Virtual Law Practice

Category: ABA

  • Potential New Regulation of Online Advertising Will Negatively Impact Solo and Small Firm Virtual Law Offices

    There are two weeks left to submit comments to the ABA Ethics Commission 20/20 regarding its two issues papers related to cloud computing and online marketing.  I wrote about the cloud computing issues paper here, but as several fellow virtual law practitioners have pointed out to me, it is the second issues paper on the use of Internet-based client development tools that we need to be more concerned with. 

    I use most of the web-based “tools” that the paper addresses, including blogging, websites, and social and professional networking services.  I do not use pay-per-click advertising for my virtual law office.  I tried Google AdWords early on and found that I did not have the advertising budget to make it work effectively for my practice.  But without these other methods, I’m sure I would not have a virtual law office today.  At this point in my practice development, I use most of these methods to network with other legal professionals more than as a client development tool, but at what point does building a reputation for your practice turn into client development? 

    How could the virtual law practitioner possibly compete without using online marketing methods?  It would not be possible.  BigLaw firms setting up a virtual law office would have the financial resources to accomplish this, but certainly not a solo, small or even mid-sized firm.   LegalZoom, USLegal Forms and other online legal service companies are allowed to drop millions on aggressive, direct online advertising to the public.  Yet, online networking by attorneys is the big public threat?

    As a small business owner it seems absolutely ridiculous to me that I would be not be able to use the most current and effect methods of marketing my services.  I have been and always will be aware of and in compliance with my state bar’s rules and regulations regarding attorney advertising.  They are necessary, and I’m glad there are there because these rules set a high standard for advertising for professionals by ensuring that unscrupulous attorneys do not mislead or take advantage of the public.  It’s part of what sets us apart as a profession with a responsibility to the public we serve.  (more…)

  • Adapt or Get out of the Way: Standards to Protect Client Property/Confidentiality Change

    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 and client is not the highest standard.  The state bars will look at the newer data privacy laws in Nevada and Massachusetts and  reconsider why attorneys should be using unencrypted email in our profession while other business professionals are required to encrypt personal client data. 

    The standard that the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and most state bars take is encapsulated in Rule 1.6 (a) of the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct.  This rule states “[a] lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, the disclosure is impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation.…”  Specifically comment 17 to this rule provides that lawyers must take “reasonable precautions” to safeguard confidential information and prevent it from going to unintended recipients during the transmission.   The ABA Formal Opinion No. 99-413 added in March 10, 1999 specifically allows for the use of unencrypted email. 

    “Reasonable precautions.”  What qualifies as “reasonable” should change as technology to communicate with our clients and other professionals develops and security risks in those electronic methods are exposed.  (more…)

  • Accepting Nominations for the ABA Keane Award for Excellence in ELawyering

    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 technology to deliver legal services, please consider nominating them. 

    From the Task Force website:

    The purpose of this Award is to give recognition to law offices that have developed legal service innovations that are delivered over the Internet. The focus of the Award is on the innovative delivery of personal legal services, with special attention given to firms and entities that serve both moderate income individuals and the broad middle class.

    More information about the Award and the nomination criteria is here.  The Award is given out by the eLawyering Task Force at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago usually following the keynote speaker (and I’m thrilled to say this year that speaker is Professor Larry Lessig!)  Nomination forms are due January 14, 2010.

  • ELawyering and the Future of Legal Work CLE

    The ABA eLawyering Task Force will be presenting a CLE at American University Washington College of Law on October 21, 2010 from noon – 1:20pm, entitled “ELawyering and the Future of Legal Work“.  I will be joining co-panelists Blair Janis, Marc Lauritsen and Ronald Staudt in a discussion of elawyering and its impact on the future of law practice.  The program is free and open to law students and practicing attorneys (it costs a little if you need the CLE credit).  If you are in the D.C. area, please join us.  The question and answer sessions at the end of these presentations are always fun and a great opportunity to hear from local attorneys about how they may be using virtual law practice and other elawyering methods to deliver legal services.

  • New ABA Ethics Opinion on Websites

    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, they will hold a public hearing to gather information from interested individuals and entities on the subject.  

    The ABA’s review of technology in law practice management is being conducted through the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 created in 2009 by then ABA President Carolyn Lamm.  One goal of the commission is to review the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct to see if revisions are needed given the changes that technology has brought to the practice of law.  Part of this review also involves an examination of the regulation of attorneys in our country and how the current system may or may not be working well given the increase in globalization of law firms, outsourcing trends and the use of technology to facilitate these practices.   

    More recently, the ABA has released a new ethics opinion pertaining to attorney websites.  The opinion was issued on August 5 of this year, but has only now been posted online.  Formal Opinion 10-457 covers the use of a website by an attorney as a way to communicate with prospective clients.  (more…)

  • Call for Comments – ABA Ethics 20/20 Commission Reviews Cloud Computing and Client Confidentiality

    This afternoon the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 sent an email through the listserv announcing a public hearing in mid-October in Chicago.  The Commission is looking for comments on two topics: 1) “Client Confidentiality and Lawyers’ Use of Technology” and 2)  “Lawyers’ Use of Internet Based Client Development Tools.”  I’ve uploaded the first of these issues papers which you can review here: 


    ABA Ethics Commission 20/20: For Comment: Issues Paper Concerning Client Confidentiality and Lawyers’ Use of Technology

    Most of the issues discussed in this paper have some impact on virtual law practice.  One of the Commission’s suggested options for action is to “propose amendments to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, such as Model Rules 1.1 (competency), 1.6 (duty of confidentiality), 1.15 (safeguarding client property), or the comments to those Rules.”  

    Therefore, it’s important that those of us interested in the delivery of legal service online take the time to read this paper, and if there is a perspective that is missing, to submit a comment before the deadline of December 15, 2010.   I contributed Chapter Three of my book and may submit a comment as well after I’ve had time to review and digest the two issues papers again.

  • A Legal Rebel

    The ABA Journal has turned its attention to solo practitioners for this year’s group of “Legal Rebels.”   I am pleased to announce that the Journal has bestowed this title upon me for my virtual law office.  The article written by Stephanie Ward for my profile gets to the heart of why I started my virtual law office several years ago.  I’m honored to be on this year’s list with fellow solos, Carolyn Elefant and Bruce Cameron, both of whom I have gotten to know online over the past few years through our common concerns as busy solo practitioners. 

    I wasn’t intending to rebel against anything when I started my virtual law office – it was more a matter of necessity being the mother of invention.  As I realized the potential of virtual law practice to be one solution to the lack of access to justice in our country as well as a more family friendly legal career path, I became more determined to spread the concept to the legal profession and to study ways in which the technology could be used ethically to serve the public and legal profession.  But I’m just getting going…..

  • Video: Leverage the Internet to Serve Your Clients and Grow Your Practice

    At the ABA Annual Meeting last month I participated in the ABA Journal’s Legal Rebel‘s program, “10 Ways to Build Your Perfect Practice & Career” hosted by Matt Homann. The presentation requirement was that I cover 20 slides in 6 minutes. I had a lot of fun preparing for this one. It’s not as easy as you might think to get all of your ideas out in 6 minutes as the slides progress whether you are ready to move on or not.

    Here is the video of my presentation:

  • Videos: Ethics and the Virtual Law Office

    Below are two videos taken at ABA Annual a couple weeks ago that were just published on the Legal Currents blog.  I’m talking about virtual law practice, where I see it going in the future and about some of the key ethics issues for attorneys to be aware of before adding a virtual law office to their practice management.

  • Virtual Lawyering Promoted at ABA Annual

    There was a lot of coverage related to virtual law practice and the delivery of online legal services at this year’s ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.  Compared with even a year ago, this topic is fully on the radar of attorneys and bar officials concerned with virtual law practice for both solo and small firms.  However, this time there was also interest as it relates to larger firms, the outsourcing of legal services and the globalization of law firms.  

    I sat on a panel discussion entited “20/20 Vision: The Impact of Technology and Globalization on Ethics for the 21st Century Lawyer” and was pleased to see a packed audience as well as have the majority of audience questions pertain to virtual law practice.  Here is a link to a video interview of our panel’s moderator, Judith Miler. 

    The questions from the audience after the panel discussion were the same ones I hear at a lot of presentations.  The primary concern is still related to the basic security of entrusting law office data to cloud computing.  The second greatest concern is about the verification or authentication of client identity online.  “Can you really form a relationship online without seeing the whites of their eyes?”  Sometimes it’s just a matter of being comfortable with the technology and getting used to using it to communicate that helps answer these questions.  Overall, the response was positive and hopefully, the details and resources I provided in the manuscript for the attendees will go a long way in answering their questions about the security and cloud computing concerns in virtual law practice.

    Will Hornsby joined Marc Lauritsen, Richard Granat and myself for a lively panel discussion on virtual lawyering on Friday.  Richard informed me that he also provided a presentation on virtual law practice to a room of state bar presidents and other bar officials who were very receptive to these concepts in practice management. 

    ABA President Carolyn Lamm during her presentation on Sunday night on a panel entitled “Lawyers Surviving in a Darwinian World” mentioned online legal service companies and emphasized the legal profession’s reponsibility to step up to meet the needs of the public who are going online to seek out legal assistance.   The ABA Journal has a write-up of her comments during the presentation. 

    Social media was also a hot topic at several CLE sessions at the annual meeting.  At one of the vendor booths I picked up a copy of Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontierby Michael Fertik and David Thompson.  I’ll try to post a review of the book on this blog when I get a chance to read through it.  Even the Twitter hashtag for the event was active this year indicating a growing comfort by my fellow attorneys to embrace technology to communicate.  And to top it off, I got to meet Heather Armstrong, mommy-blogger and famous Dooce.comwriter, at the WestlawNext CLE about social media in the workplace. 

    There were also some vendors that I spoke with who are making an effort to facilitate virtual law practice for attorneys.  This might be in response to the ethics and UPL complaints raised by some state bars to the documents produced by legal service companies.  Both Legal Zoom and Rocket Lawyer are combining their document assembly and automation technologies with the ability to connect an attorney with the consumer going online to fill out and purchase basic legal forms.  I’m reaching out to both vendors to find out more about how their systems will allow for this type of delivery to be controlled by the attorney as a practice management tool for delivering online legal services. 

    The overall tone I left with at the end of the annual meeting was that technology to deliver legal services online and to communicate with our clients and other legal professionals is embraced as the future. Rather than the over-emphasis on the security and risks that I’ve seen the past few years at other conferences, the tone seems to be an acceptance of virtual law practice and a move towards finding ways to responsibly integrate it into our practice management toolboxes.  I much prefer this optimistic, but realistic, mood.

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