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Greetings!
Having just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to write the introduction to this month's newsletter. For the last 7 months, I had the honor of leading a Marine civil affairs team in Helmand Province, Afghanistan and taking on the mission of improving reconstruction, development and governance there. I truly believe that we helped improve the lives of the Afghan people there as well as our security back home. Service to country can be difficult for many reasons and taking leave from the company I built and the clients I serve is just one of them. I was fortunate to have such excellent people at Law Q to continue the work of our team and carry the torch in my absence. Now, I'm happy to be back to spend time with family and friends and again take up the call of service by serving you- our client. Thank you for your support and patronage in my absence! I look forward to re-connecting with you and working to meet any of your recruiting, staffing or other personnel needs. This month's newsletter includes information that is very poignant given today's technological advancements and cost-cutting requirements. Just as Law Q can help reduce your administrative, employee search, and employee turn-over costs, this month's newsletter includes other means to reduce your overhead. It is most applicable to smaller company and law firm offices, but there are some applications for larger firms or companies who, for instance, might have of-counsel attorneys or limited office space. The subject matter of this newsletter is right in line with Law Q's mission of making your law firm or company better while reducing unnecessary overhead costs. I hope you will find something of interest in the articles included herein.
Thank you again for your thoughts and support during my time away. I feel very blessed to have Colorado to call my home and to have you to call my client or friend. Enjoy the remainder of your summer!
Truly yours,
David James Fennell, Esq.
LAW Q LLC |
Law Q & A
Q: I am the office manager at a midsized firm in Denver. Despite our growth over the last 5 years, we are still keeping a close eye on the bottom line. How can virtual office technology help us keep costs down and quality up?
A: By integrating virtual office technologies, your firm may save a considerable amount of money down the road. It is particularly attractive to growing firms for a number of reasons including the ability to grow beyond what your current suite may allow. By encouraging attorneys and non-essential office staff to occasionally telecommute, your office footprint can remain the same and not increase your lease rates by adding additional space. With well-run virtual technologies and cooperative employees, your clients should experience no loss in service or quality. Q: After 6 years with my current firm, I am starting to feel the stress of balancing my home life with my children with a challenging legal career. I love my work, and my co-workers, but my firm doesn't offer a part-time employment track. I don't know how to make this work - do you have any suggestions?
A: Virtual office technology may be the solution to your problem as well. You should contact your firm administrator and propose the technology as a solution for a variety of human resource-related issues. By implementing a virtual office policy, you may be able to work from home occasionally to ease the work/life balance. It's also ideal when it comes to addressing disability and FMLA issues as well.
Send your question to info@lawqteam.com and have it answered privately or in our newsletter! |
Are Virtual Offices Growing Bona Fide in New Jersey?
New Jersey Law Journal
David Rubin has a tidy office within Metuchen, N.J., where a secretary reports every day, and he has no immediate plans to change that arrangement. But Rubin is behind the wheel of his Prius, as often as -- if not more so -- than he is behind his desk.
Though he drives 35,000 miles a year on business, meeting with clients or heading to court, he is never out of touch with his clients, thanks to his smartphone and other devices.
"How I practice law day-to-day has been drastically changed by technology," said Rubin. "I have the kind of practice where I have very few clients who ever come to my office because they are too busy; they phone me and fax me. I probably have more communication with my clients through technology than I did when they came to my conference room and I took notes by hand."
Such is the reality of an increasing number of lawyers. Recognizing that technology has fundamentally changed the way lawyers conduct business and responding to a recent state Supreme Court Committee finding that essentially opposes the use of virtual offices, the New Jersey State Bar Association is now suggesting the state Judiciary amend the parameters lawyers must adhere to for establishing a law office.
Earlier this summer, the association's governing body voted to support amending the bona fide office rule to allow more flexibility, while ensuring attorneys are still accountable to the courts and their clients. A report, created by a committee Rubin chaired, was sent recently to the Supreme Court.
In a letter to the Judiciary, the state Bar suggested changes to the rules to make the practice of law more open to virtual offices, while ensuring the needs of clients and regulatory officials stay at the forefront.
"We do not at all mean to suggest that the 'traditional' law office is a relic of a bygone era ... But for many attorneys and their clients, mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, e-mail and video conferencing offer opportunities for communication and information-gathering far more suited to their client's needs than a physical office location," states the state Bar Association report.
AT THE OFFICE
The state Bar Association's recently adopted stand on the issue is a significant departure from its past positions.
In the past, the New Jersey State Bar Association filed friend-of-the-court briefs in two cases seeking to require attorneys to maintain a bricks-and-mortar office. In each, the Bar Association argued the quality of legal representation would go down if lawyers weren't required to have an office in the state.
In 1997, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the requirement that in order to practice in New Jersey, a lawyer must maintain an office where meetings can be held, complaints served, mail received, and documents stored.
The state Bar Association applauded the ruling. In court papers, it argued a real office in New Jersey meant attorneys would be more accountable to their Garden State clients and the courts.
"The bona fide office rule is rationally related to New Jersey's legitimate interest in ensuring the competency of lawyers who practice in New Jersey," it said it court papers.
Two years later, the state Bar stepped in after the Philadelphia Bar Association asked the Supreme Court Committee on Attorney Advertising to approve office-sharing arrangements for lawyers who did not regularly practice in New Jersey. Lawyers for the Bar group argued those arrangements would be ripe for conflicts of interest and could lead to breaches of confidentiality.
This proposal undermines the protections afforded by the bona fide office rule to guarantee access to one's legal counsel, (and) adequate familiarity with New Jersey practice," the New Jersey Bar argued.
In addition to its involvement in the cases, the Bar Association's Unlawful Practice Committee used to routinely refer complaints about violations of the rule to the Judiciary.
That practice ended in 2004 when, in recognition of the porous nature of state borders and the ways the legal profession changed, the state Judiciary modified the office rule in 2004 saying that lawyers still had to maintain an office, but it did not have to be in New Jersey.
A TIME FOR CHANGE?
The issue remained quiet for several years. Last March, the Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics and Committee on Attorney Advertising issued a joint opinion that caused an uproar in the legal community. In the opinion, the committees said a "virtual office," where attorneys reserve space in an office building daily or hourly, did not meet the rule's requirements. Further, the opinion said an attorney must have a "responsible person" at their office or home office, if they will be out on a regular basis.
Many solo attorneys and female attorneys said the opinion was burdensome and did not recognize the way technology has revolutionized the practice of law, allowing lawyers to stay in touch with clients almost all the time.
Even before the March opinion, the state Bar Association had been examining the bona fide office rule, given the changing nature of the way lawyers conduct business. After several months of examination, a committee of the association's Professional Responsibility and Unlawful Practice Committee and Solo and Small Firm Section said the time had come for the rule to change, in its report.
The report, which was forwarded to the Supreme Court last month, the groups said attorneys might need to designate physical locations for some things, such as audits and the service of papers. But for day-to-day work with clients, an office might not be necessary, and might even increase the cost of legal services. It also suggested revising the rule to allow flexibility while stating that accessibility and responsiveness to clients, other lawyers and the courts must remain a top priority.
"Our proposal for a rule amendment seeks to add flexibility to the bona fide office rule, without sacrificing the important requirements that serve as the rule's foundation, such as accessibility to clients and courts, and the safeguarding of records and files," said State Bar President Richard H. Steen in a letter to Chief Justice Stuart Rabner.
*reprinted with permission 2010 |
The Virtual Lawyer Stampede
Sharron Nelson and John Simeck
Intriguing news from the ABA's 2010 Legal Technology Survey Report: 14% of lawyers reported that they ran a virtual law office, working with clients over the Net and rarely meeting them in person. We thought that statistic was fairly amazing.
Though the term virtual law office (VLO) has been around for a while, the definition has been morphing. In fact, as we went to research the definition, we found a wide range of definitions many of them at odds with one another.
After comparing what we found, we settled on a definition proffered by
virtual lawyer Stephanie Kimbro, who says that a virtual law office is a professional law practice that exists online through a secure portal and is accessible to the client and the attorney anywhere the parties can access the Internet. A VLO provides attorneys and clients with the ability to securely discuss matters online, download and upload documents for review and to handle other business transactions in a secure digital environment. More recently, she has updated her definition to note that a
VLO can be integrated into a traditional law practice to expand the firm's market - something we imagine will happen more and often.
The tendency of lawyers - and remember that ABA survey statistic - is to go where the clients are. Without any question, the clients are now online in droves.
If you do the math, you can certainly understand the appeal of the VLO. Subtract almost all the traditional overhead, add a tiny overhead for technology to enable the VLO and put that in the hopper with the increased revenues from working and marketing online and you've got a winning proposition. A VLO might be a perfect situation for a parent staying at home with young children or taking care of an elderly parent.
The low overhead might allow a young lawyer to slowly nurture a practice without the financial risks of setting up a traditional law office.
The flexibility of a VLO appeals to many. We have a friend who runs a VLO from a log cabin overlooking the Blue Ridge. If work comes in, he deals with it via computer, leaving him a great deal of time to ramble in the forest or just gaze at nature's majesty. We're pretty sure our friend is smarter than we are in his working arrangements. VLOs can provide a terrific work-life balance solution.
On the downside, it is hard to nurture the old-fashioned sort of client relationship over the Internet. The online fast and relatively impersonal transaction is just not as conducive to creating a loyal and lifetime relationship with a client. Generally, you can't stroll down the hall to consult with a colleague - and while you can replace a portion of this online, the depth and character of the encounters are not quite the same.
That said, VLOs are very well suited for high volume, low customization work. As a friend of ours is fond of saying, a well-run VLO can make you money while you sleep.
The ABA has suggested that there are minimum requirements for delivering services online, notably ensuring client confidentiality. Is your data backed up? If you are using Software as a Service (SaaS), is your data stored locally as well as offsite? Is it encrypted in transport and in storage? Is it stored in a datacenter? If so, where? Are there any cross-border issues? What is the datacenter's physical security? Are there redundant power sources?
Have you read the Service Level Agreement (SLA?). Authors's note: Our experience is that the customary answer is "no." What happens if the provider bellies up? What if you want to leave with your data? What's the process and charge?
Additionally, the ABA reminds lawyers that they still need to do conflict checks, to have a disclaimer indicating where they are licensed to practice, to have a retainer agreement, to have website terms and conditions and to make sure, if they are accepting payments online, that they are mindful of PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance.
So what tools are these lawyers using? Two we hear about frequently are
Clio and Rocket Matter, which both provide web-based law practice management services. In addition, VLOTech is a very well regarded platform for VLOs. Their pricing varies with the size of the firm, but you need to contact them to get the prices.
Another contender is an online dashboard furnished by DirectLaw. Clients can purchase legal documents bundled with legal advice for a fixed fee. It has a lot of state-specific forms which generate first drafts for customization by attorneys. It offers file sharing, calendar function, e-invoicing and voice-recognition software. There's also a secure site for client communication, which avoids telephone tag. The monthly fees vary with what you want for services, but they are plainly spelled out on the website. Though we don't have current figures, more than 60 law firms were subscribed as of late 2009.
The transformation of the practice of law, long predicted by such visionaries as Richard Susskind, certainly seems to be taking place very quickly. Just a few years ago, we marveled at lawyers using what were then cutting edge services such as Legal Typist or Ruby Receptionist. While such services are still valuable, the modern VLO is to the early VLO as NASA's Space Shuttle is to the Mercury spacecraft. We expect the speed of the transformation to increase over the next decade, so fasten those seat belts and prepare for warp speed.
*reprinted with permission 2010
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