Virtual Law Practice

Tag: Web 2.0

  • Online Document Signing for Your Virtual Law Practice

    One of the questions I hear regularly about virtual law practice is related to the execution of legal documents and how that process can be handled through a virtual law office.  I’ve written before on this blog about the establishment of the attorney/client relationship online and how an attorney may rely on a clickwrap agreement to ensure that the client has read and accepted all of the terms and conditions and the scope of the legal representation that will be conducted online. 

    I use a clickwrap to serve as the engagement letter for my virtual law office.  Other attorneys will use the clickwrap in addition to uploading a traditional engagement letter for the online client to sign, scan and upload back to the virtual law office.  There are many other examples of when an attorney may need to have his or her client sign a document.  Having the client give the attorney a Power of Attorney to act on the client’s behalf is one of those situations. 

    Enter Right Signature.  This application provides a way to obtain a legally enforceable digital signature on a document without your online client having to own a scanner or having to go to the trouble of printing it, signing it and uploading it back to you on your virtual law office.  (Many thanks to Lee Rosen of the Rosen Law Firm for pointing this product out during our recent CLE presentation). 

    You can try Right Signature for free to see if it would work for your virtual law practice.  It has authentication and security technology that make the digital signatures binding and legally enforceable.  The product is a SaaS hosted application so the documents and the digital signatures are stored on a secure server.  The process is really simple for your clients to execute so it may actually be faster to get them to sign digitally online than requiring them to upload a traditional, scanned-in signature on a document.  As a useful tool for your virtual law practice, I’d say this one is worth the monthly $14 fee if you need your clients’ signatures on a regular basis or don’t want to rely on the clickwrap agreement alone.

  • lawtechTalk Screencast Features Cloud Computing

    The recent screencast from lawtechTalk features cloud computing and your law practice.  Attorney and law and tech blogger Nicole Black explores features of VLOTech, NKrypt and NetDocuments.  You may watch the screencast for free for a limited time by contacting her.  Nicole is a supporter of cloud computing or using SaaS in law practices but also discusses the necessity of attorneys to be educated regarding the technology, security and ethics issues that may arise in taking all or a part of your law practice online.

  • 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.

  • Podcast Interview about Virtual Law Offices

    Check out the podcast interview of me that was recorded recently by Ed Poll of the LawBiz Blog.  Ed is an expert in law practice management, and his blog is a wealth of useful knowledge and resources.  On the podcast, he and I discussed virtual law practice, VLOs, and how attorneys are using the technology to deliver legal services to clients online. 

    Ed brought up a good point at the end of our discussion that I thought was worth expanding on in a future post on this blog.  He suggested that virtual law offices might be another possible method of transition for an attorney who is looking to wind down their legal career or sell their traditional law practice.  It’s certainly something to think about as many attorney in our profession are nearing retirement age and are looking for more flexibility in the way that they practice law. 

    Thank you to Ed and LawBiz for giving me the opportunity to share my experience in virtual law practice with others in the profession.

  • Top Ten 2008 Developments in Virtual Law Practice

    Happy New Year!  The following is my list of the top ten developments in the delivery of legal services using technology that have happened in the past year.  Please feel free to expand on this list in the comments.  I’m also including at the end my predictions for virtual law practice in the new year.

    1.  Richard Susskind’s book, The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, is published.  The book discusses “disruptive technologies” that allow attorneys to provide legal services online.  Susskind predicts that attorneys who adopt rather than resist these changes in the technology used to deliver legal services will prosper as the profession adapts to marketplace changes.  The public’s need for affordable and accessible legal services will drive the legal profession’s use of technology to meet this demand.

    2.  State bars and other professional legal organizations offer CLEs and sessions geared at teaching attorneys best practices and security standards for using technology in their law practices.  Popular topics include email security, online backup solutions for law office data, minimizing metadata and using scanners to decrease the use of paper.  See the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center’s website for a list of 2008 articles.  In addition to increased law and technology management education in the profession, several state bars provide specific ethics decisions with approval for virtual law offices (VLOs) and/or allow for attorneys to provide unbundled legal services online.

    3.  More attorneys turn to piecemeal technologies and free online apps to collaborate with each other and their clients online.  Basecamp, Google Docs, Adobe ConnectNow, Webex, GoToMeeting, and Dimdim are a few of the popular web-based tools.  

    4.  New web-based, software as a service (SaaS) law practice management products launch, including Rocket Matter and Clio.  Popular legal blogs and listservs discuss the pros and cons involved in the use of “cloud computing.”  The discussions center on the security and backup concerns with a hosted system.

    5.  VLOTech sets up web-based, virtual law offices (VLOs) in Alabama, Maryland, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia with more VLOs planned in Alaska, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and North Carolina for the upcoming year.  The technology aims to provide attorneys with the flexibility to operate a completely online law office or to combine the technology with a traditional law practice and offer unbundled legal services online.  “VLO” becomes a more recognized term for a web-based virtual law practice and elawyering.

    6.  Virtual Law Partners opens its doors as the newest example of BigLaw using technology to allow its attorneys to work remotely and collaborate on legal cases.

    7.  LegalZoom comes under fire over filing fees that the legal document service company charges to online clients, in particular in relation to the filing of trademark applications with the USPTO.  Critics of invention submission companies and of companies that provide form-generated legal documents in general spoke out about what they saw as the potential misleading of the public by online companies offering legal services where an attorney was not involved in reviewing the final legal product. 

    8.  With more attorneys practicing law using mobile devices and relying on electronic forms of communication with clients and other attorneys, management of electronically stored information (ESI) became more of a concern.  Solos and small firms are expected to understand e-discovery and ESI management in their daily practices.  Check out the archives of the EDD Blog co-authored by Bob Krantz and Jeffery Fehrman.

    9. Larger numbers of attorneys adopted popular online social networking tools to meet up with others in the legal profession.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Legal OnRamp, JD Supra and other sites connect attorneys with each other and prospective clients. 

    10. Some useful law and tech/practice management blogs came online this year, including Law 21, Above and Beyond KM, 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, and Law Practice Matters, among others.  Blogging continues to grow as an attorney marketing tool and is used as a method of providing the public with basic legal information and resources. Law blogs remain a method for attorneys to educate themselves and network in their individual practice areas.  The Louisiana State Bar’s proposed rules of professional conduct touch on attorney blogging, social networking and other forms of online attorney communication causing some concern and originating in a lawsuit from attorneys in that state. 

    My predictions for virtual law practice in 2009:

    1.  Attorneys will continue to question web-based, hosted software providing law practice management tools. However, companies providing SaaS legal products will band together to establish standards regarding the security of their products for the benefit of the legal profession and the reputation of the companies and the saas business model. 

    2.  The ABA will move forward with proposing standards or policies for the delivery of legal services online. The eLawyering Task Force as well as the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services will both play a critical role in establishing these guidelines.

    3.   Attorneys hit hard by the downward economy will seek out ways to minimize their law practice overhead using technology.  Some will use piecemeal software solutions to minimize overhead in law office administrative tasks. Others will consider opening completely web-based VLOs to get rid of the law office lease and expand their client base statewide or nationwide depending on their practice areas.  

    4.   More attorneys will realize that customer service is the key to growing a successful practice and that the public is demanding more efficient and convenient legal services through the use of technology.  This will prompt more attorneys to provide unbundled legal services online to clients either as the sole form of virtual law practice or in addition to their traditional law office practice.

  • 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.

  • Using Technology to Boost a Law Practice – Guest Post

    Attorney Sergei Lemberg, who specializes in lemon law, is sitting in the guest blogger’s chair today.  Lemberg is the head of Lemberg & Associates, LLC, a team of attorneys located in several states across the country who specialize in lemon law and other warranty laws.

    I’ve discussed on this blog that there are different forms of virtual law practice, from a completely web-based system or VLO to using piecemeal technologies to create a virtual law practice that benefits your clients and your business.  In his guest post today, Lemberg describes how he uses technology to work with clients and grow his law practice. 

    Using Technology to Boost a Law Practice

    After I graduated from law school, I went the typical route and spent five years working for a series of major law firms. Eventually, though, I realized that I wanted to run my own shop, be my own boss, and handle my own cases. After deciding that lemon law would be my niche, I went about the process of building my practice, a process that was helped tremendously by technology and online tools.

    Although I started by subleasing an office from another lawyer, my practice is largely “virtual.” I have clients from all over the country and rarely see them in person. I use VOIP for my office phone system for onsite and off-site staff, which gives the impression of everyone being under the same roof. I also take advantage of the Web-based Google Docs application for online collaboration, and share practice management software using Citrix.

    But one of the most useful tools for building my practice is the Internet itself. I’m a Google AdWords advertiser, and run my AdWords ads in multiple jurisdictions to obtain a highly targeted but diverse clientele. I’ve also used that cornerstone of Web 2.0, blogging (and guest blogging!), to extend the reach of my practice. I’ve extensively optimized my website to make it more search engine friendly, and have expanded it to include genuinely useful content. As a result, I’ve seen my search engine rankings climb.

    In today’s increasingly connected world, it’s easier than ever to succeed in a solo practice. By using online marketing methods and technology, office walls become much less relevant and the practice of law becomes virtually boundless.

  • Attorneys Scared of Web 2.0? ABA Journal Article Says Yes.

    The September issue of the ABA Journal ran an article entitled Web 2.0 Still a No-Go: Lawyers Slow to Adopt Cutting-Edge Technology. I’ve been wanting to blog about this article for a couple weeks now because I think any virtual attorney should find it interesting. The article consisted of three pages of charts showing that attorneys are starting to use more technology in their daily law practices, but they are not jumping to it at the rate that the general public has been over the past five years.

    Only 2% of attorneys maintain a law blog and only 15% of lawyers have joined a social network. Attorneys use technology to receive information, but its primarily through news websites (79%) or by email newsletters (59%) and discussion lists (40%). Only 10% use RSS feeds and 6% use podcasts. Even more disturbing, only 30% use their firm’s intranet, extranet or website to communicate and receive information.

    What are you folks using? A phone, a fax machine and snail mail?

    Did these statics surprise me? A little, but they shouldn’t have. Attorneys are by training a skeptical bunch. Nevertheless, the statistics in this ABA Journal survey make our profession seem like a close-minded and archaic bunch compared to the general public. And this is at a time when we should be working to improve the image of attorneys as progressive professionals who are ready to serve the public and stand for justice in the legal system.

    Yes, my perspective is a bit skewed considering how I operate my own solo law practice. I run a virtual law office from my home and work with other attorneys and clients who make the most of the technology that is available to us. So it is difficult for me to understand why an attorney would not make use of the evolving Web 2.0 applications that are now available to them. Check out the list of useful websites from my last post and the CLE presentation last week. Many of these sites are for useful Web 2.0 apps that can have an impact on your practice.

    It doesn’t make practical sense to hold back on Web 2.0.  Why?

    1)  The general public is not holding back. These are your clients. Attorneys serve their clients. In the end, it is all about customer service. Your clients use these technologies to communicate with co-workers, family and friends across the nation. They enjoy the convenience and affordability that the technology provides for them. Ignoring these trends in the general public will keep your law practice in the dark ages. You may retain a clientele that enjoys receiving snail mail and can’t use email to save their life, but don’t expect that clientele to hang around forever.

    Can you be efficient, convenient and affordable? Will you work with me using the technology that I use on a daily basis and not talk down at me just because you are a professional?

    This is what your clients want. Instead of buying a lovely new set of chairs for your reception area, invest in the technology that will make your practice run smoother. Start simple. Learn to use your email, buy a scanner and start storing your docs online, learn basic backup techniques for your systems. Learn about encryption and security. Try setting up a virtual law office, using web conferencing, hiring a virtual paralegal, connecting with others on Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn, Facebook, Legal OnRamp, etc. Find ways to connect with other attorneys through the technology. It will benefit your clients and your law practice.

    2)  In this dark economic climate, why wouldn’t you want to lower your law office overhead? Not only can some of these Web 2.0 applications make your practice more efficiently, many of them are free or the cost is low enough to receive a fast return on investment. Lower your overhead and pass the savings along to your clients.

    3)  Take a second look at the life of a typical attorney. Do you have a life outside of your practice? One positive statistic in the article was the indication that more attorneys are using mobile devices. In two years the number of firms providing attorneys with BlackBerrys or iPhones has increased from 49% to 76% in two years. 72% of attorneys under the age of 40 are using mobile devices.

    That’s perhaps positive progress. It’s either being used to bill more hours while on the go or to make more time for a personal life by using the flexibility of not having to be tied down to a physical office. That work/life balance detail wasn’t in the survey, but at least the option of more flexibility is there to those attorneys through the use of mobile devices and Web 2.0 apps.

    That said, I recognize that change is never easy, and for a solo practitioner it can be a scary leap. But in my opinion, not understanding Web 2.0 and keeping up with current technology is a much bigger risk. Here’s looking forward to an ABA Journal Article that shows other attorneys agree with me.

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