I love SaaS.  I depend on SaaS to operate my virtual law office.  I support an attorney’s right to choose their own practice management tools and make their own business decisions whether it’s in the cloud or in a filing cabinet.  But there are responsibilities that come along with choosing any practice management system and [...]

UPDATE: CHECK OUT THIS POST by Erik Mazzone, Director of the Center of Practice Management at the NC Bar Association, on his Law Practice Matters blog.  Erik is concerned that the proposed opinion will limit the cloud-based vendors that attorneys in NC can use based on the location of their servers.  While most legal SaaS [...]

The New York State Bar Association published its Report on the Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profession on April 2, 2011. Written for the practitioner rather than the IT consultant, the report provides suggested guidelines for the adoption of technology solutions as well as a discussion of current trends. The report devotes [...]

If you are using technology to deliver legal services online then it’s part of your responsibility to keep up to date on the technology that you are using. Different security risks pop up every day and if you aren’t aware of the them then you can’t protect your law practice and your clients. For example, just [...]

This morning the International Legal Technology Standards Organization (ILTSO) published its standards for the use of technology in law practice. This resource has been a long time in coming.  The standards will be open for public comment and feedback after it has been out there for awhile.  It will be a continual work in progress [...]

Last week during a guest lecture on virtual law practice at the University of Dayton School of Law, the subject of protecting client property and confidentiality of client data in electronic communications came up again.   My prediction (perhaps overly optimistic) is that in the next few years the state bars will recognize that unencrypted email communication between attorney [...]

If you are an attorney or law firm that uses technology in innovative ways to deliver legal services to your clients, please consider filling out a nomination form for the ABA’s Keane Award for Excellence in ELawyering.  Or if you are aware of an attorney or law firm that deserves recognition for the innovative use of [...]

The ABA has published a short description of its efforts to examine the impact of technology, including cloud computing & SaaS, social media and websites, and has released a new ethics opinion related to attorney websites.   Last week I wrote a post about the Commission’s call for comments related to cloud computing and protecting client confidences.  On October 14th, [...]

During yesterday’s ABA ELawyering Task Force call, we discussed the recent settlement agreement entered into by LegalZoom and the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. In an Assurance of Discontinuation, the online legal services company must not state in advertising to the public that its services are less expensive than those of a law firm without [...]

I’m pleased to announce the publication of my book Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver Legal Services Online through the ABA LPM Publishing.  The book was written to be a practical, how-to manual for attorneys who want to deliver legal services online by creating a virtual law office. It addresses virtual law practice that is [...]