Virtual Law Practice

Tag: Technology

  • Video – Disruptive Innovation in Legal Services at Harvard

    Last week I attended a conference hosted by Harvard Law School’s Program on the Legal Profession, entitled “Disruptive Innovation in the Market for Legal Services.”

    My primary reason for attending was to hear Clayton Christensen, a Professor at Harvard’s Business School and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, speak about disruption in the legal profession. Unfortunately, he admitted to not really having analyzed our profession from the perspective of disruptive innovation so his talk was a bit of a rehash of both Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovative University. It was still really worth it to hear from the man himself, and following his presentation, the Senior VP of IBM Watson, Mike Rhodin, the CEO of Legal Zoom, John Suh, and GC of Charles River Ventures, Sarah Reed, weighed in on what they think disruptive innovation of legal services looks like.

    Chris Kenny, Chief Exec of the UK Legal Services Board, also spoke via video conferencing about how alternative business structures (ABS) are working out across the pond. According to Kenny, ABS is working great in the UK, increasing access to justice and creating healthy competition in the marketplace without risk to consumers or disciplinary issues in the profession. I found his presentation to be informative and encouraging in terms of looking forward towards real structural change in our profession. The ABA President-Elect, William Hubbard, weighed in after Kenny spoke to explain that the ABA was not on board with ABS, but he said he would like to see the gap bridged between main-street lawyers and the innovators and academics pushing for change in the profession. Of course the real reasons why we can’t move forward with ABS have to do with protectionism and the interests of the lawyers who sit at the helm of the Bar. Progress here will come slowly, and I still believe it will be consumers who push the change in the market forward, not the ABA House of Delegates.

    Bob Ambrogi wrote a good run-down of the morning’s presentations. (Note: it’s hidden behind a required registration wall.)

    After a very interesting morning session, the conference broke out into working groups. I attended one called “Lawyers and Technology.” There were also working groups on access, big data and analytics, and corporate pricing and matching. Several legal technology startups spoke briefly at each working group, but the discussions among the attendees was the most stimulating. Below is the video of the Working Group Report to the conference summarizing the key points from each breakout discussion.
    )

  • Infographic: Client Portal for a Law Office

    Client portal

  • Game for Legal Services Launched. Giving Away Virtual Practice Materials for Donations.

    The RocketHub crowdfund campaign was launched yesterday to raise funds to build out the estate planning game, Estate Quest.

    Funds will be used to build out four additional levels of the game, playtest, refine, and provide to the public to play for free. In exchange for donations, I’m giving away some signed copies of my books, a bundle of books, legal tech resources, legal tech consulting time, and some other interesting gifts.

    I’d like to make this a game that’s free for the public to play and learn about some basic estate planning concepts. I’m also doing this to learn about how the crowdfund process might be used for other legal services related projects.

    Building a high-quality game that would be more easily distributed and catch on with the Facebook crowds, is expensive. But that’s the audience we need to reach to really share this as a tool for learning legal concepts. I’m still working with Illinois Legal Aid Online on a game related to eviction and landlord/tenant issues. There is something here in terms of increasing engagement with the public online through games. The legal profession needs to experiment to see if games are one way of increasing legal knowledge and access options. Below is me taking a chance on this. Please consider joining in. Thanks!

  • Video: Estate Quest Game

    Below is a video walkthrough of the Estate Quest game.

    I’m learning many valuable lessons about how to design and build a game related to legal services. If my team and I can build this game out to additional levels, it will be cross-platform which means playable in a browser and published for play on mobile devices and on Facebook.  The final game will have a rewards system built out that rewards the player after successfully completing a level with a discount or access to real-world legal services or resources.

    You can read my other posts about why I am experimenting with games for legal services. I’m also still working on a game with Illinois Legal Aid Online on the topic of eviction. More details coming soon.

  • Bona Fide Office Rule In the News Again

    delawareThe Bona Fide Office Rule has reappeared in the news again. This time it’s an Opinion from the Delaware Supreme Court.

    I’ve written about the Bona Fide Office rule here several times, mostly with regard to New Jersey’s joint ethics opinion on the subject. Other states have been revisiting surrounding issues in terms of the lawyer’s requirements to provide certain contact information on his or her website or other advertising and in that requirement calling for some physical office address.

    Bona Fide Office rules discourage lawyers from finding alternative and often more affordable methods of delivering legal services to clients. Requiring that a member of the bar provide contact information to the regulatory body is obviously necessary. Requiring that a lawyer provide his or her clients with a reliable method of contacting the lawyer is also necessary.

    However, a lawyer does not need to maintain a traditional, physical law office seven days a week during 9-5 business hours in order to accomplish either of these. He or she does not have to retain the services of an employee to work at that law office in order to answer the phone when the lawyer is not present to accomplish adequate and reliable communication with his or her clients.

    The Supreme Court of Delaware recently issued an Opinion that suspended a lawyer who worked from his home office in Pennsylvania while practicing Delaware law. The lawyer’s violation of their Bona Fide Office Rule 12 was not the only item at issue in this opinion which is why I will not go into it in detail except for their discussion of the Bona Fide Office Rule. Why? Because that part of the Opinion will mostly like be read by other lawyers in Delaware and potentially discourage them from considering virtual law practice and delivering legal services online to clients.

    According to the Court:

    “[t]he Rule requires that the office “be a place where the attorney or a responsible person acting on the attorney’s behalf can be reached in person or by telephone,” and have “the customary facilities for engaging in the practice of law.”

    Delaware Supreme Court Rule 12(d) (the Bona Fide Office Rule) states:

    “(d) Office for the practice of law. As used in these rules, an “office for the practice of law” means a  bona fide office maintained in this State for the practice of law in which the attorney practices by being  there a substantial and scheduled portion of time during ordinary business hours in the traditional work  week. An attorney is deemed to be in an office even if temporarily absent from it if the duties of the law  practice are actively conducted by the attorney from that office. An office must be a place where the  attorney or a responsible person acting on the attorney’s behalf can be reached in person or by telephone  during normal business hours and which has the customary facilities for engaging in the practice of law.  A bona fide office is more than a mail drop, a summer home which is unattended during a substantial portion of the year or an answering, telephone forwarding, secretarial or similar service.”

    There is no mention of the possibility of the lawyer working from home and delivering legal services in unbundled fashion to his or her clients online. There is no mention of the use of temporary/as needed renting of office space so that the lawyer can meet with the clients for full service representation, but continue to conduct the majority of their work with clients online. This is an outdated rule.

    There is technology available to securely work with clients online. This technology decreases the cost of overhead of a traditional law office which in turn decreases the cost of legal fees.  There is NO EXCUSE why States should not consider alternative forms of legal service delivery. People need more access to lawyers, not less!

    The lawyer that was suspended in this case was only using the phone to call his clients. There was no mention of any secure client portal or other virtual law office technology. But it’s the way that the Court addressed this Rule in their Opinion that disturbs me. They must start thinking outside of the Bona Fide Office Rule. It does not make sense anymore on so many levels to restrict how lawyers communicate with clients to in-person visits. Supporting an outdated Bona Fide Office Rule is a barrier that is going to continue to discourage lawyers from finding innovative and cost-effective ways to serve the public and increase access.

    See these other posts about the Delaware Opinion from Niki Black and in the ABA Journal.

  • Regulating Lawyer Online Advertising? Welcome to the Party.

    As many of my readers know, I have strong opinions about the regulation of lawyer advertising and it goes back to the unfounded assumptions about consumers that the advertising rules were originally built upon, and the fact that they have not been updated much since then to account for online methods of advertising and the way the public actually finds lawyers online.

    I’m preparing for a panel presentation at the Univ. of San Francisco where we will be discussing lawyer advertising and regulation. The event is entitled Legal Ethics in the 21st Century: Technology, Speech, and Money. I‘m going back through some of my materials on this topic. Below is a sidebar from my book about lawyer online advertising. With the Florida Bar going crazy with restrictions on lawyer blogs, it’s time to start pushing this matter forward starting with education about the marketplace for legal services.  In the meantime, people looking for access to lawyers who are the right match for their legal needs are still out there looking for help and they don’t really care about First Amendment or lawyer protectionist arguments. (#A2J)

    internet-marketing-abcRestructuring Lawyer Marketing Vocabulary to Adapt to eCommerce

    A 2010 BIA/Kelsey report found that 97 percent of all consumers use online methods of researching and selecting services in their local area.  Even those law firms that claim their practice is “only local-based” or that they meet with all their clients in-person, in the office and at the courthouse, have no excuse to continue to ignore the Internet as a marketing tool. Online marketing methods are impacting all law firms. Below are some suggestions for redefining the legal profession’s marketing vocabulary.

    • The term “market” should not be used as a verb, but as a noun. Marketing is not something a lawyer does “to” or “at” prospective clients. A market is a place where individuals come together to discuss common interests and to create relationships based on supply and demand. The focus in lawyer marketing should be on engagement and conversation.
    • Separate the concepts of the lawyer’s “duty” to the public in advertising from “etiquette” or not being “tacky” in advertising online. Lacking good taste is subjective. Being misleading or false is another matter.  Lawyer regulations should not attempt to dictate taste.
    • The Internet is not a tool; it is a place. We don’t do things through it or on it; we do them “in” it.  Welcome to the party.
    • Commercialism and professionalism: these two concepts do not have to be at odds with each other. Does maintaining an attitude of sitting up on a high-horse of education and presumed privilege hinder the ability to interact with the average client? Of course it does. Intimidation may be useful in the courtroom or during negotiations, but it should not completely define the professional image of lawyers. The legal profession should refocus on the respect, trust, and expertise that falls under professionally rendered services, but present it in a way that is not condescending or intimidating to the average American citizen. Movies and television shows with negative or hostile images of lawyers will be difficult to supplant, but if lawyers start engaging more in open, online dialogue with the public, this can change.
    • Customer service is a concept most law firms do not think about, but it is a basic best practice for business owners in every industry. There are online methods of providing consumer service. For example, sending a simple “thank you for being a client” email  or providing free, basic legal education and content on a firm website or in an online marketing tool. These provide a platform for delivery of educational legal material. Content controls the Internet. Sharing is both good online consumer service and a method of starting conversations with prospective clients and other lawyers.
    • Lawyers should not rely too strongly on the term “consumer” when thinking about marketing strategies for client development. Consumption implies a swallowing up of something in return for monetary value. We do not want our clients consuming legal services because in many cases the relationship between the attorney and client is what is so valuable to them and what makes our work meaningful beyond the financial rewards. Let’s remember they are our clients, but balance this with the knowledge that they are also our customers which implies another level of care beyond the attorney/client privilege; one that includes their satisfaction with our work and their overall experience with the delivery of legal services and the legal profession.

  • Infographic: Preview of New Access to Justice Project

  • Performance Above Presence

     

    The November/December issue of the CBA’s National Magazine featured an article entitled “Workplace Transformation“. The article poses the question of whether the legal profession is ready to focus on methods of practice that emphasize the lawyer’s performance above presence. I was interviewed for this article because of my work in virtual law practice and unbundling. The article does not necessarily pertain to online delivery of legal services, but also focuses on lawyers who want to practice remotely but still provide full-service representation.

    The National Magazine article provides a few updated resources and applications to use to deliver legal services online and work remotely. It also includes quotes from lawyers who have chosen to focus more on performance for their clients rather than on their workspace environments. My words of wisdom on the topic for the article:

    “Time management and the ability to work independently is key. Technology is great because it gives you more freedom to work when and where you want to — and offers more ways to communicate with clients and with other firm members — but if you can’t manage your time and manage the technology, then it’s not going to work. So I say anyone considering e-law really needs to look at themselves and how they use technology and decide whether this is really something that is going to benefit them and work for them.”

    My perspective has always been that a lawyer does not need to be in a traditional office environment in order to be the most productive and effective. As an introvert who does her best thinking and working away from others, the idea of working in a traditional law office environment has always been stifling. I managed to get several good years of mentoring in such an environment, but found that I was better able to work when I had more control over my own schedule.

    When I teach law students and young lawyers about virtual law practice, I don’t recommend they start out in a virtual law office environment. Those few critical years of traditional office time were valuable and without mentors starting out lawyers won’t have the experience they need to learn the practical ins and outs of their specific area of practice. While there are some great sources for online mentorship, the best ones in my opinion are still the ones you can meet with in person. But once new lawyers have a few years of training under their belt, each has to figure out how they do their best work and what will best serve their clients. That may or may not include working remotely through the use of cloud-based services.

  • Digital Lawyer Legal Ed Project

    CLPTNewOption1I’m heading down to Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Florida next week to record sessions for the courses I will be co-teaching for the Center for Law Practice Technology. I’ll be teaching the core course in law practice management with Richard Granat, teaching a social media for lawyers course by myself and assisting Will Hornsby in his course on Ethics of Practicing Law in a Digital World. We will be adding more courses as the project gets underway.

    For the past several months we have been crafting the syllabi for these courses, compiling the materials for the students, and setting up the distance learning platform to facilitate the synchronous and asynchronous lessons for each course. It is an enormous amount of work, but something I’m finding really valuable because I’m having to pull from the past several years of teaching law students online for a variety of different schools that each use different platforms for their students. All of the course material we teach has to be updated regularly because the topics are related to technology and new ethics opinions and rule changes are coming out all the time that pertain to the use of technology in law practice management. It’s keeping me on my toes.

    I believe once we have many of these courses pre-recorded, the materials and discussion forums set up, and the quizzes and assignments online, this project will be an awesome resource for law students and practitioners who want to dive into it. It will be useful both for those who want that basic legal tech knowledge and skill base that they didn’t get in law school, but also for those who have more of that background and want to obtain more specific knowledge on a more detailed subject in one of the one credit courses, such as my social media course or the ones we are developing for future semesters, such as the e-discovery course, expert systems, document automation, or entrepreneurship in law practice.

    As with most of my projects, this one also ties back to improving access to legal services for the public. If we can educate lawyers about how to use technology to be more efficient and to make legal services more affordable and accessible, then in the long-term going forward, that is going to impact the way that services are delivered and the public is able to work with lawyers to have their legal needs met. It’s one piece of the puzzle, but it’s as critical to bring the profession up to speed with the changes in the legal marketplace as it is to be innovative creating new technology solutions for delivery.

    Want to keep up with the courses we are teaching and the materials? I’ll probably be posting snippets from the classes on the Center for Law Practice Tech blog throughout the term.

  • A Central Hub for Practice Management Outsourcing

    CURO-LEGAL-Logo-wTagline-300x98This month I teamed up with Chad Burton and Betsy Westhafer to co-found Curo Legal, a business that focuses on law practice operations. [Side note: Yes, I am still developing my legal games and reforming legal education among other things.] 

    For several years, I’ve provided solos and small firms with advice on how to set up virtual law offices, unbundle, or add some form of online or alternative legal service delivery to their traditional law firm models. Chad was in the same boat being called out by other lawyers to provide guidance in setting up their own virtual law firms. So we teamed up. Here’s part of our mission statement:

    We want to see lawyers empowered to provide clients with the full value of their expertise without being weighed down by the stress of keeping up with administrative, technology, and other aspects of running a successful law practice. The founders of Curo Legal realize that by freeing lawyers to focus on lawyering and by making legal service delivery more efficient, we increase access to legal services for the public by lowering legal fees and providing lawyers and clients with alternative and complementary methods of working together.

    (more…)

MENU