Starting your own solo law practice? When it comes to starting a small business, a law practice is one of the least-expensive options. A computer and a clear space on the kitchen table are about all you need. Well, almost. There are a few other things. In this article, I will lay out what you need to start up a solo law practice, plus a few nice-to-have extras. This is not a bare minimum, but I have left out things like registering an LLC or corporation ($160 in Minnesota), liability insurance (mine was $599 for my first year), and business cards and stationery (I don’t use stationery, but I buy my business cards from VistaPrint for $29.99/500).

Starting a Law Firm for Under $3,000

The following purchases will get you through your first year of solo law practice, at least, but the hardware should last far longer. If you shop wisely, your hardware should last at least 5 years, if not longer.

Assuming you do not already have a computer, printer and internet connection, your startup costs would be just under $3,000, leaving some room for miscellaneous supplies. If you do already have a computer and printer, you can convert them to business use and save $1,248.99 or more.

Even better, your second year overhead will drop to $837.60, since you will already have all the hardware you will need.

Computer

Obviously, you can’t do much without a computer. If you already have one, use that and save yourself about $1,000 in startup costs. If you do not already have one, get one. For the solo practitioner, a laptop is infinitely more useful than a desktop, particularly if you plan to have a paperless law office for greater efficiency and lower overhead.

For most people, a Mac just makes more sense. They last longer, are more secure, are easier to use, and have a variety of features that make them ideal for going from home to office to the courthouse. Sure, they are a bit more expensive, but if you outfit a PC with comparable components, you often pay more.

The Apple MacBook starts at $1,099.00. If you get a PC, don’t consider anything but a Lenovo. The other brands just don’t measure up, especially when it comes to durability and customer service. The ThinkPad T61 starts at $873.00 with an upgrade to Windows XP Pro or Vista Business (do not get the “home” versions, but feel free to upgrade to Ubuntu Linux). Equipped comparably to the MacBook, a T61 will cost $914.25.

Software

So you have a computer. Now you need a way to generate documents, keep track of contacts, tasks, and your calendar, and manage your accounting and billing.

To manage contacts, your calendar, and e-mail, you can use Outlook (Windows) or Entourage (Mac), but those cost money. Mozilla Thunderbird with Lightning is free and works just as well for most users. If you got a MacBook, the built in software is perfectly serviceable. Or if you installed Ubuntu, Evolution is a full Outlook replacement. Don’t spend money if you don’t need to.

The same goes for your document processing software. Openoffice.org (NeoOffice for Mac) is just as good as Microsoft Office, and free, to boot.

For accounting, I prefer GnuCash, which is free and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, to the proprietary options like QuickBooks. GnuCash also has basic billing, but let’s assume you want something better. FreshBooks offers timekeeping and billing for $14/month, or $168/year. You could also opt for QuickBooks, at $169, which does accounting, rudimentary timekeeping, and billing. But QuickBooks wants to be upgraded every year, as well, so it is down to personal preference.

Backup

If you have a computer, you need a place to backup your files. Mozy gives you 2GB of online backup for free, and is a great option while you get going, since your business files probably will not take up anywhere near that much space.

If you are going paperless, you will want a local backup option, as well. Any external hard drive will do. I recommend one about five time the size of the files you need to back up. For most people this will not be very large, but something like the 500GB Western Digital MyBook is perfect at $142.99. It will last for years and hold your music, as well.

Copying, scanning, printing, and faxing

Stop right there. You thought I was going to recommend an all-in-one copier/printer/scanner/fax thingy. I’m not. They suck.

Get a scanner, printer, and fax service. You don’t need a copier, because a copier is more work than a scanner and printer. (With a copier, you have to make a copy every time you want one. If you scan the document the first time, you just print it out from there on.)

For a scanner, you cannot do better than the Fujitsu ScanSnap s1500, available for Windows and Mac (it works with Linux, as well, but other scanners may work better). For $429 (Windows) or $425 (Mac), you get a small, fast, duplexing document scanner and Adobe Acrobat Standard, which would run you $299 by itself.

Any laser printer will do, but I like the Lexmark E120n, which is a bargain at $149.99.

Save the money you would spend on an extra fax line, and instead just get an online fax service. There are free options, but to get a local number, you will have to pay. GreenFax is $12.95/month for inbound faxes and outbound faxes at $.07/minute. A $25 buy-in will last about two years for most people. That all adds up to about $180.40 for a year of service. A dedicated fax line, by contrast, would add up to about $672 for a year, not counting the fax machine and supplies.

Phone service

You could go with a regular land line, but at $56+/month, it is hardly a deal. Plus, it ties you to one location. A better location for mobile solo practitioners is Skype. While Skype is free, calling phones and getting calls from regular phones is not. A year of SkypePro and SkypeIn is only $43.20 when you buy SkypePro first. You will need a handset, headset, or standalone phone, as well. The Philips VOIP321 at $79.99 is nice, because you don’t need to connect through your computer.

You need an internet connection, of course. Let’s estimate that at $53.15/month, which is what I pay ComCast for cable internet. That adds up to $639/year.

Adding it all up: the $3,000 solo law office

This all adds up to less than $3,000 to start your own solo law practice:

$1,099	Computer
$169	FreshBooks or Quickbooks
$142.99	External drive
$429	Scanner
$149.99	Printer
$180.40	Fax service
$43.20	Skype
$79.99	Skype phone
$639	Internet
$2,932.57	TOTAL

Year 2

Keep in mind that a lot of these expenses do not continue from year to year. Assuming you don’t throw your computer out the window in frustration at some point, your continuing expenses are only for your fax service (minus $25, since you should have plenty of sending time left over), phone service, and internet, for about $837.60. Not bad.

Start a Solo Law Practice for Under $3,000 is a post from: Lawyerist

Okay, so you are comfortable with online privacy issues, you have spent some time on Wikipedia and Google learning about the “geek stuff,” and now you want to get going and market your law firm online. Obviously, you want to start with square one: a website. And a website is the logical next step in online marketing, so let’s get to it.

When I say “static website,” I mean a normal website: a set of web pages with content that rarely changes, and could be described accurately as a sort of dynamic business card and resume rolled into one. Many people will throw in a brochure-y article or two, but the bottom line is that a static website rarely changes. (A “dynamic website,” by contrast, could be a blog, wiki, or other frequently-updated website.)

A static website is online marketing 101. Every firm should have one, almost without exception. Most Americans have internet access in one form or another. Many will get referrals to more than one lawyer, who they will try to find online. The ones they find will get phone calls. The others probably will not.

Hosting

First, you will need a hosting plan. A web host is a place where your website is kept (“hosted”), and internet users can view it. Once you have a host, you can get a domain name (lawyerist.com, for example) and set up your website.

There are probably thousands of web hosts out there. Find one you like. I use HyTekHosting. I love their service, and their reliability is top-notch. Two things: (1) if you are paying more than $15/month for your web hosting and you are just hosting a website, you are paying too much; and (2) don’t tolerate downtime. If your website goes down more than once a year, and for more than a couple of hours, get a new provider.

Look for a “shared hosting” plan, as opposed to a dedicated or virtual host. (If you know you want dedicated or virtual hosting and why, feel free to ignore this.) With a shared hosting plan, you lease a directory on a server with other users who are leasing other directories. This is the cheapest form of hosting, and will be more than adequate for most websites. It is what I use for this blog, my law firm website, my consumer law blog, Caveat Emptor, and my newest project, Minnlawpedia. All are hosted on the same shared hosting plan.

Once you have picked a hosting provider and signed up for a shared hosting plan, you will need to register your domain name, the “address” that people type into their browser to find you (lawyerist.com for this blog, for example). Many hosting plans will include a domain name when you sign up with them, but your domain name is something you can take with you from one hosting provider to the next. For this reason, many people recommend registering your domain name with a different company than your hosting provider. It can make switching hosting providers easier.

GoDaddy.com is probably the most popular domain name registrar, and their prices are hard to beat. Once you register your domain name, your hosting provider should be able to walk you through the process of pointing your domain name at your shared hosting directory. I won’t go into it in detail now, since it is something you only have to do once, and your domain name registrar and/or hosting provider should have pretty good directions.

Building a static website

In order to have a website, you must build one yourself or have someone else do it for you.

You can build a website yourself, if you are willing to learn the CSS and HTML necessary to do a proper job. Ten years ago, any website at all was a good start. But today, you need something a bit more polished. Increasingly, your website will be potential clients’ first impression. It is worth the price of a good designer to get a positive first impression. Do it right, whether you decide to do your own or hire someone.

(A word on hiring a daughter, nephew, etc. A website you have your nephew design will look like a website you had your nephew design. And unless your nephew works somewhere like Artropolis, that ain’t good. Hire a professional.)

One easy way to make your own website is to use the popular blogging software, WordPress.org. WordPress.org is what I used to create this site as well as my law firm website. Even though WordPress.org is blogging software, it serves really well for building a basic website. You can choose a pre-designed template and set your site to display a static page as the front page, and you can write other pages for the other content pages (bio, contact info, etc.). I intend to write a tutorial on doing this sometime in the future. For now, install WordPress.org at your hosted account and start playing around with it.

Or, if you just want a website with minimal fuss, hire someone. Like hosting providers, there are thousands of website designers out there. I used E.Webscapes for a recent redesign of my blog, Caveat Emptor. I spent $600 for the blog template, which did not include any of the content, of course.

As you look for different designers, look through their portfolios and make sure you like their style and think they will be able to adapt to your needs. The website they build for you will probably look similar to their other work, so find a portfolio you like.

You will hear a lot of designers talk about “search engine optimization.” If they act like this is a Big Deal and want to charge extra for it, head the other way. Basic optimization is important and should be a part of designing any website, but unless you pay for advertising, pretty much the only way people will find a static website is by searching for the name of your firm. There is no way around this, no matter what SEO tricks your designer claims to know. Without dynamic content or paying for position, you are unlikely to show up on the first page of Google when someone searches for “Minnesota attorney.” (I would bet Lawyers.com and Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben pay more than my gross yearly revenue for that privilege.)

You should expect to pay at least $1,000 for a good, basic website. If you want more, you pay more. Shop around and look for the best all-around deal to make sure you get what you want.

What to include in your website

Include some information about yourself, your areas of practice, the services you offer, and how potential clients can contact you. You might also include some substantive information. A basic primer on traffic stops is nice to see on a criminal defense lawyer’s website, for example, but there is no need to go overboard; most potential clients can find the same–or better–information on Wikipedia.

Take my website for The Glover Law Firm as an example. It may not suit everyone’s style, but it has all the elements of a good, basic law firm website, and a few extra things:

• Home page with firm news – the home page has the firm name and contact information–the basics of any business card, and the firm news “extra” gives visitors an update on what is going on at the firm and–hopefully–the impression that the firm is alive and well;
• Biography – this basic element tells visitors a bit about me, the attorney they may hire (complete with a half-decent picture);
• Resources – this “extra” element contains useful information for clients, potential clients, and consumers generally–a reason to visit my website besides just to hire me, in other words;
• Consultations – this basic element could have been folded into one of the other pages, but I felt it was worth setting on its own, and it also relates to the Resources page; and
• Contact information – this basic element has information on how to contact me and how to get to my office.

No matter who you work with, you will have to provide most of the content. So start writing. Get your resume or CV in shape, type up a description of your firm, a list of your practice areas, etc. Some web designers can help you fill up the gaps in your website, but you will always be the one doing the majority of the work. As you should, since this is your website.

Online advertising

Now that you have a shiny new website, you want people to find it! Most people will probably find your website by searching for you. As of this posting, 25-30% of my visitors reach my website by searching for “Sam Glover.” This should make it obvious why I sometimes refer to a static website as a calling card or a dynamic business card. Most people will find out who you are before they get there, kind of like when you are handing out business cards at a networking function.

A blog is a great way to raise your profile, resulting in more people looking for your website, and we will talk more about blogs in the next installment of this series. But a blog may not result in direct referrals of potential clients. If what you want is potential clients who are looking for an attorney, advertising may be your best bet.

If I tried to summarize all the ways you can advertise online, this post would turn into a novel, and it is long enough already. Further, I do not advertise, so I am not an expert beyond a general familiarity. That said, all advertising boils down to this: reaching potential clients at the point at which they are trying to find a lawyer.

Search engines like Google are a common way to reach potential clients. For example, someone who searches for “Minnesota divorce lawyer” on Google is probably looking to hire a divorce lawyer in Minnesota. (Click that link and see who is paying for that search term.) With Google AdWords, you can choose your keywords and bid for position. When browsers click your link, you pay for that click. Yahoo! and Microsoft Live offer similar options, but they work slightly differently.

You can also advertise with a lawyer referral service. The Minnesota State Bar Association has one, for example. So does FindLaw, Nolo, and nearly any other organization or legal website you can think of.

When you are deciding whether to advertise online, consider your ideal pool of prospective clients. Select an advertising portal that they are likely to use. If you are using a search engine, choose your keywords carefully. Some will be obvious, but there may be others that you can also use.

Whatever you do, track your marketing carefully and adjust it accordingly as you go.

Up next is part 3: blogs and social networks . . .

Online marketing 101: websites and advertising online (part 2 of 3) is a post from: Lawyerist

By now, most attorneys are at least thinking about marketing their practice online, if not doing it in some fashion already. But “online marketing” is a concept so vague it is completely unhelpful. Online marketing encompasses everything from websites to social networking sites to chat rooms. Much online marketing is similar to offline marketing, but some of it is very different.
LinkedIn
But whatever your comfort level–both with privacy and with technology–you can find a way to market your practice online. In this series of three posts, I will talk about privacy issues, the necessary technical know-how, and the major ways to market yourself and your practice online: websites, paid advertising, blogs, and social networks.

First, privacy and technical know-how.

Online privacy

There is a delicate tension between online privacy and online marketing. If you market yourself online, you are voluntarily putting a lot of information out on the web. But that does not have to mean that you will put personal information out on the web. In fact, one of the best ways to bury personal information that may be available already is to cover it up with the information you decide to put out there.

So safeguarding privacy boils down to this: don’t reveal anything you don’t want anyone to know. If you publish your home address, there is no getting it back. (Since most of us probably enter our home address only when shopping online, this should not be a big problem. Shopping sites are mostly well-secured, although it never hurts to check their credentials.)

Instead, publish–far and wide–the information you want potential clients to know: your office address, phone number, website(s), and e-mail address. While you can probably find my home address with a public records search, you can find my business contact information just about anywhere. Hopefully, that makes potential clients more likely to contact me.

You can hide behind an alias online, but if you do, you defeat the purpose of using the internet to market your practice.

Also, be sure to use a secure browser like Firefox, and keep spyware, adware, and viruses off your computer.

The geek stuff: technological know-how

Computers are no longer a geek’s domain. Thanks to the internet, they are now primarily entertainment and communication devices, not just overpowered word processors (although they still do that). The days of needing to know rudimentary programming skills just to get a computer working are long gone. Open it up and head into the Wild, Wild, Web.

That said, if you want to engage in online marketing, a basic level of comfort with your computer is necessary. For example, you will want to be able to turn on your computer, type, and browse the internet. Seriously, there is not much more to it than that. If you do not know how to turn on your computer, type, or browse the internet, look into beginning computer classes through a local community education program, or try nearby libraries. It does not take long to get up and running.

In order to move beyond a static website, however, you will need to get familiar with some other common features of the online landscape. But if you can handle getting and using an e-mail account like Hotmail or Gmail, you can start a blog or join a forum or social network. It is nearly the same process. Piece of cake. So start a “dummy” blog on Blogger or Wordpress just to get the feel for it. Do the same on MySpace or Facebook–or better yet, the MSBA’s mypractice–and make a profile on a social network. You can use Plaxo or LinkedIn, instead, if you want to try a more “highbrow” social network.

A level of familiarity with things like RSS feeds, blogs, internet forums, and some other things is very helpful. Those are the backbone of Web 2.0, the online world in which we now move. Know what they are, and start exploring a few.

Finally, as you interact on forums, blogs, and social networks, you may want to learn some basic HTML like making a hyperlink.

(Here’s how: <a href=”http://website.com“>text you want to link</a>

This sort of thing is a bit more advanced, and therefore optional, and you can get along just fine without it. But it will make your online interaction a bit more fluid if you do decide to learn just a bit. If you do start blogging (or commenting on blogs) regularly, you will probably just pick it up gradually as you go along.

The good news is that once you have this basic level of comfort and familiarity, you are ready to think about how you want to market online, and to do it!

Stay tuned for part 2: websites and advertising . . .

Online marketing 101: privacy and technical know-how (part 1 of 3) is a post from: Lawyerist

My wife commented yesterday that it has been a long time since she heard me complaining about my timekeeping and accounting software. It’s true. I hadn’t realized how much less frustration I have since I ditched Time Matters and Billing Matters Plus for good. Instead, I am using a combination of spreadsheets and simple but powerful accounting software.

As a timekeeper, TM/BM+ was full of features. So full, unfortunately, that it was difficult to learn and time-consuming to use. The timekeeping was fairly straightforward, but the accounting backoffice left even my accountant shaking his head in confusion.

My current system has three parts. First, I have a time and expense spreadsheet. This is what I keep open on my desktop every day, filling in the blanks as I work. It is quick, lightweight, and simple. Each file also has a more complex spreadsheet with time, expenses, and a funds register. At the end of each month, I sort my log by file number, then date, and simply copy and paste the billing records into the appropriate file’s spreadsheet. All in all, this takes only a few clicks per file at the end of the month. I keep the funds register updated as I go, but those usually are not too active in my files.

Finally, I use GnuCash for my accounting. GnuCash is a double-entry accounting program. Unlike Billing Matters Plus, it lets the user decide how the transactions will look. I was always frustrated with not being able to see the full transactions in BM+ unless I ran a GL or GJ report. I don’t like software that doesn’t trust me.

GnuCash also lets you track customers and issue invoices. Since I work on contingency or flat fee, I don’t really need to use that feature.

So that is what I have been using for timekeeping and accounting lately, and it has worked smoothly and kept me happy for at least six months. In the end, I found that the simplest option worked best for me. I also want to be able to see how it all works, and my spreadsheets and accounting software let me do that.

My timekeeping and accounting solution is a post from: Lawyerist

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.

Top 5 free, open source applications for lawyers is a post from: Lawyerist

I am going to be taking my first vacation since going solo this Friday, and I’m a bit nervous. About my cases, that is. Since I have no support staff, if something comes up (despite my careful preparation), there isn’t anyone who can pick up the slack. So I need to be able to check voicemail and make calls, check e-mail, keep up-to-date with my schedule, and have access to all of my files.

Also, we are going to be in Barcelona for a week, the most pickpocket-friendly city in Europe, so I would rather not bring along expensive toys, if I can avoid it. So the laptop needs to stay at home.

Here is what I came up with:

My solution generally revolves around portable apps stored on a tiny, 1 GB USB flash drive. Portable apps, if you don’t know, are full-fledged applications that can be run from a USB drive. The advantage is that you can use any computer without worrying about leaving behind personal information. All cookies, passwords entered, etc., are stored on your drive, which you take with you when you leave.

The portable apps suite makes a nice launcher for your applications, and comes in a couple of different flavors for most users.

Phone

I need to be able to make phone calls. Primarily this will be checking my voicemail messages, but just in case a potential client leaves a message despite my “out of office” message, I may want to follow up immediately, rather than wait until I return. To do this, I have installed Skype on my USB drive. Skype doesn’t have an explicit portable version, but copying the .exe file to your USB drive works just fine. I have a Skype account so that I can make inexpensive international phone calls.

E-mail

E-mail is easy enough. I can use Portable Firefox to access my webmail, or I can use Portable Thunderbird for the same thing. I also plan to purchase the international e-mail add-on for my Blackberry while I am away. Since I operate primarily by e-mail, having constant access to my e-mail is important. Plus, $20/month for international e-mail on T-Mobile is probably cheaper than the equivalent amount of cybercafe time.

Scheduling

I am still working on this one, although I have a couple of solutions. I just discovered ScheduleWorld, which is a free WebDAV/iCalendar application that you can sync with just about any scheduling software. I’m not sure this is really the best for me just yet, so at this point, I am just planning to use my Blackberry and update my calendar when I get home.

At some point, it may become more convenient to access WebDAV or iCalendar calendars from portable devises. Right now, it is difficult to use them for anything but read-only access, which isn’t all that useful.

Access to client files

This was the most difficult. I was worried I would have to bring my laptop “just in case,” which I really didn’t want to do. I considered putting my client files on my USB drive, but TrueCrypt and other encryption software will only work off a USB drive if you have administrative privileges on the computer you are using. Unlikely in a cybercafe.

But I have been playing around with UltraVNC, a “virtual network connection” utility like Windows Remote Desktop Connection, but more versatile. After searching around, I found that you can easily use the UltraVNC Viewer as a portable app just by copying the .exe to your portable drive. Just like Skype. So I can leave my laptop at home, turned on, and I will be able to access it from anywhere in the world and use my computer just like I were sitting in front of it.

And best of all, since I am using my computer and only looking at what shows on the screen, no sensitive information will end up on the cybercafe computer. In fact, I can use the DSM encryption plugin as well, and nobody would be able to “sniff” information while I use my computer at home.

So really, I can use my regular computer just as I always have, for e-mail, scheduling, and accessing my client files, with a simple remote access setup.

All I really worry about now is whether I will actually be able to use my USB drive at a cybercafe. I’ll report back in a couple of weeks after we return.

Mission: portable law office is a post from: Lawyerist

If you got here from the CLE earlier today, I promised I would post the links to software, hardware, and services mentioned during the CLE. Here they are, after the jump.

Also, here is a previous post, “Learning to use your file system.” I touched briefly on this in the CLE, but 90% of what case management programs do as far as organizing documents, Windows, Mac, and Linux do better with nothing extra or special.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 document scanner

Online backup

• Carbonite
• Mozy
• xDrive

PDF software

• Adobe Acrobat
• CutePDF
• doPDF
• PDF995

Fax services

• GreenFax
• eFax

UltraMon for managing multiple monitors

Other useful software

• Windows Desktop Search
• Firefox
• Launchy
• ZuluPad
• Skype

Websites

• Lawyerist (you are here)
• Lifehacker
• 43folders
• Law.com Legal Technology News

CLE – links is a post from: Lawyerist

In addition to this blog, if you are looking to add some useful links to your bookmarks, I usually tag particularly useful links and add them to my del.icio.us page. If you aren’t hip with the latest Web 2.0, del.icio.us is a bookmark-sharing website. I like to use it to store useful links that I want to make sure not to lose track off. I also use my “blackberry” tag to keep track of my Blackberry’s homepage links.

Edit: Just after posting this, I discovered mobilicio.us, which lets you access del.icio.us from a mobile-friendly layout. Now I have my “blackberry” tag in mobilicio.us set as my homepage on my Blackberry, and I don’t have to see those annoying T-Mobile bookmarks that I can’t seem to get rid of. Very smooth.

My del.icio.us bookmarks is a post from: Lawyerist

Unless you have a Gizmodo-esque fetish for gadgets and gizmos, you may wonder why you need to get tech’d up. And you do.

Efficiency. The practice of law is changing, especially for solo and small firm practioners. The large-overhead model law office, with a receptionist, legal secretary or paralegal, a lot of paper, and dictation/transcription equipment is a dinosaur in its death throes. The goal of a solo lawyer today should be to run a streamlined, stripped-down practice. Technology allows you to do this. With technology you can work faster and more efficiently, freeing up your free time and providing more value to your clients.

Technology also allows you to work more comfortably. If efficiency should be the first goal of a tech-savvy law office, portability should be the second. Work where you want, when you want. No more calling your secretary to ask her to fax a copy of a document to the nearest fax machine. You should have it with you already on your laptop. Just e-mail it to opposing counsel. Or if you are frequently saddled with Luddite opposing counsel, carry a portable printer or use the internet to print to the nearest printer.

It takes careful adoption and use of technology, but the solo or small firm practitioner today is a compact, streamlined, and stripped-down lawyer, and good tech solutions is really the only way to accomplish that.

What is the point of technology? is a post from: Lawyerist