the sessions for the entire project are held online through Adobe Connect. The program is a strong example of using technology to create new and exciting distance learning opportunities for law students.

    Please help my team out by taking a minute to complete this survey. Thanks!

  • Connecting the Dots between ELawyering and Legal Services

    This week I was honored to provide a plenary presentation at this year’s Legal Services Corporation’s Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) conference in Albuquerque. The title of my talk was “Going Virtual to Expand Access” and my purpose was to provide the attendees with an overview of how private practice lawyers and law firms are using technology to delivery legal services online.

    I discussed the current state of the legal marketplace, where it is heading, and the changing expectations of clients in a more Internet-driven world. At the end, I posed a few questions for the audience that we then took into a break-out session.  Marc Lauritsen  joined us virtually to brainstorm these issues. The questions I posed for legal services organizations were:

    How will you:

    – Identify candidates for online delivery?

    – Match lawyer volunteers with prospective online limited scope matters?

    – Integrate online delivery methods?

    – Address technology and security concerns in serving clients online?

    – Use tech to collaborate with private practitioners, law schools, and legal SaaS providers to increase access to justice? (more…)

  • Workshop on the Future of the Legal Profession and Legal Education

     

    The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) is holding its annual conference in D.C. this week. I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion entitled “Technological Innovation in Practice and Education.”

    The conference has an entire workshop devoted to the future of the profession and legal ed. I see that as an acknowledgement that the legal education system is in need of innovation and reform and fast.  If the legal profession is going to be rescued from its downward spiral, it’s got to start with the law schools.

    A few of the questions the workshop will address:

    1) What new or different kinds of training will law schools of the future need to provide?

    2) How can law schools better serve students seeking to develop critical skills in the areas demanded by changes in legal practice?

    3) What innovations are currently underway in law schools?

    4) How will projected changes in the economics of the legal profession affect law students’ priorities and law schools’ budgets?

    For my session, I will be giving a presentation about virtual law practice and showing a demonstration of how myself and other lawyers work with clients and each other using cloud-based technology. But I will also be sharing some of the emerging trends in the future of legal service delivery that will impact future young lawyers. I’m hoping for a challenging Q&A session. If I get it with any audience, it aught to be this one.

    There is a book to be published soon entitled “Educating the Digital Lawyer“, co-edited by Oliver Goodenough and Marc Lauritsen. This book will showcase chapters written to address many of the issues that this workshop will raise.  I wrote a chapter for it that laid out some of the topics that I thought should be in a law school curriculum and I probably won’t have time to share with the attendees here what I would like to see happen in law schools, but that’s what blogging is for.  So here goes.  (more…)

  • Proposed CA Ethics Opinion on Virtual Law Offices

    The State Bar of California has released a draft formal ethics opinion (No. 10-0003) regarding the use of a “virtual law office practice” by an attorney. This seven page ethics opinion was tentatively approved by the State Bar Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct on November 5th and has been published for a 90-day public comment period.

    The question posed in the opinion:

    May an attorney maintain a virtual law office practice (“VLO”) and still comply with her ethical obligations, if the communications with the client, and storage of and access to all information about the client’s matter, are all conducted solely through the Internet using the secure computer servers of a third-party vendor (i.e., “cloud computing”)?

    The opinion acknowledges the impact that the Internet and technology have had on the legal profession and that “the provision of legal services via a VLO has started to emerge as an increasingly viable vehicle in which to deliver accessible and affordable legal services to the general public.” (more…)

  • Online Legal Services in Shopping Center Kiosks

     

    Imagine shopping for your groceries and remembering that you needed to check in with your attorney regarding the status of your divorce case. You find a private legal services booth and step inside. You touch a few buttons on the computer tablet attached to the kiosk and a video of a receptionist who works for your law firm comes online to take your request. A few minutes later you chat with your attorney face to face via web conferencing and log off. Your attorney has informed you that she needs another item for the next hearing in your case. You add a note to your grocery list. When you get home, you will upload the document to your attorney online and schedule another video conference through your secure client portal – after putting the groceries away.

    Such access to legal services is now available in the UK by a company called Instant Law UK.  The LegalFutures blog announced last week that the company was placing video conferencing kiosks in shopping centers this month and by the end of 2012 it hopes to have 120 kiosks across the country. The video conferencing service is also available to clients via the Internet. Areas of law that the company provides include Family, Employment, Personal Injury, Immigration, Landlord & Tenant, Medical Negligence, Contract Disputes, Wills, and Probate. (more…)

  • Private Cloud for Lawyers? Slides from Presentation on Future of Legal Service Delivery

     

    Last week I was honored to give a keynote at the annual Canadian Discipline Administrators Conference in Toronto hosted by the Law Society of Upper Canada. The attendees were the discipline authorities of the different Canadian Bar jurisdictions. After speaking with several of them and based on the Q & A session, I can report that our neighbors to the north are grappling with some of the same issues as our State Bar ethics regulators regarding the use of SaaS in law practice management.

    An interesting idea was raised by a member of the group that the Canadian Bar might create a private cloud just for Canadian lawyers. I believe there was some mention of this as well in the cloud computing report published by the Law Society of British Columbia this summer.

    Would this address some of the concerns surrounding lawyers placing their data into the hands of third-party providers and hosting it in a public cloud?  It’s certainly something to think about. My initial reaction was that it would limit competition and because of the expense of creating and maintaining a private cloud, might take away many of the cost-savings associated with a public cloud as well as cause problems when a law firm wants to use another SaaS product that does not collaborate with the Canadian Bar to host a copy of the data on the private cloud. But there would be benefits, especially for Canadian lawyers who are subject to a more rigorous auditing process that requires immediate access by regulators to a law firm’s data.

    I still think the best approach to take would be to create guidelines for lawyers rather than restricting use of web-based technology to a private cloud or restricting technology use to a specific list of approved vendors, especially if that list of vendors might not be updated regularly.

    What do you think about the creation of a private cloud? What if your state bar proposed to create a private cloud just for its members? What about cross-border and multijurisdictional practices?

    The slides from the presentation are below. I’ve integrated several ethics slides that are specific to the Canadian Bar. For those of you familiar with my presentations, the first few slides may be familiar background information on cloud computing and virtual practice, so skip ahead to the interesting case studies and resources.

    Keynote on Future of Legal Services Delivery

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