Virtual Law Practice

Tag: Practice Management

  • Slides from CALI’s Topics in Digital Law Practice Session

    CALI is hosting a MOOC (massively open online course) called Topics in Digital Law Practice. I gave a presentation for them today. Below are the slides. There is a homework assignment posted on the blog for this session and students are encouraged to create homework wikis. Looking forward to reading some of those.

    There are over 700 people registered for the course, and 270 attended the webinar this afternoon. The sessions will be recorded and archived for those who cannot make the live webinar. Apparently there are registrants from all over the world. I’m looking forward to attending the upcoming sessions taught by Marc Lauritsen, Ron Staudt, Richard Granat, Will Hornsby, Sarah Glassmeyer, Kingsley Martin, and Ernie Svenson. Thanks to John Mayer and CALI for the opportunity to share.

    Digital Law Practice – CALI Session

  • NJ May Revise Bona Fide Office Rule

    The New Jersey State Supreme Court Professional Responsibility Rules Committee has recommended an amendment to the bona fide office rule, Rule 1:21-1(a). The proposed changes would no longer require that the lawyer provide a physical office location as long as the lawyer was accessible by his or her clients, the courts and other lawyers, including for purposes of service of process.

    The changes proposed by the committee would overrule the Joint Opinion issued in March 25, 2010 that drew much criticism for denying lawyers the freedom under Rule 1:21-1(a) to use a temporary office location or shared office space with a shared receptionist claiming that such arrangements did not provide sufficient access for clients, courts and other lawyers for lack of a 9-5 traditional business hour office structure. Virtual law practitioners who wished to work from home offices were upset by the Joint Opinion that required that they place their home contact information on any advertising for their practice or on their website.

    This Committee’s proposed changes would allow lawyers, especially those whose work is primarily transactions-based, to use alternative office locations other than a traditional brick and mortar structure. The proposed change are at the bottom of this post.

    However, because they have included access “for service of process”, inspection of records and HAND DELIVERIES,  (more…)

  • Educating the Digital Lawyer eBook Available for Free Download

    An exciting new resource for lawyers and legal educators has been published online for free thanks to the sponsorship of Harvard’s Berkman Center LawLab and LexisNexis.

    The book project called Educating the Digital Lawyer is now available for download as an epub file here. Editors Oliver Goodenough and Marc Lauritsen pulled together the collection from contributors most of whom met and discussed issues related to digital legal education during a working group that was part of the Future Ed Conference.

    The book contains suggestions for changes that need to be made to legal education with a strong emphasis on how the law school curriculum needs to better prepare law students to practice law in a digital environment. Other online resources, such as videos, podcasts, webinars, or other written materials, related to topics in the book may be forthcoming. The resources in this book are useful not only to law school faculty and students, but also to practitioners who may need direction on how to fill in their own law school education gap. Yours truly contributed chapter 10 “What Should be in a Digital Curriculum: A Practitioner’s Must Have List.”

     

  • Standing Committee Recommends Deletion of Problematic Advertising Rule

    Remember how I wrote that virtual practitioners may need to collaborate with “branded network concepts” when updating their marketing strategies?  I also argue that this is necessary in the conclusion of my new book on unbundling because it’s a major component in increasing overall access to justice. Apparently I’m not the only one who sees the potential benefits to the public and the profession from the availability of newer online lawyer advertising methods.

    The ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services has written a letter to the Commission on Ethics 20/20 providing its recommendations regarding lawyer advertising rules. In an interesting move, the Committee has recommended the deletion of Model Rule 7.2(b).

    For those of us in virtual practices who depend on online advertising methods perhaps moreso than traditional law firms, this would be a potentially revolutionary change to the rules. Model Rule 7.2(b) is the rule that prohibits a lawyer from giving anything of value for recommendation for his or her services with four exceptions. It is these exceptions and the speed at which online advertising methods have developed that has caused confusion and controversy over the past few years.

    The Committee’s letter provides a background on how changes in online advertising methods have impacted the options available to the public seeking legal services. Because one of the primary goals of the Committee is to increase access to justice for individuals of moderate income levels, they are quick to point out that these new online methods actually allow for individuals of all income levels to find both the lawyers that they could work with as well as other resources that empower them to make educated decisions about the legal services they might need. (more…)

  • Accepting Nominations for Excellence in eLawyering Award

    The ABA eLawyering Task Force is accepting nomination forms for the annual James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering.

    The award is given to a lawyer who has developed innovative legal service delivery over the Internet. The focus of the award is on the delivery of personal legal services, especially those that serve individuals of moderate to middle class means. Nominees may be individual lawyers, a law firm, or any other organization that delivers legal services to individuals.

    Last year’s Keane Award recipient was Orange County California Legal Aid Society for their development of Legal Genie. The year before that, Lee Rosen, owner of Rosen Law Firm, was the recipient. The award is presented at a special ceremony at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago on March 30, 2012 and comes with other perks such as publication about the award recipient in Law Practice magazine and other LPM Publications.

    Do you know of a lawyer, law firm or other organization that deserves nomination? Self-nomination is accepted as well. The deadline is February 15. The criteria for nomination and the form for submission may be found on the elawyering task force website.

  • 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…)

  • December ezine on elawyering

     

    The December issue of Law Practice Today is focused on elawyering with articles from myself and fellow ABA elawyering Task Force members discussing different forms of elawyering.

    My article is a basic “get started with elawyering” introduction.  Here is an excerpt:

    It is not necessary to convert to a completely paperless law office in the clouds in order to benefit from different methods of elawyering. Most lawyers would prefer to get their feet wet first and then gradually find ways to take portions of their practice digital – whether that means moving to cloud-based applications for certain tasks or something smaller in scope, such as the use of a virtual paralegal or virtual assistant. There are a few simple first steps that a lawyer might take to getting started with elawyering…..read more

    Other articles in this issue include:

    Expand Your Solo or Small Firm Practice Using Client Portals, by Donna Seyle

    Document Assembly Over the Internet, by Richard S. Granat

    Dancing in the Cloud, by Marc Lauritsen

    An Update on Governing Cloud Computing, by Will Hornsby and Joseph Duffy

    The Potentials and Perils of a Virtual Law Practice, by Ed Poll

  • 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…)

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