Blasphemy! I know it sounds crazy, but law firms and lawyers should realize that hourly billing is not always beneficial to the firm or to the client. And in order to shift away from thinking in terms of hours to thinking in terms of value, law firms must stop tracking time whenever possible.

Instead, you must find new ways to measure value.

For example, if it takes 12 hours to draft a contract for one client, but only 3 hours to polish it up for a second client, why would you bill each client by the hour? Considering the value received, the second client should pay more, not less, since you were able to deliver a superior product in less time.

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Description from MCLE:

The Paperless Office
Presented by Sam Glover; moderated by Peter Berge

Friday, June 6, 2008, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. CDT
1.0 law office management credit
Tuition: $75

The “paperless office” concept has created a trendy buzz in law office management circles. With new, reasonably priced hardware and software, it can also be a reality for any size office. What the paperless office offers is a great key to efficiency. In this webcast, attorney Sam Glover will provide a practical discussion of how a law office can move toward a more paperless existence. Mr. Glover will provide an overview of the technology and procedures needed and practical tips on how to save money and increase efficiency.

Presented by Samuel J. Glover, Attorney at Law, Minneapolis; moderated by Peter H. Berge, Minnesota CLE, St. Paul.

Register Now for The Paperless Office

My good friend and financial advisor, David Benning, recently loaned me The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to do About It, by Michael E. Gerber. David is a small business owner, like me, and he said The E-Myth Revisited had changed the way he approached developing his business.

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Free is better, and open source is superior. There are fantastic free and open source alternatives to the software lawyers use every day. Here are my top 5 most valuable free applications for lawyers:

1. OpenOffice.org

Office 2007 is pretty, but from a user perspective, it is an upgrade hardly worth the pricetag. Plus, Microsoft’s rejection of Open Document Format, which is becoming the world standard (and should be the courts’ standard, if they can de-Microsoft their thinking), is troubling. OpenOffice.org, or OOo, is a fantastic alternative. It is also in wide use worldwide, and sponsored by Sun Microsystems. This is a full replacement for Office, minus Outlook, and attorneys can make the switch and not look back. Among other things, OOo can save to .doc format, and makes it easier than ever to create PDF versions.

2. TrueCrypt

As I have said many times, encryption is no longer optional. Law firms that do not encrypt client data are risking lawsuits if and when client data is stolen. TrueCrypt is a serious piece of encryption software that makes encryption easy and convenient. My favorite feature is the ability to back up the encrypted container so that my backups are encrypted, as well.

3. AVG or Avast anti-virus

It is a bit eerie how much Norton and McAfee resemble the viruses they protect your computer in. Virus-like, they invade every nook and cranny of your operating system, bogging your computer down. Uninstall them and go with a free alternative that protects just as well and doesn’t slow you to a crawl.

4. GnuCash

Looking to move beyond your outdated accounting software? GnuCash is a double-entry accounting package that should do the trick just fine. If you like sending Quicken files to your accountant, you can do that, too will have to make do with printing out HTML reports (see comment, below).

5. UltraVNC

UltraVNC (and numerous other free VNC applications) lets you access your computer remotely from anywhere. Setup takes just a bit of knowhow, but once you are up and running, it is amazingly smooth. Best of all, you can access your computer using any VNC with any operating system for maximum versatility.

Finally, if you do use free, open-source software, support the project by donating.